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.
