SERIES REVIEW – Boba Fett is supposed to be a huge Star Wars face – at least according to fans. Although he had maybe a total of three minutes in the Star Wars movies and an idiotic “death” that would be more appropriate for a parody of some sort, it was necessary to revive this character, write novels about him, and then produce a series of his other armoured, helmeted bounty hunter adventures inspired by him – which happened to be a deserved hit, because it was excellent. This new series (at least the first part) is very much not.

There is probably no Star Wars fan who hasn’t heard by now that the character of Boba Fett was once inspired by the stoic bounty hunter western hero portrayed by Clint Eastwood in the 1960s, who was seen in the films (A Fistful of Dollars, A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), also known as the “Dollar Trilogy”. The Mandalorian, which opened in 2019, did a great job of recreating this western spaghetti line, with its stoic, terse character of the Mandalorian bounty hunter wearing his helmet almost constantly, played by Pedro Pascal, but also the whole mood of the series evoked these predominantly Italian films about the Wild West, popular in the sixties and seventies, in a very professional way. However, The Book of Boba Fett, which can be seen as a spin-off, starts with a terribly silly first part instead of a well-developed atmosphere and style.

This is how Boba Fett got out of the Sarlacc – wow!!!

For those of you who wanted to know in more detail how Boba Fett got out of the stomach of the monster that could be considered a “desert pit”, the first part of the book is a good example. To be honest, I wasn’t really interested – at least not in that much detail. I’m tired as hell of this constant Hollywood “he’s not dead!” type of twist, bringing back characters who have already died and who have already died. In the Star Wars world, besides Boba Fett, we have Darth Maul, who, after being cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi and falling hundreds of metres, was glued together with Technocol Rapid (well, not Technocol Rapid, I’m just kidding, but he really did survive his death by some horribly idiotic explanation…), and Emperor Palpatine, who was brought back in the Skywalker era. I understand that many fans would like (?) to see more of these iconic villains, but how about you, dear creators, screenwriters and Disney movie moguls, inventing new heroes and anti-heroes who are just as memorable and, let’s say, not living off the corpse of the old ones?

The question is a rhetorical one, and it would be too far-fetched to ponder it any further, but we have this brave Boba Fett, who didn’t have much of a role until The Clone Wars, where he played Jango Fett, Boba Fett’s “father” (Boba was cloned from him). It’s an interesting thread, but other than an awful ass cameo in Mandalorian, I’m not sure this spin-off series was needed. At least not this way, I’m sure.

Memories and present

The story of the first episode follows two timelines. The first shows us how Boba Fett got out of the stomach of the mud pit, how the Jawas captured him, and how he was taken prisoner by Tusken. It sounds interesting, but it’s just somehow hard to believe how easily the legendary bounty hunter played by 61-year-old Temuera Morrison can be taken down by the Javanese and the Tuskens with a scalper or two and held captive, and then later still prevail against giant desert monsters. In principle, the action sequences showing the fight against the monsters are somehow ridiculous and reminiscent of the old Star Trek of the sixties on a cheap budget.

Then there’s the other timeline, where Boba Fett is the new daimyo of the crater designer Mos Espa, who has ‘inherited’ Jabba the Jabba, and the new ‘lord of a new crime gang’. This ripped old bounty hunter is kind of ridiculous in this role, but we don’t see much of this “new gang of criminals” other than his sidekick (Ming-Na Wen) and the two green pigs who were once servants of Jabba the Jedi Returns.

Nor are the present-day action sequences very exciting or well-choreographed (they were light years better in Mandalorian), and it’s not very clear who attacked Boba and her sidekick and why.

“A new hope”: that the sequel will be better

The Book of Boba Fett thus seems at first glance to be a poor man’s Mandalorian, with weak performances, a story and action scenes that seem ridiculous. The first episode was only 48 minutes long, but I was bored halfway through, even though it had just started… Will the sequel be better? “New hope” is the last to die…

-BadSector-