Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett Episode 4 Review: The Gathering Storm

A recurring downside is that the dialogue merely appears like somebody studying an encyclopedia. You received’t discover subtlety or metaphor right here. There’s nearly a way that the present is afraid the viewers could have forgotten what occurred final week or final 12 months. Sure, the dialogue does make it clearer now that Boba’s time with the Tusken Raiders modified him. “You’ll be able to solely get up to now and not using a tribe,” he says, and doesn’t need any extra bounty hunters to need to die needlessly. However in lots of locations, it’s merely limitless exposition and the lead actors doing their finest with it.

Boba additionally claimed “we’re smarter” than the unnecessary deaths he’s confronted in his lengthy life. (To his credit score, it’s a reasonably grim life.) However the episode doesn’t bear that assertion of smarts out. As an alternative of contrasting with Boba to make him look both cooler or extra inept, Fennec is solely higher geared up. Her plan for sneaking in to the palace is solely to look at the guard rotations and go quietly, which, even to somebody whose information of infiltration just about comes from Murderer’s Creed, looks as if the fundamentals.

Later, Fennec complains that the bounty hunters ought to have caught to the plan, regardless that Boba didn’t make a option to go in opposition to it: he merely dealt as he wanted to with the nosy droids. To be honest, this sort of banter-above-consistency too is a Star Wars staple. What the Rebels’ plan to rescue Han Solo at first of Return of the Jedi truly was can grow to be a supply of jokey debate. However in a present with so little coronary heart, each line looks as if a wasted alternative.

At first, I set out to not evaluate The Guide of Boba Fett with The Mandalorian at each flip. The latter was a shock hit, the previous a direct adaptation of a beloved character. Nonetheless, the studio hyperlinks them: the primary teaser for The Guide of Boba Fett was a stinger on the finish of an episode of The Mandalorian. They’re related. And serious about it that manner, I ponder if among the first present’s strengths simply turned the second’s weaknesses. The Mandalorian has much less dialogue, in addition to characters who really feel largely archetypal however have simply sufficient to distinguish them. Perhaps author Jon Favreau was good to keep away from utilizing as a lot dialogue in these scripts. Word that villain Moff Gideon, the character who most appears to get pleasure from listening to the sound of his personal voice, additionally first appeared on display with a Wookieepedia-esque monologue. Maybe The Mandalorian‘s scripts rightly selected to cover behind the overall silence and broodiness of its most important characters — one among them is a child who can’t speak in any respect, in spite of everything — and I’m beginning to want Boba Fett had performed the identical.

Alas, I hope Ming-Na Wen is getting paid effectively to ship traces like “Hearth within the gap.” General, each she and Temuera Morrison proceed to attempt to flip lead into gold. Boba is earthy and Fennec flinty, and each attempt to inject some humor into the tasteless traces. They’re making an attempt so laborious to have some form of chemistry. In that typical second the place motion heroes’ eyes meet after a giant combat, their have an effect on modified convincingly sufficient I wouldn’t even thoughts if a romance sparked off between them. Fennec closing her eyes to sleep in Boba’s ship sells her consolation with their partnership greater than the dialogue ever does. General, as within the first episode, I just like the neutrality with which the digital camera handles Fennec, however it additionally means her character doesn’t successfully convey a message.

Fennec napping brings us to some excessive factors. I preferred the inside photographs of Boba’s ship, with the digital camera wanting instantly down on him as he clambers by way of the inverted inside. “The Gathering Storm”‘s set piece battle sees Fennec going hand-to-hand on the ship’s ramp whereas Boba struggles to pilot it out of shut quarters. Fennec neatly sells the fight and the combination of massive equipment, and her precarious perch made the scene really feel really thrilling and harmful.