The Mandalorian

[aggienaut]

   When ads for the Mandalorian first started appearing, I took notice because I'm into Star Wars, but also it was even more than usual plastered with the Disney name which seemed a bit suspicious. As soon as it began to air, however, the groundswell of people saying it was really good was very notable. And apparently there was a baby yoda, I'm not calling that a spoiler because it quickly became a pervasive meme. So I quickly felt that this was a thing I should watch. And then I saw Disneyplus was advertising a week of free access! Score!

   The Mandalorian is... great. Fantastic. Everything Star Wars ever should have been. I saw a meme somewhere baout how its funny directors aren't having to blame things on "toxic fans" when they actually for once get things right. I think the real secret is that they remembered that Star Wars was originally, at it's heart, a kind of space western. The original story wasn't about complicated space trade embargoes and space bureaucracy, nor was it about changing scenes every 7 seconds, maximum explosions, and unnecessary stupid characters inserted just for marketing purposes. The Mandalorian I'm glad to say doesn't have the frenetic pace of the most recent Star Wars movie nor the coterie of hateable characters, nor does it have any resemblence to the prequels. It's like finally being home again in the original trilogy.

   I didn't hate the most recent Star Wars movie, I felt like it was "pretty good," but it left me wondering, is it me? Can no future Star Wars movie measure up not because the original trilogy was amazing but rather because I've made the original trilogy holy in my mind and am too crochety for anything new to "measure up?" But I feel Mandalorian has answered that question ... no, when it actually seems true to the originals, it can still be epic.

Commentary with Spoilers
   BUT! Bounty hunters hunt people just by getting a giant key fob that will take them to their quarry? That's dumb. What skill is there in being a bounty hunter then? And how did the jedi such as yoda hide if Vader could just order the Yoda key fob? And how do you make a key fob for someone who isn't present? I thought this was really dumb. It would have been much more interesting to show him actually using detective skills to track people down, and maybe for the specific plot point of that bounty hunters are tracking him down they could have had that the imperials had managed to implant a tracking device into baby Yoda specifically.
   AND episode 4 was a real low point ... the one with the totally cliche protagonists-find-a-pacifist-village-and-train-them-to-use-spears-and-booby-traps-to-defeat-an-enemy. That is a very tired overdone cliche that should just be retired, and besides, the single best executed version of it ever was in Return of the Jedi so just, don't even try.
   But back to things I liked, it was fun seeing lots of "old friends" from the original trilogy era. Maybe I am a bit just that crochety old man who is just too bonded to the original because it really made me happy to see storm troopers in "original" armor, and other familiar aliens, vehicles, and things. Jawas! IG-98 or 88 or whatever his number was! TIE fighters that don't have lasers on the back or anything funny like that! Actually when that TIE folded its wings and landed that was a never-before-seen trait but considering the established folding wings on other craft it seemed perfectly acceptable to me. I even happily accepted those black-clad storm troopers from Rogue One (that was, after all, another acceptable movie).


   In conclusion, I loved it, for once I think something Star Wars has _fully_ lived up to the quality of the original series, and will totally re-subscribe to Disneyplus for the duration of next Mandalorian season ;)

Comments

[zhent.livejournal.com]

Yes. This.

I'm hugely into Star Wars. This is something that doesn't really come out in what I've put on LJ, but I am. My friends and co-workers, who all know this are all completely surprised that I still haven't gone to see Rise of Skywalker. After the shambles that was Last Jedi, I've been hesitant about most new Star Wars content. Knowing, however, that Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau were helming The Mandalorian, I was immediately on board. After what they did with the Mandalorian sub plots in the Clone Wars cartoon series (highly recommended, by the way) I knew that they were going to do this justice.

I do admit that your criticisms are valid. Some elements of the middle episodes were cliche, and could have been done differently, but in the overall arc of the season, they do just fine.

I never had a problem with "unnecessary characters" in the newest trilogy of films, but in the plotting, scripting, and complete lack of military tactics in supposedly military organizations. I'll likely see the most recent one this coming week, in a quieter theater than has been available in the past few weeks, where I can sit and absorb it before forming a full opinion. The hype just always gets in the way.

I am looking forward to the new season of the Clone Wars that Disney Plus is putting out in February. Dave Filoni again at the helm. the best thing Disney oculd possibly do for Star Wars is take it away from Kathleen Kennedy and give it to Filoni and Favreau to plot out and produce, and under any directors other than the ones who have done it so far.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Oooh I actually haven't cancelled Disneyplus yet since I ended up going over my free week and having a month deducted. Maybe I should stick around and watch the Clone Wars then? I watched one of two similar seeming animated Star Wars series when they were on Netflix, I forget if it was Clone Wars or whatever the other one was.

[zhent.livejournal.com]

I recommend the animated Clone Wars and Rebels. They fill in most of the gaps between Ep 2 - 3 and Ep 3 - 4. The Clone Wars animated series ended a little awkwardly and didn't resolve some of the ongoing threads at the time because of the Disney acquisition of Lucasfilm. The new episodes are supposed to finish up the leftover story arcs. There have been easter eggs from both series in Rogue One and the new trilogy, so can give you even more understanding of the "new canon" for Star Wars.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I wonder which one I watched. It had a lot of that padawan of Anakin's with the Egyptian headress looking thing?

[zhent.livejournal.com]

That would be Clone Wars, though she does make appearances in Rebels.

The best episodes were in the later seasons.