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Film Curious is a movie review podcast that takes a step back from the constant media consumption to discover and ponder great films across genres and time. A podcast where we let our intrigue guide us and are not afraid to explore whatever films pique our interest.
To all you film lovers, casual theatergoers, at-home movie watchers, and streaming scrollers out there, think of Film Curious as your gateway into any and every kind of movie. One that doesn’t gatekeep but doesn’t shy away from respect for the craft either. So, take a dip, the water’s fine…
Hey guys.
Welcome back to film Curious Ashley here.
This episode Pete's giving you a non
spoiler
review of The Mandalorian and Grogu.
We actually recorded this at the same time
as our deep dive on obsession,
but we felt we didn't
want either to take away from the other.
Plus, we will acknowledge
these films are totally unrelated
to other than them being new releases.
So thanks for tuning in and we hope
you enjoy this fun little chat.
Hey. How's everyone?
Good morning.
Yeah, so saw Amanda and Grogu and
there's nothing to spoil.
Like there's nothing that happens
that is overly consequential
for the future of the show.
And I think that's a plus and a negative.
It's a plus because I'm tired
of all these things being required,
watching for you to know what's you know,
what's what's happening season to season.
That's TV that happens. That's fine.
You're telling the long narrative,
I get it.
But asking people
to stay up with the stuff.
When the last season of The Mandalorian
was like three years ago,
also or two years
ago, it's been a really long time.
Seven out of ten.
The first half of the film is way better
than the second half of the film,
and the first half of the film
is kind of a bond film.
There is a cold open,
you're in the snow,
which makes me think of bond films
a lot of times skiing,
but you have a cold open.
He's going after a target.
It then leads him to go back and speak
to kind of it's not his boss,
but like it's sort of his.
M That's Sigourney Weaver in this,
and she gives him
the next mission,
and then he goes out in the next mission.
And it's a blow felt, ass looking guy.
So the first half of the film
had a really nice pace to it.
It was in a lot of
it was in numerous different locations.
So at least you felt like
you were getting more of a scope than what
you would normally get on the show.
The second half of the film
really shrinks down to one location.
It's kind of just brown a lot
on the planet
that that you're on,
and I think the helmet is a problem.
I just I can't get past this.
I think the helmet with this character
is holding this character back
from having emotions
that we can link into.
And if you're a Star Wars person
or something, you're like, oh, well,
you could read the emotion on Vader's
face.
Yeah,
he had one emotion pissed for like 99%.
Of yeah, I had that until like
the very end when he had like
the conflict, you know, and all that.
And then what does he do?
He takes the fucking helmet off. So.
Right, like,
you know, for him to really connect
with his son, his his, like, dying request
to take this helmet off.
And I as a fan, my dying request is
take the stupid helmet off,
because you only get to see
Pedro in one scene,
and it's not a scene
where he's communicating with his son.
You know,
whatever you want to call for Grogu,
and you're missing
such an like, you're just.
You're missing out on all this stuff.
There's a scene
where he's kind of watching Grogu
play with someone else,
and it's just a shot of his mask, right?
Like, I get the intent,
but I'd like to actually see this
very talented actor get to emote
and act, and I don't
we don't get to see that.
And the show in the past,
I kind of tackled the dogma of the mask
and you thought like,
okay, he's going to do he's going to go
the other way,
because more than half of the Mandalorians
that we interact with on a normal basis
on this show, they don't wear the mask.
You know,
Bo-Katan is one of the main characters.
She never wears a mask,
never really does.
She takes a mask on and off all the time.
I just don't see the point of it anymore.
I get it, it's part of his heritage,
blah, blah blah.
But he's moved away from that heritage
and he's become like,
you can become a bigger character
than just where it started from.
So I really do think that
that's holding the character back.
That aside, Jeremy Allen
White plays a hot rod of the hunt,
which if you're a fan of the animated
series, it's very funny seeing this
character come back, but
probably the best character in the movie
who thought actually has like an arc
that, you know, you get to,
you know, you get to experience
a little bit and you at least learn
like where he came from
and where he's going next.
Everyone else kind of seems stuck in time.
So like,
there's a bounty hunter that shows up.
And if I didn't know his name, I don't
think you will be able to know his name.
I don't think anyone says his name
in the entire film, which is fine.
You can, you know, Man
With No Name trilogy.
Literally, The Man With No Name
didn't have a name, but
it's weird, you know, there's
another character who's in it.
If you're a rebel stand, you know Zeb,
you really know Zeb.
He could be going back to the James
Bond thing.
He's kind of like slider.
He works to the big organization,
you know, opposite Mando or that Mando
sometimes works with.
I guess you could say it that way.
And you don't learn anything about him.
Like,
if you don't already know who Zeb is,
you don't learn a single thing about him.
You don't know where he came from.
He was in the show. He was in a bar.
He just showed up in a bar for a scene as,
like, a little hello to the fans, right?
I remember.
That, and that was it.
Like, beyond that,
you don't know anything about this cat.
And yet he's teaming up with Mando
in like the first half of the film,
and he shows up at the second half.
I have no idea
if these guys are even friends.
I mean, they seem to be, but like,
where did he come from?
Who is he?
You got to throw the audience a little bit
more information, I think, on things
like this, because part of that, you know,
again, this is a standalone thing.
You don't need to watch the show,
which is good, but it also just feels,
you know, like it couldn't it
didn't really need to be a two hour movie.
It was like fan service in a way.
If you're not gonna.
Know, the fan service is weird.
The fan service, I would say,
is something they've done before where
the directors of episodes
kind of Hitchcock themselves into scenes,
and in particular,
they're like a group of pilots
and they're all sitting at one table
and this and that.
There's like the fan service
isn't really there, which is good,
because I don't need that out of it.
I don't need to be patted on the head,
you know.
Well, I guess the DJ scene,
if you really that could be fan service.
There's an entire fight scene
that the visuals and the who is in
the fight is all based on that chess game
from A new Hope that, you know,
unless you remember that specific thing,
you're going to be like,
what the hell is this?
Look, I don't know what this means.
Which is fine.
You can get away with that, too.
And you don't have to explain every,
every single thing.
But yeah, it was just
the second half really slowed down.
Grogu was on his own for a while,
which is straight
up out of a storyline in Lone
Wolf and Cub,
but I don't I just don't think he's that
interesting of a character on his own.
And while he has some growth in that,
like it's the first time
that he has to really take care of himself
and take care of of Mando.
Man, this, I mean, go, I can't go,
I won't say it because it's a spoiler,
but like, there's a moment for real nice
emotional moment
and he's just wearing that
goddamn helmet again,
says, this is the way.
And you're like, it's actually
it's like the biggest whiff in the movie
is this emotional spot
that they could have really
had a nice moment with, but they just
won't take him out of the helmet.
I don't know what the reason is.
I know everyone's like, oh, well, Disney
doesn't want to pay Pedro Pascal.
Maybe you definitely could be.
It could be that his schedule also does
not fit for shooting an entire film.
But whatever it is, try to.
It just
there's got to be a better, a better way
of kind of presenting this character.
Because ever since season two, I've sort
of got uninterested with Mandalorian
just to to
go into it just for a hot second
and we'll get the hell out of here.
At the end of season two,
you had Luke Skywalker
save everyone
because
our heroes are useless in the show, so
we had to have a nostalgic pat on the head
that, no, it's okay.
Luke Skywalker is the greatest.
Kids like really stupid.
And they separate Mando Grogu in that.
That's like the big,
you know, heartfelt finale.
And then before the next season
even started, they got him back together.
They did it in the Boba Fett.
But as I say, Boba Fett, what a weird
like, could you imagine this year.
If you were like, hey, I like to spend a
show, I'm not going to really watch this
Boba Fett show.
That's not that's a little too deep for me
or whatever.
It's not my interest.
And then you sit down to watch
season three and you're like.
Yeah, you would have no idea.
I remember
actually talking about that at the time.
I think we were we had a make remake, we
the old podcast that we actually had done
that I'm like, I remember going
watching the episode come up.
And I was.
Like,
did we turn on the right show like I was?
I really thought
there was like some kind of glitch in the,
the streaming platform, just like,
nope, nope.
They just put it in Shi'ar
Mando episode and served with it.
Just to get them reunited.
So like there's another moment of like,
you know, separation.
Why do I care?
You couldn't do it.
You couldn't let it last for,
you know, an episode, an actual show.
So that all said, it's still that first
half is still fun.
The second half has some good spots.
The finale is kind of fun.
There's actually I well, there actually,
in the finale there is this fight
between Mando and two giant droids
and they I have not looked into it.
They appear stop motion and it looks cool.
It's it's really like the back
half of the film is two CG
and two swamp and two like muddy for me.
But those two droids versus Mando,
I was like, this is good stuff.
This is really fun.
I don't know if it was still Tippett,
who's a stop motion legend who, like,
kind of famously lost his career
when, like, Lucasfilm went to digital.
You know, they're like,
we're not going to do stop motion anymore.
Everything's going to be in a computer.
And they've, you know, since then
they've brought him back
for a number of projects,
and he's obviously done
a lot of other stuff.
But that fight was very cool.
And I was like, oh, this is this is fun.
And there's there's good
action towards the end,
but there's like a half hour
where you just wish it was 15 minutes.
And again, I won't go to into
it has a couple of good moments
of humor in there,
but maybe lingers along too much.
So yeah, seven out of ten
I was hoping for.
I wasn't expecting anything more.
I was hoping they would surprise me,
but I wasn't surprised at all. And
great thing though.
Huge marks on this no post, no
post-credit horseshit,
none of this,
you know, stuff that Marvel has become.
So, you know, blood tied to that.
They have to do it no matter what.
Nowadays, it seems none of that.
It's just this thing.
And if you don't watch this movie,
you can watch whatever happens next.
And I don't think you will miss a beat.
Now, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
I don't know,
there's two arguments to that,
because you should be able
to go to the movie,
see a movie and then how would I stay?
Thank you.
I had a good time on the other half.
This is the first time
you saw this character in a long time,
and he doesn't change at all.
And that seems like a bad thing.
So yeah, very.
It's a mixed bag.
It's more on the positive.
I would watch this a hundred times
before I would ever sit down
to watch rise of the resistance again.
I mean it, Rise of Skywalker. Sorry.
I thought that's what you meant.
Yeah, yeah, sorry.
I tried to forget it. That one.
Yeah, well, that's why I was like,
yeah, that's good from the name.
But like, Disney has to let Lucas film
pick a goddamn road.
Obi-Wan was supposed to be a film.
They changed it into a series.
This kind of feels like it was going
to be part of the series, but since then
they're like, oh, we can't make a zillion
dollars on streaming.
Surprise! No, you can't,
like, make
make these into movies and pick a road
and try to, like, excel in it.
Because actually, I remember
we were talking to my wife, Melissa.
We were there when they introduced
this film
and John Savage was announced
as the director.
He's like, it was a big deal.
It was like, it's going to be my first
feature film, going to be director.
It's not directed by Favreau.
It's it's I mean felony.
Sorry.
It was supposed to be Dave
Filoni, his first director film.
It's not. It's it's from Favreau.
Because somewhere along the line
in there, things totally changed.
Probably because
Colonia is going to be getting
a bigger position overall in the company.
So they were like,
you can't do this and do the other show.
And, you know, look, you can't do that.
We don't have time for that or something,
just like spreadsheets in.
But it shows how sort of,
I don't know, just
everyone feels like announcing things
before they're ready to be announced.
And it's doesn't help anything.
No. I don't I don't think hyping a movie
three years before it comes out matters.
I just don't think anyone gives a shit
they forgot already, right?
They can't remember an advertisement
that happened 20s ago.
They're not going to remember and like,
have this big emotional attachment to
something that was announced
three years ago.
You don't have to do it.
Just keep yourself quiet until you're
ready to actually show something.
Yeah. So.
Marketing should.
Probably be done full force three months.
Before at. This.
Point with everything. So.
Oh, and to people who don't go to that,
which I'm assuming not many people,
a lot of people listen to this.
They probably go to the movies a lot.
Oh boy. Or people
who don't go to the movies a lot.
Being real surprised
that it takes 35 minutes
after a movie starts
for the movie to start.
AMC is an awful theater chain.
There are 7 or 8 commercials
for the theater that I'm sitting in
while I just want.
It was a lot of trailers.
Yeah, I saw both films at.
An AMC because. It were.
These horror movies weren't
playing at other theaters, and yeah, but.
They.
Give you, hey,
you've got 25 to 30 minutes.
Before. It says it on the app.
And it's like, okay, but you still,
if you're not going to pay the ticket fees
because who wants that?
And you don't have their stub pass or
whatever, you're just going to show. Up.
By your tickets.
But then you have the problem of, I mean,
there are just so many freaking trailers.
So I guess, like,
there's not that big of a deal of people
sitting down during the trailers,
but it does kind of, you know, ruin the
experience of the lights are turned down.
People are still coming back and forth
because they know
that they have so much time in between
when the movie starts and the actual,
you know, thing of the showtime.
So my eyes are closed at this point,
I'm just resting my eyes
until the actual thing starts.
I'm going to start bringing headphones
and listening to the music
until the actual music starts.
So everyone who thinks they're making
money off that each ship, you're not.
I don't know, you know,
it's like YouTube ads.
They're muted. Don't care about them.
Go see it.
I thought I had a good time with it.
I'll watch it again
when it comes out. Of ten.
Is it really. I say that's a high.
So yeah. Yeah.
Well yeah I could see someone going
like six and a half, six.
I can, I could see that easily.
I'd be surprised if someone went higher
because I would be curious as to
what was it, you know,
was it just seeing Star Wars
on the big screen,
which I think
is a weird thing to just like, give it to?
I also think it's just it's the usual
with that franchise.
There's this really
weird group of people who,
like, get so
angry about this
and they think that there are like rules
that it needs to follow and this
and that and get the fuck out of here.
Like these people, they're weird.
They're very weird.
And they just I don't know how they find
time in their life
to to worry about it all the time.
But yeah.
So yeah, movies they happen.
Well fan does stand for fanatic.
So yeah.
So just fucking dumb
fandom is a real break that down dumb.
Fan changed the end of that.
We're.
Hey guys.
Ashley here.
Thanks for listening to film. Curious
if you enjoyed this episode.
There's plenty more to come.
I'll be reviewing new theatrical releases
and new streaming as much as possible,
so make sure to subscribe
wherever you get your podcasts.
Thanks again. See you real soon.