"But wait!" You cry. "What in the name of Jiminy Cricket is a Mandolorian!?" Well let me explain. You know how Jedi are awesome space wizards and how every kid wants to be a Jedi when they grow up, ignoring the intense training and strict moral code that comes with the lifestyle? Well Mandolorians are the one thing that can rival a Jedi in raw cool factor. They're a tribe of intergalactic warriors who live for combat and bounty hunting. Also, they are the kings of making awesome armor. Seriously, I guarantee that someone has made a cosplay of Mandolorian Armor.
The Mandolorian is a spin-off TV show that is currently being used as the main highlight of the Disney+ Streaming Service. It stars, well, a Mandolorian. We're never told his name, but apparently the actor that plays him (Pedro Pascal) revealed rather casually in an interview that his name is Dyn Jarren. I feel like that's a spoiler, but it remains to be seen if the Mandolorian's real name is relevant to the plot. Taking place after the events of the Original Trilogy, but before the events of The Force Awakens, The Mandolorian's main concept as a show is that it gives the anti-hero bounty hunters of the Star Wars a chance to shine, away from the fancy Force powers and showing us a better look at the less civilized parts of the Galaxy. In other words, it's a Western IN SPACE!!!
The first episode, simply titled Chapter One begins with a group of thugs bullying a fish-like alien in a tavern. The titular Mandolorian makes his grand appearance, and when the thug harasses him for spilling their drinks, he just ignores them. Even when they call him "Mando" all he really does is sigh in annoyance. Because he's a freaking Mandalorian and common crooks are a waste of his time and talents. The situation escalates into a full on bar brawl, and the Mandalorian kills all of the thugs without too much effort. He walks over to the fish alien that was being bullied and at first it seemed like he was going to be a good Samaritan and make sure he's okay. Then he plonks down a hologram projector displaying what can best be described as a three-dimensional wanted poster... With that exact alien's face and name all over it.
We then get a scene that establishes two very important things about the Mandolorian as a character while he drags his hand-cuffed bounty back to his ship. One, he has a prejudice against droids, even paying the local ferryman extra to get a worse hover-sled with a human pilot instead of a sleek, brand-new hover-sled with a droid pilot built in. Second, when we see his personal star ship, it looks old, beaten up, and outdated (at least by science fantasy standards). This tells me that the Mandolorian is an old-fashioned, traditional kind of guy who has a "if it ain't broke don't fix it" kind of worldview. This is important because a big part of this first episode is building intrigue. What's the deal with this specific Mandolorian? Why does he do the things he does? Heck, we never get a chance to see what he looks like without his helmet, and apparently Mandolorians never let any non-Mandolorians see what their faces look like.
We get a surprisingly funny scene of the alien, who is terrified out of his mind, trying to make casual small talk with the Mandolorian. Emphasis on "trying". But the best(?) thing about this scene is that the alien mentions he was planning to visit his family for Life Day before he was captured. Yes. You read that correctly. The people who made this show made a *Star Wars: The Holiday Special reference. That is... Wow. I think I need to lay down for a moment. I don't think anyone was prepared for that. I know that they wanted to bring in stuff from the sadly discontinued Star Wars Expanded Universe, but that... That right there is something you need extra guts to even attempt. Heck, not just the guts, but the whole digestive tract. That's what you need to make a Star Wars: The Holiday Special reference.
| Side note; I really like the design of the Mandolorian's rifle. Kudos to the prop designers! |
Once he arrives back to his client, we get a scene that I don't think was meant to be funny, but I found amusing anyway. So the Mandolorian's client tries to pay him in Credits. Seems fine, right? It's been established ever since the very beginning of Star Wars that Credits are the most common currency in the Galaxy. Only problem is, that these are Imperial Credits. In a time period where the Empire is no longer a political entity. So those Credits basically have no value anymore thanks to Luke Skywalker and his friends defeating the Emperor and saving the galaxy. The Mandolorian even points this out. But what really makes the scene amusing for me is when the client pays him in these strange pearl-like gems, the client says they are worth 5,000 (Republic) Credits a piece. The Mandolorian then grumbles about how that kind of money isn't even enough to refill his ship's fuel tanks. So even in the Galaxy Far, Far Away, gas money is ridiculously expensive. This scene also has some lore bits in it as well, revealing that pretty much all bounty hunters (including our anti-hero) answer to some kind of Hunter's Guild, who organize the higher-priority bounties.
The client then informs the Mandolorian that there is a VERY high-priority bounty with a very generous reward, but the client for THAT bounty will only discuss the bounty in detail privately, in person. So our anti-hero meets up with this mystery client in the backroom, where it's revealed he is an Imperial loyalist, complete with a squad of Imperial Stormtroopers on his command. The Mandolorian asks for details on the target, but the only things he's given are a basic tracking device and the target's age, being about 50 years old. He is instructed to bring the target back alive if possible, but if worse comes to worse, he can still get paid if he provides "Proof of Termination". But despite the obvious shadiness of the situation, he agrees to take on the bounty because the client pays him with a slab of Beskaar, which for those of you who don't know Star Wars lore, is THE SINGLE STRONGEST METAL IN THE GALAXY. Not even Lightsabers can damage it, and as such, Mandolorians build all their stuff in Beskaar constantly. Armor? Beskaar. Vehicles? Beskaar. Houses? You guessed it, Beskaar. So naturally, the Mandolorian is more than happy to take on the bounty in exchange for more of that sweet, sweet Beskaar.
One of my favorite scenes from this episode comes when the Mandolorian returns to his home world. He gives the slab of Beskaar to this female Mandolorian blacksmith (and by the way I love the design of her armor and I hope she's a mainstay character). The Blacksmith says that the slab is more than enough to repair our anti-hero's pauldron (even Beskaar breaks down eventually). The rest of the metal is donated to the Foundlings, which are what Mandolorians call war orphans. The Mandolorian is grateful for this, and reveals that he himself was a Foundling. We then get a really well done flashback. The reason it was well done? Rather than seeing the whole thing clearly, the flashback is synced to the Blacksmith as she hammers the metal together. With each clang, we get a snippet of the flashback, showing just enough to understand what we're looking at. The flashback snippets show a town being seiged, by what we don't know. We see a child (presumably the Mandolorian himself) put inside a bunker by his parents just as the sounds of violence and misery overtake them. Again, these little scenes of character building make me really want to watch more of the show, because I am invested in learning more about the Mandolorian as a character.
Once the Mandolorian arrives to his destination (with newly updated armor), he gets jumped by a frog-like monster. Unlike the previous action scenes, where the Mandolorian completely bodies his opponents, he actually struggles to deal with this creature. The only reason he doesn't get torn apart is because A) Beskaar is a life-saver, and B) an elderly alien hermit saves him with some well-placed tranquilizer darts. Now I think letting the Mandolorian struggle and fail to deal with these creatures was important for a first episode. It shows that despite the sheer cool factor of Mandolorians, they are in fact, not invincible. They are mortal, same as everyone else. It also shows that despite how easily the Mandolorian dealt with problems before, he seems to specialize in fighting human (or at least humanoid) opponents. You throw a wild animal at him, of course he's gonna get his rear handed to him, he doesn't know the trick to fighting those kinds of enemies yet. Anyway, the hermit offers the Mandolorian help on getting to his target, since a criminal organization is holed up in a nearby town and the elder wants them gone. The route to the town is accessible only by riding the very frog-monster that bodied the Mandolorian earlier. He then (reluctantly) practices the art of frog-monster riding. And initially fails and almost gives up. The elder points out that the Mandolorians have tamed far fiercer monsters in the past, and tells him that he's anything like his ancestors, he should be able to do this as well. Only after the pep talk does it finally click for the Mandolorian, and now he knows how to ride frog-monsters into battle (or at least into town). Honestly the only part of the episode I didn't care too much about was the taming/riding scene. It made the pace slow down a bit too much and I do feel it could have been shorter, but that's pretty much the only problem I have with this episode, and even then it's a minor nitpick rather than a glaring flaw.
We get a hilarious yet awe-inspiring scene where just as the Mandolorian plans his approach, he sees an Assassin droid waltz up to the town entrance, in clear view of the criminals. After reciting some legality nonsense, the criminals shoot the droid... And it shrugs off the blaster fire and curb-stomps the majority thanks to being nigh-invulnerable, dual-wielding a pair of blasters, and having the ability to rotate and bend its body to attack from literally any angle. Watching this thing fight is awesome and I hope to see more of this kind of droid in the future. The Mandolorian puts his prejudice aside and teams up with the Assassin droid to take care of the rest of the criminals. The fight scene is great, as neither character outshines the other, and they both get impressive stuff to do. Plus, there's a running joke about the Assassin droid preparing a self-destruct sequence whenever things start going even slightly wrong. Reinforcements arrive? Prepare Self-Destruct. Enemy has a Gatling gun? Prepare Self-Destruct. The path ahead is blocked? Prepare that Self-Destruct like there's no tomorrow. But honestly the dynamic between the Assassin droid and the Mandolorian was great, and had things ended differently, I could see them being a kind of Chaotic Neutral version of the Buddy Cop dynamic.
And if me saying "if things ended differently" didn't tip you off, this next paragraph will contain spoilers. But do they count as spoilers? This is only the first episode of an ongoing series. The ending is still pleasantly shocking, and even though I had it spoiled for me personally (somewhat), I still felt the impact that they were going for. So... Eh, if you're really worried about spoilers skip this paragraph. So the Mandolorian and the Assassin droid find their target in a warehouse... And it's a baby. But not just a baby. A baby from the same species as Jedi Grand Master Yoda. So the loyalist saying that the target is 50 years old is technically correct, if only because Yoda's species ages ridiculously slowly compared to other aliens. The Assassin droid readies his blaster to kill the poor thing, since its contract specified that the target MUST be destroyed. We hear the signature sound of a blaster shot... And the Assassin droid falls to the ground, a bullet hole piercing its head. Yep, the Mandolorian just killed his new partner off. But the thing is, this twist makes perfect sense given how the Mandolorian was characterized. He is established early on as being prejudiced against droids, and even after teaming up with the Assassin droid he still holds a disdain for it. He has great sympathy for children or at least orphans, seeing as how he is an orphan himself. Once the initial shock of him shooting his partner in the back wears off, you realize, "Well duh! Of course he would do that!". That right there is some of the best character writing I've seen from Disney-Era Star Wars. All of that buildup for an ending that has a pleasant shock to it, but is believable enough that it makes sense from a narrative standpoint. And all done in 40 minutes! Now I know what I'm about to say sounds mean, but hear me out. I am more invested in The Mandolorian than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Now, I've never been a fan of hating on Disney Star Wars despite my frustrations with Last Jedi. One mediocre movie doesn't ruin a franchise. The weird thing is whenever Disney tries something new and unusual in the Star Wars universe I wind up loving it more than the main series. Just look at Rogue One. That was a masterpiece! And so far, The Mandolorian seems to be heading the same way. I think I understand why Last Jedi irks me. It needed to be (arguably) bad so The Mandolorian can be good. Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.
As for the presentation, I love it. The special effects are amazing. The costume design (ESPECIALLY on the Mandolorians themselves) are amazing. The action choreography is amazing. The acting is amazing. The music is... Different from the usual fanfare, but still great in its own right. The set-pieces hearkens back to the early days of Star Wars without feeling like a direct copy and paste. I could gush for hours about how amazing the presentation is. When they said they got a budget of $120 million dollars, they weren't kidding. Honestly, this show feels like it has the budget of a full length blockbuster. I mean that in the best way possible.
In conclusion, The Mandolorian: Chapter One is a fantastic first episode into a new series. Before anyone asks, "Well, Spencer, is The Mandolorian worth getting Disney+?" The answer is yes. This show is worth the $7 subscription. And buy the merch! I want this show to do well, dang it! I swear I'm not sponsored by the Mickey Mouse Overlords. I don't even think they know I exist. But anyway, I give Star Wars: The Mandolorian Chapter One 10 impossibly cool bounty hunters out of 10.
* - To everyone that thinks that Last Jedi is the worst Star Wars film ever, just remember that Lucasfilm made Star Wars: The Holiday Special, a direct-to-DVD spin-off film so bad George Lucas himself forgot it existed for YEARS. As should you. If you think about it too long the brain cells in your body will self-destruct one by one.
No comments:
Post a Comment