The Mandalorian

[Frank]

The Mandalorian Chapter 2 is the most Star Wars '77 since, well, 1977, allegedly.

A friend told me that EP2 gets the fun action-adventure aspect of 1977 Wars better than the two most recent sequels, which focus so much on the King Arthur/Tolkien aspect introduced in the first two sequels the action scenes are irrelevant and unimaginative addenda.

I found a letter under a bush that argued EP2 was riffing on the ILM catalogue as much as 1977 Wars or Baby Cart. He was thinking of the vehicle chases in every Raiders, specifically Indy vs Tank in Crusade,^* and Willow^**

If future episodes rip off Howard The Duck or Red Tails, I'll have to rely on fellow boarders to point this out to me. I wasn't going to watch this, but someone on The Internet said it was crap^*** and that made me want to see it - DAMN DISNEY AND THEIR GUERILLA MARKETING STRATEGY


* Favreau specifically bites on the gag where Indy has to duck to avoid being ground into the canyon wall

** Not just the magical chosen child, but Nearly Fett's Madmartigan dual hero/loser turn in his fight against the hairy rhino. If that's really Nolte underneath the digital skin suit, filling in for Warwick Davis, it's the most understated and sympathetic performance of his long career.

*** It's not - TordelBack will love watching this around the time the clocks go forward

[JOE SOAP]

I found a letter under a bush that argued EP2 was riffing on the ILM catalogue as much as 1977 Wars or Baby Cart. He was thinking of the vehicle chases in every Raiders, specifically Indy vs Tank in Crusade,^* and Willow^**

They're the fan-nods, but the way chapter 2 is shot, cut and paced is more reminscent of the first Star Wars (and THX 1138). Lucas's choice to let world/character building scenes play-out with aliens and droids doing their thing without much, or indecipherable, dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09VTanKXsWs is more present here than in the too few glimpses we got in the last few decades. To me that's 'Star Wars' in its most basic form.

[Frank]

... the way chapter 2 is shot, cut and paced is more reminscent of the first Star Wars (and THX 1138). Lucas's choice to let world/character building scenes play-out with aliens and droids doing their thing without much, or indecipherable, dialogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09VTanKXsWs

It plays like a silent movie. Although the score and sound design can't compete with that ^^^

[blackmocco]

As someone who can watch the show legitimately, I can say it fucking rocks. Loving it. Episode 2 is the Jawa equivalent of Vader scything his way through the end of Rogue One. Ten year old blackmocco would have safely pissed himself in unbridled excitement at this point.

[radiator]

It's quite good.

I definitely appreciate the simplicity of it - the modern Star wars films are far too convoluted for my liking, so it's nice to see a return to the more sparse, visually driven storytelling style of the older films. Nice to have the scenes actually have time to breathe vs the breakneck pace of something like The Force Awakens or Rogue One.

Visuals and music are unsurprisingly great.

If I have a complaint its that the story is pretty predictable so far, the dialogue can sound quite stilted and cliched (especially in episode 1) and that the plot hinges on something that is basically a reference to something from a previous film. Would be nice to see a little more originality.

[sheridan]

I absolutely haven’t seen Episode 2, but if I had then I would have thought its neat swerve from Star Wars spaghetti western into Star Wars  worked splendidly and I imagine that if I had seen it, I would now be positively champing at the bit to see Episode 3. I would probably have thought  was the best thing ever.

I live in the UK and so haven't seen any episodes yet, but if I had I'd have absolutely loved the Jawa sandcrawler in chapter two, and would have been reminded of the bit from Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy is almost crushed against the rocks.

[shaolin_monkey]

I am really fucked off that i haven’t been able to see any episodes yet clearly there is a lovely baby Yoda-species alien in one episode. How has this been spoiled for me? Cos every other pic on FB is of the cute little fucker!

DAMN YOU DISNEY!!!!

[Mardroid]

Heh. Yeah I've already had that spoiled for me, but its not a major deal. There is still a lot I don't know concerning what happens, etc. A bit of a pain to have to wait so long though. Okay I don't have to, but it seems to be the right thing to do aside from utilising a VPN*, but that seems to be so much rigmarole.

I never thought I'd be interested in a Disney film service. With their acquisition of Star Wars and the MCU, things have really changed!

*I don't have a moral issue with that as I'd still be paying for the Disney service. I don't want to pay for it then find the VPN didn't work, and it was all a waste of time and money, though. If they have a trial period like Netflix and other services do, (I haven't checked) that might not be so bad, and the waste would just be time, if it didn't work.

As for going the Captain Mardbeard route, I confess I've done it before on occasion, and salved my conscience by promising myself I'd get the Blu-ray when it came out, but I'd rather not. Whatever I finally do, I'd still be supporting an illegal operation in the meantime, and that doesn't sit too well with me.

[Frank]

Four years since Force Awakens and Youtube has been a wall of videos complaining about Disney's feminist agenda ever since.

But Disney go to all the trouble of making an hour of telly with absolutely no women whatsoever^*, and are MRAs congratulating them? Come on, Incels - carrot>stick.


* Unless the character we can't talk about is female.

[radiator]

I honestly wouldn't worry about spoilers - it really isn't a plot-driven show.

[karlos]

My pals in the States are raving about this and it's really making this ol' jaded SW fan excited about it again.

Sounds like , with episode 3, it's taking a turn into John Wick territory, which can only be an awesome thing.

Think I'm going to have to find a way to sub to Disney+ when it hits the UK.

[broodblik]

Watched the first episode and I can say that it was good and worthwhile to watch. I just find a strange to have a Star Wars title without its classic title crawl. Another aspect I felt was quite lacking was atmospheric music in the background. Still a very solid first episode

[Mister Pops]

My pirate friend insisted I listen to the soundtrack, as a huge Morricone fan, that (checks youth parlance) fuckin' slaps.

NO seriously https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXp4GnC1Z3Q

I understand the technical difficulties with globally lauching Disney+, but I'm a bit disappointed there won't be a physical media version of this show by Christmas (it would solve every gift problem for every male relative)

[broodblik]

The soundtrack is great

[Krakajac]

It's funny, I wasn't taken at all with the soundtrack when I watched episodes one and two - but after watching episode three, it's generated one of those ear-worm things.  I can't get it out of my head now.

I'm based in Australia - and it's nice that Disney + launched here early.  It's not often we in the southern hemisphere get something before the rest of the world.

Love the end credits of each episode - the images would make a great coffee-table book.  Reminds me a lot of what McQuarrie produced for the original trilogy.