Star Wars TV: The Mandalorian, season 1 (2019); The Clone Wars, seasons 1 through 3 (2008-20011)

The Mandalorian, season 1 (2019)

A highly entertaining show that, while having a few lulls, was a fun realization of oft-untapped potential in the massive Star Wars universe.

Like many, when I heard about The Mandalorian, it was the final nudge I needed to sign up for Disney's new streaming service, Disney+. It paid off, as both my wife and I enjoyed so much of what the show had to offer.

The show, helmed by Jon Favreau, takes place shortly after the events of Return of the Jedi, in which the Empire has been defeated by the Rebels, led by Luke Skywalker and his companions Leia, Han Solo, and others. Now that the Empire has dissolved, a certain amount of lawlessness has increased throughout the galaxy, opening up opportunities for some while making life more difficult for others. Operating in these tight and shadowy places is the titular Mandalorian, a bounty hunter whose name we don't know and is only referred to by the nickname "Mando," a call towards his cultural tribe. In the first episode, Mando takes on a sizeable bounty to acquire a mysterious person and return them to the client, who is apparently a former Imperial official. Once Mando finds the target, though, things grow exponentially more complicated.

The premise and set up of the show are brilliant, in that they offer so much of what any fan would want - fans of both Star Wars or just fun, lively television. The entire first season is a very manageable eight episodes, each ranging between 35 minutes to an hour, with most clocking in towards the shorter end. While the main story is Mando figuring out how to evade various pursuers, stemming from the initial bounty-gone-wrong in the first episode, several episodes in the middle are fairly stand-alone. On the whole, the series is solid, though one or two of those middle episodes are weaker than the others.

The show finished really strong, with plenty of crowd-pleasing moments that didn't devolve into pure Star Wars fan service. Though the show is very clearly set in the Star Wars universe, it tells its own tale, with its own characters, never relying on cameos by better-known characters from the movies. And this first season did a great job of taking any lose narrative threads left from the first two episoed and tying them all back together in the final two. The title role is done well, if not exactly requiring a great range of skills, especially since his head is covered the entire time. All the same, the writing is solid and the over-arcing story is compelling.

The final episode - the best of this first season - set up the already-confirmed follow-up season very nicely. I look forward to it with plenty of anticipation. Looks like creator, writer, and director Jon Favreau has another really solid hit on his hands.

The Clone Wars, seasons 1 through 3 (2008-2011)

A rather impressive TV series aimed at young adult fans of Star Wars that I had never bothered with until recently. It's clearly meant for a younger audience, but it also offers some decent narrative "glue" for some of us (much) older fans.

Being a Gen X person who grew up in the suburbs, I was as into Star Wars as any such kid of that demographic, and that remained the case well after my teen years. Then came the prequels, which were...underwhelming. Since then, I started to see the entire Star Wars behemoth for what it was - a fun, well-conceived and well-executed PG-rated fantasy tale aimed mostly at viewers between the ages of 5 and 15. But there has always remained that kid in me that has fun watching what the series has to offer, without ever going overboard about it. Hence, I never sought out The Clone Wars, which was a series kicked off with a feature film back in 2008 and telling tales between 2002's Attack of the Clones and 2005's Revenge of the Sith. These are the years during which Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Knight Anakin Skywalker (still years before he was turned to the dark side), and Skywalker's apprentice Ahsoka Tano serve as peace-keepers during the long military struggle between the Galactic Republic and a faction of separatist systems headed by former Jedi master Count Dooku.

These first three seasons, while uneven, certainly have their moments. And by the third season, I was impressed at the depth a some of the themes, given that it is a show geared towards younger fans. Like many animated series from the 1980s and '90s, the show offers a mix of one-off, stand-alone episodes and some two- and three-episode story arcs. Typically, it is the arcs that are the strongest tales, and these are often where you find the strongest connections to the feature Star Wars films. The primary addition in terms of characters is Ahsoka Tano, a young apprentice under the tutelage of Anakin Skywalker. The dynamic between the two isn't terribly surprising, with Ahsoka being a tenacious, precicious, and headstrong apprentice, very much like Anakin was under the instruction of Obi-Wan Kenobi. It is the episodes which focus on those three - Tano, Skywalker, and Kenobi, which are the most reliably entertaining.

There are certainly other characters who merit attention and pique one's interest. New Jedi Masters like Kit Fisto (the names are hilarious, if you couldn't tell), Plo Koon, and others are fun. And new Sith apprentice Assage Ventress and bounty hunters like Cad Bane are also entertaining additions.

Of course, it's easy to be reminded when watching that this show's target audience is viewers between, say, 12 and 16. Especially through these first three seasons, very few characters are more than one-dimensional. The heroes are almost always heroic, and the villains are especially villainous. However, there are a few moments where the story shows a bit of nuance and depth, as do certain characters at times. The dialogue isn't going to impress anyone with a discerning ear, often locked into cliche and noted lines from the source movies, but it's passable if one accepts it as it is.

Since I started writing this, I've also worked my way through all of Season 4 and have started Season 5, and the improvements are notable. I'll be sharing my thoughts on those seasons soon. 

Retro Trio: Made (2001), Escape Plan (2013), We Own the Night (2007)

Made (2001)

Director: Jon Favreau

In a word: lame.

The look on Favreau's face here is pretty
much how I felt watching this movie.

This was a surprise for me, since I've generally liked Favreau's writing and direction in his various films. From Swingers to Elf to the first two Iron Man movies, I thought he was solid enough, if not exactly spectacular. I don't put him in any kind of pantheon of great directors, but he's solid. Even films of his that I wasn't terribly enthused about, such as Chef, are well-done, for what they are. 

So it was disappointing to watch this earlier stab of his at spoofing the mafia genre. It's not hard to see what Favreau was trying to do - throw a couple of bickering buddies into the lower levels of the mafia that has been glamorized by countless great movies. But it never gets any real steam. First of all, Vince Vaughn's character is supremely annoying. I'm no Vaughn hater (even though he has absolutely zero range, outside of playing himself), and I actually think he's hilarious when cast in the right movies. But imagine his typical motormouth character firing off line after line, without a single thing actually being funny. Well, that's what he is in Made. I actually wanted him to get whacked after about 15 minutes.

Second off is that the story rambles through a sluggish and vague narrative that seems to have been meant as a mafioso Odyssey of sorts. There are a few mildly amusing scenarios here and there, but most of the scenes simply drag. In the end, the big "reveal" of the plot only made me think that the movie should have been about 45 minutes shorter and saved us viewers the trouble.

This movie had potential, with a decent idea and really good cast, including Favreau, Vaughn, Peter Falk, and about half the cast of The Sopranos. Alas, the whole was far, far less than he sum of its parts. So much so that I was surprised that it made a "Top 100" list of gangster movies compiled by a few Philadelphia area film aficionados. Not sure what they were seeing on this one. 

Escape Plan (2013)

Director: Mikael Haefstrom

This movie fell just slightly on the wrong side of "mediocre." It's not terrible, but there's no way one can call it "good." 

The plot is all but given away by the two-word title. Stallone plays Ray Breslin - a security professional who breaks out of prisons in order to expose any weaknesses, so that they can be corrected. When his services are procured by a a mysterious woman working with the C.I.A., things start to go wrong. All of his safeguards are stripped, and he is truly stuck in a high-tech, ultra-secret, maximum security prison which is completely off of the grid. Inside, he meets a sly German inmate (Schwarzenegger) who takes great interest in his demeanor and skill set. From there, the two try to (you guessed it) escape.

Escape movies' biggest strength is always waiting to see just how the escapee will use his cunning to make his way past all sorts of obstacles to gain his freedom. In that respect, Escape Plan gets it right. The set up is fine, and the super max prison presents a few interesting obstacles that Breslin has to surmount. But none of them are so creative that they become memorable. Breslin's methods for studying and using his environment are just compelling enough to have kept me watching, but they weren't exactly mind-blowing.

One must absolutely NOT think too hard about this movie's story. There are a laughably high number of logical inconsistencies. I was able to shrug them off for the most part, as it didn't take too much away from the escape element of the movie, but they are pretty bad. If the very reason for the prison's existence doesn't hold up to some mild questioning, then the scriptwriters have done a pretty poor job. There are more than a few other massive oversights that are nearly as awful, so a viewer will need to be ready not to analyze things too closely. You'll only be disappointed.

The aesthetic is just hilariously bad. Clearly going for style over any kind of pragmatics, the prison design is unnecessarily silly, and the guard uniforms look like bad Halloween costumes. Style over substance can work, as long as there is actual style. Escape Plan's notion of "style" equated to what an 11-year old boy would find "cool-looking."

There is also one missing element that I had mixed feelings about. When you sit down to watch a movie with Stallone and Schwarzenegger, then you would expect more than a few one-liners, right? Well, this movie is woefully lacking in that department. Yes, there are a few attempts at some zingers here and there, and one or two of them are half-decent. But mostly, the banter is absent, and much of what is there is thoroughly forgettable.

Do I feel like I wasted my time watching this? Not quite, but close. And there's absolutely no need for me to watch it again. It's a barely passable popcorn flick that you can turn your brain off for, and we all need one of those every once in a while. 

We Own the Night (2007)

Director: James Gray

A good crime flick, if not quite an outright "classic."

The movie tells the tale of Bobby Green - a self-absorbed, semi-outcast brother of one cop and son of another. Played by Joaquin Phoenix, his is a story of self-actualization and transformation through suffering. It's a unique story for the crime film genre, in the type of character that serves as the focus, and just how that character evolves throughout. While it does seem a tad extreme and rushed to an all-too tidy ending, it is a rather satisfying arc.

The movie's two greatest strengths are the acting and the fact that it doesn't pull too many punches. The large-scale "crime" conflict is between the local cops and an ever-increasing Russian mob presence, and Bobby is caught between the two. The tightrope that Bobby walks through most of the movie is constantly wavering in the winds of his own indecision, and we viewers know that he will eventually fall off. The suspense comes from waiting to see if Bobby will make the choice of which direction he falls towards, or if the decision will be made for him. The emotional ramifications make for great theater, as Joaquin Phoenix wears the struggle exceptionally well. He has to struggle through several dilemmas that threaten either his body or his peace of mind, without a single easy answer or fully acceptable outcome for himself or his loved ones. The grey areas certainly set this film apart from many others of its ilk.

Though much of the movie focuses on emotional turmoil, there are certainly several highly suspenseful action sequences, which are quite well-done and affecting. More than simply adding some visceral excitement to the proceedings, they often serve to jar Bobby out of his sometimes paralyzing indecision.

The clearest weakness to me is simply that the transformation goes a bit too far, by the end. I won't give anything away, but the end of Bobby's journey went to a place that I thought oversold just how far he had transformed by story's end. It hardly ruins the film by any means, but it wasn't completely to my liking.

A very good movie that I would certainly recommend to anyone who is a fan of more sophisticated crime tales that focus more on individual character study and transformation, rather than the more procedural elements of most crime films. 

Chef (2014)

Director: Jon Favreau

Chef is in no way a bad film, but let's call it what it is - a puff movie for foodies.

It's good because it does what it sets out to do very well. It uses film to illustrate a character - in this case Carl Casper's (Jon Favreau) passion for cooking, and how he uses this passion to overcome various obstacles in his life. He wants to be culinarily creative, but has to overcome his conservative and restricting boss. He wants to be a better father, but has to overcome his obsession with his profession. He wants to one-up a vicious food critic, but must overcome his other frustrations to do so.

And so food is the center around which the vortex of Carl's life spins. With food at the heart of nearly everything in this movie, you can predict one of the cinematic strengths - food porn. There are countless shots of mouth-watering ingredients purchased, chopped, prepped, cooked, and presented from the start to the finish of the film. Unabashed foodies will probably experience multiple orgasms over this endless parade of edible art. As for me, I certainly appreciated it to a point, but it ultimately turned the movie a little less into a film story and more of a high-quality photo love letter to expertly constructed meals.

Carl (middle) laughs it up with his staff. This still shot
conveys the tone of much of the picture.

The story itself does very little that is risky or edgy, aside from the occasionally blue language. True to the real restaurant world, many of those in the business are free and easy with their profanity. For mature viewers, this is where most of the humor lies. Truthfully, though, most of the jokes are very tame and uninspired. I got a chuckle here and there from Favreau and John Leguizamo's interactions, and Robert Downey Jr. has a memorable appearance (that guy simply doesn't miss these days), but I kept waiting for things to get funnier. After about 45 minutes, I gave up and just accepted that they wouldn't induce more than the occasional wry smile.

The film is basically all hunky dory: Carl's ex-wife Inez (Sofia Vergara) is an inexplicably rich and endlessly understanding supporter; his son Percy is a slightly moody but phenomenally reasonable young boy; and his friends have undying loyalty and snappy dialogue to spare. Even the one ugly episode in the film - the confrontation between Carl and his caustic critic - has a resolution that is so rosy that's it is nearly gag-inducing.

This was one of those movies that both my wife and I came out of and quickly deemed "average." It never misses a step, but then again, it never dares to step off of a safe path. It's certainly not a waste of time, but neither is it a film that demands a second viewing. Actually, far stronger food-based humor can be found in nearly any episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations or Parts Unknown.