Heres my review of The Mandalorian Episode 1: A vergence in the Force
PROS
Technical details like scene transitions and audio edits are top notch. I didnt notice any audio errors from one episode to another. And for me the more wipe transitions the better. I enjoyed the opening crawl text, it was clear and set the stage.
I was surprised at how far into episode 1 you cut but it still worked. This was a bold choice that paid off. I like the opening shot inside the cockpit where we dont see mando right from the start just a glimpse of his back. This worked well as a mysterious introduction to the character. The merginig of grief carga doing business with mando into one scene worked well without losing any information. I enjoyed looking for those kinds of edits while watching. Streamlining the first episode and cutting out others completely helped keep a logical flow of the movie so viewers wouldnt get whiplash jumping from one planet to the next. The mudhorn encounter is believable considering what you had to work with. Now that scene is followed by mando fixing his armor which is a small change but makes more sense. Moving Kuils montage of fixing IG-11 to the front of the film works so much better here. Originally it seemed like a random exposition scene but now it adds an interesting plot thread that pays off towards the end. Really good job on that. Thankfully arguably the worst scene in the series is gone: the dreaded scout trooper sequence in the last episode. Thank you for not making me watch that again. With that scene removed the pacing and transition between the last 2 episodes is silky smooth.
CONS
My only real complaint of this edit was the inclusion of the gunsligner episode. This was the only time I was taken out of the story as i realized i was going to have to watch one of my least favorite episodes in its entirety. I think this really added alot to the total runtime of the movie as well. I will say i understand why you chose to keep it. Its probably the right decision because there needed to be a passage of time from episode 3 to 7. And if your going to do future edits of shows to movies (i hope you do), Boba Fett finding Fennec Shand is probably important. Maybe if you cut it down a little more? To be fair I think this episode works better here than a standalone episode.
I miss seeing more of Cara Dune (who is one of my faves:D) but i think her introduction worked. When your watching it u assume shes someone he knew from his travels and i dont think it seemed out of nowhere.
NITPICKS
I honestly do not understand the tracking fobs in general, i dont think they make any sense and are just lazy storytelling. I would just take out any reference to them out completely. But that is neither here nor there i just felt like sharing.
I dont like the “helmets” intro on disney plus. Watching it synced to the fox fanfare didnt feel right. i know its just an easter egg and has no consequence. I would have preferred the usual starwars logo to begin the crawl and maybe change the title to simply: The Mandalorian. I noticed there are only 3 ellipsis when the other starwars films have 4.
CONCLUSION
The superior way to watch season 1. Aside from the gunsligner episode dragging down the pacing, i thought this movie told the story better than separate episodes. I really enjoyed watching this edit and dissecting all your decisions. This edit proves sometimes less is more.
