The Book of Boba Fett, My Rambling Review
The Boba Fett action figure was one of my favorite toys
(Spoilers up until episode three)
Three episodes in, and I still can’t figure out why I should care about any of this.
The whole deal of this show is that Boba Fett has taken over Jaba the Hutt’s criminal enterprise on Tatooine. The story, if you can call it that, is tracking Boba’s efforts to assert control over the territories in his domain.
But… why, though? Why does Boba Fett want to be a crime lord, or whatever kind of ruler? Why does he not want to be a bounty hunter anymore? Why should I be rooting for him to succeed? Is he supposed to be somehow a more just, more respectable ruler? Why does he want to be on Tatooine when there’s a whole universe of other planets to go to?
We just have no idea why any of this is happening or if it matters. There’s not really a story because there isn’t any real implication of character development. We see Boba be captured by Tusken Raiders who grow to accept him… Hollywood sure does love stories about men being accepted by natives. Anyway… but while we see Boba do what he needs to survive, he’s not really changed. He’s kind of a dour guy ready for a fight at the start, and he’s still a dour guy ready for a fight after all he’s been through so far.
The obvious comparison to make here is between this show and The Mandalorian, the show which has inspired what appears to be an upcoming flood of similar projects. The basic idea of having lots of different shows following different characters is fine, because the Star Wars universe is so expansive, you can kind of do whatever you want with it. And I personally know Star Wars fans who have an absolutely bottomless appetite for more Star Wars content.
But the magic of The Mandalorian wasn’t in the exotic sets, the cool character designs, the action sequences, or all the weaving of references and lore into a new narrative that’s more dynamic than the recent movies. The magic is in the relationship between Mando and baby Yoda. Yeah, I know his name is Groo or whatever. I prefer baby Yoda.
Anyway, from the moment Mando steals baby Yoda and is on the lam, I was hooked. The stakes and the character development is straight forward. Keep the child safe. Simple and compelling.
In this show, I don’t know what the core driver is. Boba seems to just be doing all this power consolidation for his own benefit. Why would I want to watch some selfish dick become more successful at ruling over people who don’t seem to really want to be ruled by him?
I’m a little concerned that the makers of this show think that anything Boba Fett does is interesting simply because he’s Boba Fett, and Boba Fett is just inherently cool, isn’t he?
Is he?
There’s a part of me that is pained by saying this, because way, way back in the day, I loved Boba Fett. As a child, the Boba Fett action figure was one of my my favorite toys, I knew he was cool from the moment he showed up in the animation in the abortive Christmas Special, I loved when he showed up in Empire Strikes Back.
I now see that a big component of his awesomeness was that he actually didn’t have a lot of screen time or speaking lines in the movies, he just stood around looking cool in his armor, which was stylistically innovative at the time. His overall silence meant that one could project all their own fantasies of what he’s like as a character onto his visage.
Here, though, we’re getting over exposed to this guy, and yet somehow not learning much of anything. For all his lines and screen time, I have no idea what need is in his heart that he wants to satisfy, and why an audience should want to watch him as opposed to anyone else.
He needs a baby Yoda. Not an actual baby Yoda, of course. Or even specifically a companion or a dependent or anything like that. He just needs that thing that drives him, that he would die for.
As it is, not only do I not know why he is doing anything that he does, I’m not even really sure what he’s doing. He keeps getting referred to as “daimyo,” which is Japanese for “lord,” indicating there’s maybe some kind of functioning political system that he’s trying to slot into. But on the other hand, I got the distinct impression that Jabba the Hutt, Boba Fett’s predecessor in this position, was a crime lord of some kind. So is Boba a new sheriff in town trying to bring order, or is he looking to finally get his big reward after a lifetime of working for others? I don’t know if Boba wants to exploit or save this territory. I don’t even know if he’s a good or bad person, or somewhere in between, or what.
I’m sorry to say as well that I’m just not buying the actor playing Boba Fett. Though, to be fair, without knowing if Boba Fett is a good guy, or bad guy, or complicated protagonist, or what, it would be hard for any actor to find the right tone. More than that, though, I have questions about his suitability for the role.
From what we can infer from the sequence of events we’re shown, it seems that we’re catching up with Boba Fett just after we last saw him in The Return of the Jedi, where he was dropped into a sarlacc pit in a rather silly way, upsetting fans in the process. I got the feeling that Boba, at the time of Return of the Jedi, was in his prime as a bounty hunter. His services were in demand by the empire and Jabba because he was one of the best.
We were told by Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi that people who fall into the sarlacc pitt are kept alive to be digested over a thousand painful years. Why a creature would expend energy to extend how long it takes to absorb energy from food is the kind of thing you don’t want to think about if you want to enjoy Star Wars. Anyway, the point is, Boba could have been in the pit for a long time.
On the other hand, we know this show happens within a frame of time between Return of the Jedi and whichever was the first movie of the most recent trilogy. Fortunately, nerds online have done all the math, you can look it up if you want, and it’s been established that The Mandalorian takes place five years after Return of the Jedi. We first clearly saw Boba in the second season of The Mandalorian, but, in this show we know he was running around and doing things for at least a few months, more likely a few years, before that.
So he goes into the sarlacc pit as a man in the prime of his life, and then in this show we see him emerge anywhere from a day to three or four years later, where he’s now an out of shape man in his late middle age or so. I guess being in a sarlacc pit would take it’s toll on a person, but, I kind of feel at this point that I’m doing the work in the show’s behalf to try and find a justification for why this actor should be playing this part.
Ultimately, timelines aside, Boba’s lack of physicality weighs the show down. The fight scenes, which are key for a show like this, are kind of clunky and so clearly edited to work around the actor’s lack of stage combat skills.
As opposed to his sidekick in this show, played by Ming Na Wen. She looks ready and able to do flying kicks and back flips. Of course, it’s stunt doubles doing the major action, but the transitional moments involving her don’t look anywhere near as obvious as with Boba.
Maybe this show should be about her. I’d watch that at least as much as I’d watch this.
Of course, it shouldn’t be entirely on the main actors to pull off all the action. With sufficient production value, almost anything can be made to look right. But, here’s where we hit another snag in this show.
This show feels like it’s being made by the understudies of the people who make The Mandalorian. A lot of the special effects, like the Hutt twins and the rancor beast, are high quality and totally believable. But that level of quality isn’t consistent. There are a couple moments where the special effects really fall down, like when there’s clearly a green screen composite. There are a lot of scenes where it’s just a little too obvious it’s being filmed on a set inside a studio. And the action is frequently very underwhelming.
There’s a fight to take over a train, and that was decent. But in episode three, there’s a chase scene where Boba’s completely non-threatening Brooklyn hipster minions on custom hover-Vespas chase after a guy in a nineteen fifties Buick shaped speeder, and it all happens at the speed of a brisk walk. It’s presented as if it’s supposed to be this crazy high speed chase through narrow streets, but the editing and filming just failed to convey that. It looked very much like everything was going at the safe speeds they actually moved at on set so as not to violate any insurance requirements.
One bike jumps from a ramp of stairs, and it gets all of maybe one meter into the air. Maybe. It’s… unimpressive.
The overall production might be just a notch lower than The Mandalorian. But, it’s still on a level much higher than most other shows of this type. These days we’re kind of spoiled for choice, so, standards are going up.
Ultimately it comes down, as it usually does, to story and characters.
I wouldn’t care at all that Boba Fett looked a little silly as he was being thrown around by a dreadlocked Wookie if I had to reason to care who won that fight. Frankly, I’m not sure I wouldn’t rather see a show about that Wookie’s back story. He seems to have a little more personality than Boba.
So does everyone, really.
