I watched movies 1 through 4, and I loved movies 1 and 4. I also enjoyed 2 and 3, although I think they have things that could be improved. But overall, I enjoyed all four movies, mainly because you cut out many bad scenes from the Boba Fett series, saved the scene of Mando removing his helmet for the fourth movie, and gave Luke the enhanced face.
My feedback:
Movie 1:
1h42min1sec-1h42min20sec: The music got a little jumbled in this section, in the transition between each song. Personally, I think it felt a little strange.
1h46m30s (Trash can scene): I think there was too much back and forth between the present-day scenes and the scenes of Mando as a child. I understand you wanted to make a connection between the events, but perhaps it would have been better if there were fewer scene cuts, so that the comparison between current and past events would be more subtle.
1h58m04s: At this point, there’s a flashback scene with a white fade-out, differentiating it from the previous flashback scenes, which didn’t have fade-outs. This made me think this was Mando’s last past scene, but there are other past scenes after that, and then at 1h58m54s there’s the last flashback, which also has a fade-out. I think it would be better if the fade-out at 1h58m04s were removed.
2h00m03s: Personally, I thought the Grief Carga scene that starts at this point felt a bit “thrown in.” I don’t know if it’s because of the music, as it’s very sudden and breaks the flow of Mando’s previous scene a bit, but in any case, I found the scene strange here. Perhaps if it were placed at an earlier point, I don’t know, but maybe it could feel more natural within the film’s flow. In my personal opinion, I think it would be better if Mando’s final sequence in the film followed directly, without that Grief scene in the middle, as it would flow more naturally and give a better “feel” of conclusion.
2nd film:
10min14sec: I found the transition between the two scenes very abrupt and strange. The first scene, showing Boba looking at the “dog,” doesn’t even have a purpose. Wouldn’t it be better to cut it?
I think it would be better if some of Temuera’s reactions and expressions up to the train scene could be cut. From the train scene onwards, I think Temuera is good as Boba Fett, but before that, he definitely doesn’t give the impression that he’s the man behind the helmet; his acting is still bad in many parts, even with the edits you made.
I thought the farmers’ plot, which is interspersed with Boba Fett’s plot at the beginning, dragged on too much in the film. In the original episode, this story works better within the context of the empire’s attack. Without this part, the plot development loses momentum, and at least for me, It becomes dull. Perhaps if the beginning of the film had focused only on Boba Fett, and over time we had seen how Boba’s part relates to Mando’s, this edit would have been more objective;
I think 1h19m04s could be combined into 1h21m14s. There are many scene cuts between Mando and Boba in this edit (this sequence is an example), making it very choppy and interrupting the narrative flow quite a little;
In my opinion, the music at the end of the film didn’t fit. Gideon’s appearance emerging alive from the ship was supposed to have an impact, and the music took away that impact (my sister, who was watching with me, even thought the music made the ending funny). Personally, I think a darker and quieter piece of music would have been better in this part. And the scene with Boba and the Fennec felt very dropped in the ending. For me, it would make more sense to end Boba’s arc in this film with him creating a real and deeper connection with Mando. Otherwise, what’s the point of this film “interrupting” Mando’s story with Boba’s arc if it doesn’t have a purpose within that story? There needs to be something “bigger” than simply the fact that the two of them had an encounter with Fennec on a job. Perhaps it would be good to include a short AI conversation between Boba and Fennec, with him asking who did that to her, and her mentioning that a Mandalorian was involved, and Boba saying that it’s rare to find a Mandalorian in those lands, and her asking if Boba thinks Mando might be using his armor, and Boba saying something like “tell me more about this Mandalorian” or something like that, hinting at their future encounter (just sketching an idea here, it could be another dialogue. I just want to say that it would be good to link them in a more substantial way).
3rd film:
I think it would be good if, when Boba appears for the first time in the film, they showed the planet Tatooine beforehand, and if possible, Boba’s spaceship in a panoramic shot. I think that could give a better sense of a cinematic film;
22m43s: The line “next time don’t touch my buttons” felt a bit out of character;
I thought the part where Grogu is in the classroom didn’t sound very “Star Wars”. Personally, I think it would be good to cut as much of it as possible, even because it’s not essential to the narrative;
The scene of the New Republic interrogating Greef Karga only makes the New Republic look dumb, besides adding nothing to the story;
At 1h24m55s, Boba appears out of nowhere. Is there a possibility of putting a panoramic shot before he appears, showing the mountains where he is?;
1h32m12s: The scene of Boba’s ship felt very out of place, as it simply appears flying in the vacuum of space and not following the Razor Crest. Besides, we already know that Boba is after Mando. Personally, I think it would be better to remove this scene, it seems somewhat unnecessary;
The end of the film has many scene cuts: Mando, then Gideon, then Mando, then Bo Katan, then Boba, then Mando and then Gideon again, all within a five-minute span. I found it somewhat unnecessary and I think it would flow better if it were possible to connect Gideon’s scenes with each other, as well as Mando’s scenes.
4th film:
The only line I find a little cheesy is Dr. Pershing’s, when he says that the dark troopers eliminated the troopers’ only weakness, which was the human factor. He says this as if it were something brilliant and revolutionary, even though the separatists used robots throughout an entire trilogy lol. But of course, this is a very personal opinion of mine. I know that keeping or removing this line doesn’t change anything in this edit, which turned out excellent.
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In general, I thought the fourth film worked very well as a real movie, but in the first three edits, I didn’t feel that way. Since you’re changing the story format from a series to a movie, I felt a bit of a lack of some connecting elements between the events that occur within these films, as well as a beginning, middle, and end structure. Sometimes, it seems like there are isolated plot lines that begin and end in the middle of the film, making it somewhat obvious that they are episodes of the series inserted there, but that they are out of place within the overall context of the story.
Below I will brainstorm some ideas about more structural changes that the films could have. But, to be clear, these are just suggestions. I know that some things I describe in the text below would be drastic changes to your edits, and it’s okay if you ignore them. I just thought it was relevant to show that there might be points of view that you could consider for your films.
For example, in the first edit, I felt that the mercenaries’ plot appears somewhat out of nowhere. It’s as if it were an episode that begins and ends within the film, as this arc doesn’t seem to be integrated into the central plot. Perhaps it would be necessary, at some point early on, to have Mando receive a voice message on his ship from Ranzar Malk or someone from the mercenary group, suggesting that the old man has a job for him or something like that, and Mando ignores it, only accepting the offer when Greef Carga suggests the job to him. This would show that, for Mando, it would be unthinkable to reunite with those mercenaries before meeting Grogu, as it’s a part of his life he left behind. But, upon meeting Grogu, this confuses him, making him reevaluate his entire life, to the point of reconsidering past choices and accepting offers he wouldn’t have accepted before. In this way, after participating in the work with the mercenaries and seeing that he definitely doesn’t want that kind of life anymore, he would feel that he needs Grogu with him and thus return to get him. I think it wouldn’t be strange for Mando to receive that message from Malk at the beginning of the film, given that he already has a past with this group of mercenaries.
The third film was the one I felt most lacked a clear beginning, middle, and end structure. In the end, it gave me the impression of being a collection of episodes glued together, as I couldn’t perceive a clear and central narrative that defined this edit.
Regarding the second film, I think it would have been better if it had focused on Boba Fett’s storyline. I say this because its central plot is Boba’s search for his armor. Boba spends a good part of the film looking for it, but when the end comes, the focus shifts completely to Mando’s story with Grogu. As the edit ends this way, to me, Boba Fett’s plot felt a little awkward, as if it were “getting in the way” of the continuation of Mando and Grogu’s story that began in the previous film. Of course, in the third film, we will see Mando get Boba’s armor and this will explain Boba’s role in the story, but this won’t help the overall experience of the second edit, which will still seem a little purposeless on its own. The feeling I had when I finished the second edit was, “Okay, seeing the story edited this way, I can’t see why I should care about Boba Fett at this point, since he’s looking for his armor and that has nothing to do with the story we’re following with Mando.”
And like, the ending of the second movie is excellent, but I didn’t feel there was adequate build-up to that ending, because we deal mostly with Boba in the rest of the edit, something that kills some of the hype for Mando’s confrontation with Gideon. Ultimately, we have a plot with a beginning and middle focused on Boba, but without an ending that answers the question raised at the beginning of the film (i.e., where is Boba’s armor); and an ending for Mando and Grogu, without a beginning and middle focused on the two of them.
Thematically, I think Marshall’s storyline would be an excellent ending for the second film, because that way, the main point raised by the second film would finally be answered, and we would know who ultimately had his armor, and the story would have a satisfying conclusion. After all, since Boba’s armor would end up with Mando, this would definitively link their paths and make us understand why Boba’s story is being told in the middle of Mando’s films. And the plot of the persecution Mando is suffering for having “stolen” Grogu in the first film could be merged into the third film, with the current ending of the second film (Moff Gideon going after Grogu and Mando’s confrontation with Gideon) being transferred to the end of the third film. I know that if this happened, there would be several contradictions, but I think that if there were some editing, it could work (the detail on Mando’s shoulder pad would disappear and reappear, for example, but it’s such a small detail that almost no one would notice, I believe).