WANTED: Submissions are accepted! No one person can watch everything so send me your reviews, critiques, praises, opinions, essays, artwork, scathing Twitter threads, or general attitude to anything from this new generation of streaming services whether it be Disney Plus, Apple Plus, DC Universe, or the upcoming HBO Max (Netflix, Prime, and Hulu also accepted but please keep it to their originals).
And with that I'll kick it off when the first thing I watched on Disney Plus:
And with that I'll kick it off when the first thing I watched on Disney Plus:
THE MANDALORIAN S1E1 "Chapter 1"
I wanna talk about Werner Herzog in Star Wars.
The Mandalorian (Mando for short) is not what you'd expect. It's less a Disney Presents The Boba Fett Adventures Starring Boba Fett and more a sci-fi version of the 1970s television show The Virginian. It doesn't feature characters from any of the other movies (only familiar aliens like Rodians and Transdoshans and Salacious Crumbs) and all of the locations/planets are so far unnamed much like the title character. It also features Werner Herzog.
In a pivotal scene, Herzog, who intensely delivers all of his lines while SITTING DOWN, is flanked by unwashed Stormtroopers (the Empire has fallen on hard times since this is post-RotJ). He's frankly more threatening than the title character who is covered head to toe in armor and weapons. He gives our hero (antihero?) a mysterious bounty with the promise of a huge reward. It's an incredible scene and I realized while watching that this scene never would have happened in one of the main Star Wars films.
Don't get me wrong. This pilot definitely does not pull punches in the money department. There's a gigantic walrus monster that attacks Mando's ship at one point in a scene lovingly reminiscent of that Boba Fett cartoon from the Star Wars Holiday Special. Nick Nolte shows up as a Yoda-esque Ugnaught which uses a new puppet technology that is absolutely wild. This episode is actually chock full of interesting characters such as Carl Weathers' gruff bounty guild boss, Greef Carga (my current favorite dumb Star Wars name). Most importantly, Pedro Pascal acts his ass off behind a mask with very light dialogue for the entire 40 min run time. Pascal's Mando is an extremely likable character maybe more so than any new Star Wars protagonist not named Rey. There's a particularly humorous chemistry he has with Taika Waititi's droid character who is sadly not IG-88 but instead one of his droll cousins, IG-11.
There's a lot of action in this episode and it's very physical and gritty. There's no lightsabers to be had here but based on the episode's cliffhanger twist there's bound to be some Force shenanigans in the show's future. Of course that doesn't mean there aren't a few disembowelments. Mando has an arsenal that doesn't always rely on blasters and you see him use a wide variety of gadgets such as ropes and electric sticks like a sci-fi Batman.
Overall, it's a very strong start to a promising show and the attention to detail is astoundingly well done. The first episode is directed by Dave Filoni who is no stranger to the Star Wars mythos having directed and produced quite a few seasons of the cartoon shows (the show vibes a lot with Rebels, probably the most underrated piece of Star Wars ephemera). There aren't sweeping words about Empires or Alliances or wide shots focused on teens dreaming about going into space. This is ultimately a show about a guy and his job and that makes it a bold new direction for Star Wars visual media. And did I mention Werner Herzog is in it?
The Mandalorian is available exclusively on Disney Plus. Episodes will be released weekly on Fridays starting with the second episode on November 15th.
No comments:
Post a Comment