The Mandalorian

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The Mandalorian
So we haven't talked about this at all so far? Well, I am halfway through the second season and this show is... weird? It's in a way a perfect SW show in that there are small parts that are really good, huge chunks that are just blatantly stolen from other sources, visual design that is equally charming and poor (apparently Werner Herzog called the production cowards when they wanted to replace the baby yoda puppet with cgi, so they kept it) and acting that is ALL over the place.

Also, as an avid video game-ist, I can't shake the feeling that the way Favreu wrote this was based on video game progression. The beats in the first season in particular feels *exactly* like a video game. Go here, collect this, get this upgrade, meet an addition to your party, find loot, upgrade your armor, defeat miniboss, move on. Weird.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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_Marcus_ wrote: ...there are small parts that are really good, huge chunks that are just blatantly stolen from other sources, visual design that is equally charming and poor... and acting that is ALL over the place.
So vintage Star Wars in other words.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: Recent movie playlist

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darkness wrote:
_Marcus_ wrote: ...there are small parts that are really good, huge chunks that are just blatantly stolen from other sources, visual design that is equally charming and poor... and acting that is ALL over the place.
So vintage Star Wars in other words.
Like I said - a perfect Star Wars show.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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The Mandalorian is about the only thing that I watch regularly right now since there is no hockey. We were going to get Disney+ for the kids anyway, so it's been nice to watch the show. It's the best thing from the Star Wars universe in a long, long time. I like the episodic nature. Some are like "monster of the week" episodes and those are hit and miss, and others really move the main storyline along like the last few have.

Re: Recent movie playlist

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_Marcus_ wrote:So how about that last Mandalorian episode, ak Star Wars Episode 10: Return of the Fan Service?
It was a total deus ex machina ending and I fucking loved every single second of it.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: The Mandalorian

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over the weekend, started checking out this show. i wasn't sure i was going to be able to watch it, after the ultimate disappointment of the last film (Rise of Skywalker) created a feeling of unending SW burn-out, but i was pleasantly surprised. we ended up blowing through both seasons in two days. the show was so great. really enjoyed it. i know i'm late to the party but man it was kind of unbelievable. i can't imagine what the budget for this show must have been per episode. almost all of the effects were incredible - the lone exception being
the de-aging of luke on that last episode. that was beyond bad. he had to stand there in one position and barely open his mouth to speak so they could match up the face. at least it seemed that way. i'm not sure why, given that i've seen incredible deep fakes on youtube done by consumer-grade stuff. don't really understand why this still doesn't work well for them. it wasn't great in the new trilogy, and it still isn't great in this. either fix it or stop it.
. it is pretty funny that a large chunk of the episodes do follow the same flow, as marcus mentioned. my wife dozed off in one episode and asked what happened. i was like, "he went to a new planet, as he was told in the last episode, met some new people, completed the quest they assigned him before they would share information, then they told him he has to go to another planet." but it just kind of works. i'm not sure what fuel cost is in this universe, but must be incredibly cheap. also, no real context of the timeline or how long it takes to get from place to place. but, it really kind of isn't needed. everything that isn't the story (either over-arching or episode) has been trimmed away, and i dig it. lots of great scenes and highlights. bill burr rules.

once it was over, i started researching when s3 is happening and discovered some disappointing news - that gina carano has been fully canceled by disney. seemed she was poised to lead her own spinoff, and i really dug her character and the interaction with mando. but she made the mistake of stating her political opinion that was counter to the accepted narrative and fell victim to the current-era mccarthy-ism happening in hollywood. from what i found, she commented about how in nazi germany, the nazis didn't just start rounding up jews, the government made their own neighbors hate them first. lots of attacks by common people before the en mass roundups started happening. then she ended it with asking how that's different from the current era of hating someone for their political views. donezo. gone. no longer employed. (details here: https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/see-gina- ... her-fired/) i don't see anything she said that i disagree with. if memory serves, pedro pascal has also tweeted a great many politically-charged things, including something comparing nazi germany with what was happening at the border. but of course he gets to stay because that was the accepted narrative at the time. if he did so now, he'd probably also be fired. sad state of affairs.

anyway, looks like s3 won't be until next year. we'll get the boba fett show first. fine by me, i enjoyed his appearance.

Re: The Mandalorian

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You're definitely late to the Gina Carano party, that whole outrage has been played out over and over on both sides for months now. To the point that a lot of people are boycotting the Marvel Disney + shows because of it (or so they claim, the numbers don't seem to have taken much of a hit). Frankly I thought she was a marginal actor and only moderately interesting character at best, so I don't really care much. But for those who do, I suspect she'll be back if Jon Favreau wins out over Kathleen Kennedy in the current SW power struggle. Which it looks like will happen.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: The Mandalorian

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I mean, it wouldn’t tank the show or anything if she wasn’t there, but enough with this bullshit already please. Secondly, when will these people learn that social media should be for promotion only for them. If you’re in the public eye, keep your mouth shut about your beliefs. Keep that offline. No one wants to hear it, you’re not changing anything, and when the mob decides the script has flipped, you’ll be fired for how hard you went 20 years ago. It’s insidious.

Re: The Mandalorian

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s3 of the mandalorian was 87.5% awesome. yes, tons of pretty gaping holes in plot, but that happens when you're spending 30-45 min per episode trying to get somewhere quickly, i suppose. mostly worse toward the end. but grogu rules. if not for him, don't know that the show would be tolerable. as for the percentage, that's due entirely to episode 6, which you should just skip. you won't miss anything, as it does nothing to advance the plot in any way. it seems to exist solely to shove jack black, christopher lloyd, and lizzo into the star wars universe for some unknown reason. "bantha in the room" indeed - get it kids? ugh. just when you thought you had seen the last of the Hutts. bantha poodoo. so skip that episode and it's pretty great.

Re: The Mandalorian

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I'd say it was 12% awesome. The second to the last episode had a few good moments. The last episode had a few good moments. At least Grogu finally did some shit to justify his existence beyond selling toys. But I hate how they pretty much negated everything done in the season 2 finale. And they totally wasted Christopher Lloyd. The rest was just boring rubbish. I did get a kick out of the westernish last shot.
Just cut them up like regular chickens

Re: The Mandalorian

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Yeah, i hear that. Like i said, without grogu, the show is meandering nonsense, but also fair to say he essentially doesn’t nothing until maybe episode 7 in this season other than look cute.