The wait is over. Disney+ is finally here! Your hub for Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar, National Geographic and others. If you're like me, you've been eagerly awaiting the premiere of The Mandalorian. The trailer was so cool! But does the show actually live up to the hype?
SPOILER ALERT
The first episode was...underwhelming. OK, maybe on the verge of whelming, for a number of reasons.
1. The worlds seemed like "generic Star Wars." It was almost as if a film crew who didn't know much about Star Wars tried to make something that "looked" like Star Wars for another project. I have no idea what planet they started on, or traveled to, because there were no subtitles that named them and the characters never spoke the names. In the opening scenes, the title character, known only as The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter (post Empire) on a planet out for a hunt. His bounty is this blue creature that I've never seen before who spoke perfect English with no characteristic Star Wars intonation or dialect. He seemed more like a Star Trek character than a Star Wars character. He even tried to bribe The Mandalorian for his freedom.
2. The Mandalorian costume and armor look really cool. I'm hoping to see someone cosplay the character at the next Comic Con. But, is everyone from Mandalor a bounty hunter. Forgive me if I don't know the answer to this question.
3. There is a carbon-freezing unit on The Mandalorian's ship. It's about the size of a coat closet. In The Empire Strikes Back, the carbon-freezing unit was housed in a room the size of a movie theater, with pipes and cords and hoses all around it. This guy sports the "mini" model on his ship.
4. Other than Stormtroopers, there were no familiar characters...which begs the question, if The Empire is dissolved, why are there Stormtroopers?
I like that the show sets up the story of the Mandalorians. Maybe in a later episode we'll get to actually see Mandalor. Maybe we'll get to see how the bounty hunter clans formed.
I don't know, maybe I'm being a little too hard on it. It has some big shoes to fill. I didn't say that I hated it. It's definitely worth a watch. Disney is running a free trial that you can still get in on. I think the take-away here is to give it a chance. IMDB currently shows a score of 9.3, I give it a score of 6/10.