The Book Of Boba Fett Episode 1 Review: The Silent Return Of An Icon Between Present And Past
Director: Robert Rodriguez
Cast: Temuera Morrison, Ming-Na Wen, Matt Berry
Streaming Platform: Disney+ and Hotstar (click to watch)
Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and half star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
And finally Christmas came for Star Wars fans, too, a holiday that didn’t exactly leave us majestic memories – the aftermath of the Holiday Special continues to haunt our nightmares with Swiss watch precision. Perhaps also to remind us that between the George Lucas universe and the end of the year there must not necessarily be negative correlations, The Book of Boba Fett has finally arrived on Disney+ with an extremely simple and direct premiere that has the sole purpose to re-introduce the viewer the famous bounty hunter the first episode of Boba Fett is in fact dry, pointing to the heart with a few words and a lot of substance, which is basically what he did well The Mandalorian. A style that we are learning to appreciate more and more, which serves as a trailblazer for a potentially explosive 2022 for the platform – starting with the Disney+.
The Book Of Boba Fett Episode 1: Story Plot
Boba Fett’s book is a story that unfolds between present and past. In the present, Boba Fett and his right-hand man Fennec Shand have returned to Tatooine and intend to command the criminal empire that once belonged to Jabba the Hutt. It is not easy to take charge of such a vast territory, where a change and a new establishment can be considered by the adversaries a good opportunity to rebel. Precisely this power play (which we imagine will be the main theme of the season) will give space to the first internal conflicts that will immediately give the protagonist a hard time. Nothing new for Boba Fett. Through the protagonist’s memory, we will also witness a story set in the past, which will finally fill a narrative gap on the character. Here we will see how the bounty hunter managed to survive the fall into the mouth of the Sarlacc, the creature seen in Return of the Jedi, where – theoretically – ours would have lost his life and what he had to go through before returning to full energy. It is a story of death and resurrection, of the will to regain what was lost, to put on one’s armor and therefore one’s identity to return to life.
The Book Of Boba Fett Episode 1 Review and Analysis
It’s still been over a year since the wonderful finale of the second season of The Mandalorian and the consequent teaser that announced the new project taking a moment to re-enter those atmospheres and fill some holes in Boba’s past was by no means an incomprehensible or harmful choice. It is certainly fascinating to note the close continuity that the Favreau-Filoni duo is giving to their creatures, not only at the level of narrative ties or style, but precisely at the production level, with episodes that are not necessarily long and dragged beyond belief. The Book of Boba Fett resumes the events immediately after the teaser shown last year: the homonymous protagonist (Temuera Morrison) has just conquered the throne that was of Jabba The Hutt, or the lord of the crime of Mos Espa, against Bib Fortuna in particular but in general of all Tatooine.
Together with the inseparable assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), our Mandalorian is engaged in his first acts of government, from receiving the appropriate honors from politicians and vassals once obedient to Jabba to making a front-line tour, if it can be defined so, of the main activities that had now onwards they must swear allegiance to him.
But it’s the nightmares that haunt Boba the most in this premiere, images of a painfully dramatic and harsh past; it matters little whether it is the memories of his father’s severed helmet on Geonosis or the daring escape from the jaws of the Sarlacc in which we saw him fall in Return of the Jedi for Boba, a peaceful night’s sleep is just a distant mirage.
As anticipated, this is a purely introductory premiere and, as such, it really gives scant indications on what awaits us in the coming weeks, which a little makes us wonder if it wasn’t preferable to propose a double episode similar to Hawkeye. Because right now there is very little to discuss, other than starting to notice the details that can make this series unique and distinctive, first of all the predominant physical presence and intrinsic brutality – within the limits of the tone that Star Wars has always had – of the protagonist, a crucial aspect that must never be forgotten.
Despite everything, in fact, in the episode there is a lot of action, already radically different from what we saw in The Mandalorian: where Din Djarin in an open confrontation would first evaluate the situation and the weaknesses of his opponent, Boba is instead a ferocious barbarian who throws himself immediately on the enemy to be annihilated with unprecedented force and violence. And it is a difference that in practice produces incredibly different and varied sequences, filmed with the same techniques, as well as limitations, and the same purpose, but with almost the opposite taste. It may seem like a minor detail, yet this is what separates two productions that are in some ways similar; a variety that must extend beyond the necessary thematic and aesthetic divergences.
The other very intriguing aspect is precisely the division between Boba’s dreams that show us his past and present; it would be a curious dynamic to carry on for the entire season, to model it on the forms almost of a thriller, with lines that intersect as they reveal fundamental details for understanding the challenges that the protagonist will have to face. Handled well it could make the fortunes of The Book of Boba Fett and captivate us with a suspense that builds up episode after episode. On the other hand, the episode has not yet cleared the doubts about a possible characterization of Boba as an unlikely anti-hero, but it is still too early to throw ourselves off balance and say goodbye to our dreams of a series very focused on the criminal underworld of the galaxy far, far away.
The Last Words
The Book of Boba Fett premiere it is, as now evident in the style of the Favreau-Filoni duo, dry, short, compact and very direct. An approach that prefers to avoid long branches and wants to aim for the no-frills core, which in this case is represented by a simple reintroduction to the character of Boba and the atmospheres that the series wants to propose. This is not the same as saying that the episode lacks content, because indeed it is dominated by what could be the main dynamic of the season: the clear separation between the protagonist’s nightmares that reveal his past, especially the missing points of course, and the present with a domain on Mos Espa to be established. It would be fascinating if the entire season were modeled around this dynamic as a thriller, but we’ll see. For the rest, there is still very little, aside from the enthusiastic confirmation of how delightful it is to watch Boba Fett in combat, a brutal barbarian ready to eliminate anyone. We will have to wait for the next few weeks, but we would like to say that yes, the incipit has its charm, but perhaps a double premiere would have been preferable similar to what was done with Hawkeye.
