review: The Mandalorian, chs. 1-3
Signed up for the Disney+ one-week trial just so I could watch The Mandalorian--went in not knowing a whole lot aside from "baby Yoda" and "Star Wars does spaghetti western", and y'know what? It's delivering, at least so far. It's really enjoyable to watch something has a bit of breathing room, that doesn't make you feel motion-sick because of shaky-cam or break-neck editing between shots. Where there's near-silence for extended periods of time, where you are given a chance to actually absorb the landscape and surrounding setting, and the writers don't feel the need to jam season-arc plot in at the expense of each chapter's individual story. And some of those stories are a bit simplistic, but y'know what? Right now I am a-okay with simplistic if it's solidly and beautifully done.
[Spoiler (click to open)]Some of the Mandalorian stuff with "it is the way" feels a bit heavy-handed, but it matters to the main character, and it's kind of refreshing to see that kind of thing handled seriously instead of merely mocked.
Not a spoiler: baby Yoda is indeed adorable, and I am so glad they went with mostly practical effects instead of just CGI. There's a wonderful solidity to it, and a nuance in the interactions with the other characters that I suspect would be lacking otherwise. Overall, the aesthetic in general fits quite well with the original trilogy--both in the cinematography and in the costumes/set design. It feels like it's part of the same world, without feeling like a copy/paste (which is what I struggled with when watching some of the other recent Disney attempts at Star Wars.
Definitely looking forward to the remaining 5 episodes, and am not going to have any trouble getting them done before the trial week is up.
[Spoiler (click to open)]Some of the Mandalorian stuff with "it is the way" feels a bit heavy-handed, but it matters to the main character, and it's kind of refreshing to see that kind of thing handled seriously instead of merely mocked.
Not a spoiler: baby Yoda is indeed adorable, and I am so glad they went with mostly practical effects instead of just CGI. There's a wonderful solidity to it, and a nuance in the interactions with the other characters that I suspect would be lacking otherwise. Overall, the aesthetic in general fits quite well with the original trilogy--both in the cinematography and in the costumes/set design. It feels like it's part of the same world, without feeling like a copy/paste (which is what I struggled with when watching some of the other recent Disney attempts at Star Wars.
Definitely looking forward to the remaining 5 episodes, and am not going to have any trouble getting them done before the trial week is up.