Happy Jawa - Jango

Jango

2003 / 14m 29s
director: Gary Mongar

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rating: Piece of Stuff
category: saga continuation

Jango proposes to answer the question as to how Jango Fett became the way he was portrayed in Episode II, but, unfortunately, we only see his transformation from a high-tech bad-ass bounty hunter into a really pissed-off high-tech bad-ass bounty hunter. To my way of thinking, that ain't much of a transition.

This two person effort between Gary Mongar and his wife Tania is a considerable undertaking, and I salute them for it. Most of the virtual environments are really engaging and wonderfully done. I appreciate the fact that Mongar attempts to do aliens, but most of them aren't really up to the standard of the day and often Jango looks like he is conversing with cartoons. One also becomes painfully aware of the fact that there were only two people in this film during some of the fight sequences which keep cutting from one combatant to the other, almost never having them in the same frame.

I did enjoy the juxtaposition of tense combat with humor. A very familiar sound at timecode 2:36 cracked me up. You'll know it when you hear it.

One of the good things about the script was that it didn't bog down in exposition. We learned what was going on by watching, not listening to some long monologue. We were even spared the ubiquitous screen crawl at the beginning. These were smart choices by Mongar.

Under the surface of Jango lurks a Star Wars film that touches on the darker genre of film noir. But it is never quite manifested. For the time, I'll enjoy it for what it is, but in my heart I wish it were more.

Lars Lee

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ps - For an alternate prehistory of Jango Fett, check out Jango Fett: Open Seasons by Dark Horse Comics.