TV Review: An Industrialist Hires the Wrong Help In "Star Wars: Visions" Volume 3, Episode 4 - "The Bounty Hunters"
Today saw the release of Volume 3 of Lucasfilm’s animated anthology series Star Wars: Visions, and below are my thoughts on the fourth installment from this third batch of short films, entitled “The Bounty Hunters” from Wit Studio.
After a brief dream sequence that introduces our protagonist’s betrayal by a Jedi, “The Bounty Hunters” opens on another big space battle, as we meet the main characters Sevn (voiced by Anna Sawai in the English dub) and her droid partner with multiple personalities IV-A4 (Ronny Chieng). Their ship, which bears a passing resemblance to the Razor Crest from The Mandalorian, sustains significant damage during combat, so the pair are forced to seek refuge on an industrial planet led by capitalist Jin-Sim (Joseph Lee). In exchange for repairs to her ship plus an additional paycheck upon completion of the task, Jin-Sim assigns Sevn a new bounty– rebel fighters surviving in the planet’s underground. But when she gets there to grab them, the leader of the rebels Eno (Jodie Turner-Smith) tells Sevn that she’s been misled by Jin-Sim, and that they’re simply fighting back against his company’s use of slave labor.
Back in Jin-Sim’s office, Sevn and her new allies launch a sneak attack against the businessman, though they have to fight their way through two pretty enormous droids along the way. Despite being a really big fan of Star Wars bounty hunters as a concept (heck, I named my podcast “Who’s the Bossk?”) I thought “The Bounty Hunters” was fairly middling as far as Visions episodes go. The action is dynamic and exciting, but I don’t feel that I ever really connected with the characters, though I suppose that’s a tough thing to accomplish over the course of just 20 minutes. Chieng’s performance as the literally two-faced droid IV-A4 is an amusing one, but as a villain Jin-Sim is overly transparent and one-dimensional. Did he not think that the freedom fighters would explain themselves to Sevn after she captured them? That didn’t really make sense to me. Anyway I’d call this entry just okay, and I’m hoping for more interesting stuff to come as I continue my way through Volume 3.
Star Wars: Visions Volume 3 is now streaming in its entirety, exclusively via Disney+.