Hello friends. My name is Mark
Robyn, and I am a screenwriter and children’s book author. I am also an indie
filmmaker and avid movie fan. I am going to give you my personal review of The
Mandalorian. I hope you find it interesting and gives you some food for
thought. I’d be really interested to see if you find my conclusions to be sound
or whether you think of them just full of Bantha poodoo.
I heard so many excited ramblings about this series that I finally
had to venture a peek. Having been seriously disappointed by all of Disney’s
attempts at Star Wars movies, I went in with serious reservations and a feeling
of sangfroid.
I really did go into watching the series with an open mind
and a willingness to like it, I really did!
The first scene, however, already started to disappoint me.
The Mandalorian repeats almost verbatim a scene from the original Star Wars bar
fight. How original. But, it’s different! He grabs his bounty and drags his
ship.
A giant monster attacks their ship! Fun, but really with no
point or story element involved, so just a minor entertainment. Then he takes
off in his ship. And his bounty says he has to go to the bathroom! How pleasant
is that! And he lets him! The alien wanders about his ship, finding his stash
of weapons, boy, this Mandalorian is really gutsy, not even worrying about this
guy killing him with his own guns. Finally, the Mandalorian decides to check on
his quarry and freezes him in Carbonite. Why didn’t he do that right from the
beginning, instead of letting him wander around his ship? Not make sense, it
does not.
Moving on, we get to a thrilling scene where the Mandalorian
bickers over his bounties with the broker. ZZZZZ. Scintillating television.
Finally, big surprise, there’s one really good bounty that no one else can do,
it’s worth Big Bucks, but it’s full of danger. ZZZZZ
Mandalorian heads out on his new quest and just happens to
run into a guy who doesn’t like being disturbed, so he helps him get to his
prize with little effort on his own at all. Just because he wants things to go
back to being quiet and dull. The Mandalorian doesn’t have to fight his way
there, no, he just walks in and fights one annoying robot bounty hunter who can
kill everyone.
At least until he’s overwhelmed, which seems to happen very
quickly, and then he threatens to self-destruct. Not much of a bounty hunter,
this robot, after all.
Finally after dispatching said robot very easily, the
Mandalorian finds his prize, and what we’ve all been waiting for: Baby Yoda!
Baby Yoda! Oooh, it’s Baby Yoda! A creepy little creature
that looks like it’s about to jump on you and eat your liver. This is the big
payoff. Oooh, it’s Baby Yoda. Okay, that excitement is over.
The rest of the time he fights his way around, carrying this
creepy mute Baby Yoda around, who does nothing but stare at you like he’s
looking into your soul and chewing on it.
I had the hardest time not falling asleep during this
episode. Where are the, uh, subplots? Where is the backstory? Who is this
Mandalorian? Do we care? The whole series seems to be watching this guy get
bounties and then following him around while he collects them, kind of like
watching a UPS driver deliver packages.
Star Wars hasn’t been good since the first three movies, and
Disney has done nothing to fix this problem. The first three movies were so
wonderful because they were science fiction at its best. Each movie brought new,
exciting characters and strange new worlds. One showed the ice planet of Hoth,
the next the Sky City. One introduced AT-AT walkers, the next flying bikes. It
was always new and creative, and made you excited to know what was going to
happen next.
Then Star Wars fell into Star Wars Hell, where all the
characters and plots were regurgitated over and over, implausible coincidences,
ridiculous characters, annoying aliens. And it’s been in Star Wars Hell ever
since. The Mandalorian does little to redeem and save its world. I am going to
attempt to skip a few episodes and see if the series improves, but I have very
little confidence at this moment.
This has been my review of The Mandalorian. At the moment, I
give the series a C-.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think by
commenting below.
Mark
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