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The Mandalorian (2019)

hbenthow

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An amusing Mandalorian fan film starring Amy Johnston and Lauren Mary Kim:


For those who don't know who they are:

Amy Johnston is an actress and stuntwoman who has been in a number of independent and fan films and done stunts in various movies, most notably as Black Widow in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier".

Here's a video in which she talks about some of her stunt work:


And a delightful, action-packed little independent silent comedy featuring her and others performing stunt work in the vein of Buster Keaton:


Lauren Mary Kim is an actress and stuntwoman who has done stunt work as (among many others) Elektra on "Daredevil" and "The Defenders", Agent May and Daisy Johnson on "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.", and the Armorer, Morgan Elsbeth, and Fennec Shand on "The Mandalorian". She also did the motion capture for Ahsoka Tano in the "Clone Wars" episode "The Phantom Apprentice".

Here's a video in which she talks about some of her stunt work, including a grueling day of shooting in which she had to perform an entire fight scene as the Armorer on "The Mandalorian" over and over again for hundreds of takes:

 

Moe_Syzlak

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Well that was an episode.

Mom always said, “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” So I’ll leave it at: I’m sure everyone who hated TLJ will love this episode. :p
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Okay I watched it a second time. The first time was with my sons who wanted to watch it as soon as it was available. This second time was with my wife, who isn’t a big Star Wars fan but has enjoyed this show. All of us...kids, wife, and I... we all were disappointed with the finale.

Details of my thoughts are spoilers.

I found it to be the very worst of the fan service this show had indulged in. Instead of telling new stories it just tried to give fans moments they would cheer. And the production seemed like a fan film. I found the effects and production much better this season but this was perhaps the worst of the entirety of the two seasons. Even the music, which has been different but great, was terrible. The Terminator robots didn’t work for me, and the Luke was so much worse even than the Rogue One Leia. Plus the Luke character was obviously meant to mirror Vader in R1. So anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves. The only good thing I can say is the bond between Baby Yoda and the Mandalorian still worked and him removing his helmet worked well.

Yeah, it was disappointing in almost every way. And my kids are vowing not to watch future episodes if BY isn’t in them. *shrug*
 

revel911

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The CGI could have been better, but was def. NOT as bad as
Leia which was horrendous and plastics in comparison. I actually really enjoyed the rest of episode including how Luke crushed those robots.
 

Zarius

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Moe_Syzlak said:
  anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves

Oh grow up.
 

stferguson78

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The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I felt that they did a reasonable job with the CGI facial work but the corridor fight leading up to it had us on the edge of our seats and there were a few audible cheers and gasps on the reveal. Highly enjoyable season that had me feeling the same way I did in the early 80’s when I watched the original trilogy (yeah, I’m that old).
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Zarius said:
Moe_Syzlak said:
  anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves

Oh grow up.

How so?
People cried foul that Luke would be treated the way he was in TLJ and he is much darker here, mirroring Vader’s rampage in R1. I don’ t see that as caring about how the character is treated, but rather just wanting to see Luke do cool shit.
 

MusicEd921

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Moe_Syzlak said:
Zarius said:
Moe_Syzlak said:
  anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves

Oh grow up.

How so?
People cried foul that Luke would be treated the way he was in TLJ and he is much darker here, mirroring Vader’s rampage in R1. I don’ t see that as caring about how the character is treated, but rather just wanting to see Luke do cool shit.

Nothing dark about killing human-less droids in a cool way.  If anything, Bo Katan's actions are questionable since she did kill a surrendering TIE pilot.  Like Vader, we never really saw Luke in his prime doing cool Jedi stuff.  As much as I HATED TLJ, Luke's appearance has nothing to do with that whatsoever and really makes logical sense since there aren't many Jedi around as it is.  Grogu may very well be one of the first few of the Jedi Academy students that Luke teaches. 
 

Moe_Syzlak

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musiced921 said:
Moe_Syzlak said:
Zarius said:
Moe_Syzlak said:
  anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves

Oh grow up.

How so?
People cried foul that Luke would be treated the way he was in TLJ and he is much darker here, mirroring Vader’s rampage in R1. I don’ t see that as caring about how the character is treated, but rather just wanting to see Luke do cool shit.

Nothing dark about killing human-less droids in a cool way.  If anything, Bo Katan's actions are questionable since she did kill a surrendering TIE pilot.  Like Vader, we never really saw Luke in his prime doing cool Jedi stuff.  As much as I HATED TLJ, Luke's appearance has nothing to do with that whatsoever and really makes logical sense since there aren't many Jedi around as it is.  Grogu may very well be one of the first few of the Jedi Academy students that Luke teaches. 

Fair enough. Re-reading that initial post I see that the language perhaps made it come across as too aggressive. I’m not angry, but I did think it was way too fanservicey. For years we’ve listened to TLJ haters rail about the way characters were handled. In my opinion, this was worse. I’ve got my issues with TLJ too, but I like that it is characters struggling with real emotions. But it doesn’t bother me and I’m happy for those who enjoyed this episode. I want my characters to behave in real emotional ways. I found this finale really undermined that. This was the Mandalorian and I felt it robbed the finale of his growth as a character in order to give fans something “cool.” But lord knows plenty of Star Wars fans disagree with me. And that’s fine with me. Again I apologize if the language failed to covey my actual demeanor. My bad.
 

Racerx1969

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I'm of two minds about this one. In the end I am leaning to enjoying it overall, and the season was good.
On the one hand it was cool to have Luke show up and do cool stuff. A Jedi at the height of his powers. It also makes sense that he is the one to answer Grogu's call.

On the other hand, Mando had his last heroic finale stolen from him by Luke arriving to save the day. After all he went through, he didn't get to be the one to tie up the quest. Too much of fanservice there.

The sound track seemed oddly forced. Trying to merge the orchestral John Williams score with the spaghetti western feel of the rest of the series. It just didn't work well.
 

asterixsmeagol

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I didn't mind that cameo in the last scene, but
I would have rather had Ashoka in that role since they just introduced her to the series, and she'll be getting her own spin-off next year. As for the CGI, I think it was much better than Leia in Rogue One, but there was still something weird about the mouth.
 

no452

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Moe_Syzlak said:
Zarius said:
Moe_Syzlak said:
  anyone who likes that but dislikes the treatment of Luke in TLJ can go F themselves

Oh grow up.

How so?
People cried foul that Luke would be treated the way he was in TLJ and he is much darker here, mirroring Vader’s rampage in R1. I don’ t see that as caring about how the character is treated, but rather just wanting to see Luke do cool shit.

I, for one, absolutely prefer an OG hero being heroic. Nothing wrong with wanting them to be bitter, cynical and miserable, but personally I find that preference quite odd.
 

hothstation

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asterixsmeagol said:
I didn't mind that cameo in the last scene, but
I would have rather had Ashoka in that role since they just introduced her to the series, and she'll be getting her own spin-off next year. As for the CGI, I think it was much better than Leia in Rogue One, but there was still something weird about the mouth.

I wholeheartedly agree with you.
 

asterixsmeagol

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This deepfake looks a lot better, but the mouth is still messed up because it's trying to map onto the messed up CGI mouth.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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So I’ll preface this since my earlier attempts at humor based criticism didn’t land. This is a humorous hot take only meant to illustrate my frustration with a series I largely very much enjoy.

We just watched the Disney Gallery episode of season 2. They don’t even touch on the Luke appearance. And, as they discuss the narrative arc of the series, it becomes clear to me why.

My wife is watching Favreau’s movie Chef. For those that haven’t seen it there’s mild spoilers ahead of you plan to see it.

Imagine if in Chef, the chef character gets his scathing review, goes on a full character arc of redemption with his food truck, gets his second chance review with the same hot shot food critic. And, instead of the main character getting his redeeming arc, a famous chef like Thomas Keller steps in and cooks the reviewed meal as the climax.

Or imagine, another Favreau movie where Iron Man is hopelessly trapped and Spider-Man, with no prior introduction, swoops in and defeats Jeff Bridges. Or imagine in Star Wars, Luke misses and Buck Rogers swooped in and saved the day.

That’s essentially what we got with Mandalorian’s season two finale. But no one cares because everyone likes to see Luke kicking ass with a lightsaber. I’m sorry, I’m disappointed in a show where I was invested in the arc of the main character.
 

hbenthow

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Moe_Syzlak said:
Imagine if in Chef, the chef character gets his scathing review, goes on a full character arc of redemption with his food truck, gets his second chance review with the same hot shot food critic. And, instead of the main character getting his redeeming arc, a famous chef like Thomas Keller steps in and cooks the reviewed meal as the climax.

Or imagine, another Favreau movie where Iron Man is hopelessly trapped and Spider-Man, with no prior introduction, swoops in and defeats Jeff Bridges. Or imagine in Star Wars, Luke misses and Buck Rogers swooped in and saved the day.

That’s essentially what we got with Mandalorian’s season two finale. But no one cares because everyone likes to see Luke kicking ass with a lightsaber. I’m sorry, I’m disappointed in a show where I was invested in the arc of the main character.

While Luke's victory is chronologically last in the episode, all he did was take out a bunch of robotic minions and take Grogu off of Mando's hands. Mando captured the main villain and confiscated the Dark Saber.
 

Gaith

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hbenthow said:
While Luke's victory is chronologically last in the episode, all he did was take out a bunch of robotic minions and take Grogu off of Mando's hands. Mando captured the main villain and confiscated the Dark Saber.

Yup. Mando went on a quest to deliver the child to the Jedi, which led to him getting the child to call out to a Jedi, and one answered at the last possible moment. That's not a cheat or premature ending to Mando's quest, that's the fulfillment of his quest.


 
musiced921 said:
Nothing dark about killing human-less droids in a cool way.

Quite. Luke's entrance might rhyme with Vader's rampage in Rogue One, but Vader was killing sentient beings in order to kill far more beings, and Luke was scrapping non-sentient murder bots in order to rescue several sentient beings. There is a passing visual similarity, yes, but in character terms, it's nothing alike.


-------------------

I was spoiled on Luke's appearance when I watched it tonight, but still found it quite moving - this was indeed my childhood hero being heroic, something the Sequel Trilogy didn't give us until Luke was already dead in TROS. No disrespect to those who like the portrayal of Luke in the ST, but it's not for me.

As a mild fan of The Mandalorian and a huge fan of the Thrawn Trilogy, I'm certainly cautiously intrigued by the prospect of bringing Thrawn back to this time period in the new canon. (I gave up on Rebels before he showed up, and haven't looked back.) I have no idea if Lucasfilm would ever diverge from the ST storyline and/or recast Luke/Leia/Han, and maybe Luke's appearance here was a total one-off. Maybe Thrawn will be the big bad across several Disney+ shows without the OT heroes facing him down. For now, I'm simply happy to have seen Luke be a Jedi, plain and simple, no ifs, ands, or buts, and I'm very pleased that Hamill is also pleased with it.

The Mandalorian series grade so far: B+
 

MusicEd921

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Gaith said:
Maybe Thrawn will be the big bad across several Disney+ shows without the OT heroes facing him down. 

Hmmm that could very well be something they lead up to with some of these different series coming to Disney+.  I forget what speculative article I read that alluded to this being like an Avengers type approach (or I guess like The Defenders) with some of the shows establishing some new and old characters and bringing a bunch together for something.

It could also be that Ahsoka's main antagonist will be Thrawn since we haven't heard him mentioned anymore outside of her episode.  I haven't read the Thrawn Trilogy yet (I have it in comic book form), so maybe there will be an adaptation of it, but using different characters instead of the OT ones?  Would that even work?
 
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