The year 2019 was a pivotal year in the history of the Star Wars brand. It was the year that Sequel trilogy was going to cap off with the release of the highly anticipated Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker. It was also the same year that Disney+ was launching in the Fall, within a couple of weeks of Skywalker’s release date. And one of the shows that launched on Day One of the new streaming platform was a series set in the Star Wars universe called The Mandalorian. Created by filmmaker Jon Favreau and longtime Star Wars animation showrunner Dave Filoni, The Mandalorian centered around a bounty hunter protagonist who was hunting down bounties in a post-Empire setting within the Star Wars universe. A Mandalorian in the Star Wars mythos is a highly skilled warrior-based religious sect, always defined by their bullet shaped helmet, which they never take off in public view. The bounty hunter from George Lucas’ original trilogy, Boba Fett, was one of these Mandalorians, and subsequent Star Wars media would expand on the culture of this mysterious group of people. The Mandalorian series would mark the first time that one of these characters would be front and center in the story. When the show premiered in November of 2019, it immediately sparked a lot of buzz and not for anything people expected. While people raved about the show’s action set pieces and cinematic look overall, what really helped the show go viral was the revelation of another character in the show that audiences instantly dubbed Baby Yoda. The craze around this adorable little character (who by the way was never even mentioned in the pre-release marketing of the show) helped to turn The Manadalorian into an instant hit for the fledgling Disney+, and it came at a crucial time to, as The Rise of Skywalker fell flat and disappointed a lot of Star Wars fans. Instead of the box office strength of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, it actually looked like the future of the brand would lie on the line up of shows coming to Disney+, and if they were anything like The Mandalorian, then things were starting to look fairly bright for Star Wars.
However, a lot of forces both external and internal messed with all of Star Wars long term plans. Only a couple of months after both The Rise of Skywalker and The Mandalorian premiered, the world was plunged into the Covid-19 pandemic. While this caused a lot of disruption to the production workflow in Hollywood, it actually didn’t hurt the production that much of Season 2 of The Mandalorian that much, because it was a show well equipped to work within a bubble. The entire show was filmed in soundstages with a new high tech innovation called the Volume, which uses LED screens in place of blue screens to create photorealistic backgrounds rendered on a computer there on set. Season 2 of the series managed to premiere on time a mere year after the start of the first season, and it came at a great time for everyone as 2020 proved to be a rough year with the Covid lockdowns and political unrest causing severe anxiety. It was a comfort watch when we really needed it. The second season also got us to finally learn Baby Yoda’s true name, Grogu, and by this point he had become a cash cow for the Disney company, with Grogu dolls selling out fast for holiday season shoppers. But, as season 2 of The Mandalorian came to a close, a lot of uncertainty about Star Wars remained. Lucasfilm, the company behind the creation of Star Wars, had promised a lot of new properties to come, but shake-ups at the Disney company resulting from the tumultuous tenure of failed CEO Bob Chapek led to a lot of broken promises for Star Wars fans. A lot of projects that were announced coming from directors Rian Johnson, Taika Waititi, Patty Jenkins, and the creative team of Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss all failed to launch past the development stage. And the projects that did get made were a mixed bag as well. There was high praise for the shows Andor and Skeleton Crew, but other shows like The Acolyte, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Ahsoka either divided fans or were just outright despised. Even a third season of The Mandalorian divided fans. A lot of the blame for Star War’s mixed reception over these last few years fell on the shoulders of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who in the last year stepped down from the job. In her place is a duo of company heads, including Mandalorian co-creator Dave Filoni. What Star Wars needed was a refocused vision of what it needed to be, and one of the things that Star Wars needed to do was to return to the cinemas. It has been 7 years since The Rise of Skywalker, and Star Wars has been absent from the big screen since then. So, to bring the once mighty juggernaut back to box office prominence, who better than the duo that has helped to carry Star Wars through these last few year in the world of streaming; The Mandalorian and Grogu. But, is it a galaxy too far, far away for even these beloved characters to reach?
As typical with any Star Wars film, the movie begins with an opening disclaimer to give context to the story. In it, we learn that this story is set like the show in the post-Empire era of the galaxy. The fledgling New Republic is seeking to bring former imperial criminals out of hiding to face justice. One New Republic officer, Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), has been enlisting the help of a Mandalorian bounty hunter named Din Djarrin (Pedro Pascal), who everyone either calls “The Mandalorian” or “Mando” for short. Mando, has a respected reputation with the Republic starfighters, including ace pilot Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum) who occasionally assists him on missions, but Mando’s also got a reputation of stubbornly doing things his way rather than the “clean way.” Alongside Mando all the time is his ward, Grogu, a youngling with a strong connection to the Force, which he often uses to help his guardian on missions. Colonel Ward offers Mando a new mission that could lead them to a very high ranking Imperial fugitive. To learn of his whereabouts, Mando must visit the Hutt twins, the successors of the notorious crime lord, Jabba the Hutt who know rule his empire. In exchange for their information, the Twins demand that Mando travel to the planet Shakari, where their nephew Rotta, Jabba’s sole son and heir, is held as a slave. Mando and Grogu travel to Shakari, attempting to seek information on the whereabouts of Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) from anyone who might know, including street chef Hugo Durant (Martin Scorsese). It turns out that Rotta is not so hidden, and is in fact a beloved gladiatorial fighter on the planet. Despite Rotta’s reluctance to return home, due to the fact that he refuses to follow in his cruel father’s footsteps choosing to be beloved rather than feared, Mando must still complete his mission. But, as things begin to sideways, Mando gets embroiled in a larger problem that will test both him and Grogu. Amidst a whole lot of betrayal and insurmountable odds, Mando and Grogu must use every skill they have to survive this mission. But is it one that even they cant’ get out of.
For one thing, it is nice to finally see a Star Wars property on the big screen again. Especially considering that it’s been 7 years and that the last time we saw this world in cinemas was the much hated Rise of Skywalker, having The Mandalorian and Grogu leading the charge back into theaters for this franchise is very much welcome. The only question is, does it do the job it needed to do. I feel like that is very much going to depend on what baggage you are bringing with you when you watch the movie. If you love The Mandalorian streaming series, I feel like you’re going to end up loving this movie as well, because it is exactly like an extended episode of the show. If you are not a fan of the show, and have been frustrated with the direction of Star Wars over the last decade or so, you’re unlikely to have you mind changed by this movie either. The Mandalorian and Grogu is a straight shot down the line for the Star Wars brand, neither upsetting the established order of the franchise or taking any risks to make any changes to the formula. And for a lot of people, that’s enough. But of course, as we’ve seen the discourse around Star Wars has oftentimes been pretty sour and even toxic, and I don’t see this movie putting to rest all the haters. For me personally, I am not the most die hard of Star Wars fan. I appreciate quite a lot of it, and even have a great deal of love for some of it (I consider Andor to be one of the greatest TV shows ever made for example). I also really liked The Mandalorian series for most of it’s run, and was even fine with most of the more problematic Season 3. And because of my own baggage coming into this movie, I found most of The Manadalorian and Grogu perfectly enjoyable as well. Is it peak Star Wars? Of course not. But as a fun romp and extension of the TV series itself, I feel like it did the job it needed to do. It’s a movie that’s going to depend a lot on expectations, and what I expected and wanted was a movie that wasn’t trying too hard to please everyone and instead just stuck to what it needed to do which was to continue the adventures of Mando and Grogu. That’s enough for this casual fan, but I worry that a lot of people are going to frame this movie in the wrong way; saying that it’s the film that’s going to make or break Star Wars as a whole.
The movie does have it’s flaws to be sure. I do think it suffers from some pacing issues. The Mandalorian series was very well paced for what it needed to be, an adventure of the week with an average runtime between 30-45 minutes. Given the bloated nature of some of the sequel trilogy movies, the more modest scale storytelling of The Mandalorian series was a breath of fresh air. I loved the fact that they kept things simple, having the Lone Wolf and Cub dynamic carry most of the show, often having just those two characters be the only characters in any given scene. Sure the cast would be filled out, including with legacy characters like Ahsoka Tano, Boba Fett, and even Luke Skywalker making appearances, but the heart of the show was always Mando and Grogu. But, what works on television sometimes doesn’t translate so well to the cinemas. What The Mandalorian and Grogu feels like is a standard episode plotline padded out to 2-plus hours. While the dynamic of the show still feels familiar, it also does feel padded here. I honestly think that a good 20 minutes could have been trimmed from the movie and it would have benefited. A lot of dialogue gets repeated, a lot of action set pieces do feel repetitive, and in the end, it feels like none of that extra material was necessary. At the same time, I don’t think these issues ultimately ruin the movie. I still found myself engaged throughout, but I can see how a lot of other people might find this movie boring at times. One of the things that co-creator Dave Filoni often gets with his handling of the Star Wars franchise is that he sometimes gets a little too precious with the universe he’s expanding. While it is worthwhile to have a person like Filoni, who probably has the best understanding of the Star Wars universe of anyone in the business other than George Lucas himself, being in charge of the lore, it also can sometimes be a problem because someone like him is less inclined to take risks. And as much as it divides the fan base, I still love Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi because of the fact that he did take risks and tried to do something different with the Star Wars mythos. One thing that is good is that Filoni has the backing of someone like Jon Favreau, who has a pretty good handling of how to craft exciting action scenes. While it’s not the Iron Man director’s most exciting action film, it still shows him using some creative staging that certainly feels like classic Star Wars action.
One of the things that really helps with the overall experience is if you see this on a huge IMAX screen like I did. While my screening wasn’t quite the coveted 15perf 70mm IMAX experience like I would get with a Christopher Nolan film, the movie still had a special presentation made for the IMAX experience. I’d say that a good 70% of the movie opens up to the full 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio, utilizing the full breadth of the screen, helping to make the marquee action scenes all the more exciting. One particular sequence in the film’s 007-esque prologue has Mando and Grogu going up against Imperial Fighters on the slopes of a snow-capped mountain. This includes fighting against the iconic Imperial Walkers, or AT-AT’s, which were famously featured in the film The Empire Strikes Back (1980). This sequence really used the IMAX format well, and it’s an exciting sequence to start the movie on. Cinematographer David Klein also shot most of the episodes of the series as well, so he has a pretty good handle on the look of this side of the Star Wars universe, and he does deliver some pretty stunning images throughout the movie. One particularly beautiful shot is when the X-Wing fighters fly in front of a setting Sun. The movie also uses it’s low light scenes pretty well, particularly on the planet Shakari, which feels very much like a space themed version of Hong Kong at night. But apart from the look of the movie, one other aspect of the film that is especially worthwhile is the music, provided by now 3 time Oscar winner Ludwig Goransson. Goransson already had the movie Black Panther (2018) on his resume before Disney commissioned him to write a theme for The Mandalorian series. His show theme itself has become an iconic piece of music and it makes a spectacular return here as well. But Goransson doesn’t just stop there, as he returns to score this movie as well. He created a whole slew of new and interesting aural pieces for this film as well, and not a single one other than the main theme is a rehash of what he did on the show. The main theme also gets an orchestral boost as well. What has been especially valuable about Goransson’s musical contributions is that they all feel at home in the Star Wars franchise, but are also uniquely distinct from the iconic John Williams themes. It shows that not everything in the Star Wars series has to be a copy of the past, and that indeed new ideas and concepts should be welcome in the franchise, while at the same time still honoring the icons of the past like William’s iconic score.
The movie also does well with continuing on the story of Mando and Grogu. Pedro Pascal returns to the role of Din Djarrin, but it’s hard to know when it’s really him under the mask. His two stunt actors also get star credit right under his name, those being Lateef Crowder and Brendan Wayne (John Wayne’s real life grandson), because it’s very likely that most of the movie has them on screen instead. But Pedro does do the voice throughout, and when the mask does come off it is definitely him on screen. A lot of people may find his performance to be a little cold and wooden, but it’s honestly what the character has always been before on the show. He’s a rugged, man of few words character like Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name, and that’s what works for the character. Of course Grogu is as adorable as ever. I love the fact that he’s still a live action puppet rather than a CGI creation, harkening back to when Frank Oz was puppeteering Yoda on set in the original trilogy. The movie is even expanding on things Grogu is able to do on screen. He’s no longer confined to his hovering pram, but is actually moving around on his own. I don’t know why seeing Grogu climb a drainage pipe impressed me so much when I saw it in this movie, but it’s a great example of how skilled they’ve gotten in making this little pint sized puppet feel so real. Surprisingly this movie leaves out most of the extended cast of the series. It makes sense in many ways. Katee Sackhoff’s Bo-Katan has no real business being in this story; Carl Weathers is sadly no longer with us; and Gina Carano is persona non grata at Disney right now because of her problematic past. But I’m also surprised that the Mandalorian’s main foe, Moff Gideon (played by the amazing Giancarlo Esposito) is also not involved as well. Instead, it’s just Mando and Grogu crossing over in a story unrelated to the main series. We do get some newer faces here. One legacy character is included, Zeb from the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, who surprisingly translates very well into live action and is still voiced by the veteran voice actor Steve Blum. Sigourney Weaver also gets to pad her sci-fi resume by adding a Star Wars role, though I feel like she was a bit underused her. The most substantial new addition is Jeremy Allen White playing Rotta the Hutt. It’s strange that Star Wars would go out of it’s way to cast a very famous and award winning actor like him to essentially just voice a CGI character, but Jeremy does do a fine job in the role. It’s also weird seeing a Hutt that can speak English and is actually likable. But what’s even weirder is hearing Martin Scorsese voicing another alien in the film. How this character ended up being voiced by a living legend like Marty is beyond me, but it is quite the get for this film, and pretty jarring when you see his name in the credits.
Unfortunately, this movie is unlikely to change many hearts and minds in the fractured Star Wars fandom. It plays it safe, but also at the same time, it avoids being pandering to it’s audience as well. That was the fatal mistake of The Rise of Skywalker, a movie that tried too hard to please everyone, and in the end pleased no one. I do think that fans of the show will be pleased with The Mandalorian and Grogu. It’s an easily digestible movie that delivers on what it needs to. Could it have been done better? Possibly. The sluggish pace indicates to me that they filmmakers were less inclined to make this movie any more than an extension of the show. It unfortunately had to ride that fine line between doing too little, or too much, which is the complaint that has been leveled at a bunch of Star Wars media as of late. For me personally, it was just enough, but not that much more. The best thing about it is that it is very welcoming to casual viewers. Even if you’ve never seen a single episode of the show, or seen any previous Star Wars movie, you can easily still follow along with this story, because it has a simple entryway through the two-handed dynamic of Mando and Grogu’s story. As long as you connect with these two characters, you are along for the ride. And the movie does do a fine job of getting you to care about these characters still. It’s essentially a story about a father and his son, passing along skills through generations and seeing that bond grow over time. As Mando says in the film, “First the old protect the young, then the young protect the old.” While most of the film’s plot does feel inconsequential to the larger Mandalorian storyline, the one thing that it does do is reinforce how much Mando means to Grogu. Grogu comes into his own much more in this story, and to see his growth as a character is very meaningful. It’s very clear that even though he has the skill to be a Jedi, his path in life is to be a Mandalorian fighter like his adopted father, and we see him take that step further in this film. I hope that this leads to more adventures down the road for these two characters, whether that’s in another theatrical film or another season of the show. Regardless, it is nice to see Star Wars on the big screen again, and that the Mandalorian and Grogu were able to make the translation effectively. It likely won’t satisfy all of the fandom, nor will it wash out the bad taste of The Rise of Skywalker for most movie goers. But, if you go in with an open mind, you might find this to be a fun time at the movies, and for some, this is the way.
Rating: 8/10