The Mandalorian

[wev]

1 Mandalorian and

a Yoda baby

[hub2]

Hmmmm. I kinda liked it. But the writing, direction, and editing need to step it up a few notches as the series progresses. The only thing they have going for them right now is the cinematic feel and production values, and even there I'm not sure it's quite as good as  the superlatives were making it out to be.

 

As for the soundtrack? I see both arguments... individuals pieces are good, albeit a little too TV generic in some scenes, but overall I'm not getting a cohesiveness I would like to see (hear).

[Dimahoo]

They can fuck right off with that Rocky music.

 

Spoiler

Great to see a bounty droid in action.

 

[Darwock]

Regarding the music, the very first notes we heard were when he stepped in to the bar and it had a real Ennio Morricone vibe for me - not quite pan pipes but something familiar from Once Upon a Time in America, which also then put me in mind of Lee Van Cleef stood in the doorway at the beginning of the Good, the Bad & the Ugly - I thought we were onto a winning soundtrack at that point. It did get a bit overbearing later on.

 

My biggest complaint is probably blue alien dude being so normal. Yes there are plenty of Star Wars aliens that speak English (Ackbar, Yoda etc) but they all had unusual voices - having him talk like a normal guy was a bit too Star Trek for Star Wars.

 

edit - btw, from the cast list and preview shots and stuff I assumed this was going to be a leaning a little bit towards the older audience, but it's actually very child friendly.

 

I suppose that's obvious with it being Disney, but I was quite surprised. Seeing Dave Filoni's name as director at the end made me re-appraise this project as more of a live action version of Rebels, rather than the episodic version of Rogue One I was maybe expecting.

 

edit 2 - I also had no idea it was Jon Favreau behind it, but with Iron Man being another masked guy in a cool suit that's a good thing for sure. Does it also explain Taika Waititi's cameo?

[HarryBizzle]

I watched it again last night and don’t really get the soundtrack complaints (but I don’t really notice these things). Yeah, it’s not the same as every other Star Wars film. Is that an issue?

The Blurgg riding thing was definitely silly but I can forgive that. I didn’t have a problem with the length either.

 

 

This all comes with the aforementioned caveat that my biggest bugbear with Star Wars is aping the originals and my expectations are so incredibly low at this point that everything complaint is forgiven in the face of how (relatively) restrained this was. 

[Dimahoo]

Some elements in the OST worked. They used some starting chords (and orchestra) from the main incidentals to keep the SW universe vibe. For example...

 

Spoiler

when they first meet the baby yoda thing.

 

And the rest of the music worked for me - but that blurgg shit is out of keeping. That kind of theme is too grounded in modern "earth" trends. 

 

That sounds weird but its important because John Williams gave the SW universe its own soundtrack.

You could play a note or chord from an instrument or piece of nearly any piece of incidental music from any of the films and you would know its Star Wars.

John Williams understood that identity.

 

Part of the reason SW works so well is its cohesiveness in all the medium aspects it uses - right down to the lenses for the cameras they used.

If you stray to far from that it loses its sense of wonder.

 

You can make changes - sure - but to use inspiration from a tacky theme, so well known too, takes you away from that sense of immersion.

 

Basically..

 

Spoiler

It would not have surprised me at all if Dyn had being chased by loads of Jawa's to inspire him to "ride harder", the final locale having a large set of steps leading to its entrance and and then Dyn finally fucking cheering when he reaches the top.

 

 

That said, it was very good.

[Paulando]

49 minutes ago, Darwock said:

My biggest complaint is probably blue alien dude being so normal. Yes there are plenty of Star Wars aliens that speak English (Ackbar, Yoda etc) but they all had unusual voices - having him talk like a normal guy was a bit too Star Trek for Star Wars.

Absolutely this. It was Deep Space Nine or Babylon 5, rather than Star Wars. The makeup wasn’t great either.

[LowCostMonkey]

I really loved it.  I thought the alien Nick Nolte played (Kuill) looked incredibly realistic (until his mouth moved anyway).

 

I was saddened by...

 

Spoiler

IG-11 getting killed off. I found him most enjoyable. Looked incredible and baddass. I found a lot of humour in him being super keen on self destructing. Was hoping he would appear regularly but I guess that's not the tone they are going for.

 

[Treble]

IG-11:

 

Spoiler

There are loads of iterations of that droid. He'll be back.

 

[MDY]

Whole text in spoiler

Spoiler

The Mandalorian debut episode was basically a tv show version of Destiny and I’m so ok with this.  Let’s review:(spoilers below)
Our show begins with a caped, Helemeted, and armored badass landing on a planet.  He is given a waypoint where must go for his next objective

 

Reaching a small interior he defeats some bad guys and collects his prize.  He then rides speeder (sparrow) across a lovingly crafted planted with cool atmospheric effects.  He then fights a giant space monster before returning to orbit.

 

Upon landing in the mandalorian equivalent of The Tower he meets with his quest giver and is given a choice of two different types of in game currency and is given a selection of different missions to choose from.  The mandalorian then selects the exotic quest.
 

Meeting the next quest giver (and let’s be real Herzog could pull off the Awakened Queen) the mandolarian is given an even rarer form of currency that he takes to a different vendor to craft armor.  He then returns to orbit to embark on his next mission

On this new planet he is greeted by an npc that escorts him to his new vehicle (animal in this case) then he proceeds with some light platforming to reach his new destination, a larger combat arena where he waits to start the next public event

 

The public event was triggered by another guardian before he was fully ready to fight but jumps into the forge to help out and get the big prize.  During this fight they have to take cover to use regenerating health, and the IG bot really wants to pop his super

 

Ultimately mando kills a baddie to take his special weapon, finish off the fight, then open a treasure chest with a reward inside.  The IG droid then leaves the party.
I fucking loved it.

 

[amc]

Watching this again atm. I enjoyed my first watch but popped in to say that I'm getting a stronger SW vibe here on my second. Maybe because I'm wrapped up in bed feeling a little iffy today surrounded by my Star Wars man toys and my Hue lights set to warm red. I dunno, I'm just really digging it. So much so I've pulled the credit card out and bought the Black Series Mandalorian 6" figure, gonna put him next to IG-88 and pretend he's the new one. I'm a sucker for SW Bounty Hunters. If only one of my Leia figures would come to life and bring me some chicken soup while I'm sick in bed.*

 

 

*I was actually married once and have two grown kids. You'd never guess.

[womblingfree]

What’s the best file to watch this on PS4?

 

Damn you Disney+. Take my money you idiots.

[Garibaldi]

Well, this was...fine. The budget and production values are obviously high, so it’s easy to enjoy that aspect of it, but as has been said the writing was predictable and didn’t really intrigue me to see more. It’s dark in a very safe and toothless kind of way, which isn’t unexpected from Disney but still a bit disappointing. The death via iris-door was framed so that younger kids wouldn’t know wtf had just happened, and bloodless and unseen enough to not risk upsetting anyone older. 

 

Interested, but not yet excited, to see where it goes. 

[El Spatula]

It was... okay. Felt a bit... light.

[Joystick Chevron]

The more I think about it, the more the whole thing felt like watching a Let's Play of some rando Mando MMO. Kill a few mobs, fly off to turn in a bunch of fetch quests, visit a couple more quest givers, stop off at the special armour merchant to get a small upgrade (+1 Pauldron of Bounty Hunting). Then it's off to a new location, he gets a new mount, reaches a zone packed with mobs and teams up with an passing player with an OP class. They take on a gauntlet of mobs and a raid boss, find the phat loot, and he turns on PvP and cheapshots his new mate while they're rolling for the chest.

 

The only part they left out was the teabagging.

[JohnC]

Looks like all this nonsense about Mandy being Boba Fett can be put to bed. Pedro Pascal gave his real name in an interview and it isn't an existing character in a different helmet. His name is

Spoiler

Dyn Jarren. Unclear on the actual official spelling, but that's how it sounds.

 

[LowCostMonkey]

 

 

Yeah.The director has also addressed how Din Jarren is actually quite a lot different to Bobba.

 https://lrmonline.com/news/the-mandalorian-is-actually-quite-different-physically-from-boba-fett-director-says/
 

 

 

 

“Our character’s much more bulked up than Boba ever was. His armor’s actually quite different, if you look at it. His helmet’s quite different, little traits to it. The colors of it, you know, all these things point out all these differences. There are similarities which are almost unavoidable, but we wanted to tell a story with somebody where we kinda had more of a blank page to write it.”
 

 

[Jammy]

4 hours ago, JohnC said:

Looks like all this nonsense about Mandy being Boba Fett can be put to bed. Pedro Pascal gave his real name in an interview and it isn't an existing character in a different helmet. His name is

  Reveal hidden contents

Dyn Jarren. Unclear on the actual official spelling, but that's how it sounds.

 

It would have been daft anyway - Jango and Boba are not from Mandalor. I forget who said it, but it’s in Clone Wars.

[papalazarou]

any idea what time second ep released on disney plus today?

[grounded_dreams]

21 minutes ago, papalazarou said:

any idea what time second ep released on disney plus today?

 

People are discussing the second episode online, so assume it has already been released.

HTH

[PopeSmokesDope]

23 minutes ago, papalazarou said:

any idea what time second ep released on disney plus today?

 

6am

[Dirty Harry Potter]

2nd one is out. Just watched it.

 

I am enjoying it, but not sure I would be if it were not for the nostalgia. The Rocky music doesn't fit at all though.

 

I guess this would be termed a filler episode in any other series - but despite this it was pretty spectacular. The narrative does feel like it has been adapted straight from a video game script - and totally took me back to playing Super Star Wars on the SNES (you will know why when you get there).

 

 

[Flams]

Quick question, maybe it was obvious but I'm not always good at paying attention or "getting" patently obvious things.

 

 

 

Baby Yoda question/theory

 
 

 

 

Could it be a clone of Yoda? Maybe he got a clone made on Kamino before all that went south and could explain why the imperial chaps knew of his existence.

 

[Dirty Harry Potter]

1 hour ago, Flams said:

Quick question, maybe it was obvious but I'm not always good at paying attention or "getting" patently obvious things.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Baby Yoda question/theory

 
 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Could it be a clone of Yoda? Maybe he got a clone made on Kamino before all that went south and could explain why the imperial chaps knew of his existence.

 

 

 I think...

Spoiler

its all a bit of misdirection... The imperial doctor (hanging out with Wernog) apparently had a Kamino cloning symbol on his coat. So who knows? But truth is Yoda's species hasn't been explored at all in SW so they can do quite a lot with that part of the story without resorting to cloning.

 

[papalazarou]

 

1 hour ago, Flams said:

Quick question, maybe it was obvious but I'm not always good at paying attention or "getting" patently obvious things.

 

  Hide contents

 

Baby Yoda question/theory

 
 

 

  Hide contents

Could it be a clone of Yoda? Maybe he got a clone made on Kamino before all that went south and could explain why the imperial chaps knew of his existence.

 

Possibly would tie into what some have said about. 

Spoiler

The dr from the first episode has a kamino cloner emblem in his arm

 

[Flams]

26 minutes ago, Dirty Harry Potter said:

 

 I think...

  Hide contents

its all a bit of misdirection... The imperial doctor (hanging out with Wernog) apparently had a Kamino cloning symbol on his coat. So who knows? But truth is Yoda's species hasn't been explored at all in SW so they can do quite a lot with that part of the story without resorting to cloning.

 

 

26 minutes ago, papalazarou said:

 

Possibly would tie into what some have said about. 

  Hide contents

The dr from the first episode has a kamino cloner emblem in his arm

 

Maybe

he's from the trade federation, trying to negotiate their exit from the senate

[Treble]

[hub2]

Second episode...

 

Spoiler

Kinda boring?

 

[PopeSmokesDope]

Really really enjoyed episode 2, the music has grown on me.... this is soooooooo much better than the prequels and sequels!

[Harsin]

Small universe syndrome setting it a bit in the second episode.