Not worth watching until episode 5?
Since the teaser at the end of the Mandalorian season 2, we’ve been looking forward to the next instalment in the Star Wars franchise! But was it worth the wait?
I never quite understood the obsession with Boba Fet, and was super surprised to find that you can buy figurines and choose Boba Fet as your avatar in Star Wars video games! Like what the!? He had the most minor of minor roles in the original trilogy, and if I remember correctly …… He didn’t even have a speaking part! But decades on from the original cinematic release, here we are, an entire series devoted to the bounty hunter Boba Fet.
The interesting thing, is that either using flashbacks or intricate weaving of various storylines ‘The Book of Boba Fet’ inserts itself nicely back into the greater Star Wars storyline. For example, a flashback sequence shows how Boba survived being swallowed whole by the sarlacc- which explains his re-emergence in the Mandalorian. And the flashbacks explain his rise to power as the new crime boss, a seat vacated by the death of Jabba the Hutt, and how Fennec Shand ends-up linking up with Boba in their criminal endeavours. However, to tell you the truth, the only two things I liked about episodes 1-4 of Boba Fet, was the Jawas (their chatter to me is super amusing) and the end credits! That doesn’t say much for the multi-million-dollar production. Right?
But everything from episode 5 onwards? I liked, liked it very much! Why? Because it was essentially ‘The Mandalorian’ season 2.5! The sudden emergence of Mando, and the continuation of his story, and episode 6’s devotion to Grogu’s training with a young Luke Skywalker! That was so cool! And may I say, super cute! “Jump Grogu! Jump!” And the complete absence of Boba in ep 6? Yeah, I very much preferred it that way! Honestly, Boba as a character, I was completely indifferent about him. Couldn’t care less if he got swallowed whole by another sarlacc. Haaha.
However, the final scenes in episode 7 where there’s street battles and skirmishes in the streets of ‘Freetown’, that was a bit hard to watch on February 27, two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Which does raise the question, do we draw too much entertainment and enjoyment from films/scenes like this? Have we desensitized ourselves to this gratuitous violence, both as films, novels, and video games, that watching these real-life events unfold in the 21st Century, it all feels too unreal?
Pre-2022, has the western world been living in a state of relative peace for so long, that we need to manufacture wars in the form of movies to satisfy our human desires for bloodlust? And now that war in Europe has broken out in our lifetime, we are appalled by it. But weren’t we only weeks ago, paying money to watch similar content, to appease our desires to see destruction and death? Those behind these atrocities in the Ukraine, have they not also grown-up watching violent films, played first-person shoot Em Up games? Thus it’s so easy for them to now step out, and shoot a person in real life? Fire missals onto civilian towns? What’s going on in Europe, are we all to blame? As we all have watched a war film, and cheered on the indiscriminate killing of baddies?
Stop this war Putin! Have we not learnt from the follies of our grandfathers?
Ok, returning to ‘The Book of Boba Fet’, as I get off my high horse. Is ‘The Book of Boba Fet’ worth watching? Well, if you’re a star Wars fan, you’ll watch anything remotely associated to the franchise. But you must watch it if you’ve been following the Mandalorian.! Because if you don’t, this maybe it! It’s hard to tell if there will be a Mandalorian season 3. And if they do, you’ll run the risk of not knowing why the little guy (Grogu) and the Mandalorian are back together again, after the conclusion of S2 where Luke whisks him away. And watching Boba Fet, will explain why Baby Yoda has such a stylish chain mail singlet. Very beguiling for a young 90-year-old green toddler!
To watch ‘The Book of Boba Fet’ now, click HERE!
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