3 – Streets of Mos Espa

Grade: D+

Summary

A water salesman asks Boba Fett to help him clean up the streets of Mos Espa. Apparently, there is a small gang of youths who stole a bunch of water from him and he wants them punished. They’ve also been creating some problems for the rest of the town, so maybe this is a good way for Boba to show who’s the boss in this town.

Commentary

This was definitely the weakest of the episodes so far, and I’m not sure I like where this show is going. I never thought I’d see Boba Fett remove his mask – ever. What’s the point of wearing it in the first place if he’s just going to take it off every 2 minutes? Maybe he’s like the “heavy” character in an old Film Noir who takes his hat off every time he enters a room. Still, I don’t like this – it’s inconsistent with what I thought of this character before the series started.

I don’t like it that Boba Fett gets beat up in every fight. He doesn’t use any of the tools in his arsenal. He didn’t know how to fight using a gaffi stick until the Tusken Raiders taught him how. He just seems weak and powerless. If it weren’t for Fennec Shand, he’d be dead by now. Maybe the Saarlac had a bigger effect on him than we know.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of his character change. I never in a million years would have thought that Boba Fett would want to be respected but not feared. Where did this come from? Until Han Solo accidentally activated Fett’s jetpack and made him fly into the Saarlac, Fett was the most feared character in all of Star Wars, besides Vader and Palpatine. Now he’s just some old guy in a green suit trying to keep order in a city he’s taking over. This doesn’t seem like the Boba Fett we came across in Empire Strikes Back. Seriously, Fennec Shand seems more like Boba Fett than this guy.

And here’s something else that’s really bizarre. How old is Boba supposed to be? In Attack of the Clones, Boba appears to be about 10 years old – maybe a little more, maybe a little less. But let’s just say he’s 10. AOC takes place 22 years before the Battle of Yavin, depicted in A New Hope. That means, he’s about 32 years old when Luke blows up the Death Star. The Empire Strikes Back takes place 3 years after that, which means when we see him for the first time, he’s about 35 years old. Return of the Jedi is one year later, which means Boba is about 36 years old when he falls into the Saarlac pit. The Book of Boba Fett supposedly takes place 9 years after the Battle of Yavin. So he spends about five years hanging around inside the Saarlac, so he should be about 40-41. Temuera Morrison will turn 62 years old this year – at least 20 years older than the character should be. He’s doing a great job, but he does not look like an early 40s Boba Fett. He looks more like Jango Fett would be, if he hadn’t lost his head in the Battle of Geonosis.

Here’s what I would have done. First of all, Boba Fett should never take his helmet off. The actor playing Boba Fett could have been someone in his early 40s and they could have used Temuera’s voice when Boba had to say something. Then it wouldn’t look as strange as it does now.

Specifically about this particular episode, I wasn’t impressed with the Vespa speeder chase scene. It looked really goofy. Were they supposed to be going slow? It looked like they were doing about 5mph. It seemed like the slowest chase scene ever committed to film. Think about this – right at the end of the chase scene, all of a sudden Boba Fett walks up to them as calmly as if he had been standing on that very street corner only a moment before. He wasn’t running, wasn’t out of breath, wasn’t sweating – he obviously just walked up to the Mayor’s assistant as if he hadn’t gone anywhere. Either the chase scene was all right turns for 15 minutes, or they were going about 2-3 miles per hour. And it looked really, really slow too. Never would I expect to be so underwhelmed by a Star Wars action scene like I was with this one.

Maybe it will get better.

Of Note

The painting that gets destroyed during the Slowest Chase Scene Known to Mankind is based on concept art from Ralph McQuarrie. They’ve removed Luke from the painting before using it in this episode.