PatAg said:
TCTTS said:
Yeah, I liked the vibe/tone for sure. And the overall story is cool. It just felt rushed to me for no reason. They could have easily made it an hour, provided a bit more context, and let it breathe just a bit more. Oh, well. We've at least got the setup out of the way...
I'm curious, what makes it feel rushed to you?
We don't yet know where the story is going or what story is being told. Is it just the pacing in general felt rushed? If so, I took it as a way to show what his life currently is about. He hunts bounties down, and wants to pick up new jobs right away. "no frills" life. Maybe it just comes down to what kind of story you are in the mood for.
I don't at all mind being thrown into the action or it having a "no frills" quality. I actually enjoy movies that start right in the middle of an action sequence, and I prefer stripped-down over bells-and-whistles in general. I just feel like it needed another, say, eight minutes or so, at least, to let it breathe just a tiny bit more. I actually watched it again today during lunch and it definitely works better the second time around. But two sequences stood out to me as still being way too short: 1) the Mandalorian home base/armor-melting sequence, and 2) the stuff with Nick Nolte's character.
As for the Mandalorian home base stuff, it just felt clunky. It was like he walks in and then what feels like 10 seconds later we're all the sudden seeing this kind of crappily-edited metal-melting/flashback sequence that was hastily jammed in there. After the first viewing, a friend had to explain to me the importance of the metal and all that - and I do admit it was easier to follow the second time, as they give just enough context clues - but I still needed more from that scene. Either more lore or more of a relationship/connection with the metal melter woman or something. Instead, he just walks in, the metal is melted and cools in no time, while we get this quick, shoddy, flashback/dissolve sequence, and then we're all the sudden out of there. I just needed like three more minutes there so it didn't feel so rushed. As I said earlier, it also didn't help that it was two characters conversing behind masks, which bugged me as well.
With Nick Nolte's character, same thing. Just another three to five minutes with him would have been more than enough. But that sequence where the Mandalorian kind of sort of concentrates harder for about three seconds and somehow tames that alien thing felt like the most half-assed version of that type of scene; a scene we've seen done so much better in a dozen other movies. Why not play that out just a bit more? Make it a little more of a challenge? And why not have more of a connection/moment with Nolte's character, even in the smallest of ways? It was especially annoying when Nolte's character told the Mandalorian that everyone had died who came to challenge the encampment at the end, but then it seemed relatively easy for the Mandalorian and the droid to take out the entire place fairly quickly and efficiently. In a
Mission: Impossible movie, that ends up being a whole, big thing. They obviously didn't need to go
that big, but it was just another example of a warning or a pep talk or whatever that ended being relatively easy to overcome after the fact. Both could have been bigger moments/sequences, I guess is what I'm saying.
There were just so many times where a sequence would start and then -
bam - we were already on to the next one before you had any sort of feel for the last one. But not in a fast-paced kind of way. Rather, it felt like it had been edited for time to show on network TV or something, which made it all the more confusing, since they could have fleshed this thing out all they wanted. Overall, because the Mandalorian was never allowed to stay in any one place for more than two minutes, I didn't really connect with him or his journey at all. There was no real character building or character moments that made me care about anything that was going on. It was just rushed edit after rushed edit.
That said, for what it was, I thought the final showdown sequence was pretty good, and again, I of course loved the reveal/setup at the end. There were definitely some cool moments among more of the rushed stuff (the Warner Herzog sequence, in particular, was great) and the whole thing looked amazing as well. I just hope that with a clunky setup out of the way, it flows a bit better from here on out, scenes get to breathe a bit more, and I actually start to care about the Mandalorian himself.