Technology and Story

I just can't quit you, Star Wars!

George Lucas once said something about special effects without story being a pretty boring thing.

I wonder what Mr. Lucas thought about the recent episode of Book of Boba Fett, where (spoilers!) Luke Skywalker shows up in his Return of the Jedi-era glory and trains and talks to little Grogu, before presenting him with a choice.

It's an incredible achievement in technology in my opinion - of course, I've seen some of the deepfake work online where people from Tom Cruise and Robert Downey Jr to Harrison Ford and George Lucas himself (which is hilarious; you must watch it if you haven't) have been able to give us extended improv-comedy routines and pop culture commentary, courtesy of the very funny actors who are actually doing the performing.

It's great, and the youtuber Shamook was hired by Lucasfilm after his work improving the appearance of Luke Skywalker from the Mandalorian finale last year. I don't know if Shamook was involved with the new Luke appearance, but one could imagine so.

This process was different than Luke's last appearance - that one involved Mark Hamill in an "egg" filled with cameras, which filmed him and then assembled a 3d head of Luke's younger self. It turned out to be an incredible scene, but the movement of the character was limited. I think the whole thing was shot very quickly (in one day), probably to make sure the whole thing could be kept as a surprise that wouldn't leak. And it was!

In any case, this new Luke in the Boba Fett episode could walk around, look at other characters, and could be expressive. I mostly forgot I was looking at a technological creation. Mostly…there is a feeling of warmth from Mark Hamill's Luke that isn't quite there. I don't know how that's created…something in the eyes? A subtle smile here and there? I think it will get there. I wondered about when – and I think it's "when", not "if"– when we see young Luke and young Han Solo interacting, will a sense of emotion, of the familiarity of their friendship be possible to recreate?


Return of the Jedi Luke, Mandalorian-Luke, and Boba Fett-Luke
We'll see - regardless of those nitpicks, it was an incredible technological achievement in my opinion. I was quite blown away.

But that's the technology. That's the effect. What about the story?

The story was amazing in that episode (and in the previous episode, where we caught up with the Mandalorian again). We saw the training of little Grogu, in sequences that called to mind the scenes in The Empire Strikes Back, where Luke was trained by Yoda. In the end, like I said, Luke presents Grogu with a choice of what path he wants to follow.

This was powerful, iconic storytelling, based on the bones of Star Wars: The spiritual, sort of Eastern martial arts/philosopher type stuff that's always been one half of the franchise (the other half being the fun, pulpy sci fi adventure. Beautifully shot, directed by Dave Filoni (and written by Filoni and John Favreau)

Even with the season finale of Boba Fett, which was fun but lost some of the power of the two episodes before, I was left with my head spinning from the possibilities for the future.

The technology will only get better. If the stories can keep up, the possibilities are incredible.

This tech suggests some scary things for our future too, but kind of amazing things for our entertainment at least.

Okay, that's it for me today.

take care,

Banes