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Its quite funny to see the conversation go from "it's a fun romp film that's enjoyable" to "no you're missing the important subtext".

At no point did I expect the Glup Poopo film to have any semblance of plot or setting consequences and I was indeed correct.

Baby Yoda continues to be marketable plushies and nothing more.

Yup, pretty much. It's definitely not a "must see" movie or anything that changes the trajectory that Disney SW has taken and is more of the same that we've come to expect, especially as far as movie offerings go. This is also reflected in the general apathy towards the movie and the SW IP as a whole when a new IP (and definitely less mass market appeal movie) like Obsession is doing better at the box office than Mango and GooGoo.

MDG, no copium needed on trying to make the movie more than it is, especially when Filoni and friends are not paying you to do so lol.

Unfair comparison to Obsession when the budget was magnitudes lower than Mando movie.

For what its worth. Grogu's forest adventure is the only actual character development of the film. It's arguably more important than anything else, but in practice will mostly just drag the pacing on a rewatch. I always appreciate when a film is willing to slow down and see its characters deal with recovery, though I was disappointed that it didn't lead to a stronger moment between the two.

 Gert wrote:
Unfair comparison to Obsession when the budget was magnitudes lower than Mando movie.

Hey, it still means that more people tuned into a horror movie (a genre that by no means is the mainstream movie money maker, especially with no franchise legacy like Saw or the Conjuring) which is a complete newcomer to the scene yet that it even got to close the gap with Star Wars in its opening month is pretty embarrassing when this is the first new theatrical SW movie release since 2019.

Plus that's just an indictment on how unnecessarily bloated most Hollywood movies have become with their budgets that something that could just have been a direct to DVD/streaming SW movie HAS to at least make roughly 300-400 million dollars to break even. Look at how good Godzilla Minus One visually looks like at only a 10 million budget. As we've seen already with several Marvel films, having a high film budget does not equate to a good movie. So having to fall back on using the budget as an excuse seems like a weak way to handwave the performance being bad on its own AND in comparison to newcomer films.

Regarding the expectations at Box Office, it should be noted that M&G isn't a New Chapter in the Star Wars Saga, but rather a Series: The Movie!

It wasn't marketed to be a new thing yet a lot of the general media seem to be holding it up to the trilogies.

I can acknowledge that it isn't in the same category as Solo or Rogue One as far as it's impact on the franchise goes.

Saying that, I wish it were a bit more like Andor was to Rogue One.
Both are exemplars of their formats.

I'm so excited for Rogue One. There aren't nearly enough space pilot films. The last one I can remember is Wing Commander.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
I'm so excited for Rogue One. There aren't nearly enough space pilot films. The last one I can remember is Wing Commander.

Star Wars: Rogue One came out in 2016 you can watch it anytime you want!

 Ahtman wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
I'm so excited for Rogue One. There aren't nearly enough space pilot films. The last one I can remember is Wing Commander.

Star Wars: Rogue One came out in 2016 you can watch it anytime you want!

Lol, fair enough. Rogue Squadron.

So, uh, how many civilian casualties did he cause breaking Rotta out of the fighting pit?

None. Coyne is solely responsible for gathering the dangerous beasties, including one capable of shorting out the ring’s (arena’s?) safety fence.

I feel that M&G is the best Disney-era film so far. It was the post-ROTJ film I would have appreciated a decade ago, and the "Boba Fett" movie I would have loved back in the mid-90s.

The only thing I can throw shade at is the cute crap with Grogu. Did we really give the Ewoks a hard time just to give this character a free pass? Return of the Jedi could admittedly be a muppet show at times, but it never felt like an episode of Teletubbies. Sometimes M&G was drifting off in that direction...

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
None. Coyne is solely responsible for gathering the dangerous beasties, including one capable of shorting out the ring’s (arena’s?) safety fence.

What? No. If I go to the zoo and bust open the Lion enclosure and let it out into all the visitors, I ain’t getting off Scott free.

Still wasn’t Mando.

SamusDrake wrote:

The only thing I can throw shade at is the cute crap with Grogu. Did we really give the Ewoks a hard time just to give this character a free pass? Return of the Jedi could admittedly be a muppet show at times, but it never felt like an episode of Teletubbies. Sometimes M&G was drifting off in that direction...

You speak only of good things here.

Just my 2p's worth on M&G, as we went to see it over the weekend for my son's birthday. Disclaimer - I am a big fan of classic Star Wars, but not well-versed in the recent stuff and haven't seen The Mandalorian.

So, it was definitely good. Enjoyed it. But, as a lot of people have said, it didn't really feel significant as such. I think all the SW movies so far have been Big Plot Point Stuff, and this felt very much like a fun but ultimately maybe not that meaningful adventure.

I did love the little details, most of which have been mentioned already - but also stuff like the inside of the AT-AT being fleshed out. And the little escape craft the general chap used to jet out of the AT-AT, I'm sure my brother and I had a toy of that about 35 years ago...

I really liked the ship battles.

I loved Embo. Not seen him in anything besides the Galaxy Of Heroes mobile game, which my eldest plays obsessively and drafted me in to join him. Getting him on-screen was cool.

Grogu is cute as all hell. I want one.

Earnest, buff Jabba-Junior was weird. The Hutts' movement was weird.

It was a Star Wars film but did not have a proper opening text crawl, just a brief 2 lines or so. And it was a Star Wars film but did not have Star Wars music. This is not on. The music was generic gak.

I liked Ernest Jabba Jr, but the perfect English out of a Hutt felt kind of wrong.

 AduroT wrote:
I liked Ernest Jabba Jr, but the perfect English out of a Hutt felt kind of wrong.

I assumed someone got worried there were enough subtitles to qualify as a foreign film.

I actually liked the Hutt movement more than expected. The scoot still looks as silly as ever, but when they would do the rolling moves during combat it felt a lot better thought out.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I’m particularly fond of one scene, where the CGI is done to resemble Stop Motion.

Those who’ve seen it will know what I mean. I found it added a real charm.

According to RedLetterMedia, it actually IS stop motion. Done by Phil Tippet, even.

Well that’s even better.

Then again, RLM says a lot of….well….things.

Clever effects or outright Stop Motion? It worked beautifully.

Crispy78 wrote:
And it was a Star Wars film but did not have Star Wars music. This is not on. The music was generic gak.

It had the music from the show you admit you haven't watched.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Well that’s even better.

Then again, RLM says a lot of….well….things.

Clever effects or outright Stop Motion? It worked beautifully.

Terribly gauche to quote oneself…but.

Have confirmed this from other sources. He also apparently did Stop Motion work on Skellington Crew.

All I can say is More Please. Very possibly just my vintage, but when it comes to regular sized people battling Big Things? I find high quality stop motion so much more satisfying and even more convincing. By all means give it a digital spit and polish. There’s nowt inherently wrong with a digital spit and polish. But keep the practical effects front and centre where possible.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AduroT wrote:
I liked Ernest Jabba Jr, but the perfect English out of a Hutt felt kind of wrong.

It was a bit jarring. It worked better for Rotta I feel. With the Twins being predominantly Huttese until they’re suddenly not, then they are again? It just felt a bit whiplash.

I’d guess the intention was to make Rotta feel deliberately different. Like someone who spent childhood holidays watching their parents expecting the locals to suddenly understand English because they’ve said it six times, ever louder and slower. And so decided to learn the language. But with Jabba, it was more a reflection of his power and standing that he saw no need to lower himself to learn anything but his own tongue.

ccs wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
And it was a Star Wars film but did not have Star Wars music. This is not on. The music was generic gak.

It had the music from the show you admit you haven't watched.

Yeah, my son told me it was the music from the show. The music from the show, however, does not sound like Star Wars music. It sounds like generic gak.

It’s there to evoke Morricone and the western, with Djin essentially being our Clint Eastwood.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s there to evoke Morricone and the western, with Djin essentially being our Clint Eastwood.

He's our John Wayne.... almost literally.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s there to evoke Morricone and the western, with Djin essentially being our Clint Eastwood.

Yeah I can see what you mean. However, speaking entirely subjectively and not trying to claim this as any sort of universal truth - it did not work for me. I didn't like it. The music actively detracted from the film for me. I was trying to immerse myself in the story but found myself thinking, well damn, this music bloody sucks...

Which is fair. All a matter of taste.

 LunarSol wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s there to evoke Morricone and the western, with Djin essentially being our Clint Eastwood.

He's our John Wayne.... almost literally.

I love that both are mentioned, because John Wayne would never work with Clint Eastwood. Wayne hated the anti-hero concept.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:

 LunarSol wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
It’s there to evoke Morricone and the western, with Djin essentially being our Clint Eastwood.

He's our John Wayne.... almost literally.

I love that both are mentioned, because John Wayne would never work with Clint Eastwood. Wayne hated the anti-hero concept.

Just worth mentioning because the primary performance in the film is done by John Wayne's son Brenden.

Speaking of Djin, did they say his name once in the movie? Everyone just called him Mando or The Mandalorian. It kind of makes me wonder how all the others would feel about that.