The MANDALORIAN (Ok, not a "Film" but...)

[filmguy123]

Was surprised to see the RT reviews both above 90%. Watched the first episode and thought it was "Ok". I do think it has potential and has me interested enough to watch more... but perhaps mainly because I really like Star Wars... but outside of that, the faceless, largely silent lead is kind of boring and unrelatable. I'm sure it will open up in time, though.

The biggest thing I noticed is that things felt "cheap" to me. Weird, I read a lot of reviews being very impressed with the level of detail, FX, and set "for a TV show". In my mind, I'm thinking, this is Disney... I expected it to look, sound, feel as good as the spin off movies... and it didn't. The sets and worlds felt smaller, emptier, cheaper.

Anyway, not bad, just sort of an off/meh vibe but I'm hoping the story picks up. I'm interested because Ep.7 sort of "dropped the ball" on filling us in regarding the time gap between RoTJ and VII, and this takes place in that gap. So there is room for a lot of interesting reveals and exposition.

[Batutta]

Had pretty much the same opinion. The problem isn't so much the faceless, silent lead as much as the world they placed him in isn't that interesting yet either. A laconic anti-hero is only as interesting as the characters he interacts with and the society he gets thrust into and disrupts. They would be better served to focus the season on one city or planet, one criminal underworld and show him navigating that world, and also pairing him up with a character that he can bounce off of. The show only came to life for me in the interactions with the bounty hunting droid at the end.

[filmguy123]

Well said Batutta, and yeah, I agree. The world felt as dead as the lead to me - sort of fake and lifeless, almost, like it was a paper machete setup. I'm hopeful it gets better!

[Batutta]

Episode 2 dropped. Not sure it's good enough for me to hang on to my Disney Plus subscription. It's just a series of action set pieces with no emotional or story hooks to keep me invested. It's kind of a regression to it's Republic Serial roots. Where Lucas added some layers, detail and character dimension to those cardboard serialized action stories, Mandalorian has stripped it back again to a bunch of one dimensional incidents. I hoped a Star Wars TV series would give us a deeper dramatic experience than the films, not a shallower one. I watch this and wonder what a Vince Gilligan could have done with this milieu.

[filmguy123]

I was going to watch this tonight, this is disappointing to hear.

[Batutta]

There was some fun to be had in episode two, as one had, but it's fleeting. Also....SPOILERS...




...having Jawas in this implies that they're an interplanetary species, and Jawas don't strike me as space travelers.

[Batutta]

I would have to disagree with the 'cheap' looking opinion. I feel it looks like Star Wars, and that's a great thing.

It looks great, but feels cheap at the same time, I think mostly because it's taken place in empty locales without interesting characters. You look at the cantina scene in Star Wars or Jabba's Palace in Jedi, and there is a tremendous density of stuff happening at all times, both in the foreground and background. If you had a more interesting lead character this wouldn't matter, but so far he's a cipher, so who you surround him with becomes more important. I would hope they build more depth, but we're already two episodes into a short eight episode season of half hour episodes. The question I ask is, if this wasn't Star Wars, would I still be watching? Probably not.

[filmguy123]

SPOILERS...

if It wasn’t Star Wars I would not be still watching!

But, sigh, it is. Episode 2 was an improvement over 1, but mostly carried by personal interest in the universe. Jawas, baby yoda species, etc.

Agree that the cheap feeling comes mostly from sparseness, and as well, more obvious CGI backdrops and effects. I’m watching on a larger screen from close so it’s more obvious. Well, TBH with Disney’s deep pockets I expected them to make a $150 million dollar movie split into 8 episodes and this isn’t living up to that. I hope the obi was movie is AAA cinema that just happens to be on a TV format.

As is, I’ll end up watching them all because it’s Star Wars.

[TheDingo]

Agree that the cheap feeling comes mostly from sparseness, and as well, more obvious CGI backdrops and effects.

Yeah, the movies took place in busy and densely populated environments, where so far The Mandalorian feels more like it's happening in a Star Wars ghost town. Hopefully this changes soon.

[Batutta]

After not caring much for the first three episodes, I found I enjoyed the fourth episode quite a bit more. They lifted the plot and some scenes from Seven Samurai, but it put The Mandalorian with relatable characters I cared about in a situation with relatable stakes. His relationship with the widowed farmer finally made the character seem human, and pairing him up with Gina Carano also added dimension. The baby yoda stuff was also irresistibly cute. Making the AT-ST a menacing beast-like terror was a cool touch as well. That all said, they might be making The Mandalorian less of an edgy, flawed anti-hero and more of a straight, noble heroic character. But we'll see.