Why The Mandalorian Is What Star Wars Lacked

And against the backdrop of serious criticism of the last part of the Star Wars: Skywalker saga. Sunrise”he seems like a breath of fresh air for the MCU. It is not for nothing that the series The Mandalorian on the IMDb website has a rating of 9, 0, and the new film Star Wars: Skywalker. Sunrise - 7, 0.

A true Western in the world of "Star Wars"

From the very first episode, it became clear that the creator and main scriptwriter of The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau (director of Iron Man), returned to the “distant, distant galaxy” the energy that the authors of recent films had forgotten about.

It's no secret that the classic "Star Wars" took a lot from the aesthetics of westerns - remember at least the acquaintance with Han Solo, and his image as a whole. And the authors of the series just twisted this style to the maximum.

The Mandalorian is a bounty hunter, and one of the best. The name of the protagonist is not named, as it was in the "dollar trilogy" Sergio Leone. And he does not take off his helmet, although it is known that the character is played by Pedro Pascal, who is remembered for his role as Oberin Martell in Game of Thrones.

There are a lot of stories about the Wild West: in one of the first scenes, the hero even starts a fight in a bar. Then he goes around the alien analogue of the horse, fulfills orders with a new partner and even gets involved in a robbery.

But at the same time, the atmosphere does not dwell only on the style of westerns. After all, the order that the hero receives at the beginning of the season turns into an unexpected twist: a harsh loner suddenly turns into a guardian or even almost the father of a child, who is hunted by almost all the mercenaries of the galaxy.

And here you can already feel the reference to such films as "Leon" and "Logan". The construction of the episodes looks quite typical road-movie: in search of a new home for the child, the Mandalorian flies from planet to planet. And sometimes borrowings from the classics are even noticeable: one episode is very reminiscent of "Seven Samurai" by Akira Kurosawa

Simple plot and charismatic characters

After the Game of Thrones finale, literally all major channels and services compete in expensive premieres. Pilot episodes last at least an hour, and the plots should immediately capture the globality, many lines and intrigues. So did HBO with Dark Principles and Netflix with The Witcher.

Disney + in this case played in contrast. Moreover, "Mandalorian" differs both from large-scale projects of other channels and platforms, and from the latest "Star Wars". First of all, it is distinguished by simplicity. In half-hour episodes that look a breeze, the hero simply travels from planet to planet, meets new friends and enemies and performs various tasks.

That is why it is easy and interesting to watch for both MCU fans and viewers who are not too familiar with Star Wars. The first ones will find many references - it's not for nothing that the main character belongs to the same race as the famous mercenaries Django and Boba Fetta. And they will rejoice when they see classic costumes, weapons and droids. The latter will simply enjoy the dynamic story and vivid characters.

There are really a lot of cool characters here. The Mandalorian himself, although he wears a helmet constantly, seems alive, and his motives are completely understandable. And all the helpers and opponents he met are individual and ambiguous. This is the former resistance fighter Kara Dune, played by Gina Carano ("Deadpool"), and colleague of the protagonist Griffin Karg, played by Karl Weathers ("Predator"), and many others. Even the storyline of the mercenary droid from the first episode gets an unexpected continuation.

But it's not a secret for anyone that the main star of the series turned out to be a kid belonging to the same race as Master Yoda. Everyone who has visited social networks at least once in the last month has already seen hundreds of memes, arts and videos with this funny hero. Moreover, from a certain moment it became difficult to make out: the series made this hero so famous, or the popularity of "baby Yoda" (as he was dubbed on the Web) fueled interest in the entire project.

Light but expensive TV series

Even before the release, it was stated that The Mandalorian had huge budgets - Disney's ‘Star Wars’ TV series, ‘The Mandalorian,’ cost $ 100 million to make - but its Marvel shows cost even more about 15 million dollars were spent on each episode. Of course, you shouldn't expect from him the level of blockbusters from the big screen: the backgrounds of different planets sometimes look not entirely natural. But on the other hand, many worlds and interesting locations worked in the project. There are huge monsters, droids, spaceships and a lot of action scenes.

At the same time, really famous authors have worked on the series. The first episode was created by Dave Filoni, who has already filmed the animation projects "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels" from the same MCU. The next episodes were also directed by good directors. Among them, for example, Deborah Chow ("Jessica Jones") and Rick Famuyiva ("Drug"). By the way, everyone who carefully watches the sixth episode will see their funny cameos. And the ending was entrusted to Taika Waititi ("Thor: Ragnarok"), who at the same time voiced the droid-mercenary IG-88.

"The Mandalorian" perfectly revives the world of "Star Wars" that has become ossified in recent years and makes it more diverse. And it's very good that the authors were not afraid to experiment. Not without reason for the first time in this franchise sounded not only symphonic music, but also more modern motives from Ludwig Goransson, who worked on "Black Panther".

Jon Favreau and Disney + have created a simple and addictive series that does not try to confuse the viewer and amaze the audience with its globality. It's just a bouncy plot and charming characters. And this is exactly the kind of project that the franchise needs right now.