The show had a slow start and it dragged on for a while. I would have liked to have seen more variety of Tatooine itself. Some characters felt out of place like Mok Shaiz's Majordomo. While being a Twi'lek his features were odd to me like the lack of sharp teeth. I know not every male sharpens their teeth, but still lol. The lack of bumps on his forehead also was odd and the ears as well.
It felt often stale and certainly there were cool moments, but not that many included Boba Fett. You could blame it on my expectations of who Boba Fett is supposed to be. Of course he had a change of heart after his experience with the Sarlacc and with the Tusken Raiders. It changed him, though the question is if it changed him for the better? Yes, he's a better person, but from a storystelling perspective I think that made him less interesting.
Many thought Episode 5 & 6 were the best ones and they didn't even include Boba Fett. As good as those episodes were they shouldn't have been in the Book of Boba Fett. It takes away from the Mandalorian series, because Grogu left the Mando by the end of Season 2 and now they're already reunited, so what was the point of that? By the start of season 3 it's going to be Grogu and the Mandalorian again as if nothing had changed.
These two episodes could have been used for more character development and it would certainly have been interesting to learn more of Fennec Shand, because we barely know anything about her. Personally I found it silly to change the name of the Slave-1. It's not such a big deal and I understand. Boba Fett is a better person than he used to be. Well tell in the show why Boba doesn't want to use the name anymore. Talk about Jango and the origins of the name.
All in all I certainly prefer 'The Mandalorian' rather than this show, because it was seriously lacking. It was fun to watch, but it certainly could have been better. Maybe it would have been better if I binged it rather than watched every episode week by week.
New Star Wars content
With the announcement of new Star Wars content I’m feeling excited, curious and sceptical. I’ll list them in order and I’m curious what you think. Obviously I’m not listing the Mandalorian, since I’m fully excited about the show and the 2nd season is certainly a large improvement over the first one. Now here’s the list of all announced Star Wars shows and films and how I feel about it.
Obi-Wan-Kenobi: This is probably the show I feel most hyped about. Taking ten years after ROTS where we’ll see Obi-Wan’s life on Tatooine with the return of Ewan McGregor as the titled character and more importantly to me, the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. The latter surely added to my interest in this series.
Ashoka: Rosario Dawson did a phenomenal job as Ahsoka in the Mandalorian imo. Without giving anything away I had the impression that the episode she featured in served almost like a pilot of her own show. I don’t know if we’ll see her again in the Mandalorian, but it’s not out of the question.
The Bad Batch: While the episodes in season 7 of The Clone Wars series were great, I’m not sure if I will feel the same hype about this series. With the characters gone from TCW like Anakin and Obi-Wan I don’t know if I’ll like it as much. Still I remain optimistic.
Lando: While I’m certainly no big fan of ‘Solo’ I did think that Donald Glover did an incredible job with his portrayal as Lando Calrissian. I’m pretty sure the series will focus on him, rather than the older Lando we saw in the Rise of Skywalker.. I was a big fan of Billy Dee Williams in the Original Trilogy, but it was a lacklustre in TROS.
Visions: With 10 episodes in a Japanese animated style, I’m very curios about this series. The description of the serious is very vague and I’m not sure what to make of it. Will this be like a ‘What if?’ Series like Marvel is doing?
Rangers of the New Republic: Said to be taking time around the era of the Mandalorian, it’s likely this spin-off series will feature the character of Cara Dune, portrayed by Gina Carano and to be honest, I can’t say I’m daft about both of them.
Acolyte: This series is said to be taking place by the end of the High Republic, a new Era. We don’t know much about it yet, but it will be female-centric and the genre does pique my interest. It will be a mystery-thriller that will also tell us more about the Sith and the Dark Side.
Rogue Squadron: A film directed by Patty Jenkins that will take place after the Rise of Skywalker. The film will feature new character, namely pilots that will earn their wings. That’s all that was said. I got faith in the director, however the story is another matter.
A Droid Story: An animated series featuring R2-D2 and C-3PO, who will be guiding a new character on an adventure. What could go wrong? The synopsis says and yes, what could go wrong with this series? That’s what I wonder myself. Personally I’m not that interested yet, but we’ll see.
Andor: Maybe the series I’m least excited about? Featuring the character of Cassian Andor, who I thought was kind of bland in Rogue One. Maybe it will be more interesting when we see more of the formation of the rebellion and hopefully we’ll see more of Jimmy Smith as Bail Organa and who knows maybe our beloved Princess Leia herself, though I think that’s unlikely, but not out of the question.
I would like to hear what series you are excited about and don’t feel that excited about. Is all this content also too much. Years ago Mark Hamill spoke of Star Wars fatigue when every year there would be a new Star Wars film as after The Force Awakens we got Rogue One. Then the Last Jedi was released and not even a year afterwards we got Solo which certainly didn’t do well at the box office. If that sounded like fatigue to Hamill, should we be concerned with all the Star Wars content we’re getting now?
Looking back at The Last Jedi.
The Last Jedi, in that aspect, isn’t that different. I can appreciate the attempt to renew and bring new ideas to the franchise as long as they’re good ideas. This film didn’t do that for me. Now lots of fans have been generalising the “haters”, some calling them fanatics and such, which personally I find arrogant. Some ways they try to defend the film don’t convince me. Let’s talk of the argument of why Snoke isn’t different than the Emperor. Both didn’t have a background story, when you compare the Original Trilogy to the Sequel Trilogy.
i’ll tell you what’s different. First of all, the OT was the beginning of the story, now we’re near the end. Both were build up to be powerful mystery figures. But what do we learn of Snoke? Almost nothing. Fair enough, the Emperor didn’t have a backstory either, but he had a reputation. He was introduced by Tarkin who said that the Emperor dismantled the senate. Like Snoke, he’s an important character. At least, that’s how it appears. Vader was just phenomenal from the start and he was dubbed ‘the master of evil’ by Obi-Wan. That made me think that the Emperor was even more evil, that he was of a higher league.
Cut to ESB and Vader has become more fearsome, yet he bows down as an obedient servant to the Emperor. Later we learn that he fears the Emperor and cannot defeat him alone. That just shows us how powerful he is. This pays off in ROTJ where we learn that Vader practically is a slave to the Emperor, that he has to obey him. The only way he could kill him is by sacrificing his own life.
Cut back to Snoke. Now there’s a large gap to fill as 30 years have gone by and somehow Snoke got control over the first Order. That’s quite an impressive feat, though never explained. Yes, we can go back to the Emperor as it’s never explained how he got control over an Empire. But the OT lay down the foundation of the overall story. Plus Lucas intended to explain his backstory later in the prequels, hence why he started in the middle. Imo it was planned out well, though fair enough we had to wait a long time for the PT
Now Snoke somehow seduced Ben Solo to the Dark Side, which could still be explained in Episode IX, though I have my doubts since J.J. has so much to cover. I think he’ll focus on what’s ahead, rather than fill in gaps that weren’t explained. Now there’s other questions concerning Snoke and I won’t bore you all with them, but as shown in TLJ he’s very strong in the Force, but gets killed by a trick performed by Kylo Ren. Some say his character was just a red herring. I just don’t know. This contradicts, imo, with how we see Snoke in TFA and TLJ.
Now I’ll skip over the whole Canto Bight plot, which imo was mostly filler material. I’ll focus on Rey and Luke. Personally I thought it was weird that he stood proudly in his Jedi robes. Then he throws his father’s lightsaber away, which came off as a silly joke to me. The film was filled with silly jokes. Imo the funniest Star Wars film is ESB as the banter between Han and Leia was great and between Threepio and Chewie and later Threepio and Artoo. Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. First Luke is dressed in his Jedi robes, then quickly changes his clothes and tells Rey he came to this planet to die and that it’s time for the Jedi to end. Then why dress as one?
Luke was just acting grumpy, whiny, selfish. Just seemed out of character. The most frequent argument was that a lot can happen to a person in 30 years. But from turning from a hero to a coward? He gets struck by fear that Kylo will get seduced by the Dark Side and considers to kill him. Sorry, but from the young man, who thought his father could be redeemed to the more experienced Jedi Master who think Kylo is beyond saving. That’s a drastic change. Why not face Snoke? There could be reasons why he couldn’t, but again never explained. Why not ask help from his parents? No, he decides for himself to kill Ben. The whole scene with Yoda also made him look dumb and I thought that Yoda slapping Luke with his stick wasn’t funny.
Now, unlike many fans I wasn’t bothered that Rey’s parents were nobodies. I can see that the writers felt a little stuck at this point, because if she were Han & Leia’s daughter or Luke’s that would have been predictable. I’m still wondering what that ship in TFA was all about. A canon source said that Rey’s parents died on Jakku, but somehow she’s still waiting for them. Did the ship crash? If so, why is she waiting for them? Anyway I can appreciate the idea that you don’t have to come from some special lineage to be strong in the Force.
Now when it comes to Crait, I thought the whole doppelgänger idea was interesting as well, despite that many fans were bothered about this. They wanted Luke to have this really epic lightsaber battle. I can appreciate the idea that Luke was only stalling the First Order and sorta redeem himself for trying to kill his nephew or not make that same mistake again. However if he’s not physically there how did he hand over the golden dice to Leia and that kinda took some emotion away. The fact that he wasn’t really there for this bittersweet reunion. When it comes to the fight I thought Kylo came off as a child when he orders all AT-M6’s to fire at Luke. It’s like handing over a gun to a kid.
When he finally confonts Luke I felt that Luke was antagonising Kylo and Rian Johnson almost confirmed this, though contradicted himself. He wanted Luke to be younger to the age when he was about to kill Kylo to have maximum effect on him. Then why did he attack him with his blue lightsaber, which Kylo knew was broken. Surely, he realised something was off. I’ll admit that the shot of the binary sunset was beautiful. Still, I did think the film didn’t do Luke’s character justice.
Well, that’s my take on it. I’m glad others enjoyed the film, but it’s sad to see the fan base basically split in two.
The return of Azor Ahai.
I am a big Game of Thrones fan and have been speculating about several theories. Now I think the most likely character to be the one who could be Azor Ahai could be Jon Snow/Aegon Targaryen. Though I don’t exclude other possible characters like Daenerys. There’s also the theory that they both are. As you might know is that in mythology it’s about finding your balance (i.e Yin and Yang, the balance of the Force, man and woman, good and evil and so on).
But let’s stick to Jon for this. Lot’s have been referring to how Daenerys, and even earlier Ygritte will be his Nissa Nissa, that he’ll stab her to death as a sacrifice to create the legendary sword Lightbringer. I just think they’re taking things too literal. There was even discussion that Lightbringer refers to the dragons.
First of all it's not in Jon's character to sacrifice someone and I seriously doubt Dany is going to turn evil, which could give him motive to kill her. Second thing which people forget is that the legendary Azor Ahai failed to destroy the White Walkers, he only pushed them back further North. That's because he sacrificed his love. He wasn't prepared to sacrifice himself, which is he the ultimate sacrifice.
That's where Jon comes in. For Dany, there's still the third treason (this is more related to the books. Quaithe tells Dany she’ll face three treasons, once for gold, for blood and for love) Now I want focus on the one for love. Jon will betray her. He will leave her behind with their child, I think, to face the Night King on his own, thus sacrificing himself to save them. The history of Azor Ahai isn't some manual how you can become the next Azor Ahai. We know that characters who return from death are often back on borrowed time to fulfill a certain purpose and Jon fits right in that bill.
As for Daenerys, she might destroy the iron throne and undo what Aegon the Conqueror did, breaking the wheel. But there’s something else. There was always a certain theme that’s stuck to her, namely ‘mother as in Mother of Dragons, Mhysa and such. Now the title of ‘Mother of Dragons’ can be interpreted in two ways. In a more literal sense, the mother of her three Dragons, Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Though as you probably know Viserion died. But that’s another topic.
The second interpretation, less literal, is that she will give birth to a whole knew Targaryen dynasty. As you know many were referred to as ‘Dragon’, like Dany herself and her brother Rhaegar, or referred to themselves as Dragons like Viserys. So I think that ‘Mother of Dragons’ has a deeper meaning.
Lets start with dismantling the film and check its pros and cons.
We start with an attack on a village. Poe Dameron is with Max Von Sydow's character and is forced to hide a map in BB-8. This scene reminded me heavily of the attack on the Tantive IV, where Princess Leia hides the Death Star plans in R2-D2. I should say that I don't mind a few ideas being copied, but this happened a lot in this film. I found it a bit of a shame that Max Von Sydow's character had such little screen time. Odd to use such a great actor for such a small role.
The kinship between Poe and Finn was great. Both excellent characters, though I would have liked to have seen more of Poe. After Finn frees him, it calmed down a bit and It was interesting to explore Finn's inner conflict. Great acting. That's something I should add and that is the acting was great in this film. Moving on to Rey, I was really curious about her. She was tough, but she still had a soft side. She isn't just a tomboy. There was a lot more to her. If you see the film in 3-D, you get a better idea of the scale the stardestroyers are, which she was exploring. The 3-D was great btw and that says something, because I'm not such a fan of it.
Once Finn gets to meet Rey in a kickass manner, the story gets in a really fast pace, so seeing the Falcon in action was marvelous. It was unlike anything we've seen in a Star Wars film. It was really exhilarating. When we get to learn more about Kylo Ren and general Hux, you could see that Kylo wasn't just a mere copy of Vader, though he has strong similarities to Anakin in his emotional struggles. Kylo's struggles heavily with what he wants to do and what he feels he has to do. There's still a lot of mystery how he got seduced to the dark side. Snoke abuses his power and that becomes obvious in the conversations he has with him.
I don't like Hux, but that's actually good, cause he's a villain after all. But I did find him quite shallow as a character. So we move onto the Millenium Falcon and how Han Solo gets reintroduced with Chewie. It worked well, though the scene that followed, with the two group of smugglers, which erupted in a big action sequence was kind of weird. It was fun, but it felt like filler material. I think that could have been handled better.
Finn, Rey, Han and Chewie get to Mas Kanata's hide-out. Another interesting character which was a bit underused. I hope to see more of her in future episodes. She was a better character than I expected. In the beginning, judging from only pictures, I thought she looked too weird and goofy. But that was not the case in the film. That's something I should mention the blending of CGI characters and characters created by practical effects was not as good as I hoped. This was most obvious with a character like Admiral Ackbar, who wasnt really improved from the version we saw in Return of the Jedi. The use of of both practical effects and CGI is a good idea, when executed well. But, I think they were trying too hard. And it's a bit pointless, after all this film has as much VFX as The Phantom Menace, which was criticised for its supposed "overuse of CGI".
Back to the story, I thought it was interesting Finn lied about being part of the resistance, while Rey was on a more heroic path. However I would like to point out that this doesn't make Finn less of a hero. In the end Rey doesn't know the dangers of the First Order as well as he does. And eventually she runs away from her destiny. That doesn't make her a coward. Rey and Finn both have their fears, which is only human. When we come to Rey I was reminded of Yoda's words how the Force can show you the past, the present, the future.
When she touches Luke's lightsaber (and Anakin's), I felt it was at that point the Force awakened in her or at least awoke something. She saw the past and the future and yet it wasn't clear what those visions meant. We'll have to find out later, but whatever it is, I'm very curious to find out. She runs and a battle sequence commences. It was very well done and it was cool to see Finn fight the stormtrooper with the electrostaff-like weapon. I almost felt like he as fighting himself, trying to remove the sins he committed as a stormtroopers.
Rey gets captured. Han, Finn and the others return to the resistance, where they talk of Starkiller base, which is basically another Death Star. You can say that Lucas is guilty of this as well, but at least he had an excuse. It wasn't such a big deal, but I think they could have come up with a more original idea. Minor issue. The interaction between Rey and Kylo Ren was very interesting. To me it was like Kylo was trying to humiliate her, because he was jealous of her almost in his attempt to boast how he was better than her.
Here we we see the first signs of just how strong Rey is in the Force. Though how she already knew how to manipulate a stormtrooper (rumoured to have been played by Daniel Craig) was weird. How did she know how to do that? Anyway, not everything needs an explanation. Slightly odd, but it's all good fun. When I saw Kylo lashing out with his lightsaber, it reminded me of how different Kylo is to Vader, who was far more disciplined. Even Anakin with his tantrums, wouldn't resort to that.
Rey basically rescues herself, while Han and Finn infiltrate the base to make way for the resistance and destroy it. Here is where imo the best scene of the film was. Han speaks to his son Kylo aka Ben Solo and tries to convert him back to the light. I thought Ben was a weird name they gave him. I know Luke called his son Ben in the EU, but that makes more sense to me. When I saw how watery Ben's eyes were it just shows how a good actor Adam Driver was.
There me so much that could be interpreted from this scene. From his inner struggle it seemed like Kylo wants to return home. But on the other hand not. He seems to feel forced to finish where Vader failed, from his point of view. Many say Kylo duped Han, but I disagree. Kylo seems so messed up in his head that he was asking his father's permission to kill him. He has a twisted sense of love for him. Han is who stood in his way to complete the task Snoke laid out and unfortunately he puts his trust in his master and not his father. Then the inevitable happens, Han Solo's death. No doubt this upset and will upset a lot of fans, but I've been expecting this. First of all Harrison wanted Solo to die since A New Hope. Second in the first official trailer we saw Rey, tear-eyed, crouching over a body many suspected to be Han. I was wrong there. I was sure it was Han,but no that was Finn.
The fight between Finn and Kylo was cool, but the one between Rey and Kylo was epic. Very interesting idea how both of them reached out with the Force for Luke's lightsaber, yet Rey manages to grab it. Many bicker of how impossible it would be for Rey to fight Kylo,untrained, while Kylo is trained with a lightsaber, but again I disagree for multiple reasons I won't bore you with. Ask me in the comments if you want. The fight ends and we return back to the resistance after Starkiller base explodes. We see a moment of sadness between Leia and Rey in her new outfit.
Then the last shot where Rey finds Luke was a bit weird. She was reaching out with the lightsaber to him for such a long time as they stare at each other. Now Star Wars films often end in these long moments. But this was very long. It could have been a little shorter or you could have had her stare at him longer, before she reaches the lightsaber out to him. Not really an issue. Just thought I should mention this.
Now like I said to others this is an amazing film, but as a Sar Wars film it lacked something. Mostly the strong mythologal themes present in the previous trilogies. Yes, there was mythology in this film, just not as much as I hoped for. Second while the music score was fantastic, I didn't think there weren't any very new memorable themes, like in the previous trilogies. The Jedi Steps was probaby my favourite.
I could have talked more about Han & Leia or the droids, but this review is already so long. All in all a fantastic film and no doubt I'll see it multiple times. I've seen it in IMAX 3-d. But next I'll see it with no 3-d. And we have a third time planned for next week, maybe in 3-d again, maybe not.