A superfluous jaunt, full of CGI monster battles.

Despite the fall of the Galactic Empire, evil separatist movements still exist. The New Republic sometimes needs mercenaries and bounty hunters to mop up problems. Din Djarin, a Mandalorian, and Grogu, are tasked in aiding the Hutts crime syndicate in exchange for information on the whereabouts of ex-Imperial agents.

Directed by Jon Favreau, written by Favreau and Dave Filoni, and stars Pedro Pascal and Sigourney Weaver. The movie follows the three seasons of The Mandalorian on Disney’s Disney+ streaming service. Star Wars is in a rough place right now. Failing in Disney’s estimations to capture the built-in fan base, production of the franchise slowed down dramatically.

Does The Mandalorian and Grogu restore confidence in the brand? No. Does it acquit itself okay? Hmmmm…

The short synopsis really covers it; the plot here is paper thin. To jump straight into negatives, there is almost no character development. In fact, I will be frank and say there is zero character or universe development here. This is probably the safest, blandest Star Wars movie yet. Which isn’t to say it doesn’t have anything. But it doesn’t have spark, either.

Personally, I loved The Mandalorian season 1, which was directed by Favreau. It gave us a look at the ground-level fantasy of this universe. No Jedi, no Sith, no world-ending/galaxy defying agency. Just someone trying to get by. It was simple, and did some new things within that simplicity. Season 2, however, brought in all the bells and whistles and made it “Star Wars” again. Because Disney smelled money, and brought in writer Dave Filoni (who worked on Star Wars cartoon series, including Rebels). So the quality dipped. I didn’t watch season 3.

To say that Star Wars has had a tumultuous decade would be an understatement. Criticism has been so rife that one can make a spectrum out of it alone. Where do you sit on the range of Star Wars dislike? So the announcement of The Mandalorian and Grogu was generally met with indifference. What was fresh in 2020 was already tired. It has an uphill battle. But I still went into the movie with an open mind.

(as usual, Star Wars reviews end up being long)

On the positive side, it is great to see Mando and Grogu on the big screen. Philosophically, the rise of Disney+ and streaming being superior to movies felt wrong. This movie in a small way addresses that imbalance. It keeps the grounded tone; it is a story that doesn’t involve Jedi, or Sith, or galaxy-ending drama. There isn’t a single character cameo, not even R2-D2. It feels unique in its stand-alone attitude. Seeing the Razor Crest ship flying around is already weirdly nostalgic.
The Disney machine knows how much people love Grogu (aka Baby Yoda) and the film spends a surprising amount of time from a Grogu perspective. That’s right, there’s a lot more influence of Caravan of Courage (an Ewok Adventure) from 1984 than anyone could have expected. If you love Grogu, there are plenty of sight-gags and “aww” moments. It did make me laugh a couple of times.

There’s even a brief use of stop-motion animation, which was cool to see! And of course, the puppets.

But even more so than any other Disney+ product, this movie demands you have already seen three seasons of The Mandalorian. If you haven’t, you are given nothing. Absolutely nothing. Granted, in 2020 we were all locked inside so it is good odds. But on its own, it doesn’t work. The first act of the film is a mess.
The pacing is horrible. A series of disjointed vignettes as our duo fly back-and-forth from task to task. This works as a television series, but as a movie it felt like it was going to end after forty minutes. The pacing is breakneck. Our heroes are constantly battling CGI monstrosities that it becomes exhausting; it never ends. Part of what made the streaming show’s first season good were the moments of peace.

Then there are the new characters, specifically Rotta the Hutt. A Hutt gladiator sporting a twelve pack, who the Mandalorian is tasked with saving. Luckily, Hutts can speak English (Galactic Common, okay) now. I certainly didn’t expect, nor wanted, this film to be an echo of the animated Clone Wars movie. The CGI doesn’t look good, but it is constantly there.

A franchise as politically brow-beaten as Star Wars, which wants to appeal to everyone, will inevitably make something this safe. Children will enjoy it, for sure. It has enough key-jangling and cute things, it doesn’t do anything else.

It was, overall, fine. But for a feature length story about the Mandalorian to be less interesting than the first season, it is disappointing. There’s a lot more to say about this part of Star Wars, but the review has gone on too long now…

Additional Marshmallows:
Other stupid things:
– Grogu (who is like fifty centimetres tall) keeping pace with the Mandalorian, a fully grown athletic humanoid
– The chess board fighting pit, complete with the same monsters from the chess board. Why? How?
– Start of the film: Mandalorian uses the lever (the one Grogu loves so much) to go into Hyperspace. End of the film: Grogu activates Hyperspace with a button press. Which one is it??

Additional, Additional Marshmallows:
This other trailer is hilarious garbage.