Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore

Din and Grogu visit Mandalore.

This is a good episode with some excellent visual spectacle.

I enjoyed this episode, mainly for the great cinematography, action scenes, and beautiful art design that bring more of the Star Wars universe to life. Plus there is a healthy focus on Grogu, which is always good.

There is a distinct middle third of the story that is full of intriguing exploration and creepy moments and this for me is the strongest part. The final third feels a bit repetitive in certain moments and makes the plot feel a bit stretched to me.

The fan service is great as always, especially the use of the R5 droid and Jawas.

With a few changes this could have been a brilliant 2nd episode. I'll talk about what I liked first, all of the stuff with Mando teaching grogu about the workings of the ship and different things about being a Mandalorian was adorable and the highlight of the episode for me. The director Rachel Morrison is mainly a cinematographer most notably known for black panther, and it shows. The episode mostly takes place in this underground ruin area and it all looks wonderful. However... much like the previous episode it suffers from some mediocre writing and action scenes. But I believe the biggest issue was bo-katan, now I love the character, but the Mandalorian gets a couple things off about her. Firstly, she would be way older, we're talking late 50's at the earliest, and while she is an awesome Mandalorian I doubt she would be able to block too many electric spear thrusts or roll under too many giant mechanical behemoths. Secondly, there is one part where she is implied to want to kill Mando, but then when she sees it's grogu she risks her life to save him, twice! Nice writing guys! Lastly, why does she not believe in any of that weird mysticism surrounding mandalore, when she met obi-wan, Ahsoka, and maul multiple times! She would be one of the first people to believe in it!

I hope I don't sound too negative in this review, there were plenty of things I really enjoyed, I just think that with some better writing and fight choreography, as well as some reworked character consistencies, it could of been something really special.

7.5/10 definitely an improvement over last episode.

This is such a pick up after last week's episode, it had good action, tense scenes and my man Grogu is the 🐐

Basically they need to go to Mandalore to gather stuff to prove it's hospitable so Jin can get his title back.

The visuals were really good, the soundtrack all of it, Grogu is developing, he isn't just a cute tag along partner he had a big role to play in this episode and I do hope we get more of that ! Mando was good, he is really set on his mission but also including Grogu and in his way trying to raise him.

Good adventure with some good turns, I really enjoyed the intense Grogu scenes they were the highlight and also the last 10 - 15 were unreal !

I was rather disappointed with the fan service-laden first episode of this season. In hindsight I understand how it served to set the stage for this masterpiece by reintroducing a certain familiar character.

We're once again treated to a lot of fan service and easter eggs, but this time it all feels very plot-relevant and had me on the edge of my seat for the better part of 40 minutes. Which felt a lot longer to me, almost as if a feature film plot had been condensed into this brief runtime.

PS: I loved the new addition to Din's party who goes all the way back to A New Hope. Here's to hoping he'll be a permanent addition from here on in.

This one felt more like a Mandalorian episode again. With a deeper tone and wider cinematography, ambient music and an overall thrilling vibe. The story didn't branch off into unwanted subplots, we focused on Mando's task at hand.

Apart from a few moments of disposable enemy slaughtering the monsters in this episode actually had the art of terror. A subject not looked into enough when it comes to exoplanet exploration in film making. I mean i'm not expecting it to be like the movie Alien, but the vibe was still there.

A more enjoyable episode, although it would have been also enjoyable to have Mando do more, he seemed like dead weight in this one. Given said, the development still progressed and the story wasn't lost.

Not a kick ass episode, but better than the first one. Progression was there.