Latest / Film Curious / Mando in the Middle | The Mandalorian and Grogu Non-Spoiler Review: Some Shining Spots, Some Missed Opportunities, But Mainly Decent

Transcript

Mando in the Middle | The Mandalorian and Grogu Non-Spoiler Review: Some Shining Spots, Some Missed Opportunities, But Mainly Decent · Film Curious

• 0:00
  Hey guys.
• 0:00
  Welcome back to film Curious Ashley here.
• 0:02
  This episode Pete's giving you a non spoiler
• 0:04
  review of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
• 0:06
  We actually recorded this at the same time as our deep dive on obsession,
• 0:10
  but we felt we didn't want either to take away from the other.
• 0:13
  Plus, we will acknowledge
• 0:14
  these films are totally unrelated to other than them being new releases.
• 0:17
  So thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy this fun little chat.
• 0:36
  Hey. How's everyone?
• 0:37
  Good morning.
• 0:38
  Yeah, so saw Amanda and Grogu and
• 0:42
  there's nothing to spoil.
• 0:44
  Like there's nothing that happens
• 0:46
  that is overly consequential for the future of the show.
• 0:49
  And I think that's a plus and a negative.
• 0:51
  It's a plus because I'm tired of all these things being required,
• 0:54
  watching for you to know what's you know, what's what's happening season to season.
• 1:00
  That's TV that happens. That's fine.
• 1:02
  You're telling the long narrative, I get it.
• 1:04
  But asking people to stay up with the stuff.
• 1:07
  When the last season of The Mandalorian was like three years ago,
• 1:10
  also or two years ago, it's been a really long time.
• 1:13
  Seven out of ten.
• 1:15
  The first half of the film is way better than the second half of the film,
• 1:20
  and the first half of the film is kind of a bond film.
• 1:24
  There is a cold open,
• 1:27
  you're in the snow, which makes me think of bond films
• 1:30
  a lot of times skiing, but you have a cold open.
• 1:34
  He's going after a target.
• 1:35
  It then leads him to go back and speak
• 1:39
  to kind of it's not his boss, but like it's sort of his.
• 1:43
  M That's Sigourney Weaver in this, and she gives him
• 1:46
  the next mission, and then he goes out in the next mission.
• 1:50
  And it's a blow felt, ass looking guy.
• 1:54
  So the first half of the film had a really nice pace to it.
• 2:00
  It was in a lot of it was in numerous different locations.
• 2:03
  So at least you felt like
• 2:04
  you were getting more of a scope than what you would normally get on the show.
• 2:09
  The second half of the film really shrinks down to one location.
• 2:14
  It's kind of just brown a lot on the planet
• 2:19
  that that you're on, and I think the helmet is a problem.
• 2:24
  I just I can't get past this.
• 2:26
  I think the helmet with this character is holding this character back
• 2:30
  from having emotions that we can link into.
• 2:33
  And if you're a Star Wars person or something, you're like, oh, well,
• 2:36
  you could read the emotion on Vader's face.
• 2:39
  Yeah, he had one emotion pissed for like 99%.
• 2:43
  Of yeah, I had that until like
• 2:45
  the very end when he had like the conflict, you know, and all that.
• 2:49
  And then what does he do?
• 2:50
  He takes the fucking helmet off. So.
• 2:53
  Right, like, you know, for him to really connect
• 2:55
  with his son, his his, like, dying request to take this helmet off.
• 3:00
  And I as a fan, my dying request is take the stupid helmet off,
• 3:04
  because you only get to see Pedro in one scene,
• 3:07
  and it's not a scene where he's communicating with his son.
• 3:11
  You know, whatever you want to call for Grogu,
• 3:13
  and you're missing such an like, you're just.
• 3:18
  You're missing out on all this stuff.
• 3:20
  There's a scene where he's kind of watching Grogu
• 3:24
  play with someone else, and it's just a shot of his mask, right?
• 3:30
  Like, I get the intent, but I'd like to actually see this
• 3:34
  very talented actor get to emote
• 3:37
  and act, and I don't we don't get to see that.
• 3:40
  And the show in the past, I kind of tackled the dogma of the mask
• 3:45
  and you thought like, okay, he's going to do he's going to go
• 3:48
  the other way, because more than half of the Mandalorians
• 3:52
  that we interact with on a normal basis on this show, they don't wear the mask.
• 3:56
  You know, Bo-Katan is one of the main characters.
• 3:58
  She never wears a mask,
• 4:00
  never really does.
• 4:02
  She takes a mask on and off all the time.
• 4:04
  I just don't see the point of it anymore.
• 4:06
  I get it, it's part of his heritage, blah, blah blah.
• 4:08
  But he's moved away from that heritage and he's become like,
• 4:11
  you can become a bigger character than just where it started from.
• 4:13
  So I really do think that that's holding the character back.
• 4:16
  That aside, Jeremy Allen White plays a hot rod of the hunt,
• 4:21
  which if you're a fan of the animated series, it's very funny seeing this
• 4:24
  character come back, but probably the best character in the movie
• 4:28
  who thought actually has like an arc that, you know, you get to,
• 4:33
  you know, you get to experience a little bit and you at least learn
• 4:37
  like where he came from and where he's going next.
• 4:40
  Everyone else kind of seems stuck in time.
• 4:43
  So like, there's a bounty hunter that shows up.
• 4:46
  And if I didn't know his name, I don't think you will be able to know his name.
• 4:52
  I don't think anyone says his name in the entire film, which is fine.
• 4:56
  You can, you know, Man With No Name trilogy.
• 4:58
  Literally, The Man With No Name didn't have a name, but
• 5:02
  it's weird, you know, there's another character who's in it.
• 5:05
  If you're a rebel stand, you know Zeb, you really know Zeb.
• 5:08
  He could be going back to the James Bond thing.
• 5:12
  He's kind of like slider.
• 5:13
  He works to the big organization, you know, opposite Mando or that Mando
• 5:18
  sometimes works with. I guess you could say it that way.
• 5:20
  And you don't learn anything about him.
• 5:22
  Like,
• 5:22
  if you don't already know who Zeb is, you don't learn a single thing about him.
• 5:27
  You don't know where he came from.
• 5:28
  He was in the show. He was in a bar.
• 5:31
  He just showed up in a bar for a scene as, like, a little hello to the fans, right?
• 5:35
  I remember.
• 5:36
  That, and that was it.
• 5:37
  Like, beyond that, you don't know anything about this cat.
• 5:40
  And yet he's teaming up with Mando
• 5:42
  in like the first half of the film, and he shows up at the second half.
• 5:46
  I have no idea if these guys are even friends.
• 5:48
  I mean, they seem to be, but like, where did he come from?
• 5:52
  Who is he?
• 5:53
  You got to throw the audience a little bit more information, I think, on things
• 5:56
  like this, because part of that, you know, again, this is a standalone thing.
• 6:00
  You don't need to watch the show, which is good, but it also just feels,
• 6:05
  you know, like it couldn't it didn't really need to be a two hour movie.
• 6:10
  It was like fan service in a way.
• 6:11
  If you're not gonna.
• 6:13
  Know, the fan service is weird.
• 6:15
  The fan service, I would say, is something they've done before where
• 6:18
  the directors of episodes kind of Hitchcock themselves into scenes,
• 6:24
  and in particular, they're like a group of pilots
• 6:27
  and they're all sitting at one table and this and that.
• 6:30
  There's like the fan service isn't really there, which is good,
• 6:34
  because I don't need that out of it.
• 6:35
  I don't need to be patted on the head, you know.
• 6:37
  Well, I guess the DJ scene, if you really that could be fan service.
• 6:41
  There's an entire fight scene that the visuals and the who is in
• 6:45
  the fight is all based on that chess game from A new Hope that, you know,
• 6:50
  unless you remember that specific thing, you're going to be like,
• 6:53
  what the hell is this?
• 6:54
  Look, I don't know what this means.
• 6:56
  Which is fine. You can get away with that, too.
• 6:58
  And you don't have to explain every, every single thing.
• 7:01
  But yeah, it was just the second half really slowed down.
• 7:05
  Grogu was on his own for a while, which is straight
• 7:08
  up out of a storyline in Lone Wolf and Cub,
• 7:12
  but I don't I just don't think he's that interesting of a character on his own.
• 7:18
  And while he has some growth in that, like it's the first time
• 7:22
  that he has to really take care of himself and take care of of Mando.
• 7:28
  Man, this, I mean, go, I can't go, I won't say it because it's a spoiler,
• 7:31
  but like, there's a moment for real nice emotional moment
• 7:35
  and he's just wearing that goddamn helmet again,
• 7:39
  says, this is the way.
• 7:40
  And you're like, it's actually it's like the biggest whiff in the movie
• 7:45
  is this emotional spot that they could have really
• 7:47
  had a nice moment with, but they just won't take him out of the helmet.
• 7:51
  I don't know what the reason is.
• 7:52
  I know everyone's like, oh, well, Disney doesn't want to pay Pedro Pascal.
• 7:57
  Maybe you definitely could be.
• 7:59
  It could be that his schedule also does not fit for shooting an entire film.
• 8:03
  But whatever it is, try to.
• 8:05
  It just
• 8:06
  there's got to be a better, a better way of kind of presenting this character.
• 8:10
  Because ever since season two, I've sort of got uninterested with Mandalorian
• 8:17
  just to to
• 8:17
  go into it just for a hot second and we'll get the hell out of here.
• 8:22
  At the end of season two, you had Luke Skywalker
• 8:24
  save everyone
• 8:24
  because
• 8:25
  our heroes are useless in the show, so we had to have a nostalgic pat on the head
• 8:28
  that, no, it's okay.
• 8:30
  Luke Skywalker is the greatest.
• 8:31
  Kids like really stupid.
• 8:34
  And they separate Mando Grogu in that.
• 8:38
  That's like the big, you know, heartfelt finale.
• 8:41
  And then before the next season even started, they got him back together.
• 8:47
  They did it in the Boba Fett.
• 8:48
  But as I say, Boba Fett, what a weird like, could you imagine this year.
• 8:53
  If you were like, hey, I like to spend a show, I'm not going to really watch this
• 8:57
  Boba Fett show.
• 8:58
  That's not that's a little too deep for me or whatever.
• 9:00
  It's not my interest.
• 9:01
  And then you sit down to watch season three and you're like.
• 9:06
  Yeah, you would have no idea.
• 9:07
  I remember actually talking about that at the time.
• 9:09
  I think we were we had a make remake, we the old podcast that we actually had done
• 9:15
  that I'm like, I remember going watching the episode come up.
• 9:18
  And I was.
• 9:19
  Like, did we turn on the right show like I was?
• 9:23
  I really thought there was like some kind of glitch in the,
• 9:26
  the streaming platform, just like, nope, nope.
• 9:29
  They just put it in Shi'ar Mando episode and served with it.
• 9:33
  Just to get them reunited.
• 9:34
  So like there's another moment of like, you know, separation.
• 9:39
  Why do I care?
• 9:40
  You couldn't do it.
• 9:41
  You couldn't let it last for, you know, an episode, an actual show.
• 9:45
  So that all said, it's still that first half is still fun.
• 9:49
  The second half has some good spots.
• 9:51
  The finale is kind of fun.
• 9:53
  There's actually I well, there actually, in the finale there is this fight
• 9:58
  between Mando and two giant droids and they I have not looked into it.
• 10:04
  They appear stop motion and it looks cool.
• 10:08
  It's it's really like the back half of the film is two CG
• 10:11
  and two swamp and two like muddy for me.
• 10:15
  But those two droids versus Mando, I was like, this is good stuff.
• 10:19
  This is really fun.
• 10:20
  I don't know if it was still Tippett, who's a stop motion legend who, like,
• 10:26
  kind of famously lost his career when, like, Lucasfilm went to digital.
• 10:31
  You know, they're like, we're not going to do stop motion anymore.
• 10:33
  Everything's going to be in a computer.
• 10:35
  And they've, you know, since then
• 10:36
  they've brought him back for a number of projects,
• 10:39
  and he's obviously done a lot of other stuff.
• 10:41
  But that fight was very cool.
• 10:43
  And I was like, oh, this is this is fun.
• 10:44
  And there's there's good action towards the end,
• 10:48
  but there's like a half hour where you just wish it was 15 minutes.
• 10:52
  And again, I won't go to into it has a couple of good moments
• 10:55
  of humor in there, but maybe lingers along too much.
• 10:58
  So yeah, seven out of ten I was hoping for.
• 11:02
  I wasn't expecting anything more.
• 11:04
  I was hoping they would surprise me, but I wasn't surprised at all. And
• 11:10
  great thing though.
• 11:11
  Huge marks on this no post, no post-credit horseshit,
• 11:15
  none of this, you know, stuff that Marvel has become.
• 11:19
  So, you know, blood tied to that.
• 11:21
  They have to do it no matter what.
• 11:23
  Nowadays, it seems none of that.
• 11:26
  It's just this thing.
• 11:27
  And if you don't watch this movie, you can watch whatever happens next.
• 11:32
  And I don't think you will miss a beat.
• 11:35
  Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
• 11:38
  I don't know,
• 11:39
  there's two arguments to that, because you should be able
• 11:42
  to go to the movie, see a movie and then how would I stay?
• 11:45
  Thank you.
• 11:45
  I had a good time on the other half.
• 11:49
  This is the first time you saw this character in a long time,
• 11:52
  and he doesn't change at all.
• 11:55
  And that seems like a bad thing.
• 11:57
  So yeah, very.
• 12:00
  It's a mixed bag. It's more on the positive.
• 12:02
  I would watch this a hundred times
• 12:05
  before I would ever sit down to watch rise of the resistance again.
• 12:08
  I mean it, Rise of Skywalker. Sorry. I thought that's what you meant.
• 12:11
  Yeah, yeah, sorry. I tried to forget it. That one.
• 12:14
  Yeah, well, that's why I was like, yeah, that's good from the name.
• 12:18
  But like, Disney has to let Lucas film pick a goddamn road.
• 12:22
  Obi-Wan was supposed to be a film.
• 12:24
  They changed it into a series.
• 12:25
  This kind of feels like it was going to be part of the series, but since then
• 12:29
  they're like, oh, we can't make a zillion dollars on streaming.
• 12:32
  Surprise! No, you can't,
• 12:36
  like, make
• 12:36
  make these into movies and pick a road and try to, like, excel in it.
• 12:41
  Because actually, I remember we were talking to my wife, Melissa.
• 12:45
  We were there when they introduced this film
• 12:48
  and John Savage was announced as the director.
• 12:52
  He's like, it was a big deal.
• 12:53
  It was like, it's going to be my first feature film, going to be director.
• 12:56
  It's not directed by Favreau.
• 12:57
  It's it's I mean felony.
• 12:59
  Sorry.
• 13:00
  It was supposed to be Dave Filoni, his first director film.
• 13:03
  It's not. It's it's from Favreau.
• 13:05
  Because somewhere along the line in there, things totally changed.
• 13:08
  Probably because
• 13:09
  Colonia is going to be getting a bigger position overall in the company.
• 13:13
  So they were like, you can't do this and do the other show.
• 13:16
  And, you know, look, you can't do that.
• 13:19
  We don't have time for that or something, just like spreadsheets in.
• 13:22
  But it shows how sort of, I don't know, just
• 13:27
  everyone feels like announcing things before they're ready to be announced.
• 13:32
  And it's doesn't help anything.
• 13:36
  No. I don't I don't think hyping a movie three years before it comes out matters.
• 13:41
  I just don't think anyone gives a shit they forgot already, right?
• 13:46
  They can't remember an advertisement that happened 20s ago.
• 13:49
  They're not going to remember and like, have this big emotional attachment to
• 13:52
  something that was announced three years ago.
• 13:55
  You don't have to do it.
• 13:56
  Just keep yourself quiet until you're ready to actually show something.
• 13:59
  Yeah. So.
• 14:00
  Marketing should.
• 14:01
  Probably be done full force three months.
• 14:03
  Before at. This. Point with everything. So.
• 14:07
  Oh, and to people who don't go to that, which I'm assuming not many people,
• 14:11
  a lot of people listen to this.
• 14:12
  They probably go to the movies a lot.
• 14:13
  Oh boy. Or people who don't go to the movies a lot.
• 14:16
  Being real surprised that it takes 35 minutes
• 14:19
  after a movie starts for the movie to start.
• 14:25
  AMC is an awful theater chain.
• 14:28
  There are 7 or 8 commercials for the theater that I'm sitting in
• 14:33
  while I just want.
• 14:35
  It was a lot of trailers.
• 14:36
  Yeah, I saw both films at.
• 14:39
  An AMC because. It were.
• 14:41
  These horror movies weren't playing at other theaters, and yeah, but.
• 14:45
  They.
• 14:46
  Give you, hey, you've got 25 to 30 minutes.
• 14:49
  Before. It says it on the app.
• 14:51
  And it's like, okay, but you still, if you're not going to pay the ticket fees
• 14:55
  because who wants that?
• 14:56
  And you don't have their stub pass or whatever, you're just going to show. Up.
• 14:59
  By your tickets.
• 15:00
  But then you have the problem of, I mean, there are just so many freaking trailers.
• 15:05
  So I guess, like,
• 15:06
  there's not that big of a deal of people sitting down during the trailers,
• 15:09
  but it does kind of, you know, ruin the experience of the lights are turned down.
• 15:13
  People are still coming back and forth
• 15:14
  because they know that they have so much time in between
• 15:18
  when the movie starts and the actual, you know, thing of the showtime.
• 15:22
  So my eyes are closed at this point,
• 15:25
  I'm just resting my eyes until the actual thing starts.
• 15:27
  I'm going to start bringing headphones and listening to the music
• 15:30
  until the actual music starts.
• 15:32
  So everyone who thinks they're making money off that each ship, you're not.
• 15:36
  I don't know, you know, it's like YouTube ads.
• 15:39
  They're muted. Don't care about them.
• 15:42
  Go see it.
• 15:43
  I thought I had a good time with it.
• 15:45
  I'll watch it again when it comes out. Of ten.
• 15:47
  Is it really. I say that's a high.
• 15:50
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 15:52
  Well yeah I could see someone going like six and a half, six.
• 15:55
  I can, I could see that easily.
• 15:57
  I'd be surprised if someone went higher because I would be curious as to
• 16:01
  what was it, you know,
• 16:02
  was it just seeing Star Wars on the big screen,
• 16:03
  which I think is a weird thing to just like, give it to?
• 16:07
  I also think it's just it's the usual with that franchise.
• 16:11
  There's this really weird group of people who,
• 16:16
  like, get so
• 16:17
  angry about this and they think that there are like rules
• 16:22
  that it needs to follow and this and that and get the fuck out of here.
• 16:26
  Like these people, they're weird.
• 16:29
  They're very weird.
• 16:31
  And they just I don't know how they find
• 16:33
  time in their life to to worry about it all the time.
• 16:36
  But yeah.
• 16:37
  So yeah, movies they happen.
• 16:40
  Well fan does stand for fanatic.
• 16:43
  So yeah.
• 16:46
  So just fucking dumb fandom is a real break that down dumb.
• 16:53
  Fan changed the end of that.
• 16:56
  We're.
• 16:59
  Hey guys.
• 16:59
  Ashley here.
• 17:00
  Thanks for listening to film. Curious if you enjoyed this episode.
• 17:03
  There's plenty more to come.
• 17:04
  I'll be reviewing new theatrical releases and new streaming as much as possible,
• 17:07
  so make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
• 17:10
  Thanks again. See you real soon.