The Book of Boba Fett

After the second season of The Mandalorian, the story of the Star Wars universe continues with the iconic Boba Fett. This bounty hunter didn't have much relevance in the films, but he became such a memorable character that he deserved to star in his own story. Jon Favreau, now together with director Robert Rodriguez, returns to using the same formula as The Mandalorian, which is to offer a science fiction story with a strong influence on the spaghetti western. Through the flashbacks in the middle of the series, we see how Boba Fett survived knowing what happened to him in Return Of The Jedi and we can also see how Boba evolves into someone with his own autonomy. Here Boba Fett wants to be a better person than he was in his days as a bounty hunter. The Mandalorian continues to have an important participation in the last episodes, which in part seems to overshadow Boba Fett, but that doesn't mean that Boba is less relevant. They really knew how to create a character that honors both the character and Return Of The Jedi. Despite the great digital effects, there are also some practical effects that can be seen in the series, which help preserve the integrity of the original Star Wars trilogy. Of the cameos that can be seen in this series, Cad Bane's is the most interesting. Beyond the fact that he is a character heavily influenced by western legend Lee Van Cleef, he cannot confirm the events of The Clone Wars and The Bad Batch as part of Star Wars continuity, but what is most interesting is that the series gives clear indications that he was once Boba Fett's mentor. That is something that was planned to be shown in The Clone Wars animated series, but it was not due to its cancellation. Fortunately, a mention of these characters was made in this series. The Book Of Boba Fett is a great series that, along with The Mandalorian, manages to show that Star Wars still has more fascinating things to offer. My final rating for this series is a 9/10.

Boba Fett fights to consolidate his position of power within the underworld of Tatooine while reflecting on past events.

This is a hit and miss Star Wars show that has some strong moments, but struggles to develop a compelling narrative overall.

I'll start positive and say that as a member generation X who grew up on Star Wars, the fan service is exquisite. There are episodes that include great time with beloved characters and quite detailed Easter egg type moments that are equally as cool. This even extends to non Star Wars tributes to movies such as 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'The Godfather', 'King Kong', and numerous Spaghetti Westerns.

Contrary to some, I like the Bacta Tank flashback sequences, particularly the scenes set on the Dune Sea involving the Tuskens. Chapter 2 is a solid episode and has the best of these moments.

Unfortunately, one problem I find with the character of Boba Fett is that two seasons of 'The Mandalorian' effectively stole his thunder as a cool, armour-clad bounty hunter. As a result 'The Book of Boba Fett' as full series is not necessary and it shows in the fact that he only stars in 5 of the 7 episodes.

Another problem is that the writing is quite flat in some episodes and it fails to build any real momentum towards the concluding chapter. Some characters, like the Mods, feel tacked on for marketing reasons and they do not give enough screen time to key antagonists in the early episodes.

When the plot deviates for two episodes away from the main events it hurts the overarching narrative, but it's hard not to love where it takes us, particularly for fans of the original movies and Mandalorian. As great as it is, this has an impact on the final episode, which for me is a mess of spectacle and characters.

Temuera Morrison is a solid action hero, but is given very little to do other than act like a tough guy with a heart. Other characters like Fennec Shand have good moments, but there are a lot of diversions that don't really allow them to shine.

The production values are fantastic in most episodes. There are some exceptional CGI, especially the deepfake effects that design young versions of certain characters.

For some reason a lot of people don't want to admit this, but The Book of Boba Fett is often better than the Mandalorian. Not always, but often enough.

There are already many reviews of this show, so my own review will address the common criticism of the slow pace. I don't think The Book of Baba Fett is slow. In fact, I think the pacing is it's greatest strength. The storytelling is brilliantly structured with cliffhangers, intrigue and plenty of action.

My main criticism of the show is that Boba is a bit too nice. He tries to be everyone's friend. In my mind, Boba Fett should have had much more of a mean streak. He's a bounty hunter and crime boss, so he should have had a more cruel demeanor. Still, the show does what you want it to (unless you're one of the strange people that thinks it's too slow).

The show is a mixed bag. That is If you count 2 good episodes out of 7 a mixed bag.

Let me say at first that to this day, I still don't get the hype about Boba Fett. Is the mask, is it the jetpack or what? I get Mando, because we actually see him be a total badass for two season. But Boba? We only saw him for like 5 minutes in the original trilogy. So I'm not much of a Boba Fett fan and don't understand why this series needed to exist and after watching it, I still think it was unnecessary and did more bad than good.

Now firstly I'm gonna say what's good about it then I'll give a mini-rant about the bads because I ranted a lot in the episode reviews.

The good:

• Ludwig Göransson does it again with another iconic piece of music.

• Episode 5 and 6. Which are not about Boba and they're about Mandalorian, a better and more badass bounty hunter. And that's cheating too because they put Mandalorian season 3 episodes in here so people keep watching this show.

And that's it! That's the only good thing about this series.

Now the bad:

• The power ranger gang.

• Boba is not a badass. He slept with Tuskens two nights and now he's a benevolent ruler and wants to rule the city with his soft heart I guess.

• Boba has no strategy in the whole 7 episodes. He just agrees with what others say and can't assert dominance on any one, he's a laughing stock for all the other rulers and commanders in this series.

• Boba is a complete idiot and does some significantly idiotic Baffling things, prominently in episode 4. For example; Boba: "Look at me, I am Boba Fett." Boba 5 minutes later: "There's an advantage to people thinking you're dead."

• The power ranger gang.

• The show, apart from episode 5 and 6, doesn't feel like Star Wars at all. It feels likes I'm watching a weird Sci-Fi that ripped off these characters and names from Star Wars and not actually watching Star Wars. You can see the clear contrast of it when you watch episode 5 after the fairly excruciating first 4 episodes. It doesn't feel, look and sound like Star Wars.

• They tried to make a badass character off of Boba and they succeeded beautifully with Mandalorian, but realized they effed up and now that they're making a Boba Fett show, they have to make him different, and thus less badass and that's the reason they ruined Boba Fett.

• The power ranger gang.

• Fennec Shand is more of a badass than Boba.

• The Pykes are hyped to be this evil and powerful syndicate that have an army to destroy everyone and take over the city, but they're laughably weak and shorter in numbers than they claimed to be in the finale.

• Cad Bane was wasted and should've been the main adversary from the beginning.

• Boba needs men and more soldiers but in no way he attempts to hire even one person before the big finale.

• Episode 3.

• Flashbacks should've been shorter and they should've made episode 2 and 1 into 1 first episode and got rid of episode 3 and the power ranger gang entirely.

• The direction and writing of episodes 1,2,3,4 and 7 are abysmal.

• Episode 5 and 6 being actually good and everyone enjoying them shows that even the creators know that nobody wanted this and they didn't even know what to write and do about Boba Fett.

• Lots and lots of plot holes about Boba being the Daimyo.

• There were a of lot better stories to tell, like how Boba actually became the Daimyo, instead of showing us flashbacks and the disappointing Pykes as the main villain.

I hope they learn their lesson and don't just make a new show about every character if they don't have a pretty good idea about it, especially if it's and old and known and fan-favorite character.

And I think even giving it a 6 is too generous considering I only enjoyed the last 3 episodes.

And like I said in the title, only watch it for episode 5 and 6 to get ready for season 3 of much much better show.

I'm in disbelief that a story about Boba Fett making a comeback could be so painfully dull. I have briefly enjoyed the introductions of some new characters and the Lawrence of Arabia homage episode, but the action is so boring. It feels like there's nothing at stake. The chase scene in the third episode was so terrible. I have not been so disappointed with Star Wars since Leia "used the force" to fly back into a ship.