Has a western vibe going on, the man with no name.

The CGI of the "lizard horses" could have been better, some distinct issues around the tail movement/blending in several shots.

Classic tropes are classic for a good reason, the character and backdrops change but the same basic story which I'm perfectly good with.

We have the mysterious stranger, the quest for the mcguffin, the side quest, etc. So far not bad.

Was the Jawas sand traveler a full sized prop or was that all CGI?

I really enjoy Mandalorian, but at the same time, all I kept saying to myself in my head is "oh there is another toy I have to purchase". "oh they are going to make a figure out of that one". Great, more money out of my pocket.

Ahh, the art of deception. Looks like they did it good enough to fool us.

I'm assuming it's cg. Dunno.

I don't like their design really at all. Weight distribution looks awkward, like they'd topple tits over ass, kinda thing.

Tough to connect to a stranger when there's a mask constantly present. The weird plastic visor seems to reflect a good bit.

The Sandcrawler sequence was pretty decent, but I think establishing that he's a neophyte would help, give him more leeway for making errors while attacking them.

It definitely is watchable, but sure isn't reinventing anything, just replicating. Lots of cash to produce it too.

That didn't bother me so much, science fantasy after all but when you see CGI artifacts it pulls you out the story.

What did bother me was the whole "you need this lizard horse to get to point B" and then he walks back to point A minus the lizard. Clearly didn't need it after all.

He is a mystery man, the smartest thing they can do is not take the mask off. Allude to his backstory but please, no flashbacks. Hollywood loves themselves flashbacks.

One of the biggest mistakes they made in Judge Dredd with Stallone was taking the mask off which they did not repeat with Dredd.

Jaws was terrifying because not what you saw, but what your mind filled in the blanks.

They already did the childhood flashbacks though. Too late!

Man, I still haven't made it through Stallone Dredd after all these years. Karl Urban though, man what a movie! But not taking his helmet off was fine, that movie seemed to take place in a short timeframe, from what I recall.

I don't necessarily want his mask off, but it's tough to connect and emote with the mask. Teumera Morrison was fantastic at both! Though sadly him as Jango seemed so overwhelmingly cg.....at least this feels more like a human walking around, thank god!

Love this show. They already renewed it for Season 2. Can't wait to watch the rest of the series.

Urban's Dredd was a fantastic film, and of course they never did another. Guess it shows how skewed my opinions are compared to the masses.

Two other things in the Mandalorian that I'm liking...the old school serial cut scenes, and the scope of the scenery at certain times. I just hope the charcterziation doesn't go to shite too soon.

Strong disagree on that one. I think Pedro Pascal is perfect for the Mandolorian. He’s not the tallest or strongest guy in the room, but he’s the best at what he does, and he knows it. He nailed that vibe in Narcos and is pulling it off here (given the unenviable task of acting in a mask, and as a character of few words no less).

To that point, it’s not like Clint was an overpowering physical presence in his spaghetti western prime, but he carried it off pretty well.

He’s also solid in The Boys on Amazon Prime, if you haven’t checked that out yet I highly recommend it.

Couldn’t have enjoyed episode 2 more if a bunch of Jawas were disintegrated...oh wait.

Those stormtroopers that had encounter with the main character. Was the blood on their armor or just weathering. Im confused about time line is this after return of the jedi ,or way past rey etc

Nevermind 5 years after ROTJ

It was a great adaptation of the Judge Dredd graphics series, loved it.

I'm not saying I hate him in the role, or love him in it. Like I said, having a buffed Arnie type would be incredibly awkward, but he does seem slight and not terribly masculine.

And Eastwood has a gangly, well had, effeminate build himself, now that you mention it. And besides, Leone's "best" western didn't have Clint in it. Which might possibly be one aspect of it being his best. Eastwood is marvelous in that trilogy, but he's not at all subtle. He was never the best at understated, environmental acting, letting a scene develop emotionally. From what I recall anyway.

Speaking of Dredd..!

https://twitter.com/Wario64/status/1196097915942387712?s=09

I haven't seen Narcos, saw there's a game coming out that looks cool! And I'd been meaning to watch Urban in the Boys.

I can't believe this thread has deteriorated to dissing The Man with No Name Trilogy.

And what was Leone's best? I hope you don't say Once Upon a Time in the West.

Why wouldn't I say that? Bronson and Fonda alone are marvelously brilliant in their respective roles. Yet alone the score, supporting cast, grandiose sprawl of the story.

Once Upon a Time in America is also phenomenal.

And come on, I wasn't dissing those films, just stating Eastwood is a pretty hammy, over the top performer. It's also not like I said I enjoyed "Duck You Sucker!" more than any other Leone film.

Episode 2 was awesome, I was worried since Favreau wasn’t in command and given how a pilot is usually more polished than the rest. I really like where the story is going although we might find out very soon if it’s a Lucasfilms story or a Disney one.

I thought the show was great. I was on the fence about buying Disney+ but I’d have been disappointed to miss this show

I hope you mean a pre-prequels Lucasfilms story. If it turns out the Mandalorian doesn’t like sand, we’ll know it was a trap.

Lucas weighs in.....this cracked me up

I'm really enjoying the series. It's been "the talk of the town."

When Episode VIi was released, Tarantino among many other celebrities was asked in which order he watches Star Wars, he said 4,5, 6.

Im pretty much the same although this weekend my son asked to watch The Phantom Menace, which I only saw once when it was released. I did think a lot about Tarantino during these 2 hours of torture.

Tarantino produces a good amount of self indulgent torture on his own, frankly. Similar experience for me with Inglorious Bastards in the theater. Fell asleep for the second half, never wanted to revisit it, even via freebie stream.

Not sure why so many people hate the Prequels, as they're the only "pure" vision by the creator of the series, and arguably feature the three most fantastic performances/character portrayals by Neeson, McGregor, and McDiarmid. Ford was fairly neutered mid Empire, and Luke felt a bit confused mid Empire, well conflicted. Vader sadly never had the stage in the OT, not enough anyway, to validate either his villainy or badassery.

Did anyone else read some blurb stating Disney+ won't feature any work above a certain rating, I guess no R rated material? The lack of any color of blood from that beastie in the second episode, or jawas limbs staying intact, kinda lend to that. Really odd that death, and with the beast very wanton and empty, being depicted is fine for Disney content wise, but a limb removal or blood being lost, that's a big no no.

I just sat down to watch them a year or two ago, could not do it. Just utterly cringe-worthy.

McGregor, and McDiarmid are the only good things to come out of that mess aside from Darth Maul, who was of course tossed down a pit very much like Boba Fett.

Lucas was a hack. He got lucky on Star Wars as he had friends that helped cut the movie and a wife he listened too. Empire was directed by someone else and it shows. The third.. well the wheels were clearly coming off the cart as the best Lucas could come up with was another death star and Ewoks since he figured out where the real revenue stream was.

After Lucas and wife parted company it has been downhill since.

It feels a little disingenuous, to give no credit at all to Lucas, doesn't it..?

Funny, as I was just watching a documentary last week, where maybe it was Bill Moyers, stating how Joseph Campbell felt Lucas was his best student, but I guess Campbell was shammed out by Lucas' lack of talent, also? Never sure why people seem to loathe the creator of the largescale vision that they admire so much. Lucas may not directly be Stan Lee or Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, etc., but arguably his end product, has as great and meaningful a legacy as any of those comic giants.

Oh, and Herzog weeps.

https://www.vulture.com/2019/11/werner-herzog-on-baby-yoda-in-star-wars-the-mandalorian.html?utm_source=undefined&utm_medium=undefined&utm_campaign=feed-part

And where Lucas lacked viability for Maul and Boba, he gave pretty deep significance to both Jango and Dooku, both somewhat insignificant, significant characters, and both pretty neato.

No credit is a bit strong.

Lucas is a very good idea guy, poor storyteller though and his dialog is atrocious. His wife would reign in the worst of his excesses, she was the only one that could. Once they divorced there was no one to stop him from acting on his excesses. Watch the Red Letter Media review of Phantom Menace on Youtube, guy nails it. Lucas was a titan on TPM set and had a bunch of guys who were bobble heads going "the was wonderful Mr. Lucas" every thirty seconds. No one had the nerve to tell him "that looks a little shaky George" though after one test screening you could see it on their faces.

Also watch some of the unused footage from the first Star Wars, just as well it ended up on the cutting room floor.

This is well worth watching, all 7 parts. Plinkett covers it in extensive detail.

My daughter and a couple of her friends are splitting an account so I jumped on to watch episode 2. It's fun but it's so silly it hard to watch. I agree with the earlier poster that his walk is really odd and does not at all fit the roll. If they were a little more consistent with the reality they have set up it would be a lot better for me. His fight with the giant Rino just didn't make any sense, I was fine with the whole don't worry about physics and impact thing. What bugged me was that silly knife. When he killed it with that knife I was like cool its going to be like some type of expandable blade. When he pulls it out its going to be like 3 feet of bad ass awesomeness, nope just like a 4 inch blade. He can take a couple tonnes to the chest but the massive monster drops like a stone from a pocket knife. Also the whole sequence of him climbing the Sandcrawler was silly I was like why doesnt he just use his whole crappling hook shooter thing. Also when the Jawa fell off they where a skid mark in the sand, he again brushed it off like nothing. Also the Jawa(s) eventually just dropped him like a rock why didn't they just get the egg themselves. It just feels like a once over of the script would have really cleaned it up. I guess I just need more help suspending reality and try and enjoy it. Oh and there is not enough content when they are padding in lots of really unneeded shots and still just breaking 30 minutes. I am still enjoying it and its much better than most of the recent Star Wars content but it could be so much better. I guess I'm still expected Star Wars for my demographic as an adult and they are still making Star Wars for the demographic I was when the original trilogy came out, baby Yoda feels like a baby Ewok and it still disappoints me that they changed Wookies to Ewoks. How much better would Jedi have been without the Ewoks, for me that was the point of the wedge that ended up breaking the franchise.

Maybe because they’re terrible as movies? If they represent George’s vision at its most pure, he clearly does better with others interfering a bit.

Watch episode one, it was much better than the second.

Vader's "NO disintigrations" demand from ESB finally explained I was also laughing out loud seeing that. The series is full of references that the hard core fans will spot. They are doing an excellent job so far.

Looking forward to Gina Carano's character getting revealed, along with the other new bounty hunters & Empire loyalists that will join the fray for the Mando's rare bounty. The show might be starting slow (which is perfectly fine) but I think it's really going to ramp up now.

Spot the two Star Wars Holiday Special references?

I did already but can't justify a subscription.

Ah.

The first episode was excellent, in the second I felt there was a smidgen too much "Marvel Brand" humor.

Nice find! It does make me a little concerned for Werner's mental well being, though. Is he really the same guy that wrote this (a snippet from his memoir): “The teenagers on their mopeds are moving toward death in synchronized motion. I think of unharvested turnips but, by God, there are no unharvested turnips around.”

I was very disappointed what I saw. I watched both episodes last night and was surprised with the praise this is getting. To me it is not good. Jon Favreau wrote, produced and directed this. I feel like he was the wrong person for the job. Disney is having a hard time picking the right people for these Star Wars jobs in my opinion. Jon did the Lion King and Jungle Book. Both of those lacked soul and I feel the same on this show. A lot of things bugged me. For one the main character is not likeable. His voice is very annoying to me. Everything he does is very slow. Walking, talking, grabbing things. Its at a snail pace. The montages are chessy. In fact a lot of the show smells of cheese. Certain scenes are too long and drawn out. They fall flat. The music is bad. I know they are going with a western theme but its lacking. Its not believable in certain parts. Like you mentioned him killing this huge thing by stabbing it in the neck with a 4 in blade. Wut? When hes crawling up the sandcrawler and gets his finger caught in the door and does a little 'ouch' move. You just got rammed by some rhino dude and were fine but a little door falls on your finger and you act up. Just stuff like that which brings you out of the show. Was I entertained? I don't know. Not enough to continue watching. And I love Star Wars. I really do. I just think again the writing and direction is not what it could be. It seems like every scene he tries to throw some Star Wars lore in to get the fans into it but it seems forced.

I'm in the "just ok" camp.

I bought in on the 3 year Disney+ deal. I thought it was a slam dunk since I have 3 kids under 6, and I love SW. The amount of content on the service for adults is very very thin. I don't really care about the Marvel movies... and even if I did, there are other avenues to watch them. So far I'm pretty disappointed with the service.

what about all the content from the 30's, 40's, etc on up to things when you were a child?

He didn’t direct. Two different directors on each ep so far.

Do you have any device you use for streaming Netflix, Hulu, Prime, etc?

Smart TV, Blu-Ray player with apps, PlayStation or Xbox, Apple TV, Roku, a computer? Almost everything has streaming apps now. Use one & subscribe to Disney+.

Thanks for clarifying. I did not realize that.

This is where I'm at. It's not terrible, but it's not great TV either. It seems like very little happens story wise, buried under a thick syrup of "remember star wars?"

The new Watchmen series on HBO and the BBC adaptation of His Dark Materials are both much better so far overall.

I know I did, but does "Callback: The Show" make a good substitute for solid material? I groaned when I heard the Life Day reference in the first episode. Saw some article talking about Favreau considering a Life Day special. Didn't hit the link....

I didn't quite understand why he'd be so direct with the Jawas, other than to illustrate he's a neophyte/newb to the guilds, which isn't detailed yet.

And him getting hit by a rhino three times, falling 100 feet from a Sandcrawler, and just goofily dusting himself off, well....I wasn't about to start questioning any of those logistical elements at that point. Plus his armor was clearly damaged with the first hit, they made a point to show that, yet two more hits, he's still alive. Yet one tiny knife blade into a massive fur beast, ten times his size, and it drops lack a sack of furturds.

I'm not really here to discuss the logic issues. There'd be too many, for sure.

For me surviving on the brand largely, is most disappointing, my biggest issue, at this point anyway. It's akin to the "Princess Belda" argument in gaming. If you remove the brand, name recognition, how does it stand? This, not so well. Baby Yoda looks amazing, but it's akin to adorable green cleavage. Little substance, all surface level attention getting. In other words, a cheap, repeating, empty thrill. Cute for sure, but empty.

Contrarily, I rewatched the first episode of Cowboy Bebop last night, after showing my friend the second episode of Mandalorian. Bebop does an exemplary job at setting tone, character motives, world aesthetics, sound atmosphere, etc. Always felt like one of the greatest first episodes of a show, for me.

Lordy, I haven't ever approached his memoir, haha! If I did, along with Kinski's notorious one, I think my head would explode.

Herzog has always been a sensationalist circus rung announcer of sorts. How else does one get in cahoots for multiple projects with Kinski? I'm sure you've seen this clip from the documentary on Fitzcarraldo, Burden of Dreams.

And I love Herzog, don't get me wrong. He's just an outright, winking at the camera, madman. It's his schtick, god bless him!

There is nothing wrong with subtle callbacks, this is taking place in the Star Wars universe after all.

And frankly only a well versed SW fan would even get the references to the holiday special.. It will go over most peoples heads.

Unfortunately, Herzog hasn't done anything near the quality of his work with Kinski. Kinski was literally a madman, but they were able to produce some excellent cinema.

And you couldn't pay me to read Kinski's biography.

Episode release schedule, by the way.

https://www.cnet.com/news/when-is-episode-3-of-the-mandalorian-released-on-disney-plus/

Most are Friday's.