Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu – The Nadir of the Franchise
I’m a life long Star Wars fan, so everything I say about The Mandalorian and Grogu is out of love for this stored series. That being said, this film is a slap in the face to its audience. I can’t think of the last time I watched a film that did so little in its run time. 2 hours and 12 minutes was essentially squandered with cool moments and plot armor.
The Mandalorian started its run on Disney+ and really felt like it would be what kept Star Wars alive. The seasons that came after weren’t perfect but at least let the characters evolve. The Mandalorian and Grogu takes those characters and does nothing. At the end of Season 3, which is the last time we see these characters, the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, tells his other Mandalorian allies, along with his contacts in the New Republic, he plans to step away from bounty hunting, to give his adopted son/foundling, Grogu, a peaceful upbringing. This film sees him back on a mission for the New Republic, hunting the remnants of the foregone Empire. He then retires again at the midpoint of the film, and then again at the end. Yes, twice during the film he steps away from his profession after already doing so in the series. Unfortunately this is just the tip of the iceberg of issues with the film.
Before I dive further into that, I want to talk about the few things that did work for me. First of which is the score. Ludwig Göransson has been the composer for The Mandalorian since its debut, so I was relieved that he would be returning to score the film. Thankfully, his score is a strong highlight here. His pre-existing themes and motifs return, but he also dips in to some of John Williams’ classic score, at least, referentially. There are other parts of the score that are original to the film and its new locations. It’s delightfully odd and engaging from start to finish.
The special and practical effects in Star Wars never let me down. From the beginning, The Mandalorian has been a return to form using puppetry, miniatures, and practical costuming compared to the reliance, sometimes over-reliance on CGI of the Prequel and Sequel trilogies. But either way, the franchise has had amazing effects and continues that tradition here. There is especially a lot of puppets. Grogu is primarily depicted as a puppet, along with the other small creatures, the Anzellans, who run around in a small pack throughout the film. This film also uses some very well-crafted stop-motion, and the CGI and special effects are as strong as ever.
And that’s it for what was good in The Mandalorian and Grogu. The story has little to nothing to offer its audience other than cool moments, references, and scenes built to sell toys and merchandise.
Beyond the plot not having much structure to it and things just happening, my biggest issue with The Mandalorian and Grogu is the writing. This has the worst script of any Star Wars film. The dialogue is atrocious and extremely boring. Most of the characters don’t speak much at all, if they do they’re constantly repeating themselves to make sure that you understand what’s happening when this eventually streams on Disney+.
The characters are so dull many of them aren’t given names and just are here for the purpose of ushering the plot from one stop to another by randomly giving the lead character some item or advice. None of the characters grow or change in the slightest. Din, if anything, feels to have regressed. He seems mostly uninterested in what he’s doing and is not really training Grogu at all. In fact, rather than treating him as his adopted son, he is treating him like a dog by feeding him treats and issuing commands like “heel” and “stay.” I never expected to say this but the only character who had any type of motivation or interesting plot was Rotta the Hutt. He is attempting to distance himself from the violence and tyranny of his family, and ends up joining the New Republic to fight for good. One character that I neglected to bring up was Zeb, who first appeared in Star Wars: Rebels, this was because his roll is a total letdown and could’ve been given to any character from the franchise and been no different.
The performances throughout are very uninteresting. Pedro Pascal has always been the voice, occasional face, of the Mandalorian, and is quite good throughout the show’s runs. He isn’t bad here, but it does feel like a step back from what he’d been doing previously. Jeremy Allen White voices Rotta the Hutt and gives a half decent performance but his dialogue is repetitive and his voice is modulated so it’s barely distinguishable as him. Sigourney Weaver is also in this, has nothing to do, and spends maybe 3 minutes on screen. The rest of the cast does voice work or doesn’t speak. My favorite random voice cast is for a character who’s name is apparently Hugo Durant, voiced by the one and only Martin Scorsese. This did manage to get quite the laugh from me when he appeared. His character is totally CGI but Marty has this ability to totally take over anything he is in.
John Favreau and Dave Filoni are the current creative powerhouses at Star Wars; they are responsible for the direction and writing in this film. They used to be a very exciting prospect for the future of the franchise, but, slowly but surely, have become somewhat of a problem. This feels very much like an unchecked and unedited product that they made simply because they run the show. Speaking of the show, I fully believe that upon a rewatch of the film, painful though it may be, I could point out exactly where this was meant to be cut into episodes of the show.
I’ve heard lots of arguments in support of this film, such as that it delivers on what people are expecting or that the charm of Din and Grogu is enough for them. But I feel that this is why The Mandalorian and Grogu exists in its watered down and boring state. Because these studios are aware that audiences are willing to see things just because of their favorite characters appearing. These studios have nearly infinite access to money, talent, and technology to make legitimate films. But this film is an insult to its audience, adults and children alike. I wish that I was able to walk away with something more positive to say, but this is a major step in a wholly wrong direction for Star Wars. It’s cheap, boring, and has nothing to say. George Lucas’ original vision, though flawed, at least had something interesting to say and had underlying themes. This film, like the Mandalorians’ helmet, is shiny and cool to look at but entirely hollow and lacking any use on its own.
The evil Empire has fallen but Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they enlist the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.
