Dark Wader

Damn, I saw them last week on tour with Nas and had no idea about this show. Could have been cool to watch as a build up to the concert. But definitely going to be checking this one out!

The name of the episode is the Spies and they didn’t really call out who the other spy was aside from the Imperial at the start. Any bets on the other likely candidate? Some of the scenes with the Armourer had an ominous vibe to them and willing to bet we find out next week she’s working for Gideon. And great episode - even just the way it was shot, didn’t feel as cheap as some of the earlier episodes. Courscant didn’t just look like leftover shots from Episode 3.

100% who it’s gonna be inspired by. The name dropping of ‘Heir to the Empire’ means they’re totally gonna do a loose adaptation of the trilogy, either in this season or leading up to it in the Filoni movie.

Is the one Mangold going to do potentially replacing the trilogy Johnson was going to do way back when? I seem to recall something about him writing about the beginnings of the Jedi, so if that’s what Mangold is doing then guessing the RJ trilogy isn’t happening (which was kinda obvious at this point) I’m excited about Rey coming back for the post sequel movie but gotta wonder what it was that caused Damon to bail, considering his recent comments.

I think all the New Republic and Empire stuff isn’t as much as about filling in the gaps for the First Order but setting up Thrawn as the eventual big bad across this and Ashoka. First Order will probably a part in it though. But yeah, the storytelling on this is really disjointed, wish they’d just done one singular ensemble show from the get go.

For me at least, Carl Weathers has been the first director to genuinely capture the ‘feel’ of Star Wars in the Disney era. I mean if someone told me Lucas had secretly directed the episode I wouldn’t have been that surprised. It felt like one of the old Saturday morning serial shows like the OT and the flashback scenes wouldn’t feel that out of place in the prequels either. The episode he did in the second season was one of my favourites for similar reasons as well. He just seems to have a good feel for Star Wars. So yeah, really enjoyed this episode.

I feel like the moral ambiguities of the Empire and WW2 comparisons were better suited to Andor, this episode felt very cheap/cartoonish as a result. But the opening/ending of the episode were nice and the idea for the episode were fun, but the two actors just weren’t able to sell it.

It’s like they knew it as well considering they doubled down on it with that awful soundtrack/theme over the top of it. I’ve seen the composer for Kenobi get absolutely slammed online for not rehashing the prequel music but this apparently gets a pass.

Scott’s ‘realisation’ scene right at the end is probably my favourite in the MCU.

A friend of mine “dragged” me to see it last night because his girlfriend wasn’t interested. I think the negative reviews lowered my expectations enough that I enjoyed it. It wasn’t so much an Ant-man / Wasp movie as it was a Kang exposition movie, but it was also so f**king weird just ended up going for the ride. A lot of credit going towards the guy playing Kang and rightfully so since he pretty much carried the movie, but at the same time I don’t think this would have been watchable without Paul Rudd.

Having the finale set on a big boat wasn’t really helped by Jimmy Cameron doing it better a week later. I enjoyed it overall but I was also hoping they’d end up doing more with Angela Basset, or even Lupita.

At one point I thought the dude in Tron Legacy, the bloke from Narco/Logan and one of the brothers from Supernatural were all the same actor, but nope, three different guys.

This is the one and only franchise I kinda wished they’d given to JJ. The mystery box crap would actually work well for Indy and he is the only director I can think of that comes close to the Spielberg aesthetic, it would have been a good fit. I mean this will probably be good, I just don’t think Mangold is in the same calibre of Spielberg to pull off a one and done adventure movie. But I realise I’m also being overly harsh, which is probably due to how hard I was burnt by the 4th movie.

It’s been my favourite TV series this year. Like you said, the Vader/Obi Wan stuff was spot on and some of the best Star Wars overall, not just Disney era. I think you’ll really enjoy Andor - the thing I loved the most was how British it felt, like an old school UK show set in the Star Wars universe. I’d suggest watching in three/four episode binges if you can, like little mini movies. As usual there seems to be this sense in the overall SW fandom that because something else has come along that is well made, fresh and new it automatically makes what came before it crap, but aside from the Boba Fett show I think they’ve knocked it out of the park with the Disney+ ones. Both Mando seasons, Obi Wan and Andor have been A+.

I caught up and watched the finale last night. Overall my feelings are generally the same - really well made, written and acted. Just not terribly exciting and probably the least Star Wars-y of what’s come out so far. So how long until the general fandom turns on Gilroy the way they suddenly have Filoni now?