SPOILER TBoBF ep.1 - A Stranger in a Strange Land

Hard disagree about the cinematography in Mando. It's not just about framing--it's about lighting, color grading, texture. Those elements are also what make digital footage feel cinematic--you don't need grain.

Not every episode is a visual masterpiece, but on the whole it's a gorgeous show and feels more like Hollywood than television. Thinking about Mando and Grogu coming over the hill with the egg in hand. Or the shot of Mando and Grogu reaching out for each other from the end of Episode 1.

That's one of the reasons the "filler" episodes never felt like filler to me; they're a visual feast.

Fast forward to Boba--the flashback sequences had great cinematography. The sequences of Boba and the Sand People really evoked classic epics for me.

but the present day sequences did feel a bit cheaper, and I don't know if it's because of the cinematography or the direction. There's alot of sitting and talking, standing and talking, walking and talking. Cinematography can help but it can only do so much if the action and the dialogue aren't in full swing.

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my phone fell on my face and accidentally disliked this post with my nose

 

@MandoChip
the stuff in mos espa did

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I do feel like the stuff in the city was a bit underwhelming, and I thought he would have a bigger posse. I liked everything with the sand peeples I wish this show was just boba becoming king of the sand peeples

 

Maybe it's just a Robert Rodriguez thing. The Tragedy is the "cheapest" looking Mandalorian episode and he directed it and now he did this. He's the king of cheap and low budget looking films but makes them work and this still works as a Star Wars show

 

Easter Eggs

 

Re-examining official tailer, it looks like the Ithorian sitting on the throne is most likely the mayor or Boba Fett's rival. The majordomo who greeted Boba Fett stands in the Ithorian's court.

 

@Mando LXXXV Yes I picked up on that too. Once again, I think it is because The Mandalorian was so frapping awesome - story, cinematography, characters....and SCORE. the Mando theme was immediately impactful and memorable......BoBF nossa much so far.

Is Goransson doing ALL the music duties for BoBF or is Joseph Shirley also composing? Shirley did work on Mandalorian too, and also was "score programmer" for Tenet, Venom and Black Panther.

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So who is directing Episode 2? It looks like Favreau, if this list is in order (from IMDB).....also I note no Famuyiwa episodes (loved his work on Mando)

 

On social media, people are saying Boba Fett is weak and soft, and he should be taking out fools like Jabba the Hutt.

He's not as athletic as Din Djarin, his movements are slow and sluggish.

It seems like people aren't following the story closely. Boba has changed, he has aged, he is not the same bounty hunter he was since he fell into fell into the sarlacc pit.

He could have viciously taken his armor from Din Djarin. He had Fennec Shand as a back up, yet he helped Din on his quest to deliver the child to a Jedi.

Din Djarin isn't a cold blooded bounty hunter as well. He cared for Grogu and delivered him to a Jedi.

Din could have just taken the bounty, end of story. Din and Boba are anti-heroes now, not just cold blooded bounty hunters...

Again, this is the first episode of the series maybe we'll see a fiercer version of Boba Fett as the story progresses, who knows...

On another note, Robert Rodriguez is sort of a hit or miss director. I was surprised that they made him executive producer of this show.

I believe they did this solely on the reception of the Tragedy chapter 14 of The Mandalorian.

Rodriguez is the director of Spy Kids 2001, so my expectations were very low.

The only films that I really enjoyed by him were Sin City 2005, Sin City was pretty good only because Rodriguez had the creator of the graphic novel, Frank Miller on the set to make sure his depictions of the characters were accurate. Sin City A Dame to Kill for 2014 wasn't as good as the first. Battle Angel Alita 2019 was pretty good however he had assistance from Cameron. (James Cameron assisted Rodriguez on Alita ).


I also believe he had assistance from Jon Fravreau when directing the Tragedy. I believe they gave him a bit more control on this first episode of TBOBF which shows his weakness as a director.

I respect Robert Rodriguez, I'm not putting him down, just indicating that he is not on the same level as say a Francis Ford Coppola, with that said I still enjoyed the episode and I'm looking forward to the next.

 

His Mariachi trilogy is legendarily badass! and he produced Predators (underrated Predator sequel . Machete and to a lesser extent Machete 2 are cool but just too over the top even for him. Deathproof is underrated as well.

 

It thought should be quite obvious to everyone that they are showing us Boba dreaming about his ordeal and the respect that is started to show from the sand people because it has a direct influence on the way he appears and behaves in Mandalorian and the "present day" sections TBoBF. I don't get these complaints about what Fett "should" be doing.

As for the look of the show. Mos Espa was impressive. All the present day stuff looked fine.. Clearly the dream backstory sequences are intended to look slightly dreamy and off.

 

Loved it. Love Boba's style as crime lord. I think he's really out to earn the respect of the populous he now has power over. He's a man of skill and violent capabilities, comfortable with who he is. Doesn't need his ego massaged like Jabba. Can't wait for the next episode.

 

I am happy we finally got to see exactly how Boba escaped from the Sarlacc. I'd been very curious about that ever since The Mandalorian's ninth episode. The inside of the Sarlacc was suitably terrifying.

A great start either way. I am looking forward to the rest of this.

 

I am a HUGE Mando fan -- and the last four episodes of Mando Season 2 were amazing -- so I went into TBOBF with unrealistically high expectations. But after my second viewing, I've come to appreciate the Bobba show for what it has to offer. It only gets better with each viewing.

I suspect this is Shirley's work using Goransson's themes.

This can be said about EVERY Favreau-produced SW show.

Of all the criticisms of Episode 1, I find this one by Mando LXXXV -- and many other posters here -- to be the most surprising. One of the things that made The Mandalorian so great was the The Volume, which gave each TV episode a 'feature-film quality' about it. But, with the exception of the first episode of Season 2, The Mandalorian visited a whole bunch of fantastical places that put the desert planet of Tattooine to shame. Even using The Volume, there's only so much you can do to 'spice up' a desert planet without having it lose its identity. Anyone who thought the episode looked 'cheap' needs to recall the dramatic shot of Kamino that opened the episode. Now THAT was one of the most breathtaking shots we've seen of Star Wars on Disney+.

Agree!!! The scene of Bobba's fist smashing up through the sand was iconic!

 

I’m certainly late to the party.

I thought the episode was just okay. I wasn’t a huge fan of the first episode of The Mandalorian but that at least had more entertainment and the exciting hook of Grogu at the end. The directing here just felt worse and this did look cheaper/more poorly shot.

When I saw that the episode had already gone on for ten minutes and was still part of the flashback, I was kinda hoping that we’d get through the whole flashback (escaping the Sarlacc up to finding Din and Grogu in Mando) here in this episode, making it more of a prologue so we can focus on the (in my opinion) far more interesting storyline of Boba’s new crime empire for the remaining six episodes. I’m not going to be big fan of the show’s pacing if the episodes are all only 40ish minutes with half the time spent on this drawn out flashback.

While I did find this episode to be a bit bland and uninteresting, I did relatively enjoy it. I did like a lot of Boba’s dry comments (“we really need a protocol droid”) and this episode really humanized adult Boba to me, which I wasn’t expecting. Like with Mando, I found some of the added Tusken Raider lore to be pretty interesting. The Max Rebo cameo got the biggest reaction out of me. My favorite part of the whole episode was somebody offering to clean their helmets, with Fennec immediately saying “no” and Boba just being like, “sure, why not?”

While I wasn’t crazy about this episode, I’m still interested in the show going forward. It was like a 6/10, so not great but not horrible in my eyes.

 

It did seem more like a prologue, the more I watch it. I try to only watch the trailers once, most of the scenes are in the trailers and TV spots, hopefully the next few episode will entice us since we didn't get an abundance of previews. allot of people got into Hawkeye with episode 3 because it was fresh and new maybe the same will happen for this series Jon Fravreau directed episode 2 so most likely we'll get back on track.

 

Favreau said in an interview that he chose to direct the first episode of Mando 2 because it was the biggest challenge of the season, given the battle with the krayt dragon.

That said, I wouldn't be surprised if TBOBF Ep2 features the rumored faceoff between Boba and a rancor.

 

Agreed.
We were once said that :

https://thecantina.starwarsnewsnet....-the-shows-opening-minutes.62850/#post-608311
Althought the first part of the asset is true for main of the footage we got until now in the trailers, some images miss in this first episode:
- the scene involving the Ithorrian marshall, or mayor
- the flying Slave I
- the tableturn were Boba and Fennec meet Trandoshans and Aquilish in Jabba's palace
And about "the secrets of the second half", well... I wonder what secrets ?

 

I guess it all depends on your interpretation of the word, surprise. I can only speak for myself, but I was surprised by the appearance of a strange, new creature that popped out of the desert sands near the end of Ep. 1. Was it a 'Baby Yoda-sized' surprise as in Season 1: Ep. 1 of The Mandalorian? Nope, not even close. But to say it's sudden appearance wasn't a surprise to the audience would be disingenuous.

 

Most expectations were way off the charts due to the success of The Mandalorian, so the surprise must have gone over their heads LOL. I had a bad feeling that the hype of this show would underwhelm allot of the audience and sad to say I was right. Hopefully the next few episodes will change everyone's tune... but remember Rodriguez has directed a few episodes in this series so I'm crossing my fingers. He is a decent director but sometimes he hits the mark and sometime he doesn't. I can give examples since I've watched all his films but I rather not go into negativity just hoping for the best. On another note, my favorite fantasy artist is Frank Frazetta. Robert Rodriguez was going to turn his paintings into a major motion picture, so I've been following him for a while now. Great director but still a hit or miss at times.

 

I'll say this: my biggest fear for the show is that the conflict will be nothing more than "Boba versus the mayor."

At the end of Mandalorian Season 2, we all assumed that Boba took Jabba's place as crime lord. This show introduces some complications to that. My fear is that, at the end of this season, those complications will be solved, Boba will still be the crime lord, and that's it. If that's the case, then this is just an entire series doing what Mando did in a single post-credits scene.

The conflict has to be either more personal for Boba, or more impactful for the Star Wars universe. If not, it just feels like a narrative speed bump on the way to a conclusion we already had--Boba as the new Jabba.