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Review: Book of Boba Fett, Episode 3
Review:
Book of Boba Fett, Episode 3
Disney + aired its 3rd episode of The Book of Boba Fett on January 12th. The story follows the Legacy Star Wars character Boba Fett played by Temuera Morrison and his exploits after he escapes from the Sarlacc Pit, incongruent with the events of Return of the Jedi, one is left to assume.
By the 3rd episode we find Boba Fett with his trusty sidekick Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) having killed Jabba the Hut and declared himself Daimyo and now deals with the most trivial issues of his lawless kingdom.
Unbeknownst to boba, on Tatooine, Daimyo translates to King of the Social Worker not King of the Bounty Hunters.
Early in the episode English theater students have stolen water from one of the local merchants. Why? Did you ask? No idea! Never explained. No one looks particularly thirsty, just fighting the power it would seem.
These are half cyborg children so oil MAY have made more sense but the story point is as inconsequential as the cyborg children themselves so let’s push forward.
Much like the franchise which bore him, Boba just can’t seem to get any respect. No one on Tatian recognizes him as the Daimyo but two Gamorrean Guards and the truly out of place theater students
The Mayor of Tatooine, Mayor Hammerhead, serves a Master who has yet to be revealed and the Hutt’s later explain the planet has been claimed by another bounty hunting faction.
Other than the out-of-place children and the disrespect, the bulk of the story revolved around Boba riding large animals and recalling the slaughter of his Sand People pals.
To be fair, the kids did chase down the Mayor's Emissary as he tried to escape in a land speeder through a crowded city street. But again, this served more to show space scooters race up walls than progress the story.
This series seems as divided as Star Wars is itself.
On one side of the Writer’s room, you have people writing in the Service of the Fan.
And on the other side of the room are Fan-Fiction Writers who populate Hollywood today.
The Writer who works in service of the Fan asks the question; how did Boba Fett get out of the Sarlacc Pit?
The Fan Fiction writer asks, were the Sand People all that bad?
To the Fan Service Writer, they are the inkers who trace the lines of the original artist. They fill out the story but are always in service of the artist's original intention. Writing a new chapter in the Star Wars Legacy story by answering the questions from the past and informing his character going forward.
The Fan Fiction Writer cannibalizes tasty morsels from other popular science fiction stories and duct-tape them to the current story.
Examples:
- Spice is taken from the training Episode II. Spice does not exist in Star Wars that’s Dune.
- The thing on the English Black Kids eye is taken from the Borg of Star Trek Next Generation.
- The English Kids Wardrobe is a mix of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Dr. Who.
- The floating scooters are from a long-forgotten movie called Quadra philia which deals with the Mod movement in the late ’60s and they're chromed out Italian Vespas.
If not for the dignity brought to the role of Boba Fett by Temuera Morrison, the series would be tilting more toward embarrassment rather than a masterpiece.
The man’s curiosity about the character of Boba Fett and the journey they are on together bakes his role in authenticity.
Even when the shit going on around this man makes absolutely no sense, he seems to shake it off and works with what Disney has given him.
Recently in an interview, Morrison stated that his character “spoke too much”. This is the cry of an actor who wants to explore his character. "Show, don’t tell", is rule one to a critical performer.
And there is a very good story about a Bounty Hunter making Allies of the bad guys and rising to power.
I honestly find most of the Sand People lore acceptable. If we are filling out this character which has its roots Attack of the Clones and A New Hope.
Boba Fett is a Bad Guy and WOULD make associations with Bad People. We are intended to be rooting for the bad guy.
A fan Favorite, yes, but still a villain in the story.
The episode wraps up with Krrsantan, the Wookie Bounty Hunter becoming an Ally of Boba Fett. who had been a very formidable enemy just one scene before?
And the Hutt’s delivering a Rankor and a and a Danny Trejo to Boba as a peace offering and explain there is another faction who had already claimed Tatooine over Boba and themselves and advised it better to leave the planet than stay and face the true Daimyo of Tatooine
When I studied screenplays, anything that did not have a direct effect on the outcome of the story would be jettisoned with the rest of the ship's trash. Not so it would seem in today’s Hollywood Writer’s Room.
The kids on the scooters needed to end up in a smoking pile in the desert, not the Sand People who could have served as an amazing save the bay army at the end of the series!
But Disney does tend to kill off characters far before they have served their purpose in the story.
The story is floundering after only three Episodes. It will be interesting to see where John Favreau takes the series from here.
But once again it is the lead actor that is saving this series and keeping me paying for Disney + for at least one more week.
Disney+ Hawkeye Episode 1 Review: The Color Purple
Hawkeye Season
1, Episode 1
Disney Plus,
Release date: Nov. 24th, 2021
After watching the first episode of Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye on t Disney + Network, the one thing I can say the creators retained of the legacy Hawkeye character is the color purple.
- The color purple is often associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, and ambition.
Before Jeremy Renner ever shot an arrow there was an orphaned outcast who donned a purple and black cowl named Hawkeye in Marvel Comics.
Trained to be a Master Archer by the villain Sword Master and guided by his quest for love and acceptance, traveled from team to team in an attempt to make a family or find a home.
In contrast, Kate Bishop is born to an ultra-wealthy parent, who loses her father in the battle for New York.
- The expression “purple speech” is used to describe profanity and bad language.
But the biggest question you will have for most of the episode is, who in hell are these people?
We are introduced to Kate Bishop as a small child. As her parents argue the Battle of Manhattan breaks out and her father is killed sitting at his desk in his office.
But Kate only needs to glimpse Hawkeye shoot an arrow to decide how she will honor her father’s legacy.
Become a World-Class Dancer, Equestrian, Martial Artist, Gymnast, Fencer, and of course Archer. And she plays soccer too.
This girl is so talented athletically, metals fall out of her butt as she is talking to her mother who comments it's time for a new trophy case, for all of the butt medals.
Other meanings associated with the color purple:
- The phrase “purple cow” refers to something remarkable, amazing, unique, stand-out, eye-catching, or unusual.
There is a lot of attention paid to Kate’s Wardrobe.
In Haley Seinfeld’s first scene in the series, she is attempting to ring a bell with an arrow.
When she removes her overcoat, she is wearing a black and purple one-piece jumpsuit. But the scene is shot in the dark and hard to make out.
Traditionally, this would be the skin-tight suit to get the guys more involved in a female hero.
But it's 2022 so a fourteen-year-old boy is the body type of the day.
In another very confusing scene, Kate is at a cocktail party.
Kate’s mother provides her a dress for the occasion but not this rebel! She can pick out her clothes!
Or can she?
Kate is confused for a waiter immediately because, she is…wearing a tuxedo?
But… she’s not. Her coat is black, her shirt is black and her pants are black, she’s just
wearing black. Okay, let it go… but wait!
A character who introduces himself as, “Don’t you remember me? You used to have dinners with me!”
(Again, who the hell are these people!?)
Asks, “Are you attending your mother’s wedding?”
Kate is completely unaware her mother is getting re-married?
Then he remarks, “But you won’t be wearing that tuxedo, will you?
So, that’s was a tuxedo is now?
Yeah, the tuxedo scene… haunts me.
- The term “purple prose” is used in reference to large exaggerations, lies, and highly imaginative writings.
If you look up Kate Bishop in the Marvel Wikipedia you are told: Kate Bishop is the daughter of Derek Bishop and Eleanor Bishop and the sister of Susan Bishop. [1]
That’s it. This is because Kate Bishop is no one in the Marvel Universe before the events which occur in the Young Avenger in 2005
Much like Re Re William, the young, female Iron Man. Kate’s origin story is, well, she stole it from the Avengers headquarters.
Donning the gear of Mockingbird and Hawkeye, as well as what may be Swordsman's sword and Black Widow's belt, Kate Bishop’s Hawkeye was born!
With character depth like this, how could you go wrong?
Clint Barton’s Hawkeye, on the other hand, has two pages of character description in the Marvel Database and key storylines over the last 60 years.
And the show stays true to form for the origin story of the new M-She-U – Kate steals the Ronin sword and costume from an underground auction.
- The saying “purple haze” refers to confusion or euphoria which may be drug-induced.
Next, we are introduced to a very grey and depressed Clint Barton who is fostering some Eastern European Children and a special needs kid.
I am assuming this because we were introduced to Hawkeye’s family in Avenger’s End Game. They disappeared during the Snap…I cried for those people!
These are not those people.
These kids look like they escaped from a Russian Ballet Company. And the kid with the Bow Tie? You got me.
- Too much purple brings out qualities of irritability, impatience, and arrogance. Too little purple brings out feelings of powerlessness, negativity, and apathy.
The addition of the dog to the story is inconsequential.
Classically, the dog saves the lead character and therefore owes a debt to the dog and cares him back to health.
Nope, this dog is getting hit by a car when Kate flips over the dog and scoops him up… basically on accident.
But that’s enough for Kate to bring him home and call him, her own. (That’s so Kate!)
It is also an accident how Kate steals the Ronin sword and costume!
She did not go to the cocktail party to procure it.
She has not come to a hurdle she can’t cross unless she has the costume and sword.
She just happens to end up with them.
I got a suit and a sword. I’m already all trained up! Might as well become an Avenger!
That works at Comic-Con but not on Disney plus.
Unlike shows like Falcon and Winter Soldier where Disney took established characters and twisted them to suit today’s Political Pop-Culture, Kate Bishop has no past to distort.
She is a blank slate with no character motivation, no foes, no allies, no purpose but to pull Jeremy Renner out of Avengers retirement so people will watch.
But with no Mythos to destroy the “Creatives” at Marvel Disney seem plumb out of ideas!
CBS&D Review: Book Of Boba Fett Episode 4
CBS&D Review:
Book Of Boba Fett Episode 4
IT’S THE BOOK OF CLUMSY WRITING BUT I’M STILL IN!
Disney + aired the 4th Episode of The Book of Boba Fett on January 19th. And although this is some of the clumsiest storytelling I have ever encountered; the conviction of the actors and my childlike curiosity will keep me coming back for more.
Most of the 4th Episode was done in flashback and for the first twenty-six minutes, it felt as if I was re-watching the first episode of the series or perhaps a different version of the first episode.
More than once I found myself saying out loud, “Yes, we know that already! What is the point of this Episode!”
It makes one wonder if the order of these Episodes is being changed in Post Production.
The Events of the Episode open with Boba forming a relationship with a Banta and patiently stalking the Aliens who killed his Sand People Pals.
His interlude with his Banta is interrupted by a flare signaling distress in the desert. Boba is quick to his feet and runs for the Banta only to maraud at a snail’s pace in the direction of the flare to offer his assistance.
When he turns over Ming in the desert, I forgot we were in FlashBack and asked myself, “Wouldn’t he know she was there?”
Boba brings Ming to a Youth Center… Record Store… Drug Den? Nope, it’s a Tattoo Parlor… oh screw it! The place that you bring people when they are about to die in the desert!
Here Ming’s insides are replaced with chunky metal gears.
I was confused because there was no blood AT ALL during this injury or operation so one is left to assume Ming When was a robot to begin with.
Later we find out that is not the case. She is a living breathing human, she just has no blood or internal organs and a clean cavity where one’s guts would be housed on an average Asian woman in her 50’s.
But I digress.
Boba and Ming form a tentative partnership as Ming explains she is a free agent (very timely). I associate with Ming being a Free Agent like many Americans today.
I am every woman.
The shocking contrast between the dirty dingy ’70s of it all that is Star Wars against the bright shiny youthful gadgetry of this New Disney Star Wars they are trying to shoehorn in, pulls you out of the story so fast you are left wondering,
Who was that for?
I’m bitching I know. It’s because I love PARTS of this show.
You cannot deny the commitment of Temuera Morrison and Ming When is the perfect counterpart.
And the use of Practical Effects in this series is being criminally overlooked!
After filling Ming’s mid-section with metal, the two recapture Slave One from Jabba’s Palace.
The only real takeaway from this scene is they will not be calling Boba’s ship Salve One and…
there are only two Gamorrean’ s in the Star Wars Universe and their job history on their next application will read-only, Guard.
Once Ming and Boba have liberated Slave One, they revisit the Sarlacc Pit to recover Boba’s Armor.
And here, at 26:55 minutes, we finally start to get new information and the episode starts to move forward.
This scene is a Masterpiece!
Opening with a classic Stanley Kubrick / Ridley Scott Alien Encounter Camera Shot, where the light slowly disappears, and we are alone with the fear of the unknown.
The sound design of the struggling engines of Slave one against the roaring Sarlacc was Dolby-worthy.
The attention paid to the ship itself!
The differently shaded sheet of metal that covers the hull that gives the ship a slight sheen!
Nothing felt like it was done on a sound studio. Cranes were involved, actors were being tossed around. I NEED authenticity in my Sci-Fi and this scene delivered!
It was the one scene that had actual weight and consequence and saved the episode for me.
The Flash back ends with Boba in his healing chamber.
Now fully healed, he and Ming head into town.
Here, we are smashed in the face once again with a Disney Star Wars depiction of an Alien Casino.
The Casino looks like a bad commercial for the Galactic Star Cruiser and feels like the opening to that crap show Vegas with James Caan.
The action is always the same, the music is jarring, and the costuming looks like it was pulled from the original movie. Mouths don’t move, necks don’t turn, eyes don’t blink.
Unforgivable Costuming in the age of Professional Cosplay.
Still pissed from his encounter with Boba from the previous Episode, Krrsantan drinks too much and toss some Lizard people around.
Boba sees the opportunity to hire Krrsantan and his “tribe” seems close to being formed.
The episode concludes with Boba meeting with the heads of the neighborhood crime syndicates to show them his new Rancor in an effort to intimidate them to work in cooperation.
It works and Boba Fett seems to be on his way to actually leading rather than continually attempting to catch up.
The biggest issue I have with this series is the shocking conflict between the Dirty Low-Tech look of the original Star Wars and the Neon Gadgetry that represents Disney Star Wars contribution.
I can’t see anyone associating with these newly designed characters!
From the owner of the place that you bring people in the desert when they are about to die to the English Theater Majors from Episode 3.
They are an amalgam of what a twenty-seven-year-old fan fiction writer would think is cool.
Hot Topic is a Planet in this Star Wars Universe now, it’s the only thing I can come up with.
At some point, Disney will have to resolve the identity crisis Star Wars has become. It may require jettisoning the legacy characters altogether and relying on Rey, Kylo, and the New Republic to guide Disney Parks into the future.
At some points watching this show feels like watching the vulture picking only the tasty parts from the corpse of Star Wars and leaving the undesirable parts for the scavengers.
The Problem is the fans have become the scavengers looking for something good in all the bloody mess.
