The Mandalorian Season 3

Boba Head Blues

The Mandalorian Season 3
Streaming March - April 2023
8 episodes

Okay, so I’m grudgingly watching the third series of The Mandalorian now because I feel like I should go and see the first new Star Wars movie we’ve had in cinemas for a while, in a couple of weeks. According to a work colleague, I also have to try and watch the woman who sounds like a sneeze series too, before I can fully appreciate the new film. So... yeah, I’ll need to try and catch up to that one too but I’m feeling less than optimistic. And I’m warning you right up front here... this is going to be a fairly short review. 

So, all in all, I thought this third season of the show was somewhat better than the last two, despite the fact that my favourite character hasn’t returned because the overly sensitive people at the nameless channel who are producing this show managed to cancel the actress who was the best thing about the show. But I’m not going in to all that rubbish here.
 
Now, maybe it’s because they’ve lost the 1950s-1970s TV western vibe they nicely had going for it in the previous two series and instead replaced it with an overriding story arc, is why I responded to this one more. Specifically to do with the character played by Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in the modern reboot of Battlestar Galactica) and that kinda held my interest... it’s a way of keeping a few standalone stories in as side mission quests while constantly referring to the overall arc... a bit similar to the way The X Files finally wrecked themselves, when that overreaching arc needed resolving and outstayed its welcome. 

We have The Mandalorian played, as far as I know, by Pedro Pascal and his Lone Wolf And Cub-style sidekick Grogu, played by a bunch of pixels. I say as far as I know because, as is ‘the way’, Pascal never once shows his face in this series at all and two other actors also play the main character. So... I’m guessing that Pascal only provides the voice here but, I may be wrong.

And it’s entertaining enough, I guess. 

There are a few fair bad things about the show... like the longest and most interesting episode about the sabotaged reintegration of a former imperial clone specialist seeming to have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story other than a quick, plug in reference. Thus rendering it a pointless episode with no real punchline other than some clones, which you really already suspected were out there, being introduced literally as a throwaway moment in the last episode, which was already referred to enough in another episode. So... yeah, the most interesting bit of Star Wars in a while got kinda derailed before it had even got a chance to properly shine. 

Another episode starring Jack Black, musical artist Lizzo and Christopher Lloyd, is kind of like an adrenalised version of Franz Kafka’s The Trial but, rather than stay with that concept, just includes too much action and not enough of the main protagonists tying themselves in knots trying to get past the bureaucratic web. So, yeah. I definitely had some issues... not to mention that Grogu kind of plays a secondary role in these episodes. I wanted to see more of him in action than I was getting in this third series. 

But, for the sake of not being completely negative about the way a certain company has bought and managed to completely neutralise anything that was good about the Star Wars brand... there are a few nice things I’d like to shout out about here. 

So we had the mouse robot from the Death Star using the same sound sample, making yet another appearance here (plus it’s brought some friends). And we also had R5D4 from the original Star Wars movie (later renamed Episode IV - A New Hope for the various 1978 and 1979 re-releases) playing a major role as The Mandalorian’s new droid. I still have my old 1978 action figure of this droid up in my loft and they haven’t changed much about the character (it maybe looks slightly less beat up). 

The other nice thing was Mando (to his friends) working his way through a set of delayed opening shield doors and taking out various troopers as he goes. It was done in a slightly different manner but it was a nice nod to the best of the prequel movies, The Phantom Menace... and it allowed for the same sense of frustrated anticipation in the characters watching from the opposite side of the various shield doors. So that was good stuff. 

And, yeah, sorry but that’s me done for this season. I’m kinda hoping both characters meet their final fates in the new movie (death or whatever), selfishly so I don’t have to sit through another season of this show. The House Of Mouse definitely need to calm their Star Wars output down and desist from watering down the franchise anymore, I feel. Just release a new movie every three to ten years may be a better way of continuing the brand. At least that’s how I’d deal with what they’ve done to it. But, hey, I’m sure they’re making more short term money just milking it dry for now so, yeah, you can tell I’m not that optimistic about the Star Wars franchise these days. This is the way.

Borderlands

A Border
Understanding

Borderlands
Directed by Eli Roth
USA 2024
Lionsgate
UK cinema cut

Warning: Some insinuated spoilers.

Well now, I’ve not played the video game Borderlands, which this film is based on, so I really can’t tell you how close of an adaptation this movie is. Not that close is my guess. I also have a problem with the films of Eli Roth... I don/t like them (the few I’ve seen by him) so I went into this expecting to be disappointed.

You might then ask why I went to see this movie in the first place?

Two reasons. Firstly the trailer was bright, colourful, had some nice stabs at humour and with a lot going on. Secondly, one of the main protagonists, bounty hunter Lilith, is played by Cate Blanchett... who I think is one of the greatest actresses of her generation. Not to mention that Jamie Lee Curtis is also in the movie. So I was going on trust that if Blanchett had signed on for it, there must be something to the script.

Now, I’d like to be able to tell you I finally loved a movie that Eli Roth directed. However, as I was coming home I looked up the trivia on this title and found that he’d shot the movie in 2021 and finished a cut early 2022 which was all in keeping with the violence and bleakness of the video game on which it is based. However, the studio didn’t go for this so they held it over for two years and got another director to come in and shoot/reshoot a load of scenes to try and dumb the movie down to a lower certificate... what in the UK is a 12A (says it all about how rubbish studios are and how their executives make bad decisions).

The punchline to all this is that, in spite of really terrible reviews coming in for this film (presumably written by people who have played the game and been disappointed by the deviations from the tone the film takes), I actually really loved the movie and I will definitely be picking up the Blu Ray at some point, if and when it arrives on proper physical media. I just don’t know if the parts of the movie I’m responding to are Eli Roth, the original director, or the next guy along.

But I did really like it and I even found Jack Black, playing the voice of the irritating robot character, to be less irritating (in terms of me being able to put up with him) and fairly entertaining also.

Yeah, it feels like a typical, late 1980s/early 1990s sci-fi action flick and I generally had a good time with it (especially with the always watchable Gina Gershon playing a character who, I can only assume, is somewhat influenced by the style of Mae West, in a couple of scenes). It’s pacey, humourous, has some nicely edited action sequences and does most things right (even if the trailer maybe gives away too much, it has to be said). The rest of the cast are all great too, including Kevin Hart as an ex-soldier, Ariana Greenblatt as ‘the chosen one’ and Edgar Ramirez playing a nasty villain.

Having said all that, though, it does have a couple of tiny problems.

Firstly, there’s a scene where Kevin Hart’s character sacrifices himself against overwhelming odds as a gazillion psycho killers jump on him. Later on, he just gets up and extricates himself from a pile of dead bodies. Did I miss something here? My best guess on what the hell happened (it’s never explained) is that the character was supposed to die there but the studio brought him back for the reshoots and didn’t bother to explain things. That is just a guess, though.

Secondly, there’s a so called twist near the end (which I’m assuming is also in the game on which it’s based) involving the character played by Cate Blanchett and a certain deus ex machina moment at a crucial point. It’s badly telegraphed and I think anyone paying attention to her character’s back story will be able to figure things out from about 20 minutes into the film. You can see it a mile off and... my best guess is that it’s an element from the video game and that they didn’t want to lose it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the moment and its implications but... I’d almost rather the writers had changed their minds about this because, honestly, it’s hard not to guess that this is coming from very early on in the film.

But, other than those two small things, I’m happy to report that I really liked Borderlands and will be recommending it to people for sure. A cinematic throwback, maybe but, a nicely done one, I think.