NOVEMBER 11 2019
VIEW: (1080p)

Ok I’m hooked. Lol. Echuta must be happy too!

Exquisite!

I loved almost everything about it. Impressive production design, flawless visual effects, snappy plot progression, Morricone-inspired music, plenty of fan-service, solid performances and conservative, Lucasian cinematography. I guess the only thing I didn't take to was the flashback sequence but that's negligible.

My worst fear was that they'd try to accommodate any budget limitations by stretching out and risking tedium with certain set pieces or dialogue scenes. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case. So far, anyway. This first episode maintained the consistency of a feature film through and through. Most impressive.

Filoni definitely has the chops for live-action. Bravo! More!

What a great episode! Reminds me of the good old times back in the 90s when we played endless nights of the epic Pen & Paper RPG from West End Games. Especially the end really struck me.

Already love this show and can't wait to meet Cara Dune! The only complaint I have (but that's surely not the fault of the makers) is that I couldn't understand everything they said. As a German I could understand Werner Herzog very well of course but the rest (except Nick Nolte and some utterances of the Mando) was quite difficult to get. Maybe somebody does some subtitles in the future?

And a big thanks to Lord Psychotic for uploading this fine piece of Star Wars (a rarely gem in these dark times) since unfortunately we here have to wait for Disney+ till March 31st.

Holy Shit. I just downloaded and watched this (thanks, DP), and I am also hooked.

The ending totally threw me. One of the best SW twists ever.

I happy if you're happy, SithWitch.

I enjoyed it, but found it a little short on substance. The stuff about the little green guy should be interesting. We'll see.

A surprise to be sure...but a welcome one!

Isn't one of the very first lines ... "E-Chuta"? I thought you would like that 'Chu ...
The little green guy was a delightful surprise. I was so happy to see familiar aliens.
What planets were they on? So many, so fast.
I want a Razorcrest! Do they make them in blue?

I didn't catch the "E Chu Ta!" at the beginning.

I'm surprised how underwhelmed I felt during the entire episode. I didn't really feel into it until the back-and-forth with IG-11.

I don't fault Filoni. The episode was well shot ,and the shoot-out was well staged and edited.

Maybe it's the combination of first episode plus a masked main charterer that made me feel detached.

Because of the show's early buzz, there's talk of potentially re-purposing the series into a film franchise. That's an interesting idea.

BTW: The video below does a solid job of tying the episode into Rebels, TCW, the PT, and OT.

Wow, this was really good. I'm not lying when I say that this was the first time since Disney took over Star Wars that i've wholeheartedly enjoyed one of their products.

I'm still feeling really burned by them overall, but if they can keep producing stuff like this they may win me back over.

After being so disappointed (and giving up on) the sequel trilogy, this is like a breath of fresh air. The Mandalorian has sated my appetite for authentic Star Wars. Felt genuine to me - very Lucasian and hit all the right notes; the lore, the mythological tropes, the world building, the classic aliens, droids, creatures and so much more.

This thing is miles ahead of the sequels, Solo and even Rogue One (which was my fave until now) loved the characters and all the little easter eggs too. Let's hope they can keep the momentum going.

Its that Filloni / Lucas magic we got in the later Clone Wars seasons. Great to see it work in live action.

It was a good pitch episode. I think Friday will be the more telling episode.

I tried to enjoy Mandalorian.
I really, REALLY did.

First, what was truly great:
- Music
- Special effects
- Also, the fact that they didn't label every planet we saw with its name

The BAD:
- Setting up IG ("I'm not '88'") as a great character with long lasting comedy relief, and then totally wasting him. He was very agreeable throughout his onscreen time. No effort was made to negotiate with him on this one point.

- Not explaining how even though they were employed by the same guild, IG had the directive to kill baby Yoda while our hero was given it as an option.
- Having the Mandalorian behave as the cool and ultimate Sergio Leone bounty hunter, then frequently having him do things that no rookie would EVER do. Indeed, such foolishness would've ended his life long ago.
- Did we *have to* have The Standard giant Star Wars creature make an appearance in this? That could've waited. Every trope except a lit lightsaber was already present.
- Some of the acting was pretty bad. Awful even.

- Most of the melee fights were terrible. Making John Wayne's notorious mega-telegraphing punches look like Fight Club in comparison. I'm guessing that wearing all of that latex and being blinded by one's mask makes it very hard to execute convincing melee. On a TV budget, they can't afford to do endless reshoots to make it look convincing.

- Have the hero's face covered all of the time... Does it work? It's one of The COOLEST helmets ever designed. Keeping it on him while he blunders about? Very VERY jarring at times.

- Why can't he land his spaceship far closer to his area of operations? It's not a Mandalorian ship, so its arrival won't alarm anyone. If he's walking and riding dozens of miles from where he parks his ship so that he stays "anonymous" and "stealthy," well... He's WEARING MANDALORIAN ARMOR and BRANDISHING MANDALORIAN WEAPONRY as he confidently sways!!!! If that's not a major red flag to his targets, what can be...?!

- Should've gone either with a totally rookie Mandalorian having to find out the hard way what it takes to be an amazing Mandalorian warrior (ala "Mandalorian: Year One), or just gone all out with a Spaghetti Western era ultra "Clint Eastwood Level" professional. This waffling between the two is beyond immersion breaking.

- Much more. But Real Life beckons to do far better things.

Nice try Disney Wars. The fan boys out there, enormously desperate to grasp onto ANYTHING better than the films have finally found a lifepreserver to clutch onto. Good thing for them, anything IS better than the films.

Predictions...
...baby Yoda will (try to) be fed to the recovering Emperor that Anakin didn't kill.
...Anakin's/Luke's saber will make an appearance.


Oh, and nothing will ever undo what's been done. Luke was gleefully tossed to the rancid trash heap of Wokeness, and that's what he'll forever be stained by. And Lando? He'll forever be boffing the Falcon's power converters. Do you think that he'll be tonguing it when they destroy it in IX?

I wouldn't be surprised to see IG back and on a revenge mission to kill the Mando.

From TK432:



Maybe its last conscious thoughts are beamed back to its manufacturer, and then shared out to its robotic kin?

That'd be funny.

We'll see.

I'm not sure how close we are to E02 dropping but I think the Mando takes the IG unit with him.

We'll find out soon enough..

Second one is today

I liked the first episode. I was actually surprised by how 'not' dark it was... given that it seemed to be being pitched as quite adult (or was that just my interpretation of the marketing?). Very accessible (in a good way) and made me anticipate what's to come... Tonally, seems closer to Rogue One than anything else.

Huh.

What would be interesting to see is just how "desperate" our hero and his Mandalorian posse are for funds. That Manda posse doesn't look like it has a ton of resources on its hands; that they're sort of on their heels in terms of getting by. Reading SW's comment, made me think that it would be pretty cool and quite telling to see him leave the area not only with baby Yoda, but also with the dead's weaponry in tow.

Weapons are pretty pricey, seeing him gather up that gattling blaster and the firearms to take with him to later selloff would feel pretty real and in a good way. Maybe returning that IG unit to its manufacturer results in him getting a finder's fee. lol, it'd be great to see our hero get paid for this, and shortly after he leaves, the dealer has to contend with an agitated reactivated IG unit who wants its revenge.

My favorite bit with that IG unit was how quickly it was willing to self-destruct. One wasn't prepared for that, after all, we just saw it perform the most insane gun fu, fighting like mad, and now here it is, eager to "give up" and blow itself up to bits.

Pretty twisted.

If I had a penny to bet with, I'd bet all of it on Favreau being the creator of that clever bass ackward character trait. He's got a great sense of humor, and I have a hard time picturing Filoni being so dark. Yeah, IG's a great character.

I watched the episode again. I still stand by my assessment of the melee looking pretty awful, and my wishing that they went with our hero either being completely new to the bounty hunting game, or with him being a consummate pro. I think that having us follow a total rookie would've been a smarter move. His sensei could've been a significantly older Mandalorian who is rapidly aging out of the profession, with armor that's just all beat to hell, and continues to get even more damaged as he eventually gets killed protecting his ward (by E04)...

Well, we'll see what's in store for E02 soon enough.

I have hope for this series. I do.