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I am absolutely lost for words. How the hell did they top the first one??? This is easily, without a shadow of a doubt, the film of the year. It perfectly balances humour and emotional beats on a razor thin blade. It's richly layered, complex and the attention to detail is absolutely incredible. The story is phenomenal, the characters are believable and have excellent levels of depth, the soundtrack is fantastic. My expectations were completely exceeded, I spent the entire 2h 30m runtime in awe. But one thing above all deserves very special praise :

THE ARTWORK.

This films aesthetic is jaw-dropping, I found myself plunged (for the second time now) straight into the pages of a comic book from my youth. The use of colour is remarkable, the animation is smoother than silk, the textures, the backgrounds, the lighting, the style itself - everything blends together perfectly to create one of the most visually stunning things ever committed to the screen. Almost any shot could be a painting, with inextricable layers upon layers of marvellous detail, hand-crafted by some extremely talented individuals. This is cinema.

If this doesn't win the Oscar for best animated feature I'm rioting, and you'd better join me. GO AND SEE THIS FILM RIGHT NOW.

Where do i begin? Every episode of this season has left me feeling a little disappointed and underwhelmed. There have been excellent scenes but they are buried in a sea of mediocrity, i keep waiting for jon and dave to show me something special, to bring my love for this show back, but i'm consistently just feeling - meh.

Make no mistake, i LOVE The Mandalorian, the season two finale was the most special experience i've had watching a tv show, and i've counted down the days to season three since it was announced. Which is why it pains me so much to tell all of you fine folks that this episode (and vast majority of this season) feels like nothing more than somewhat enjoyable filler, i'm naively optimistic that the finale will check more boxes, but for now i hate to say that i'm just not feeling the same way about the direction the narrative is taking.

Mando has taken a back seat this season, bo katan is a great character but this is not her show, this is not what i tune in every wednesday at 8am for. I understand the desire to flesh out the mandalorian culture and creed by exploring more characters, but do we have to have to pick between din djarin and that? Why do i feel like the main character is sidelined consistently? Why is the plot not revolving around him? And the story? Each episode would make a great one off - this episode most of all, but i do not feel there is as much thought put into the deeper interconnectivity of the show compared to previous arcs and storylines. Where are we going? Will it be worth it?

I was worried that they wouldn't be able to top the season 2 finale but now i'm finding that so far they can't even top any of the episodes in season 2. The Book of Boba Fett's "Return of the Mandalorian" was better than any of these almost above average attempts. We're at episode 5 now, 3 more episodes and it's back to waiting another 2 years, none of this season has felt worth the wait. I hope i'm proven wrong in the next few episodes but guys I am WORRIED. Come on Jon and Dave, these next three HAVE to rectify the wobbly start.

P. S. - first review, thanks for reading (or not)