If you look at the Star Wars Universe nowadays, it’s difficult. Maybe some of you wondered that there are no reviews about the past movies. For some reasons: Since Rogue One, Disney releases Solo and the last two Episode’s of the Skywalker saga (VIII, IX). For me Solo wasn’t that bad movie but in case of Episode VIII almost everything goes wrong.
In case of Solo, A Star Wars Story we saw a background story of Han Solo. Some hints of that story you can find in the old triology. The legendary Kessel Run (“In less than twelve parsecs”) or the story how Han get’s the Millenium Falcon from Lando. Yes, you can tell these background story’s, but as a fan of the old triology it might be better to hold them back (For some kind of mistery). In case of Disney, they want to make the most of them and that’s not a good thing. The new triology (VII – IX) is the best example. “The Force Awakens” feels like a simple copy of “A New Hope” and “The Last Jedi” destroy ‘s everything we liked from the old triology. It’s very difficult to take it seriously. Since 2015 we saw five different Star Wars movies. That’s a lot.
As “Solo, A Star Wars Story” doesn’t provide that expected sucess, Disney made a strategy switch. The plannend Boba Fett movie was canceled and transformed into a live action tv series. Because of the lower risc and the possiblities in tv shows nowadays that could be a great decission. “The Mandalorian” was born. It’s not a story about the most famous Bounty Hunter Boba Fett, it’s a story of an unknown Mandalorian. The thing is, The Mandalorian isn’t a bad tv show. It has some great ideas. In mind here some examples: The opening bar scene, the java sand crawler return, some amazig desert views, Nick Nolte’s character as Kuiil or the so called “Baby Yoda”. The show starts a bit rough and most of the episodes are about less then 30 minutes. I guess that’s also the reason why Disney called it a live action tv show. And here is the first critic, The Mandalorain suffers about content. Don’t get me wrong, I like the idea to tell something new, but could it be better with Boba Fett? I guess it could. To bring old characters back could be great idea, if you look back to “Rogue One”. The most important thing here is to find the right balance between old and new content. In some cases The Mandalorian looks a bit uninspired, if you look forward to the last section of season one. As an example the returned droid IG-11 played by Taika Waititi. He died in the first episode and returned as a service droid instead of a mercenary. With Kuiil it’s similar and that’s a bit sad because it was a character with some potential.
The Mandalorian should be a space western, that space western that Solo, A Star Wars Story couldn’t be. And yes in some points it’s that kind of space western, but it could be way better. The reference here is Firefly from Joss Wheden. Both the tv show and the follow-on movie delivers a perfect balance between humor, characters and a story that’s worth it to be told. In case of Mandalorain it’s a bit diffcult. Without the Star Wars branding it’s only a further science fiction tv show and I don’t believe with the same attention.
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