TV Review: The Mandalorian (Season 1)

***This review contains some spoilers***

Watch the SPOILER review on YouTube

The inaugural season of “The Mandalorian” takes clichés from sci-fi, westerns and samurai films, and wraps them in a shiny Star Wars package. The result is an entertaining show that has action and heart, but takes a few too many detours in what’s an already short season.

The plot in general is quite basic and unoriginal: Legendary bounty hunter goes after a target, has a change of heart and decides to protect the target, and goes on the run from the people that hired him. After setting up the premise, the show doesn’t quite seem to know what direction to go. There’s not always a clear narrative. Often, it’s just a pit stop for Mando to make some money. But, considering he doesn’t seem to have any kind of plan, let alone one that’s going to require needing lots of money, it feels removed from the main plot. Normally, there’s nothing wrong with having a few episodes like this, but considering this season is only eight episodes, and some of them aren’t much longer than a half an hour, it feel like filler. They also borrow quite liberally from well-worn tropes, like the lone gunslinger saving a village. While the show is able to make this a bit more unique by adding plenty of Star Wars fan service, the true selling point is the relationship between Mando and the ridiculously-cute “Baby Yoda.” (This is even more impressive since one of them doesn’t take off his helmet and the other is a puppet.)

Pedro Pascal is able to bring so much humanity to the role, even though he starts off as a man of few words, he conveys a lot with just body language. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, but most only make one or two appearances before they all come together for the finale. But, by that point, they’ve done enough to make you care about all these fictional characters, and want to see more of them.

Overall, the special effects are pretty solid, although some of the CG can be pretty weak and there’s a few time Baby Yoda looks like a lifeless puppet. But, if what I heard is true that they never left a soundstage, that makes the outdoor scenes that much more impressive. In general, the action set-pieces are innovated and exciting. Everything is pulled together nicely by a fantastic soundtrack. It’s more western-inspired, and only occasionally dips into more traditional Star Wars sounding motifs.

“The Mandalorian” season one is a fun ride with a surprisingly big amount of heart. The plot stalls on occasion, and sometimes their answer is just to throw more Star Wars easter eggs at things. The fact that they make you care so much for a man that never shows his face protecting a puppet proves that the show accomplished what it set out to do.

**** out of *****

My Top 5 Best Films of 2019

A lot of average films this year, and I had a hard time finding enough above average movies to make a Top 5.

Watch the more-detailed review on YouTube

5. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum– Amazing action sequences and another strong performance from Keanu Reeves. Too much time is spent building up the lore, and it turns out most of the plot is irrelevant.

4. Spider-Man: Far From Home– Some fun action sequences, especially a phenomenal scene showcasing the best of Mysterio, but the film is too much of an over-the-top slapstick comedy.

3. Shazam!– A fun, and occasionally dark superhero origin story. Zachary Levi is perfect in the roll, but he never feels like he’s playing the same kid that Asher Angel is. The villains end up a bit bland, and the whole thing is a little too predictable.

2. Joker– Joaquin Phoenix puts on an incredible performance, and even though the film is brilliant at times, it never quite deviates from path laid out by its source material end other influences.

1. Avengers: Endgame– An action-packed, and often emotional ride, that manages to have a satisfying conclusion to not only this film, but the twenty-plus films that preceded it. However, a good chunk of the film feels like it’s just showing off MCU greatest hits and patting itself on the back a bit too much.

My Top 5 Worst Films of 2019

This title is a bit misleading, since I avoid films I know will be bad, and even movies that look mediocre. I really should say “Top 5 Least Favorite” or “Top 5 Least Memorable.”

Watch the more detailed and SPOILER version on YouTube

5. Dark Phoenix – Attempting to retell the classic story with a new cast a mostly-streamlined plot, there’s just nothing memorable enough here to justify doing it all the second time.

4. Godzilla: King of the Monsters – The monster fights are fine, but the overly-convoluted plot and family drama makes you miss the monsters even more.

3. It: Chapter 2– Despite solid performances by the actors playing the adult version of the main characters, the group is missing chemistry. There’s huge lack of scares, especially with the flashbacks showing people we know are still alive.

2. Us – A great concept that is set-up perfectly, but then goes in a mediocre direction, complete with a backstory that makes the bizarre events make even less sense.

1. Glass – Bringing together the characters from “Split” and “Unbreakable” initially seems like a match made in Heaven, but even some great acting can’t save the film from one of the most disappointing endings in recent memory.

Movie Review: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Watch my SPOILER review on YouTube

Despite successfully course-correcting the mistakes of “The Last Jedi,” posthumously adding Carrie Fisher back into the fold, and loads of fan service, Episode IX is a fairly lifeless affair. There was a lot of stuff that “The Force Awakens” set up that was either ignored or contradicted by “The Last Jedi.” This film does a pretty good job taking what was set up in the first film and meshing it with the second to make a cohesive narrative. (However, there are a few things that are either poorly explained or just don’t make a lot of sense.) The story overall is weak, and is poorly paced. While the movie has amazing visuals, the action sequences are underwhelming, especially the finale, which has a a lot of stuff happening that it’s hard to care about. Another thing that doesn’t get you emotionally invested is the characters. The acting is fine, but their story arcs are either minimal or just all over the place. These are great characters, but the chemistry they had in previous films just isn’t there, and part of that is because the humor rarely lands. And, although I appreciate fan service, especially at the end of a trilogy, much of what they do here feels forced and sometimes corny.

**1/2 out of *****