For seven years, Star Wars as a franchise has solely existed on the small screen, but The Mandalorian and Grogu is here to change that. After the disastrous climax to the Skywalker saga, The Rise of Skywalker, the franchise has been absent from the big screens it used to dominate.
Sadly, this film isn’t doing anything to change that run of poor luck. The Mandalorian and Grogu isn’t a bad movie, but it certainly had me reminiscing on Seasons 1 and 2 of the television show and recalling the immortal words of legendary NBA announcer Mark Jackson: “What happened to the game I love?”
The Mandalorian and Grogu Review
The Mandalorian and Grogu marks a disappointing end (is it the end? It’s hard to say, but it’s also hard to see what is left for Mando and his child to do other than the same things they’ve been doing all this time) to this current streaming era of Star Wars. It was fairly hit or miss, but The Mandalorian was a huge hit.
It unfortunately fell prey to several things that plague modern television, and those things carry over into the film. Season 1, which stood well apart from the existing Star Wars canon and could easily be enjoyed and understood without having ever seen another project, was just about perfect.
Season 2 began to slowly introduce those new audience members to the greater lore, linking back to Boba Fett, Ahsoka Tano, Mandalore, and other parts of the series. It was brilliantly done, effectively bringing fans into the fold with an unrelated show and then drip-feeding them enough to spark some interest in the wider universe.
But the show came to a crucial turning point, and they made a wrong turn. It’s understandable why they kept Mando and Grogu together, because that’s the dynamic people loved. But it began to wear thin in the third season, which meandered between trying to continue a narrative that connects to the sequel trilogy and being mindless adventuring fun for our two protagonists.
Consider the Rotten Tomatoes scores of each season:
- Season 1: 93% Critic Score, 93% Audience
- Season 2: 93% Critic Score, 91% Audience
- Season 3: 84% Critic Score, 51% Audience
There’s not a huge dropoff in Critic Score, but 9% is significant, and obviously, the audience hated it. It’s with a heavy heart that I report that The Mandalorian and Grogu is more in line with Season 3. In my opinion, it’s not bad, but it’s a far cry from what the show was and what The Mandalorian and Grogu could’ve been (and for what it’s worth, the film is sitting at 62% Critic Score now).
The unfortunate fact of the matter is that this franchise ran itself into the ground with that key Season 2 decision. Had Grogu gone his own way with Luke Skywalker, the Mandalorian could’ve remained his own epic, solo character. That’s what bogs down The Mandalorian and Grogu so much. For most of it, Grogu is still a non-character who does nothing and provides nothing.
That’s not his fault entirely, though. His species ages ridiculously slowly, so he’s still a baby. He’s more advanced than he was in the show, naturally, but that still means he’s limited. He also cannot speak or even emote, really, so it’s a buddy cop movie with just one buddy. It’s a two-hander with just one hand. It’s the Mandalorian with Grogu, but only the Mandalorian is an actual, real, layered character.
There are attempts to derive an emotional response, but they fall utterly flat for two major reasons. First, the threat of the loss of Din Djarin has been done in the show (and there was no way he was ever going to die in this movie). Second, we’re meant to perceive this potential loss from Grogu’s perspective. As mentioned, he can’t even emote, so how can he drive an emotional response with the audience?
The Mandalorian, who instantly became one of the best Star Wars characters when the show debuted seven years ago, does enough incredibly cool stuff to keep the movie afloat. His action sequences, which are plentiful in a movie light on actual plot, are pretty awesome. He has some moments channeling John Wick and Batman that are terrific, especially early on.
That’s the movie’s saving grace, because pretty much every other character is a complete non-factor. Jeremy Allen White is providing, evidently at Jon Favreau’s direction, the blandest voice acting performance for Ratta the Hutt heard in a long time. Embo, a primary antagonist working for the Hutts, looks cool, but that’s only because he is vaguely reminiscent of Cad Bane.
Sigourney Weaver provides an awful performance, too. Her inclusion in the film speaks to a worrying trend, too. She is the only female character, and she just so happens to come from a preexisting and beloved sci-fi franchise (Alien). Star Wars fans complained about the series going too woke (as if it wasn’t woke from the very beginning), and now the most recent movie has one woman who adds basically nothing? That’s not insignificant.
The Mandalorian and Grogu vaguely gestures at some interesting thematic directions for the franchise, like the problems with the New Republic in the fall of the Empire or the fact that Mando is now working for a group that has no problem, initially, working with the Hutt criminal empire. There’s also a small bit about Grogu finally being an independent character, but it’s clear by the end of the movie that that was just a minor pivot and the duo will be sticking together moving forward.
Aside from Mando doing some awesome things, the other, and perhaps more real, saving grace is the score by Ludwig Goransson. He is doing fantastic work, both in the use of the existing, excellent score from the TV series and new tracks made for the film. The movie does tend to over-rely on the music since it probably knows that’s distracting everyone from the nothingness of the plot, but when the music is that good, it’s not a bad idea.
Visually, the film has some striking moments, but it is, by and large, a little on the bland side. There are moments of really fantastic cinematography, but there should be more. Star Wars is a blank canvas for creative settings and locales, but they’re not that interesting here. Beskar armor is also a cheat code because of its reflective nature, but it’s not utilized visually enough.
Conclusion
It’s hard to say where The Mandalorian and Grogu can go from here. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have kind of backed themselves into a corner and breezed past the biggest and best way to move out of it. However, Mando is still as cool as ever, and there’s an outstanding score backing his escapades, so that might be worth the price of admission.
Score: 2.75/5
