Characters Appear
Last night's Book of Boba Fett was certainly a technical wonder. Yet, in contrast to the earlier episodes of the series, this one's blending of special effects and live action is much rougher and distracting. Director Dave Filoni continues to be, in my opinion, vastly overrated and anyone who thought the Vespa chase was slow in the third episode was probably twiddling their thumbs a lot here. But, while the special appearances were a little gimmicky, they were amazing and carried a few bits of interesting development.
The real big story from the episode for most people would probably be the extended appearance by Luke Skywalker, voiced by Mark Hamill and played by a body double with Hamill's young face digitally imposed. I was reminded that Disney hired that deep fakes guy from YouTube who demonstrated he could do a better job de-aging Hamill than Disney did in the Mandalorian finale. Kudos to Disney for actually hiring the man instead of getting defensive about it. The effect still isn't perfect but it functions well enough.
As a character, we could look at this Luke as a bridge between his Return of the Jedi self and Last Jedi self. A big moment in the episode is when he forces Grogu to choose between training as a Jedi and going with Din (Pedro Pascal). So we can see that, despite not having been brought up in the more institutionalised Jedi structure from the prequels, he's whole-heartedly embraced the philosophy. In this case, so much so that when he renounces being a Jedi, he still lives as a hermit. I'd like to see a story exploring the fact that Luke is not only able to deny himself attachments, he actually seems to prefer isolation.
Lucasfilm is now leading people to believe that Filoni is sole creator of Ahsoka Tano, now played by Rosario Dawson, despite the fact that he didn't write any of the episodes that established her personality on The Clone Wars and most of the press early on was more about George Lucas' desire to make a character reflecting his experience with his daughters. But I guess since Lucasfilm wants an heir apparent to Lucas, they've been massaging Ahsoka's legacy. Now Filoni says in interviews he feels protective of her and seemingly won't let anyone else write her dialogue in live action. Which must be why she never has anything interesting to say. It's really a shame, she was such a good character in seasons two through six of The Clone Wars. Filoni had better shape up if he wants her series to be any good. She's going to be really boring if she's just Miss Tranquil Aloofness all the time.
Despite the fact that Filoni bungled the tension in the scene, the highlight of the episode was the appearance of Cad Bane, played by Corey Burton, who voiced him on The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch. I knew he was going to appear when they made his hat smaller and more feasible for live action on The Bad Batch but I didn't know I was going to like his appearance so much. He looks genuinely creepy. It's too bad Filoni spoiled the scene with the energy between the Marshall (Timothy Olyphant) and his deputy. When the Marshall looked over in irritation at the deputy, breaking his stare-down with Bane, it reminded me of movies where a driver speaks to and looks at a passenger for several minutes without glancing at the road.
On The Clone Wars, I didn't really like Cad Bane until his character was developed as someone very independent, who could make intelligent decisions without reference to the Separatists or the Republic. I don't know if they'll get a chance to show that part of his personality on this show but he works now as a physical presence.
I'm looking forward to next week's finale but I'm a little worried it'll feel overstuffed.
The Book of Boba Fett is available on Disney+.