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agentnico · 4 years ago

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The Mandalorian - Season 2 (2020) Review

People are all going crazy wondering when the PS5 will finally come back to stock, and I’m here like “when are Hasbro releasing that Mando helmet?”. What, I’m no geek, I simply want to walk around in my helmet saying “this is the way” to random strangers, okay? Nothing weird or geeky about that. Nothing at all.

Plot: Bounty hunter is on a search through the galaxy to return The Child (who happens to have an uncanny resemblance to a certain Yoda, only it’s an adorable baby!!) to his kind - the Jedi.

Recently the father of my lovely never-gonna-stop-gushing-about-her girlfriend has allowed me to take advantage of his Disney+ account, so I immediately went and watched all of The Mandalorian series following such rave reviews from both critics and fans of the Star Wars franchise. Okay, that’s a lie, upon gaining access to Disney+ my immediate course of action was to binge through all of Phineas and Ferb because that show is amazing and Perry the Platypus is a badass and what, I’m allowed to like a kids show, its called nostalgia!! Anyway, following that, I did go and watch The Mandalorian...well, I did after also rewatching some Marvel films and checking out other things that Disney+ had to offer first and yes, okay, I didn’t immediately watch The Mandalorian, and when I finally did get to it I took my sweet butt-cheek time with it, but here we are, I finished it, so let’s talk about it now before I move onto WandaVision that’s coming out soon!

Easily put, The Mandalorian is the best thing to come out from the Star Wars franchise since Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm. Yes, the new trilogy is divisive and many can argue that it’s both good and bad, but in reality let’s face it - Disney botched those films completely by not having a clear cut plan and as such making up things as they went along and the result is a mess with so many plot holes it actually makes Tenet make sense! Okay, not true, I still don’t get what in the heavens Tenet was about, look, Christopher Nolan is a cool guy and I’ll happily have a coffee with him on some random Saturday morning one day in the future at his villa overseeing his million dollar Warner Bros fortune as we discuss his antics on Interstellar and acting like I know just as much about science and astronomy as he does, but when it comes to Tenet, I have no clue what was going on! So I take it back, at least the new Star Wars trilogy makes more sense than Tenet, but is good? Not really. And The Rise of Skywalker is prime example of that, as it emphasised how disorganised the writing and ideas for these new films have been, by forcing in Palpatine for the sake of it and also Rey and Kylo having a very very VERY awkward smooch at the end of the movie, which I guess meant they became girlfriend and boyfriend momentarily before Kylo went and snuffed it. What a way to get out of a relationship! But I digress, my point is that the new trilogy overall is a mess, even though there are good parts to those films respectively.

With The Mandalorian Disney took a different approach, by stepping away from the main Skywalker plot-line, and simply making a show that happens to be set in the same universe as the films, but that tells its own self contained story, however still with enough fan service and cameos to make the show feel like it is Star Wars. The first season I enjoyed overall, though I did feel like it dragged a bit and there were a few episodes were you could tell were filler and the writers were wasting a bit of time to fill up the episode count for the season. Now in season 2, that’s where things really picked up!

Season 2 still suffers from a couple of episodes that are obvious filler, and in those episodes you sit slightly frustrated as you await the story to actually make any kind of sufficient progression, however for the most part season 2 is an absolute joy for any Star Wars fan to watch. Central to this of course is the performance of Pedro Pascal as the titular character himself, and taking into account you don’t see his face for the most part, though this season they did really try to accommodate Pascal by showing off his dashing handsome Prince Charming face a bit too often even though it went against what the Mandalorian code stood for. But nevertheless, for the most part you don’t see his face, and so it comes to both great directing and Pascal’s superb voice work to make the Mandalorian character show so much emotion without actually seeing the emotion. In this season we get to see him become even more of a father figure to Baby Yoda, and their relationship is at the heart of this show, so much so that I kept wanting to hear Cat Stevens at the end of each episode! To be honest, it is indeed the well written characters that make this show work. Giancarlo Esposito is really menacing as Moff Gideon whilst still sticking to his signature soft-spoken tone, however I do also wish they made his villain feel more powerful. It never really proves too major of a challenge to beat him, so I wish the writers allowed the character to have more power in a way to fit in with Esposito’s performance. Gina Carano (regardless of her controversial social media presence) works really well as the Rebel side-kick to Mando and as a character in the series is quite empowering for women. There are also special appearances from characters from other Star Wars shows/films that make surprising appearances in this season (that will lead into their own spin-offs naturally) and everyone is extremely well cast!

From a technical aspect the show looks great, and we need to talk about Ludwig Goransson’s music score! The show never really uses the original John Williams’ tunes, yet Goransson manages to make his soundtrack feel both really different yet still befit to the Star Wars lore, with the addition of a cowboy western tang to it. I’d also suggest looking up the behind-the-scenes featurette to how Goransson scored the show, as it’s really cool to see all the random equipment and instruments he used to create such unique sounds.

Also, I typically do not spoil and films or TV shows in my reviews, so I won’t here either, but by holy Moses I wish I could tell you about the season finale! It’s every Star Wars fan’s wet dream! I just imagine when THAT moment happened in the finale the entire Star Wars fan base pissed their pants in orgasmic unison, and I’m sure it made quite a mess, but that again that’s not the point, the point is that the finale is epic. From the cameos to the action to a certain very emotional goodbye, it felt so wholesome and was so fitting to what this season was building up towards. However the ending does make me question where the writers are planning to take this series next season seeing as how this one ended, but nevertheless that’s a talk for another time. All I have to say is that though The Mandalorian is not perfect and has its rough edges, it is still really pretty darn awesome and is easily the best thing to come out of Star Wars in a long while This is, indeed, the way!

Overall score: 7/10

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smokeybrandreviews · 7 years ago

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Marvelous II: Burn It All

With the overwhelming success of Black Panther and the sudden, and jarring, course correction that he DCEU, i wanted to take this time to kind of discern why the MCU is so good at what they do. I wrote something like this a while back but lately, the MCU has been dropping legitimately great films first, and cape flicks second. Since the beginning of Phase Three, Marvel has figured out what it means to produce outstanding superheroes films and i wanted to revisit. I wanted to explore, a little bit, why i think Marvel took and already bulletproof box office formula, and elevated it to a point where there needs to be a real critical consideration of their craft.

Theme and Tone

Black Panther is a social commentary about the extremes of isolation and activism. It’s framed in a way that’s palatable to a wide rage of of audiences but, at it’s core, the struggle of Wakanda and the rage of Killmonger are very real, very raw, realities of the black experience. These are truths that all of us with a higher melanin content and a disenfranchised upbringing struggle with. We hate Killmonger for what he’s done but the ugly truth is, he wasn’t wrong. His error and sin was HOW he went about it, definitely not WHY he went about. You’re not going to see that level of consciousness in any DC flick. Even with such heady material, though, Black Panther still carried a levity that not only enriched the overall tone of the film, but allowed a massive audience outside of the given black audience, to enjoy this film. It has an A+ cinema score and sits atop some of the best critically acclaimed films of Rotten Tomatoes. to their credit, most MCU films are sitting in the illustrious company. this is definitely something the DCEU cannot boast.

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a celebration of everything Parker. It’s a fun, street level, heist flick that has more heart and is better than it has any right to be. Everything her works, and it works well, especially for what amounts to a Spider-Man origin story, in the glibbest sense possible. Homecoming is a coming of age story, painted in the hue of Peter Parker and it works brilliantly. Another outstanding entry, bit not technically Marvel proper (yet) was the excellent Logan. Man, i cried at the end of that movie, no shame in admitting it. Seriously, it took Fox, what? 17 years before they trusted Jackman to actually act? To let a director craft a story with the primary X-Men moneymaker? Rated R or not, Logan is a tragic story of what it means to doe with an age; a cruel age that used you up but left hope for a much better life that the next generation can live. Goddamn was Logan heavy! Closest thing to The Dark Knight Marvel has dropped, so far.

The MCU was doing fine with how they were progressing after Phase One but they got their sh*t together in a hurry with Phase Three. With Civil War, the Russo brothers continued to change the game they started with the excellent Winter Soldier, crafting movies first, capeflicks second. It’s a formula the Nolan took to heart when he produced the brilliant Dark Knight trilogy. The MCU has taken a direct page from the How-To book of creating compelling, relevant, accessible, superhero film making from Nolan, who is a master at the craft of legitimate film making. It’s all the more galling for DC when you take the time to acknowledge that it was a DC property who snatched that elusive brass ring first, only to have executive meddling drop that sh*t, stomp on it, and then throw it right off a cliff into the waiting hands of Kevin Feige. There’s a reverence for character and respect for what they mean there that Marvel is deft at honoring. It’s making their franchises that much better.

Performance and Casting

There have been some spectacular performances in MCU films, all the way back to their inception with Iron Man. Marvel has been more than blessed with contracting excellent talent that they grow into icons. In the beginning, the MCU was something that outcasts and B-listers got back end loot for because everything was untested. You got these cats that wanted to make a name for themselves or were looking to re-brand their tarnished legacy. That first phase of the MCU was cute, but there were gems. The original Iron Man is still hailed as one of the best MCU films, to date and for good reason. That sh*t was excellent! RDJ turned in a helluva performance but it wasn’t just him. John Favreau’s Happy Hogan killed every scene he was in. The dude himself, Jeff Bridges, took what was a one dimensional villain, and elevated it to legendary status. That movie was a please to take in then and still holds up today.

Fast-forward to now, Marvel has all but done away with that whole one dimensional villain thing, along with the stigma of being “just superhero films”. We saw a brilliant portrayal of a complex, flawed, but very relatable murderer in Killmonger. The last time we saw a villain this compelling, they were portrayed by cats with names like Ledger and Lecter. But it wasn’t just him or Michael B. Jordan’s portrayal of that character. We had an outstanding turn with Michael Keaton donning that wing suit in Homecoming’s Vulture. Keaton’s Toomes broke the mold for those throwaway, one off villains, and begin the trend to a more grayish take on what it means to be bad; when their motivations are actually human and not just because. Another huge one, that must people will disagree with, was the MCU take on Baron Zemo. That dude deserved justice for the atrocities committed upon him, personally, and he wet about that sh*t expertly. His plan was ridiculous, of course, it was a capeflick, but if you take the time to actually engage in his motivations, you’d see he had much more depth than a simple bond villain everyone tries to label him as.

It doesn’t stop there though. Homecoming’s entire supporting cast turned in outstanding performances that felt real to their world. Even Karen, Pete’s suit lady, was great in her limited role! She was given life, so to speak, by Jennifer Connelly. Also, it would be remiss of me not to mention Zendaya’s MJ. She was near Daria-esque and i loved every minute of it! And don’t get me started on the beautiful, scene stealing, Marisa Tomei as Aunt May. She was just delicious, particularly in that end credit stinger. The same could be said about Wright’s Shuri, Gurira’s Okoye, and Duke’s M’Baku in Black Panther. Or, and i go back to Logan with this one, Sir Patrick Stewart and the ridiculously able talent of the the young Daphne Keen! That movie wouldn’t have been anywhere near as good without those very specific, very crucial roles, ably acting. Daphne Keen, in particular, was incredibly good considering her age and ho she had to keep up with. Bravo!

Even lesser entries that are more textbook Marvel fare like Guardians 2 and Thor: Ragnarok had supporting players that turned in scene stealing portrayals. Jeff Golblum, Tessa Thompson, Taika Watiti all immediately come to mind. Even the one dimensional Hela was a delight to watch because Cate Blanchett is a goddamn treasure. Hell, even Kurt Russell’s Ego turned in a damn fine performance, and that Hoff cameo just solidifies my point further. With the exception of anything Wonder Woman has been in, the DCEU has given us just sh*t acting. It’s not the actors fault, and i’m going to get into that next, but it’s also not like they elevated less than ideal material the same way RDJ and The Dude did, way back in ‘08. Marvel doesn’t stunt cast like the DCEU has. They don’t go out and get Ben Affleck to play Batman. They don’t go out and get Amy Adams to play Lois Lane. They take the characters their trying to imbue with life, distill who they are as people, and then go out in the real world to search for the actors that embody those requisites.

Narrative and Direction

I touched on this in my the previous parts of my essay but Marvel has found a way to craft a legitimate film first and a capeflick second. With Winter soldier, you got all of the hallmarks of an espionage thriller. With Civil War, you dealt with what it meant o have essentially a nuclear powerhouse in the Avengers, with no jurisdiction or governing body. You had to ask yourself hard questions about the weight of sovereignty over autonomy. I’ve already spoke, at length, about why Black Panther was so goddamn good. Guardians was about parents ad family while Ragnarok was a tale of coping with loss. These films were grounded in something very human. They told very relatable stories that all of us struggle with. You identified with the arc of these characters and felt for them in the end. The DCEU doesn’t do that. They have yet to create a film, other than Wonder Woman, that has a direction or point. For them, it’s all about what the “heroes” can do, not who the heroes are.

To his credit, Snyder tried to explore those aspects but he’s not subtle in his imagery, in the least. Cat’s mad heavy handed with his craft which is why so many of his films leave you wanting. Dude confuses action set pieces and SFX for character development and stakes. The only movie to get away from this terrible way of filming was Wonder Woman and it turned out to be the best of the DCEU franchise. And how did Patty Jenkins do that? By taking a page out of the Marvel handbook. She understood who Diana was and crafted an origin story that felt real. You went on that journey, just as Diana went on it. You saw the world through her eyes; her disappointment and hope. There was more humanity in a demigod than in any other of these DCEU flicks and Jenkins accomplished that by lifted that Phase One Marvel formula. Marvel is brilliant at telling stories that are organic to the roots of their characters. DC has yet to realize that. Hell, WB and DC basically conceded the point when they brought in Joss Whedon, the architect for the MCU phase One, in to basically “fix” what Snyder broke.

Patience and Control

The biggest thing, i think, that sets Marvel’s pace is the fact that their is one guy at the top who essentially shuttles these many, many, films in a singular direction. Sure, there are cats in charge on the ground level, The Russo brothers, like Whedon before them, set the pace, but it’s Kevin Feige who runs that show. He understands what it means to let directors expand their vision but he also understands that there are certain notes and things that need to be hit in order to make this macro universe work. Dude’s vision is insane and, a decade on, it’s bearing fruit most succulent. Feige has turned a red-headed step child of studio into something that rivals Lucasfilm and Star Wars. Seriously, four of the top-fifteen all-time grossing films are Marvel fare, all of which have made more than a billion dollars. Feige knows how to let his people breathe but he also understands when to reel them in. This is something that DC f*cked up immediately when they put Snyder in charge of their entire universe.

Snyder is an idea guy. He has inspiration and creativity gushing from him like an out of control hydrant. The thing is, you need someone to act as a spigot, someone to control that creative flow because, left out his own devices, Snyder is just going to flood out everything and you end up with what the current DCEU is. You only have to look as far as Sucker Punch to see what Snyder does with creative control. Dude has no self control and it poisons all of his projects. He has no idea what it means to tell a story, just what dope sh*t looks like. I don’t begrudge the man for it, he was a classmate with Michael Bay, but that nonsense type of filming does not make for a good movie. Man Of Steel was a great example of that yet WB went with the flashy press release instead of the serious world building control and we are where we are now. Charging a cat like that with forcing a competitive cinematic universe with the MCU, in a handful of films is f*cking retarded. Recently, there’s been news that the execs understood this fact, finally, ans brought in Whedon to fix an unwatchable Justice League, to varying degrees of success, and ultimately putting the cat who’s in charge of their ridiculously successful horror division, in charge of their Superhero franchises. Time will tell if this is the right move but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Conclusion

Marvel has essentially created a factory of churning out hits by following a distinct formula, one that is interchangeable with different visions and aesthetics that come with the unique vision of individual directors. The tone and feel of Ragnorok is completely different than Black Panther but both feel distinctly Marvel. A teenage romp like Homecoming can still be seen as living in a world created by the fallout of The Winter Soldier or The Avengers. There are ramifications and realities that the DCEU just can’t match because their rushed Universe tie-ins are blatant cash grabs. You can’t do, in two or three films, what Marvel has done with, what? eighteen flicks now? All of these films work independently of each other but, like the very best puzzles out there, fit watch other perfectly to create an outstandingly diverse, and rich, universe. Nothing feels forced and everything has been earned. Feige understood, a decade ago, you can’t cheat the process. You have to embrace the grin and, in doing so, you create something f*cking spectacular. Unlike Justice League, with all of it’s CG shenanigans and over reaching plot points, i have nothing but faith for Infinity War. Marvel has proven, time and time again, they get what it means to create great films. Some would say they are the Blueprint to be followed.

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smokeybrand · 7 years ago

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Marvelous II: Burn It All

Theme and Tone

Performance and Casting

Narrative and Direction

Patience and Control

Conclusion

0 notes