It’s refreshing to see a new Star Wars movie after such a long (and shameful) hiatus. Does Jon Favreau deliver? Sort of? I think he and the other writers, Dave Filoni, Noah Kloor, know what makes a good Star Wars story in that I saw a lot of action and adventure.
Initial Thoughts
I liked it! I was so happy to see more Star Wars, and it did in its own way.
I get Jeremy Jahns saying it feels like it’s just a whole season of episodes strung together, and it does when you see it that way. But so do all movies, don’t they? I guess the main reason it feels that way more with M&G is because it comes from an episodic TV series. So there’s that.
There’s very little down time in terms of action.
Opening sequence -> pretty good
Off to adventure to track down things -> What’s Scorsese doing here? haha
Gladiator fights -> sure I guess?
The raid -> yeah, badass
Mando vs. alien monsters -> Not bad
The slow part -> a bit convenient, but sure
Finale -> got a few different things interwoven in SW fashion, good. Loved it.
Mando flies around quit a bit, Grogu does some force things, lots of blasters and baddassery from Mando, some cute aliens, some new colorways for new toys, lightspeeeeeeeeddddd, and X-WINGSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! YESSSSSS
So yeah, Star Wars.
I’m happy to see Sigourney Weaver be in all the fun nerd franchises: Aliens, Galaxy Quest, Ghostbusters, and now Star Wars! (yeah yeah, she was in Avatar, but I’ve only watched the first one and hated it)
Happy to see Paul Sun-Hyung Lee in this one as well. I agree with my friend’s FB comment on this.
TBF, I don’t think the trailer should have shown so much. Why does it show Pedro Pascal’s face? (I can understand why some would include it in the trailer, but I don’t think it should have) Why show the X-wings? I didn’t pay the trailer much attention, so those moments were all a good surprise for me.
Spoiler infested thoughts
I’m not sure if they went with a miniature-esque look for some of their CGI because it had a slight OT look at times, especially with the AT-ATs.
Good thing the twin Hutts switched to English after speaking a bit of Hutt to Mando, so Rotta the Hutt speaking English wasn’t as jarring, but it was still VERY jarring. I would have been fine with subtitles. Although he does have a lot of lines.
I liked seeing all the random droids serving in the Hutt’s lair.
I’m happy they didn’t just use Grogu’s force heal to heal Mando. At least Grogu put in the time to help him recover and did baby things to “stumble across and acquire” the cure. So it’s a bit more earned than just force healing.
The little engineers coming back, saying “told you we’d be back” was a good touch. (over someone just being “concerned” and turning up randomly with perfect timing)
I bet Sigourney LOVED to be in that pilot’s seat of the X-wing. I was so happy. I LOVE seeing X-wings flying around.
The hutts fighting was a bit ridiculous haha
Who was that villain with the frying pan helmet? I’m not as well versed in the animated series or other SW stuff, so I had no idea. Looked scary though.
If I had to give it a score, I’d say 3.5/5
Saw it with a good friend at Angelika in Woolloongabba
Oh and I thought it was cool that the stunt performers were credited right after Pedro Pascal.
PS. My SW Rankings
Is it the best SW film ever? No.
Is it better than the prequel trilogy? Maybe, if you don’t consider the Skywalker lineage.
Is it better than the sequel trilogies? Yes. Nothing will be worse than ep 8 & 9. (7 >>> 8 & 9)
Is it better than Solo? Possibly. No retconning or over-explaning so, sort of.
Is it better than Rogue One? Possibly. I know a lot of people like serious SW stories, but I don’t think it’s as important as some do. I just want three things: Action, adventure, and lightsaber duels.
About what I want in Star Wars: Look, I got into SW because it’s a great action adventure movie series with lightsaber duels… and X-wings.
Sure, serious movies or series about fascism and rebellions are great, and I enjoy them as well, but that usually ends up with less adventure, because politically charged adventures have way less fantasy elements to it.
So ultimately, it’s OT (4>5>6) >> M&G & R1 & Solo > PT (1>3>2) >>>>>>> ST (7>>> 8 & 9)