Redshirt Cinema Club

We conclude our Star Wars season with 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, J.J. Abrams' second stab at the franchise having kicked off the sequel trilogy with The Force Awakens 4 years prior.

Where the latter was an exercise in replaying familiar hits, Episode IX was all about course correction after the split fan reaction to The Last Jedi. Kylo Ren has his mask back, force ghost Luke likes his light sabre again and Palpatine is back. Somehow.

But is the magic back? Contrary to Luke's declaration in The Last Jedi, I'm afraid this one is going to go the way you think.

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The Last Jedi is almost certainly the most divisive Star Wars movie ever made. A brave attempt by writer/director Rian Johnson to subvert audience expectations and take the franchise in a new direction, it's a film that impressed critics with its brave narrative choices but alienated huge sections of the fan base at the same time.

The three of us watched this together at the cinema - Rob enjoyed it, Dave and Nath not so much. Will the subsequent 9 years have softened or sharpened those initial opinions? How do we all feel about that Princess Leia in space scene? And why does Kylo Ren need to take his top off? Enjoy the episode as we discuss all this and more, and please share your own hot takes over in our Patreon chat.

Join the Redshirt Cinema Club! Support us at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub to receive two bonus episodes every month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

You can also follow us at x.com/redshirtcinema, and get in touch at [email protected].

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"This will begin to make things right."

As first lines go, this is powerful stuff. An acknowledgement that what came before wasn't up to scratch. A promise that what you're about to see will bring back the old magic. But does The Force Awakens deliver where it counts?

J. J. Abrams is the man with the seemingly impossible task, fresh from reviving (and then killing?) the Star Trek movie franchise, his first film in the new trilogy introduces new characters, revisits old ones, and has an evil base the size of 10 Death Stars. What more could a Star Wars fan want?

Admittedly it's tough to watch this film over 10 years later without the following two movies constantly invading your mind like some kind of insidious Force Power, but that's what we've tried to do; watch The Force Awakens with fresh eyes, before conjuring equally fresh opinions. Ready to take the plunge alongside us?
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The second episode of our mid-season Star Wars break sees Dave finally get his wish of making Rob watch The Green Knight - a dark fantasy retelling of a 14th-century chivalric romance directed by David Lowery and starring Dev Patel.

This is unlike any Arthurian legend you've seen before - a twisted, unsettling exploration of honour and the slow, inevitable, irresistible power of nature. It features a bunch of brilliant performances from some of our favourite British actors, from Sean Harris and Ralph Ineson to Kate Dickie and the aforementioned Dev Patel.

A weird, dark British fantasy - should be everything Rob likes, right? Let's find out!
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In a change to our scheduled programming, this week Rob has forced Dave to watch Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, the straight-to-DVD movie sequel to one of the greatest videogames of all time.

When it released in 2005 this was an explosion of cutting-edge CG, an all-action burst of fan service fed to an audience ravenous for more Final Fantasy VII. More Cloud, more Sephiroth, more cool fights set to even cooler music.

Watching it in 2026 those visuals are starting to creak, which means unfortunately we're actually going to have to judge this film on things like story, pacing and character. Can it stand up to such critique? Will Dave understand anything that's going on? Just what happens when the demands of fervent fandom entice talented game devs to try their hand at the whole movie-making thing? Let's find out!

Join the Redshirt Cinema Club! Support us at patreon.com/redshirtcinemaclub to receive two bonus episodes every month as well as our newsletter, The Civilian Observer.

You can also follow us at x.com/redshirtcinema, and get in touch at [email protected].
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