Octopus Overlords

New promo for Season 2.
Weird they would release this before the final episode, but I figure Disney wants people to keep their subscriptions.
Seem so to be a bit of a departure too.

Hmmm... the CGI is a little under budget, I think.

Great conclusion! Kudos to stormtrooper target practice. I give the first season a solid 7/8 tentacles.

The opening 5 minutes of episode 8 is the best Star Wars I’ve seen in ages.

hepcat wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:50 pm The opening 5 minutes of episode 8 is the best Star Wars I’ve seen in ages.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:29 pm

I look forward to the Hutts new Slave dancers! I suspect they will have some nice moves...

I loved every bit of it except the "you have until nightfall to make up your mind". That's straight up Bond villain chicanery right there.

Freyland wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:48 am I loved every bit of it except the "you have until nightfall to make up your mind". That's straight up Bond villain chicanery right there.

That and

Freyland wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:48 am I loved every bit of it except the "you have until nightfall to make up your mind". That's straight up Bond villain chicanery right there.

That is almost exactly what I said to my wife, I said, "They obviously have not watch 007 movies, instead of killing him when you got him, you reveal your evil plans and then set a timer for his death."

They must have relatively cold lava on that planet, that boat didn't have a force field.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Dec 27, 2019 3:31 pm Great conclusion! Kudos to stormtrooper target practice. I give the first season a solid 7/8 tentacles.

Spoiler:

How does he keep his hair cut under that helmet?

Lassr wrote:

Freyland wrote: ↑Sat Dec 28, 2019 1:48 am I loved every bit of it except the "you have until nightfall to make up your mind". That's straight up Bond villain chicanery right there.

That is almost exactly what I said to my wife, I said, "They obviously have not watch 007 movies, instead of killing him when you got him, you reveal your evil plans and then set a timer for his death."

I had the same thought, until the Mandalorian said they must not have the package otherwise they would already be dead.

That stormtropper has some big boobs.

You think Baby Yoda eats cereal?

Finale opening spoiler:

Freyland wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:50 pm Hey, at least he made *reference* to locking his shit up.

You know that YouTube series "How it Should Have Ended"? I immediately thought of them when Mando got the message from the guild in the beginning. It would have gone something like, "Nope." And then Mando would have flown some other direction and the episode ended.

I thought they did a pretty good job of making the case, and showing that Mando understood, that bounty hunters would continue to come until the Imp either had possession of the Child or was dead. It would have helped if they explained how the Child can always be tracked. But I think there was at least lip service paid to the whole face-the-villain McGuffin.

Watched this over the last couple of weeks, and it was . . . OK? I'm with the camp that the TV level effects (both CGI and practical) were a bit distracting. I was a bit surprised that Disney didn't go all out on this as their first major tentpole original series, but I got over it pretty quickly. I think the show suffered a bit from not revealing the big baddie until Ep. 7. He really seemed impressive to me, and I'd like to have seen more of him. If he plays a large part in Season 2 (and I assume he will), that would be a selling point for me.

I think this might have suffered a bit for me because I watched it immediately after HBO's awesome Watchmen series. The Mandalorian was fun and all, but Watchmen was fun and important and had better production values and better acting and better writing. I was bit let down, because I was really hoping The Mandalorian was going to be a little bit more than a space western.

I don't want to seem too down on it, though. I love the Star Wars universe and I'm happy to see a well made live action series. I enjoyed it even with my griping above.

I really like the main character (also the frog), but as you said, the CGI and overall feeling is wooden compared to Star Trek Discovery or The Expanse, in both all seems to be one mould. Disney never understood, or realised what they have in their hands. Ah well, I'm just an old grumpy Ep. 4-6 guy.

Zitterbacke wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:33 pm I really like the main character (also the frog), but as you said, the CGI and overall feeling is wooden compared to Star Trek Discovery or The Expanse, in both all seems to be one mould. Disney never understood, or realised what they have in their hands. Ah well, I'm just an old grumpy Ep. 4-6 guy.

I'm guessing we'd probably agree that comparing Mandalorian to the The Expanse isn't a fair fight. Apples to oranges. And, honestly, what compares favorably to The Expanse?

Zitterbacke wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:33 pmthe CGI and overall feeling is wooden compared to Star Trek Discovery or The Expanse

I got the distinct impression that this was a dry run to see how quickly they could turn out something good enough to call "Star Wars" without spending an absurd amount on each episode.

Yinz are nuts.

Paingod wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:29 am

Zitterbacke wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:33 pmthe CGI and overall feeling is wooden compared to Star Trek Discovery or The Expanse

I got the distinct impression that this was a dry run to see how quickly they could turn out something good enough to call "Star Wars" without spending an absurd amount on each episode.

Reports are they spent $15 million an episode. That's a lot. For comparison, the final season of Game of Thrones spent about $15 million per episode. And those were 60-90 minutes in length. The Mandalorian were about 30-40 in length. Disney also tapped a filmmaker to create the series whose last two films made nearly a billion dollars each and who also kicked off the MCU.

The idea that Disney tried to cut costs on this thing is crazy.

And I genuinely don't understand how you can watch that show and come away thinking the graphics were cheap. I thought everything looked incredible, and the main characters all acted really well. Some of the side characters put in "tv quality" performances though. I especially disliked the Bill Burr episode.

If they spent the same amount per episode as HBO did for the last season of GoT, then something was out of whack in one of those productions. Regardless of how you felt about the quality of plot of the seasons, I don't think the quality of production on The Mandalorian was anywhere close to GoT*, and as you noted the GoT episodes were much longer. I thought the space effects were fine, but planetary CGI seemed to be lacking to me, particularly speeders. One early scene that really stood out as sub-par to me was in the first or second episode (I think) where there was a far-off shot of multiple speeders going over barren terrain. It just looked really hokey. And some of the practical effects/costumes were pretty bad (such as Hellboy and tentacle-head-woman).

* The possible exception being the battle for Winterfell, where I couldn't actually see much to determine the production values.

I grew up watching Space: 1999, where the graphics looked like they were made by a kid messing around in his basement. Not a particularly talented kid. The production values are fine.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:10 am I grew up watching Space: 1999, where the graphics looked like they were made by a kid messing around in his basement. Not a particularly talented kid. The production values are fine.

Spoiler:

And so was Bill Burr.

And all animation is fine if you grew up watching Johnny Quest, I guess.

Look, it's not like I'm saying the effects were terrible or anything (although I am pretty down on some of the alien costuming). Star Wars has always been pretty cutting edge in the effects department, though. I was just surprised that the show didn't hold to the standards of the movies. I also said I got over it pretty quickly.

The production budget was $100M for 8 episodes which was just over 4 hours of content. $12.5M per episode.

ImLawBoy wrote:If they spent the same amount per episode as HBO did for the last season of GoT, then something was out of whack in one of those productions. Regardless of how you felt about the quality of plot of the seasons, I don't think the quality of production on The Mandalorian was anywhere close to GoT*, and as you noted the GoT episodes were much longer. I thought the space effects were fine, but planetary CGI seemed to be lacking to me, particularly speeders. One early scene that really stood out as sub-par to me was in the first or second episode (I think) where there was a far-off shot of multiple speeders going over barren terrain. It just looked really hokey. And some of the practical effects/costumes were pretty bad (such as Hellboy and tentacle-head-woman).

* The possible exception being the battle for Winterfell, where I couldn't actually see much to determine the production values.

I just don’t see it. I’m normally the one who gets taken out of the story by subpar graphics, and I can’t think of a single time where I thought the graphics looked bad. In fact, I was blown away by how good the pilot looked.

LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:27 am The production budget was $100M for 8 episodes which was just over 4 hours of content. $12.5 per episode.

I wonder how much of that was on stunt casting as opposed to effects? Of course, while a lot of the faces were recognizable, it's not like they were getting A listers for cameos.

msteelers wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 11:28 am

ImLawBoy wrote:If they spent the same amount per episode as HBO did for the last season of GoT, then something was out of whack in one of those productions. Regardless of how you felt about the quality of plot of the seasons, I don't think the quality of production on The Mandalorian was anywhere close to GoT*, and as you noted the GoT episodes were much longer. I thought the space effects were fine, but planetary CGI seemed to be lacking to me, particularly speeders. One early scene that really stood out as sub-par to me was in the first or second episode (I think) where there was a far-off shot of multiple speeders going over barren terrain. It just looked really hokey. And some of the practical effects/costumes were pretty bad (such as Hellboy and tentacle-head-woman).

* The possible exception being the battle for Winterfell, where I couldn't actually see much to determine the production values.

I just don’t see it. I’m normally the one who gets taken out of the story by subpar graphics, and I can’t think of a single time where I thought the graphics looked bad. In fact, I was blown away by how good the pilot looked.

We obviously see it differently, and I'm cool with that. Reasonable minds can differ on perceptions.

Fun tidbit:

Disney mustered up one of our 501st Legion garrisons to act as extras (Stormtroopers) for the last episode. Using their own armor. Disney didn't have enough sets of armor.

msteelers wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 9:55 am Yinz are nuts.

Paingod wrote: ↑Fri Jan 03, 2020 8:29 am

Zitterbacke wrote: ↑Thu Jan 02, 2020 5:33 pmthe CGI and overall feeling is wooden compared to Star Trek Discovery or The Expanse

I got the distinct impression that this was a dry run to see how quickly they could turn out something good enough to call "Star Wars" without spending an absurd amount on each episode.

Reports are they spent $15 million an episode. That's a lot. For comparison, the final season of Game of Thrones spent about $15 million per episode. And those were 60-90 minutes in length. The Mandalorian were about 30-40 in length. Disney also tapped a filmmaker to create the series whose last two films made nearly a billion dollars each and who also kicked off the MCU.

The idea that Disney tried to cut costs on this thing is crazy.

And I genuinely don't understand how you can watch that show and come away thinking the graphics were cheap. I thought everything looked incredible, and the main characters all acted really well. Some of the side characters put in "tv quality" performances though. I especially disliked the Bill Burr episode.

Agreed. I felt the production values were well done. The acting as a whole was a disappointment other than the main character(s).

I loved the Bill Burr Episode. It wasn't star warsy, but it had personality and it was entertaining. I felt like it was more like Suicide Squad in terms of style and personality. I had a lot of fun with it.

Personally I thought the production values were awesome. I felt like I was watching a feature film every episode. Maybe I am overwhelmed by love for Baby Yoda, but seriously I remember constantly being amazed at how good everything looked and felt. I am watching on an 85" screen in 4K UHD with Dolby Atmos (Apple 4K) and it was just a fantastic experience. More than that, it felt like "Star Wars" to me - whatever that means. I know it's different for everyone, but for me, it's fast, it's fun, it's gorgeous to look at, some things make you cringe, some characters you just fall in love with. I went in with medium expectations and it simply blew me away*


*keep in mind I have ordered all the Baby Yoda toys, and Baby Yoda is on my watch face and phone screen, so I may be considered biased

I also thought the production values were awesome. As was the season.

I was happy with the production value... thought some of the plots/characters were hokey at times but was overall happy with them too. The whole family liked the show, kids included. Looking forward to S2.

Totally awesomesauce (and one of my favorite songs in general (the original song that is))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iavdy2qQCrs

I really liked this show. It gives me hope that Disney will see that the Star Wars universe has so much potential for stories that don't involve Skywalkers.

One question I have that some of you more well-read fans might know:

I don't think it's been mentioned in the films, but there seems to have been a Jedi-Mandalorian War.

The last great struggle between the Jedi and the Mandalorian warlords resulted in a large battle on Mandalore. This caused a cataclysm that scorched much of the planet's surface into lifeless white desert and ending the conflict, the Jedi emerging victorious.

Wouldn't the collapsing iris door in the bar retract if there was a person in it? Otherwise would be a lot of sliced up patrons.