STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE Review Roundup Reveals What To Expect As Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Revealed

STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE Review Roundup Reveals What To Expect As Rotten Tomatoes Score Is Revealed

The review embargo has lifted for The Acolyte, but what are critics saying about the latest Star Wars TV series? We have a roundup of those and the show's early Rotten Tomatoes score for you right here...

By JoshWilding - Jun 04, 2024 02:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars

The review embargo for Star Wars: The Acolyte lifted earlier today and the series has already been "Certified Fresh" with 82% on Rotten Tomatoes.

While it's far from the critical darling Andor was, verdicts are mostly positive and that score is essentially equivalent to 4/5 which is by no means a bad result. Whether this will change the minds of those who have already decided they'll hate The Acolyte because they can't comprehend a Star Wars project not having a white, male lead is hard to say.

It does sound like Lucasfilm has a hit on its hands here, though, and we're now just hours away from the two-episode premiere. With that, fans will be able to chime in and share their thoughts on this prequel to the prequels. 

The Acolyte is expected to be a self-contained story, though there has been some chatter about the door being open to a second season. Time will tell on that front. 

You can check out the Tomatometer reveal below along with a roundup of reviews from entertainment websites, the trades, and more. 

What perhaps makes The Acolyte such an engaging and addictive watch (over the first four episodes screened for critics, at least) is its commitment to not treating the Jedi (or the Star Wars franchise writ large) as untouchable. If anything, Sol, Indara, and the like become figures through which the series pokes holes at the revered Jedi Order in a way that feels necessary if you’re to think of this world as an ethically ambiguous morass where everyone is trying to do their best and finding, in due time, that, yes, even Jedi are fallible. [B+] - AV Club

Star Wars like you’ve never seen it before, The Acolyte soars thanks to its impressive cast, compelling setting, and a mystery which will keep you coming back for more. Now, we just need to hope the series sticks the landing. - ComicBookMovie.com

A Star Wars mystery that interests rather than intrigues, this is spiced up nonetheless by a brand-new setting, some arresting Force-fu and a Wookiee with a lightsaber. [3/5] - Empire Online

The Acolyte does not throw out the Star Wars playbook entirely. It’s faithful to the charms that have carried this series for so many decades: strange planets, weird creatures, lightsaber battles with a fresh wuxia flair. Mae’s murderous quest is backed by a mysterious figure whose helmet, weapon and mechanical voice recall Darth Vader, suggesting this narrative could yet come down to another Sith-versus-Jedi battle. - The Hollywood Reporter

The Acolyte takes us to an earlier era of Star Wars than we’ve seen on screen, with mixed results. Awkward dialogue and a small scope rob it of some of the series’ signature space magic, but these old-school Jedi are a thrill to watch in action. [6/10] - IGN

The Acolyte had a lot of things that could have worked against it. A new era for the franchise, all new characters, and a small portion of the Star Wars fanbase who hates anything not straight, white, and male was pushing back on the show before it even started it. But the first four episodes of The Acolyte tell a story I cannot get enough of.The Mary Sue

Someone is killing the Jedi. But who? And why? Harder to answer. Where the story unfolds from the two-episode premiere is anyone's guess, but it's safe to say that I'm on board for this particular jump into hyperspace. [8/10] - Slash Film

Full of logical fallacies, hokey dialogue and nonsensical plots, "Acolyte" feels entirely of a piece with the worst elements of the prequel trilogy, which many hardcore fans love to hate, even 25 years later. [2/4] - USA Today

In giving itself permission to poke at 'Star Wars' mythology, 'The Acolyte' cultivates the same sense of curiosity it exhibits about its own universe. Too often, franchise series feel like a perfunctory exercise in expansion. When my screeners for “The Acolyte” ran out, I wanted to learn what happened next, even if we already know where the Republic is heading. - Variety

With only half the season available for review, of course, it’s hard to say whether Headland and her staff will stick the landing, or whether 'The Acolyte' has its eye on an extension beyond these eight episodes. But this is also the rare-so-far 'Star Wars' show that doesn’t feel like its first job is to revive a bunch of beloved iconography. - The Wrap

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Rakkasan
Rakkasan - 6/5/2024, 6:32 AM
If you want to see legit ratings or reviews, pay ZERO attention to the "professional critics" and always look at the audience reviews for what kind of show or movie you actually have. The "professional critics" mean NOTHING! 95% of everyone in the world knows that the "pros" are all bought and paid for! lol
Rakkasan
Rakkasan - 6/5/2024, 6:48 AM
"Whether this will change the minds of those who have already decided they'll hate The Acolyte because they can't comprehend a Star Wars project not having a white, male lead is hard to say." So brave and stunning of you to say this! Whatever would do without you brave keyboard warriors and your kind souls, pretending to be journalists? lol

Honestly, this is sickening, but not surprising in the least that the first thing you pander to is racism at its finest, in all its hypocrisy!

The vast majority of, "we the audience", already dislikes this garbage of a show based on its actions and credentials. The "Fresh" rating and critic reviews you are referring to are based off the typical and commonplace "woke pandering" we have all come to know so well.

Reasons to already dislike this show with only two episodes...

- The acting, for the most part, is SUPER subpar such as what we have seen from Amandla Stenberg who has enough trouble playing one character much less two (twins). On that note, can we please talk about how CRINGE May's little catchphrase and karate move is that she does not at all pull off as serious. "Attack me Jedi, with all your force". HaHa!!!

With that said, Lee Jung-jae and Charlie Barnett are pretty much the only two that stand out as having above-par acting skills. Credit where credit is due.

- The set, graphics, etc. are AWFUL! Take for example the end of episode 2 where the Wookie comes in and it looks like you are sitting in a Broadway play audience watching a show on a stage! The scenery looks just soooooo fake! How they ever spent 200 million on this show that is only 30 minutes per episode, baffles me!

Many of the alien characters that are simply background characters are done so poorly, that they steal the scene from the main characters or the plot around them.

- People are so tired of having these politically motivated agendas shoved in our faces and down our throats. Hollywood forgets that a VERY small percentage of the world is LGBTQ (for one example), so seeing it in EVERY single movie released is far-fetched and in the real world, unlikely, at best. 99% of the audience has no issue with seeing diversity in our movies or shows, but it is the way in which you do it and there is no better example than The Acolyte, which is in the most profound and obnoxious way possible. Every single show, no matter how rare of an occurrence it would actually be, is in EVERY single show or movie now-a-days. You don't have to keep doing the same things over and over and over again!

We are tired of being told by others the way in which we are "supposed" to enjoy a movie, instead of how we personally chose to enjoy a movie. The Hollywood or woke agenda way is not the only way to enjoy a movie, even if you REALLY REALLY wish it was that way for everyone.

- This entire show so far is a HUGE letdown, even without all the cringe pandering that adds to its failure.

- Lesli Hedland should never have been in charge of a TV Show, much less this big a production. Had she been a man with her background and credentials, she would have been laughed out of any room suggesting such a thing. She did not deserve this position and now that the show is out for all to see, she is proving it to be true for all to see.

- Summing it up...production is terrible, the majority of acting is terrible, the storyline and plot are terrible, the directing is terrible, and pretty much everything that should be good about a TV show just isn't there.

The story is so obvious. People already guessed the entire storyline of this show, including their "big reveals", before the show even came out! This is one of the WORST plots for a "detective" show I have ever seen, plus the entire first two episodes were all so BORING!

There is a LOT to not like about this show before even considering the pandering or the lack thereof of inclusivity! Also, it is 100% okay for people to dislike a "woke" TV show based on things that have nothing to do with how woke it is.

- However, what you said is true, the blatant and obvious pandering to anything other than cis male (especially cis white male), is disturbing. Hollywood is just building upon their hill of hypocrisy by completely eliminating cis men and white people. The point of equality is to be equal in everything we do and totally removing a group of people you dislike is just proving your agenda and political motivation of equality to be a false flag narrative. Hollywood and the woke movement quite obviously do not want equality, they want revenge which should go against everything all these new age movements go against. They are in fact only taking huge steps backward for all movements involved like the LGBTQ movement.

I am DREADING episode 3 already off of what I have been hearing. I hear the woke agenda REALLY picks up in episode 3 with the obvious cramming of cringe-worthy pronouns down our throats. It is okay to be woke sometimes, but again, please not in every single movie! It is all getting sooooooo old!

Disney Star Wars just gets worse and worse and it is no wonder they haven't made a penny back from the franchise purchase. Especially when they keep not only blaming the fans for its failure but name-calling them as well.

This current form of Disney Star Wars will NEVER make money. They are going to have to sell off the rights to making Star Wars to others if they keep refusing to change their game plan. Woke in Hollywood is dying and we all love seeing it! There is no one person more to blame for this than Kathleen Kennedy! It blows my mind she wasn't fired after the second Disney Star Wars movie, much less still there today!?!?!?! Craziness! She has single-handedly killed Star Wars.

P.S. The acting from the Padawan whose name slips me, is also AWFUL!!! Sorry not sorry.

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