The Book of Boba Fett Review
Emma Stuber '22 Arts & Entertainment Editor
For Star Wars fans, any piece of new information regarding our favorite characters is readily consumed. The Book of Boba Fett was an especially thrilling promise this year as many long-time fans grew up with the mystery surrounding this bounty hunter character. For the chance to have a look into Fett’s timeline, including how he survived the sarlacc pit and where he is after taking Jabba’s throne, was an exclusive opportunity especially in live action.
Fan-favored actor Temuera Morrison, who played Jango in the prequels as well as debuting as Fett in The Mandalorian, portrayed the enigmatic character well in my opinion. But I feel as though his character wasn’t given many chances to live up to his image. A majority of the airtime he got in the show was spent in a bacta tank, sleeping through flashbacks. Most of the series' faults lie in the slow pace of the beginning episodes and out-of-theme writing. I truly walked away from more than one episode asking myself, “Was that it?” One thing I’m still struggling to wrap my head around is the incredibly idiotic introduction of a ‘Power Ranger’-like street gang on Tatoonine, whom we are supposed to believe intimidates the entire town of Mos Espa. Teenagers dressed like Matrix characters with bright blue 80’s motorcycles scare no one. They just didn’t fit into the aesthetic of Tatooine, or Star Wars, at all. And on top of that, they were quite literally the most useless and embarrassing characters of the whole show, doing spin tricks and jumping off of ramps every now and then to prove that they’re ‘cool’. There were many other characters that were basically created to be destroyed within a couple episodes, like the entire cantina and its cast of people, which I felt was another waste. I honestly think that the most successful storytelling in this series was the explanation of the Tusken Raiders- who they are, where they’re from, and what they have to do with Fett’s history. It really made me enjoy these characters a little more and become interested in their culture. We hardly ever see into the background of groups like these, so it was refreshing to learn more about original characters rather than figure out the timeline of new ones.
Fan-favored actor Temuera Morrison, who played Jango in the prequels as well as debuting as Fett in The Mandalorian, portrayed the enigmatic character well in my opinion. But I feel as though his character wasn’t given many chances to live up to his image. A majority of the airtime he got in the show was spent in a bacta tank, sleeping through flashbacks. Most of the series' faults lie in the slow pace of the beginning episodes and out-of-theme writing. I truly walked away from more than one episode asking myself, “Was that it?” One thing I’m still struggling to wrap my head around is the incredibly idiotic introduction of a ‘Power Ranger’-like street gang on Tatoonine, whom we are supposed to believe intimidates the entire town of Mos Espa. Teenagers dressed like Matrix characters with bright blue 80’s motorcycles scare no one. They just didn’t fit into the aesthetic of Tatooine, or Star Wars, at all. And on top of that, they were quite literally the most useless and embarrassing characters of the whole show, doing spin tricks and jumping off of ramps every now and then to prove that they’re ‘cool’. There were many other characters that were basically created to be destroyed within a couple episodes, like the entire cantina and its cast of people, which I felt was another waste. I honestly think that the most successful storytelling in this series was the explanation of the Tusken Raiders- who they are, where they’re from, and what they have to do with Fett’s history. It really made me enjoy these characters a little more and become interested in their culture. We hardly ever see into the background of groups like these, so it was refreshing to learn more about original characters rather than figure out the timeline of new ones.
The Book of Boba Fett really became ‘The Book of the Mandalorian’ though at the end of the season, with two episodes dedicated to the character, only occasionally giving Boba about a minute, or sometimes, seconds of screen time each. Don’t get me wrong- I love The Mandalorian, but this was Boba’s show, and I feel as though the character got cheated out of his own content. There was some great content produced in these episodes, like the amazingly remastered CGI Luke and reunion of Din and Grogu (which I really did not expect to get that quickly), and were honestly the best episodes of the entire show (which is incredibly ironic). They really only served as previews for season 3 of The Mandalorian, which I have to admit, was a smart marketing tactic on Disney’s part. But it was almost like Disney realized the show was tanking and threw in the new storyline of a fan favorite character to help move things along.
The Book of Boba Fett in general seemed a bit rushed and hardly thought through as thoroughly as I’d wished. I don’t want to say that I was disappointed in the show, because that’s not true, as it did have some great scenes and moments here and there. But, having waited nearly a year for this series to premiere and watching the hype build up, I just hoped there would be more. More action, character development, and plot points all together. It felt as though way too many little details were focused on in order to draw attention away from the fact that the show was incomplete. I really hope that it gets renewed for a second season, but only if that season contains way more action with focus on Fett’s bounty hunting skills. Which is really not a lot to ask from a show titled The Book of Boba Fett.