Lets Talk About...The Mandalorian

I don't want to say I am out on The Mandalorian. Yet. And yet I am very disappointed by the third series of the winning series so far. I feel the injection of Mando into The Book of Boba Fett was a mistake as it showed the producers of the live-action Star Wars series moving forward felt the only way to keep people interested was to keep giving people the man behind the mask and the creed and the way.

The new series shows Din seeking to bathe in the waters of Mandalore to be redeeming following his removal of the sacred helmet and revealing his Pedro Pascal face to Grogu. That sort of tale of redemption is one that could have been the basis of a series worth of stories, Din's journey to the waters, the obstacles along the way and yet he got there at the end of episode 2 and thus redeeming himself.

There, for this padawan, appears to be a confusion in the storytelling. In Episode 4, The Foundling we have now a tangent where we see Grogu being rescued from the Order 66 attack on Coruscant by the clone troopers by other jedi. This now paints the tale as Grogu being a very important foundling who demands constant attention and support - this made me ask the question is he really a clone of Yoda, did the Jedi use the technology to their own benefit in some way knowing that something bad was going to occur.

Like last week's episode 'The Convert' a tale that revolved around Dr. Pershing and his intrepid partner in supposed asylum crime on Coruscant, that diversion was interesting and heralded a tale where you where given time with periphery characters who were afforded time and a character made more whole. And yet that was bookended by some boring bits involving Din and Bo Katan being welcomed back into the group.

I think the problem they have with the Mandalorian is perhaps the man himself. He is now redeemed. He is no longer a bounty hunter. He is a surrogate father to Grogu. What is his journey now? Or is this series with four episodes remaining just a foreshadowing or warm up to the incoming Ashoka or Skeleton Crew series. What is Mando now if nothing more than a gatekeeper to more content from Star Wars universe. As a fan of that universe for so long I am not going to object to more content, yet you have to make it engaging and worthwhile. The tone of a lot of episodes currently is very plodding and playing with our attention that hopes for more to come, its just a matter of when will that be forthcoming.

Patience is a virtue and must be a part of the creed. This is the way.

Cassian Andor - Transcendentalism

Watching Andor the brand new Star Wars series streaming exclusively on Disney+ one is struck by the balance between two worlds inhabited by Andor, that of nature and outer space.

The brilliant new series created by Tony Gilroy that tells the origin story of the hero, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) of Rogue One and how he became the spark to light the fire amidst the rebellion versus the Galactic Empire.

The first series is following a story arc structure of twelve episodes split into three part arcs. The first three part arc ended with Cassian being taken from his homeland, Kenari, by Maarva Andor (Shaw) where he eventually learns languages, interaction and beliefs of his own away from the indigineous life he was living previously.

The second arc ends with Cassian succeeding in his first rebel mission on behalf of Luthen (Stellen Skarsgaard) as they kidnap a galactic payroll to bankroll the rebels. This again involved Cassian flying in a ship at the conclusion heading to the sky which is never attainable.

This threw me back to the conclusion of the much loved Rogue One, the first film following the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney, that told the story of how the rebels obtained the plans to destroy the first Death Star in the 1977 film A New Hope.

At that film's conclusion, Andor and Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) are on the beach of Scarif, they have succeeded and the plans are away in the hands of Princess Leia providing hope to the rebellion. While that portion of the mission is completed, Andor and Jyn are about to be destroyed by the Death Star itself. They stand together embracing each other, knowing that despite their impending doom they are confident that what they have done will change the course of the galaxy.

Yet it is this closeness to nature, the rich green of Scarif to be the last resting place of Andor is fitting as he was born on a leafy planet such as Kenari - in essence it is a return to Paradise for him.

So for me, Andor in the new series is being portrayed a salt of the earth soul as very much, high on morals but looking out for himself firstly, tired of the empire he thinks a difference can be made and is eager to do so at any cost. He does not discriminate when using his blaster, we knew as much at the commencement of Rogue One when he very much went Of Mice and Men on an informant of his. Already he has killed three people in cold blood in six episodes when he feels threatened by someone's rationale.

Yet for me, it is no coincidence that Andor is comfortable in any climate or is so fond of nature he is most at peace when in nature, it also got me thinking about Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem 'Nature' where he lays about the essence of transcendentalism and gaining a divinity through nature, you can only understand reality through studying nature.

Andor is a proponent of this due to his being born within nature and being nutured by nature somewhat - how to live and survive - before he is taken from his planet by a starship and absconded halfway across the galaxy via hyperspace. That episode at the end of Ep 3 'The Reckoning' shows us Andor like we have all before staring into the vastness of space, a new sort of nature for Andor to explore and attempt to touch the untouchable but forego the relationship he has built up previously with the wood and trees. He would now live in a world of greys and darks, built up environments of cement and concrete, with buildings as tall as redwoods and animals are scared of people and do not live in harmony.

And so begins Andor's journey

But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. In the woods, is perpetual youth 

And so begins Andor's journey into this beauty, one that he must have thought unattainable. The stars smile upon him and they promise him much, but it is down to him/man to obtain his reward. Emerson goes on to mention that the stars are unattainable, yet with technology at his disposal, they become reachable. Nature evokes poetry, simplicity and childlike wonder - the advent of technology to Andor is a shock to the system as Fiona Shaw's character first meets Andor smashing up consoles of a crashed spaceship, his fear of the new immediately strips away his innocence to create this now young adult full of anger and rage at this new way of life.

In the woods, is perpetual youth 

This could have been written for Cassian. Born within nature, and part of it. Emerson writes, in the woods we return to reason and faith. And at the start of the series, Cassian is looking for his sister a meaning or relic of his past life, and in the series so far he is surrounded by builidngs but nature is not far away. The Scottish Highlands substitute for Aldhani, and you can feel the howling gust of winds in this Star Wars galaxy - yet Andor looks at home and comfortable; as Emerson writes, he finds something dear and connates with the wilderness far more than in streets and villages.

The need to reach the horizon is as beautiful as his own nature, and for Andor that is an attempt to return back to his wilderness and a place of belonging. This is indicative of his rebellious character, someone who is unsure when his reckoning shall occur, but nevertheless always looking over his back, gun at hand.

The remaining six episodes of Andor promise a lot and I for one cannot wait to see his relationship with nature bloom further.

Book of Boba Fett: Episode 2&3 thoughts

 

THE TRIBES OF TATOOINE

While the second episode in the new Disney+ series was a better overall outing than the premiere episode by this viewer - it for me showed the problems with streaming in both a positive and negative context.

The episode again used the present day of Boba Fett after the Sarlaac Pit and laying claim to Jabba's throne coupled with a flashback narrative of Boba being taken in by the Tusken raiders of Tatooine and being embedded into their tribe.

The use of the contrasting flashbacks and present day narrative, is that while both is necessary the flashback ultimately overstays its welcome. Too much is made of the tribe life, yet the introduction of the train (an homage to actual history of colonials shooting buffalo as they rode past on trains in the days of the Old West) is another feather in the cap to build upon the world of Tatooine and the ignorace of it being just Mos Eisley.

The tropes and cliche of donning tribal garb is there, the trippy journey to obtain his branch for his stick are predictable as well as telegraphed.

THE STREETS OF MOS ESPA

The third episode for me was again an improvement, a shorter running time yet it was very much by the numbers in terms of building character arc and narrative.

Boba is done with the flashback, and the flashback ending abruptly with the re-introduction of Black Krrsantan as an assassin on Boba's head. The fight is okay but shouldn't a crime lord have better protection in his own home. What follows is a visit by the twin Hutts who apologise and give Boba the black wookie as a gift, one that Boba immediately releases.

Then a visit to the mayor leads to the slowest chase since Barnaby Jones was on the air, with some bad CGI with many an obstacle in the busy streets of Mos Espa - culminating in information being given up far too easily.

The early introduction of Stephen Root in a supporting character role bodes well for future episodes, and the formal announcement of the Pykes as the main villains with the prospect of war incoming.

After three episodes, I remain indifferent and underwhelmed by the show thus far, this is a combination of pacing and the back and forth. Now we may have the prospect of an actual story in real time taking place, yet the action feels forced and predictable yet the anticipation cannot be ignored

Episode Four for one cannot come soon enough

Book of Boba Fett: A Template Laid Bare

 

The Book of Boba Fett premiered on Disney+ on 28th December, providing a treat for Star Wars fans around the world during the festive period.

Using a now common narrative tool of dual narratives - we begin where the post-credits Mandalorian sequence ended with Boba Fett taking the seat once held by Jabba the Hutt in his eponymous palace flanked by Fennec Shand.

The episode starts with Boba in a tank recuperating from exertions and his nightmares return as he reflects, with us the viewer thrust into his dreams as he is within the Sarlaac Pit where he famously fell during the Return of the Jedi. We see Boba fight out of the creatures stomach, his hand bursting through the sand a la many a horror imagery, reaching for the sky.

Once out of the desert, he lays awaiting rescue. Unfortunately, the first people to encounter him are the scavenging Jawas who strip him of his mandalorian armour leaving him to waste away. Then he is taken in by a Tusken raider tribe where he has to endure slavery and torture from a youngling raider who is going through a rite of passage with Boba as the task at hand to overcome.

This story of Boba overcoming adversity to reach the level of nomadic stature when we encountered him in the second series of the Mandalorian where he retrieves his armour is next to the story of him becoming a crime lord in the same guise of Jabba. He meets many a new suitor, people wishing to win his favour and encounters a representative of the Mayor of Mos Espa, Tatooine's second city. Usually these people pay the crime lord, but the majordomo wishes for payment from Fett. 

Boba wishes to meet the Mayor but as they leave The Sanctuary they are ambushed and the best set piece of the first episode takes place with plenty of action, fighting and the opportunity for Shand (Ming Na) to parkour around buildings chasing the attackers.

That strand of the episode ends with Fett on his haunches being held up by now loyal duo of Gamorreans. We then return to five years prior where Boba is in servitude to the Tusken raiders - he and a Rodian have to dig for water by the teenage Tusken. They then encounter a Harryhausen-esque creature with four arms.

Boba shows industry and inventiveness to defeat the monster with only his hands and the chain that binds him. The Tusken allows Boba to walk unaccompanied back to the village where he is given a gourd - a sign of respect and that he is made in their eyes. He is now on a voyage to learn the ways of the desert which takes us up to his first (re)appearance in the Mandalorian when dressed in Tusken robes and garb.

While the episode is not as kinetic or thrilling as other chapters of the Mandalorian would eventually be, yet if memory serves the first ever episode of that series was along the same lines with the need to build up character and atmosphere. There are going to be lulls in this series due to the quiet intense character that Boba is along with the equally reserved Shand.

The bond between Fett and Shand will be key to this series - the mutual respect the two have for each other as outlaws in an albeit lawless galaxy - this wish to live and die by their own sword; they share looks that speak volumes to each other and can say things with a raise of an eyebrow merely to instruct the other. This is empowered by the totem that is Temeura Morrison as the title character, years of wear and tear on his face and body exuded a host of emotions to convey.

Directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by Jon Favreau, the template of the western has long been establised with the outsider being welcomed into a forbidden tribe to earn his spurs so to speak, to then rise up and take control of a town or county through his grit. In this instance, the western genre has been extrapolated and put onto the science fiction/fantasy world of Star Wars again to winning effect.

Whilst watching I may have been guilty of looking at my phone on occasion, but there was enough to maintain my attention and ultimately look forward to the next episode on Wednesday in the New Year. As always, this is appointment viewing and not to be missed.

Follow me on Twitter @NextToTheAisle

George Lucas: A Life

Written by Brian Jay Jones, who has previously authored a biography of Jim Henson, returns with a new biography on another creative force that seismically challenged the cultural landscape of the late Twentieth Century, in this instance it is the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas.

Jones is a wonderful researcher and he uses his biography to cover the entirety of Lucas' life and career and not focusing on the space opera he created in the 1970s; he goes in depth on American Graffiti which was the film he made in 1973 and was the classic case of a small independent film becoming a phenomenon, the Blair Witch Project of its day.

Yet Jones does not merely focus on the impact of the film on so many film-makers but also the process of making such a film had on Lucas and his creativity.  Lucas had a short schedule of a few weeks and had to shoot most of the film at nights with a skeleton crew and novice cast; yet Lucas was able to meld the apparent mess and create a force on the screen, one that got people jumping out of their seats by the end.

If American Graffiti was a shot between the eyes, his next film Star Wars, would blow your head clean off. A film that 20th Century Fox were not comfortable with, Jones makes it clear how fortunate Lucas and his producer, Gary Kurtz were in that they had the support of Alan Ladd Jr. in the process of production - Ladd gained Lucas the extra money for shooting and held studio heads at bay who were worried about the production going into free fall and becoming a disaster.

However, Lucas' sheer bloody mindedness and determination to succeed, drove him through the post-production getting results from his fledgling effects company Industrial Light and Magic to create the thrilling trench run at the end of Star Wars.  Throughout, the book makes clear that whilst Lucas may have drawbacks as a director (his reluctance to actually direct actors) and is a better producer and collaborator as the chapters on the Indiana Jones films with Steven Spielberg can attest to.

Lucas, much like Jim Henson, was a maker of legends and myths not only on the big screen. Without his drive to ambition for a cinema that no-one had ever seen before, you would not have the Star Wars universe, you would not have the phenomenal body of work ILM has created in its catalogue and from ILM sprang another game-changing company, Pixar. His influence and use of computer technology has changed film and movies forever.

The post-Return of the Jedi years were not kind to Lucas and whilst he remained a producer people wanted him to return to Star Wars and so he sat down and wrote The Phantom Menace which was released in 1999, yet the world was starting to change with another fantasy behemoth The Lord of the Rings pushing the envelope further than maybe Lucas thought was possible.

Author - Brian Jay Jones

Jones tells the story of the prequel trilogy and does state reviewers criticism of them, but he does state how badly organised the films were in terms of production. Filming began on Attack of the Clones without a completed script, shooting on the fly with virtually all green screens for his actors to act opposite tennis balls and sticks.

The book concludes with mention of Lucas selling Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company for a $4.7billion fee and how he was ignored by the new company in regards to plot development for Episode VII: The Force Awakens. This leaves a sour taste in Lucas' mouth but also an unfortunate glance at current society that once you make it big and become such a part of the cultural zeitgeist, people do not care for how you feel, they merely want to consume your product whichever way possible.

Now Lucas is not tied to the Star Wars universe, he is an onlooker taking in what he created. Yet what he has created has had possibly the biggest ripple effect of cultural significance known to culture and arts.

George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones is available now from Little Brown & Company

Rogue One

Not the next episode of the franchise but instead listed as a Star Wars story, Rogue One tells the story of how the rebel alliance stole the plans to destroy the first Death Star featured in Star Wars: A New Hope.

Directed by British filmmaker Gareth Edwards whose movies have slowly got bigger in terms of budget and scale from Monsters to Godzilla to now the biggest film franchise in history. Edwards is a solid filmmaker big on visual stimulus combined with the small minutiae of characterisation.

Rogue One is a film full of characters ranging from the young girl who grows up vengeful of her mother's murder and father's disappearance; a lack of loyalty is juxtaposed with the need to belong to a group. Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso, with the correct blend of feistiness you expect from a rebel but is very on trend at moment with strong independent female roles leading mega-blockbusters.

Jones who is in a hot streak at moment is ably supported by an eclectic and culturally diverse group of rebels from Diego Luna's Cassian Andor the leader of rebellion crew who break Jyn out of jail. On their travel across the galaxy they stop on Juhha, where they encounter Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and Baze (Wen Jiang) as they combine to escape the clutches of the Empire.

The film is a major spectacle and Star Wars fans will not be disappointed by this first story out of the order of the still ongoing franchise.  Edwards has acquited himself well and made a film that is both entertaining and is overtly political, it is not afraid to state the case that all war is futile and costly. This is the cruelest of war films as the people you have fought with and seen fighting for what they believe in all suffer unwelcome ends.

As a film it is not without its flaws, the first twenty minutes are a bit of a grind with the constant jumping from star system to alternative star system is a bit confusing and annoying, coupled with the silly story thread of Forrest Whittaker's role as Saw Gerrera who is a bombastic Caribbean rebel who is old and not that wise, the scenes he appears in are slow and grating especially when his pet space slug attempts to extract information from Riz Ahmed's turncoat pilot.

This is a seriously awful moment that nevertheless does not jump the shark thanks in part to the later scenes with Chirrut and Baze; however, it felt like the filmmakers wanting you to remember this may be a war/spy film but within a science fiction universe.

Ben Mendelsohn a solid performer in Bloodline, gives a good performance as the Director and creator of the Death Star who is feeling shunned by the higher powers and must fight for recognition; in what is essentially limited screen time but sufficient enough for us to boo and hiss him, he conveys enough of a villain with his mere presence alone.

At times it is as if the film wants to be a film that borrows the Star Wars mystique and oeuvre ('I am one with the Force', Darth Vader, Jimmy Smits!) without ever saying we are a Star Wars film.

This reviewer might be nit picking but I was pleased with how the film neatly brought it up to the beginning of A New Hope, especially on the day that Carrie Fisher died. The image of Princess Leia stating hope was both a touching tribute to the legacy her role has been to the cultural landscape and made me want to go home straight away and put on A New Hope.

Personally, I would appreciate more stories such as this rather than the incoming swath of origin movies we will have coming our way in the next five years ranging from Han Solo to Lando to Boba Fett.

Follow me @NextToTheAisle on Twitter.