The Book of Boba Fett - Review

Richie Rich January 2022

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So, who’s this Boba Fett and why is he now the latest Disney+ , Star Wars, poster child we hear you cry?

For those of us who watched the original Star Wars movies - Boba Fett was a bit part bounty hunter pal of Jabba The Hutt in Star Wars Return of The Jedi.

You may, or may not, remember that Jabba wanted to execute Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Chewbacca and took them on floating barges to the Great Pit of Carkoon in the Tatooine desert. This was the home of the Sarlacc, the ugly giant worm thing, where Jabba was going to drop our 3 heroes into it for dinner. Floating over to the pit on his imperial barge Jabba was joined by slave, Princess Leia, C3PO, a host of guards and the not so rememberable Boba Fett (green helmet, jet pack, bounty hunter) at his side.

Anyway, just as they were about to become worm food Luke Skywalker did a Tom Daley backflip off the walk the plank and sprung a hidden lightsabre out of R2D2. Chaos follows and C3PO gets knocked flying by a green pig Gamorrean and Boba (who) Fett jets across to kill Luke, Hans and Chewie. 

After Luke dispatches a few more Imperial Guards Boba launches a rope from his arm(?) in an attempt to hog tie Luke. But Luke is having none of this and deflects a shot from the guard’s cannon to sever Boba’s rope and knocks him over in the process (rather feeble for a famous bounty hunter but keep with!)

At his point Chewie tells Han that Boba Fett is there and, unwittingly, Han Solo spins round and whacks Boba Fett in the back with his lightsabre. This causes Boba’s jet pack to malfunction and sends him first crashing into the side of Jabba’s barge and then tumbling into the mouth of the Sarlacc. The scene ends with Jabba being assassinated by Princess Leia who squeezes the ugly slug with her own slave chain to save the day. 

So what has this got to do with the Book of Boba Fett I hear you say? Well, this is where the new Book of Boba Fett takes up the story. In the opening scenes we are backtracked to the point at which Boba is inside the Sarlacc being slowly turned into worm dinner. Boba finds a way to escape and tumbles out onto the sands of Tatooine.

After taking off his helmet, the rather unremarkable bald old Boba is left gasping for air and drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point he wakes to find his jet pack and armour being stolen by Jawa scavengers (those cute little hooded characters that pickup old droids and stuff). Anyway, after knocking him out and leaving him for dead Boba is eventually discovered by the Sand People, or Tusken tribe to use their correct name, and is taken as their prisoner.

Here we are suddenly lurched into the present day as what we are actually seeing is Boba’s dream (of course!). Boba was asleep, submerged in Bacta fluid, in a cryogenic bath thing. Anyway, the story moves into the present as now the new crime lord Boba Fett (Temuera Morrison) holds court in the palace once owned by Jabba The Hutt. Aided by deadly assassin Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), he is taking his first steps into being the ‘Capo’ of a much larger underworld.

We follow Boba sitting atop his thrown whilst the locals attend to offer gifts and favours. 2 Green Pig Gamorreans, once at the allegiance of Jabba, swear to follow the new Lord Fett and become his guards. The town’s Major pulls a no-show and sends his minion and instead of providing Boba with a gift he demands one in return, which doesn’t go down well.

Boba ‘Lord’ Fett decides to visit his new kingdom and instead of following in the footsteps of Jabba, who was carried everywhere as his mark of power, Boba decides to walk the streets to show how fearless he is.

He takes a visit to the local cantina bar, which as you would expect is filled with all your old Star Wars favourites, and meets with the bar owner who (like us) is first “um, who are you” and then realising he is the new local crime lord grovels to offer drinks and favours.

On the way back Boba, Fennec and the Gamorreans are jumped by masked warriors and a rather lacklustre fight scene takes place across the rooftops. As you expect there’s lots of flying around but it all ends rather abruptly when the attackers give in and get beaten by Boba (bald dad) Fett and Fennec.

You may have guessed that after our first viewing we are not hugely impressed with the new Book of Boba Fett (who) from Disney +. Don’t get us wrong its full of all our favourite Star Wars and Mandalorian characters and there is some brilliant scenery, props and costumes. The problem is the pacing and the feeling of “so what”. Its like a load of scenes just stuck together with no real point. Maybe, as the series progresses, this will get better and this jolted story telling is part of the Book of Boba Fett ‘thing’?

As huge Star Wars fans its great to get more of our favourite movie franchise but this ‘made for TV’ series offers short episodes with something missing. If they can inject some of that original Star Wars magic, such as the battle of the Great Pit of Carkoon, then we do think it will get a lot better and so freeing Boba Fett from the Sarlacc will have all been worth it in the end!

The Book of Boba Fett is available now on Disney +

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