Official: STAR WARS THREAD. These are the droids you're looking for. **WARNING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

[Van Veen]

Mandalorian Ep 5 was amusing if boring. On Tatooine, in Mos Eisley, in THE cantina, in Han Solo's chair, etc. Predictable plot and curious they made up Amy Sedaris to look like Ellen Ripley.

Yeah the last two episodes were a little meh. This one was slightly better, but the plots are too simplistic. I get that the neo-Western thing is the concept, but I hope they move away from such blatant pastiche in future seasons.

Amy Sedaris was fun, though, and is probably the reason I liked this episode more than 4. My wife thought that she just picked the most ridiculous wig she could find. Didn't make the Ripley connection at all. I kinda got the early 90s softball coach vibe from the wig.

Bobby Cannavale's son was terrible (unless they were purposely going for a Lucasian "bad acting" thing).

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I was unfamiliar with her, so I took a quick trip to Wikipedia. Interesting woman, with a few positions, like highlighting the general shittiness of George Lucas and decrying the fetishization of violence in popular culture, that seem well ahead of the curve.

Most of what's good about Star Wars was the result of other people stopping Lucas doing what he wanted, or reworking things that he'd done, or actors enjoying themselves and refusing to take the whole thing seriously (which is basically the entire 'character' of Han Solo - it's Harrison Ford messing up things that Lucas wanted to do, abetted by Carrie Fisher, when they weren't sneaking off to enjoy themselves). He an obsessive guy who has ideas about how things should be, in fact he never stops having ideas about how things should be even after they are long finished, and he's an awful director. His best film, by some distance, is THX-1138, which was basically his student production, reworked with some top-notch sound and visual people (whose techniques he then 'borrowed' for Star Wars and built a whole business on) and great actors (especially Robert Duvall). And he even ruined that later by going back and layering unecessary digital effects and adding creatures (for no apparently good reason) and then stopping the sale of the original.

 

[Kaplan]

I waited way too many years before watching THX-1138 - on one hand that was a bit of a shame, on the other, it can be nice to be surprised at how much you'll like something you've skipped in the past.

 

[Jr Mouse]

Am I the only one who got a Bea Author Star Wars Holiday Special vibe from Any Sedaris’ character?

 

[smittycl]

 

[Jr Mouse]

Yeah that was the obvious reference at first glance.

 

[El Argentino]

Anyone else think Boba was the dark figure at the end?

 

[wojt]

I finally got round to watching 1st episode and I have to say it was really enjoyable!

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Anyone else think Boba was the dark figure at the end?

Apollo Creed

 

[wojt]

Watched 2 more episodes, episodes 2 was great. Episodes 3 was meh, I see Ataturk criticms about it and sort of agree. But overall so far so good, these are outerrim worlds we have been looking for.

 

[Kaplan]

I just realised that The Mandalorian, aside from the western trappings, totally is Lone Wolf and Cub, which I don't believe we've talked about here?

Took me a while, as I'd all but forgotten about this gem. I bought the first 6 episodes of the Danish translation of the comic with the covers by Frank Miller, second hand sometime in the late 80s, and just found that I still have them on my comic book shelf. It must have been more than 25 years since I saw the movie too (I only think I saw the first one).

But it's rather spot on: A stoic warrior must leave his clan/guild and face various obstacles while looking out for a child that travels with him in a baby stroller. I wonder if the creators of The Mandalorian have mentioned or are aware of this link, or if it's maybe just one of those times where someone actually come up with a similar idea without forehand knowledge (though who's to say whether Lone Wolf and Cub left a print on their subconscious mind any number of years ago). It actually seems a quite fitting source of inspiration, as the creation of Star Wars in part was inspired by samurai mythology, IIRC.

A long trailer behind the spoiler. A bit graphic, but rather cartoonishly so.

Spoiler

As for The Madalorian itself, I'm not surprised to not find it super compelling. Best bits for me so far has been Werner Herzog and the overall look: The reliance on real sets over CGI makes it visually closer to the OT than the new movies, which I'm very impressed by. And I quite liked the mood of the last one, even though the whole thing got resolved much too abruptly.

 

[smittycl]

I just realised that The Mandalorian, aside from the western trappings, totally is Lone Wolf and Cub, which I don't believe we've talked about here?

Took me a while, as I'd all but forgotten about this gem. I bought the first 6 episodes of the Danish translation of the comic with the covers by Frank Miller, second hand sometime in the late 80s, and just found that I still have them on my comic book shelf. It must have been more than 25 years since I saw the movie too (I only think I saw the first one).

But it's rather spot on: A stoic warrior must leave his clan/guild and face various obstacles while looking out for a child that travels with him in a baby stroller. I wonder if the creators of The Mandalorian have mentioned or are aware of this link, or if it's maybe just one of those times where someone actually come up with a similar idea without forehand knowledge (though who's to say whether Lone Wolf and Cub left a print on their subconscious mind any number of years ago). It actually seems a quite fitting source of inspiration, as the creation of Star Wars in part was inspired by samurai mythology, IIRC.

A long trailer behind the spoiler. A bit graphic, but rather cartoonishly so.

Spoiler

As for The Madalorian itself, I'm not surprised to not find it super compelling. Best bits for me so far has been Werner Herzog and the overall look: The reliance on real sets over CGI makes it visually closer to the OT than the new movies, which I'm very impressed by. And I quite liked the mood of the last one, even though the whole thing got resolved much too abruptly.

Yeah, the parallels are pretty obvious along with Kurosawa/Leone films.

Lone Wolf and Cub and Mando

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[Kaplan]

Yeah, after posting I did a search and found there was quite a few places where the comparison had been made

 

[smittycl]

Yeah, after posting I did a search and found there was quite a few places where the comparison had been made

I took me a while as I never watched/read LW and Cub. Had only heard about tangentially. I made the Kurosawa connection first.

 

[hpreston]

As for The Madalorian itself, I'm not surprised to not find it super compelling. Best bits for me so far has been Werner Herzog and the overall look: The reliance on real sets over CGI makes it visually closer to the OT than the new movies, which I'm very impressed by. And I quite liked the mood of the last one, even though the whole thing got resolved much too abruptly.

Agreed on the look and feel of the show overall! And, yes, agree that the episodes with Herzog were great.

Your last sentence, you say this as if we know it has been resolved?? Obviously the piece of the puzzle with Toro is over, but I don’t think we have seen the last of Fennec, and it's still a mystery of who was crouching over her at the end.