The Book of Bacta
At this point in the Star Wars universe, probably the most interesting story you could tell about Boba Fett is how he escapes being digested in the sand pit tentacle monster's stomach after the end of "Return of the Jedi" (I am a big enough nerd to know it's called the "Sarlaac" but not big enough to know if I spelled it with the correct number of A's and C's or not just now).
At last, this story can now be told! In the first two minutes of the episode.
It's an early warning sign this show's storytelling instincts are in the wrong place. You've got a tense, life-or-death situation for the protagonist: He's trapped inside the acidic guts of a man-eating monster, running out of air, totally in the dark, hopeless, alone. Oh boy it's going to be tough for him to get out of this one! So let's ... immediately cut to him crawling out of a hole.
The rest of the episode is split between two stories, neither of which has a terribly compelling reason to exist. There's a flashback story that continues from Bobby Fett escaping from the belly of the beast only to be captured by quasi-Native American Tusken Raiders, and a "present day" story where Bubba Fett and sidekick Fennec Shand try to take over the criminal organization of Jabba the Hutt.
We already know how the flashback turns out, and it's not clear why Babs wants to take over the underworld, other than "because." Which doesn't leave much to get engaged in the story. There's no mystery about Bobby's identity, or cute Baby Yoda sidekick, it's just Mandalorian without all the things that made that show popular.
The Book of Tatooine Rooftops Specifically Designed to Provide an Ideal Parkour Course
If the narrative is dull, the production design, editing and direction are just. Not good. Bad. Very bad
There's a pivotal fight scene shot incredibly slowly and stiffly and awkwardly as if the people involved have never seen an action movie, complete with William Shatner on a slow day punches that clearly land nowhere near the opponent, followed by a rooftop chase which is blatantly a parkour obstacle course.
The sand wastes of Tatooine are very sound stage, people told to dig in the sand just kind of brush a handful around, Twi'lek aliens people with bits of plastic glued to their heads, Tusken raider props look plastic, the whole thing just looks and feels cheap and slapped together.
The Book of Visual Effects from the First Clash of the Titans Movie (1981)
The big moment in the flashback story, meanwhile, involves easily the worst CGI in recent memory and the four armed kraken from the 80s Clash of the Titans. It is distractingly bad. Stunningly bad.
The scene also steals the choke with chain bit from RoJ so perhaps the whole thing is an homage?
As a triumphant moment for our hero it falls flat because, like I said, we already had him escape a situation 10 times worse in the opening two minutes.
I've gotten used to the idea that Star Wars is now the playground of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni to nerd out over Star Wars lore, but at least the Mandalorian was fluffy fun and had a clear narrative direction. Exploring Bobas backstory is all well and good, but you need to put something interesting and unique in there. Not just dodgy CGI and an Indiana Jones 5 fight scene.
No comments:
Post a Comment