2021, d. Robert Rodriguez, Steph Green, Bryce Dallas Howard, Kevin Tancharoen and Dave Filoni - Disney+ (7 episodes)
written by Jon Favreau (with Dave Filoni on ep6)
Oof.
There is a long history of bad Star Wars. Inarguably the Holiday Special, the Ewoks tv movies, Resistance, various video games, comics, books and toys, and arguably some or all of the prequels, at least one of the sequels and maybe even Return of the Jedi depending on your tastes and perspective. But at this stage Star Wars is all about perspective... a certain point of view, if you will. What one person despises, another loves. What the critics celebrate, a subculture lambastes. What one person grew up with and holds as the sacred text of Star Wars is very different depending on the generation.
It's absolutely rare that the masses agree on what is, or isn't, good Star Wars (a tradition that dates back even to The Empire Strikes Back's theatrical debut), and yet The Mandalorian, from the pen of writer Jon Favreau, seemed to be a clear unifier in the Star Wars fandom, something we all could agree was pretty damn awesome, though not infallible.
So, if Favreau could write the bulk of such a resonant and immediately gratifying series like The Mandalorian, surely he would do wonders with a character like Boba Fett, a deeply beloved fan favourite from the Original Trilogy despite having, like, 3 lines of dialogue and 4 minutes of total screentime. Right?
Sure Boba's story was expanded with an origin in Attack of the Clones, then his background and training as a youth expanded in The Clone Wars animated series, plus he's been in so many comic and books (both canon, and no-longer-canon), so he's not completely unexplored. But for nearly 40 years the last time we saw live action Boba Fett, he was having his jetpack accidentally triggered and sent off colliding with the gaping maw of the sarlacc pit. Fans were never satisfied with this end for him and have been wishing for both his return, and an expansion on this supposed "most fearsome bounty hunter in the galaxy" (a term that I believe came from the audio dramatization of Empire).
And then...he returned, mysteriously so, in The Mandalorian, five years (in story terms) since Return of the Jedi. He factored heavily in season 2 of The Mandalorian and we were teased in the finale with Fett's own series, one in which he was, supposedly, to take Jabba's mantle as galactic gangster....
Teasing anything in Star Wars (even movie trailers) tends to go awry time after time after time. Speculation runs rampant, and expectations become almost impossible to meet as fans build up their own dream projects in their heads which the actual end product could never meet. Some fans are more than okay with surprises and the unexpected, others want only what they narrowly think they are owed.
What has worked best in Star Wars in the past decade has been stories that feature original characters exploring the multitudinous facets of the galaxy far, far away. Returning to familiar characters from the original trilogy has been more disastrous than not.
What people from my generation seemingly want, more than anything, is more Star Wars injected into their childhood.. a literal impossibility. What we want is not more of that thing we grew up loving, but instead to have grown up with more of that thing we love. What we want is what we never got... Master Jedi Luke Skywalker, Jedi Leia, badass bounty hunter Boba Fett, more cantina aliens, more bounty hunters, more of Jabba's coterie....
So, The Book of Boba Fett *finally* puts Boba in the spotlight. And, while it's not not entertaining, it's also just a mess of fragmented storytelling, poor structuring, and mystifying characterization leading to seven episodes that, although rarely lacking for something interesting to see, ends up quite unsatisfying.
Favreau's storytelling formulae for The Mandalorian was a hybrid between serialized and episodic. It built each episode out as a stand-alone adventure, but advancing the larger arc of the characters and the galaxy building. With The Book of Boba Fett, it certainly seems like Favreau rather uncertain about how he wanted to tell the story, and wound up handing in rushed first drafts rather than a fully envisioned, fully planned series.
The first four episodes jump back and forth between the "present day" arc of Boba Fett -as former bounty hunters Fett (Temuera Morrison) and Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) make a play at being gangsters, taking over Jabba the Hutt's former terrain - and the past, from Fett's escape from the sarlacc pit to living with a Tusken tribe to saving Shand (after her encounter with Din Djarin in The Mandalorian Season 1).
A lot of shows try to have a thematic tie between what's happening in a flashback and what's going on in the modern day. That doesn't seem to be the case here, and some of these four episodes share equal time between the two time periods, and in one the flashbacks dominate, which casts a lot of doubt as to what's really important in the series.
And then things get very bizarre, as episode 5 is a complete aside... quite literally an episode of The Mandalorian. Boba Fett does not appear at all. We instead catch up with Din Djarin as he reunites with other Mandalorians and then winds up on Tattooine, where he builds himself a new ship with space Amy Sedaris. Episode 6, one would expect, would return from this detour to the main story, only to once more spend the majority of the Episode with Din Djarin, but also visiting a spate of other familiar faces. Boba Fett appears in one brief scene.
The series' problem is noticeable by way of these two episodes, which feature characters we've come to know and like/love from The Mandalorian (as well as a few other cameos from elsewhere) and just run so smooth and effortlessly in a way that the prior episodes just thudded through with leaden feet. Episode 5 & 6 have a clear focus, and trajectory, where episodes 1-4 just plod, crosseyed, maybe knowing its destination but not really sure how to traverse the road to get there.
The finale, finally, brings Boba Fett back to his own show, but it's just as messy as before. There's no shortage of grand-scale action, but there's also a whole lot of nonsense, ending with a resounding "why?" We never really get Boba's motivations, and the saga of Boba's time with the Tuskens doesn't really come back around in any meaningful regard.
The most damning thing is it makes Boba Fett out to be kind of inept, both as a leader and as a tactician. He kills Bib Fortuna taking over Jabba's operations, but his crew for the longest time is just him, Fennec Shand and two gamorrean guards. They go (futilely) strutting through the town of Mos Espa like they own the place but they're constantly vulnerable and they lack any plan. When they decide they need to hire some "muscle" to fight a war against a huge multi-planetary syndicate, they wind up with a half dozen street kids, a Wookie and Din Djarin. That's not a gang, at best it's a beer league baseball team.
Where episodes and/or arcs of The Clone Wars would directly ape the story beats of a specific movie in a specific genre, here the show you would think would be reaching for The Godfather or The Sopranos or maybe taking inspiration from foreign mob movies like Infernal Affairs (in the way that Lucas took inspiration from Kurasawa's samurai films) but it doesn't really. It gets too muddied with western genre tropes, and weird 60's nods that might be cool or different, but don't quite serve the story.
I don't want to say it, but It's true...it's bad Star Wars. It's not the worst Star Wars, but it's certainly not great, and it doesn't fulfill the promise of the Boba Fett spotlight we've been waiting decades for. It didn't really have to, frankly, but telling such an erratic story didn't do this interpretation of the character too many favours. Many say it demystifies him, which is quite true, but only if you hadn't seen The Clone Wars. It's much more in line with the characterisation of Boba from Clone Wars than the mystery man of the Original Trilogy.
Robert Rodriguez directs 3 of the 7 episodes, and, well, I'm not sure he's the right fit for Star Wars. I thought this same thing with his episode of The Mandalorian in Season 2. His quick and dirty style of shooting just doesn't fit with how I like Star Wars to feel. His action sensibilities are very rough and tumble, which don't work a lot of the time is Star Wars' hyper-stylized sci-fi reality. But once he kind of gets rolling, as he does in Episode 7, he certainly understands how to build up the action to a crescendo. Rodriguez does get the western sensibilities (much moreso than the gangster homages) and certainly leans into them nicely.
There were ways this could have worked far better, and made a lot more sense, without really having to shoot or tell the story much differently. One would be to make all the live action Star Wars on Disney+ an ongoing "Star Wars" anthology series rather than having a bunch of separate series or mini-series. Then you could just cut to a full episode with Timothy Olyphant's Cobb Vanth, or just present a two-parter of Boba Fett's trials and tribulations after escaping the sarlacc through to meeting up with Fennec, intercut with the ongoing adventures of Din Djarin.
The other option would have been to call this "The Mandalorian: Book of Boba Fett". After having seen the entire series, it's much more a literal extension of season 2 of The Mandalorian than a separate Boba Fett series, but it's also not a true season 3.
But, in the end, it's Star Wars. And I'll (almost) always take more Star Wars.
...
Let's look at the episodes... the good, the bad, the ugly and the awesome (spoilers ahead).
Chapter 1: Stranger in a Strange Land
The Good: Matt Berry as 8D8 (the torture droid from Return of the Jedi returns, now Boba's court administrator but with the voice of Stephen Toast)
The Bad: Fett and Shand's plans, their journey into town, their getting hemmed in by shield-toting parkour ninjas...it all reflects very poorly on them. They have no plan.
The Ugly: The homage to Ray Harryhousen's Kraken from Clash of the Titans as a desert creature in Fett's flashback. It's really ugly and meant to look stop motion and I loved it. It's a nostalgia trigger for me and I was 100% there for it.
The Awesome: Boba Fett's escape from the sarlacc pit. Wasn't necessary to see, but I really loved it.
Chapter 2: The Tribes of Tattooine
The Good: This episode's flashback highlighted indigenous peoples rights issues, something that I quite admired. It's really quite rare for Star Wars to resonate with much real-world allusions. I don't want them to do it all the time, but I liked it here.
The Bad: A second aimless visit to Mos Espa and space Jennifer Beals' bar. Next to no real purpose.
The Ugly: The Hutt twins, cousins to Jabba. They could probably have hovering machines that would lug their massive bodies around, but they make living beings do it, which is insane. And one of them uses a furry little rodent to mop up his sweat. Gross, but great.
The Awesome: I kind of loved all the Tusken rituals at the end of the episode, the wraps and garb, the forging of the gaffee stick, and the tribal dance. It really gave the Tuskens a culture, and built them beyond western cliche of "the primitive savage" as they've been portrayed in the past.
Chapter 3: The Streets of Mos Espa
The Good: The twin Hutts, for some reason, bow out of fighting with Boba and give him a racor (with Danny Trejo the rancor keeper). Boba: "I want to ride it!" Hell yeah you do. Remember, Boba's first appearance in the Star Wars Holiday Special he was riding a big weird beast.
The Bad: The brightly coloured, highly chromed mods' scooters. They just don't fit Star Wars. They might as well be parked outside Dexter Fletcher's diner. Jeezus. And their chase sequence in Mos Espa. No thank you.
The Ugly: The mods. I mean these are people who are voluntarily amputating limbs and getting prosthesis by their own admission, rather than necessary amputees or people with limb differences who choose a prosthesis. It seems like a minute difference but it's a world of difference when it comes to representation. Also, fridging Boba's Tusken tribe.
The Awesome: Fuckin' goddamn Black Krrsantan, that's what! The Wookiee bounty hunter torn from the pages of Marvel's recent Star Wars comics. Just...yeeeaaaahhhh!
The Good: Black Krrsantan rips a Transdoshan's arm off at space Jennifer Beals' pointless bar. (Look, space Jennifer Beals is great, but every scene there in this series, save for the end of Episode 6, is kind of pointless).
The Bad: The interminable about of time we have to spend watching Fennec getting her guts replaced. We know from The Mandalorian she got her guts replaced. We don't need to waste this time on the procedure.
The Ugly: That dinner scene with the other mob "families" in which Boba asks for their support and they decline, but they do agree to not turn on him, and of course they're going to turn on him. Sigh. It's kind of a hack scene, frankly (except for the rancor moment)
The Awesome: Staring down the maw of the sarlacc pit in the
Chapter 5: Return of the Mandalorian
The Good: Hey, it's Mando. I love Mando! He gets to fight some guys in a slaughterhouse on a ring world. Just...rad.
The so Bad it's good: The weird cult Mando belongs to and their rules. Paz Vizsla and the Armorer are crazy zealots, but they're still pretty cool to watch.
The Ugly: watching the Armorer melt down the beskar spear. Nooo, first the Razor Crest, then Grogu, now this? Mando just can't have anything nice.
The Awesome: I just loved watching Mando and space Amy Sedaris working on the Naboo N1 starfighter for 20 minutes. I wanted it to go on for another hour. I just loved this episode, start to finish. One of my top favourite Mandalorian episodes.
Chapter 6: From The Desert Came A Stranger
The Good: More Mando, more Cobb Vanth, more Ahsoka, more Grogu, more Luke Skywalker, more R2-D2. I love all these things.
The Bad: Luke making Grogu choose between the gift Mando left for him and Yoda's lightsaber. Luke is still stuck in the old teachings of the Jedi, no attachments. That is why he failed.
The Ugly: Cobb Vanth getting gunned down. So hard to witness, but, you know, necessary. I kind of wish this had just been an all Cobb Vanth episode, just a sort of "day (or days) in the life" kind of thing.
The Awesome: Cad Bane! In live action. People have been scrutinizing how he looks, how his voice sounds, other shit. I think he looks amazing and seeing him makes me happy.
Chapter 7: In the Name of Honor
The Good: More Cad Bane. Yeah! Cobb Vanth Still alive (post credits).
The Bad: Boba's plan, here, is really really stupid. Like, really stupid.
The Ugly: There's just some terrible, terrible battle tactics on display here. Again, it all makes Boba look kind of dumb for having a plan this awful and not really having great improv skills to get out of it.
The Awesome: I mean, baby rancor tearing shit up. One part King Kong, one part the Hulk. Just super fun, and yeah, Boba rides the rancor.
So, was the change in the closing theme, in Episode 7, making intonations of "Boba Boba Fett..." clearer and almost lyrics, Good, Bad or Ugly? Or Awesome?
ReplyDeletePart of me postulates whether this series was satire, a sly attempt by Favreau and Filoni to do their own Star Wars Christmas Special. But no, that is going down conspiracy theory, Reddit territory. I just cannot explain how much of this series just did not make any sense.
But like you, I really enjoyed much of it, but primarily because someone took your collection of action figures and acted out a 14 year old boy's plot on the screen.
But boy, did Boba suck. And he dragged Mando along into the suckage. Tactics? Strategy? Plan? We don't need no steenkin' plan! Pew pew pew! But why isn't everyone running away? I said I'm the Boss, so why doesn't everyone now just automatically trust me as the Boss!! Boo, I am just going to collect by toy rancor and go hide in my castle with my Not Slave 1.
As you say, some things did rock. And mod. So much went through the tunnel of "OMG that's terrible" and came out "OMG that's awesome!". I ended up loving the Mods, despite a severe lack of any Quadrophenia references. I don't like Space Amy Sedaris, but that episode with her character was killer, and I love the nod to the recent video game. Comic Book Gnarly Wookie? Yup! Man in Black Cowboy Bounty Hunter? Yep! There were so many details that were sooooo much fun, I almost forgive him an almost entirely lack of sensible plot. Thinking Favreau should have spent more time in the Bakta Tank thinking this one through.
I love the end theme music... I'm wondering if that is a specifically Maori (or another native culture) chant or if it's just loosely native inspired sound (like, it's the Tuskens?). The change to "Boba" made me laugh though. Don't hate it, don't love it, kind of amusing.
ReplyDeleteAt this stage, when using ANYTHING from the original trilogy...a little goes a long way. I'm very worried that we're going to get a deepfake Luke mini-series (although I think the deepfake here was pretty stellar.no pun intended)