The Mandalorian and Grogu review: Grogu steals the show in underwhelming Star Wars movie
Since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, the Lucasfilm team have pivoted away from film and focused on Star Wars TV series. The Mandalorian and Grogu, a continuation of Lucasfilm’s first live-action TV show, The Mandalorian, marks their film comeback after six years. Is it a return to form? Let’s find out…
In the movie, directed by the show’s creator Jon Favreau, the Galactic Empire has fallen, but there are still Imperial warlords scattered throughout the galaxy. Although an independent contractor, our lead character, legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), works at the behest of the New Republic, taking orders from Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver, barely in it). His next mission is to rescue Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) in order to obtain important information about a target.
The Mandalorian and Grogu has a weak overall story and structurally feels quite episodic, like it’s a bunch of TV episode ideas strung together. But there are still a lot of individual moments that I loved. Admittedly, most of them involved Mando’s sweet Yoda-like sidekick Grogu, who is so adorable and funny that I spent each of his scenes cooing over him! I perked up and had a smile on my face whenever that cutie was on screen and I was significantly less interested whenever he wasn’t. The same goes for the Anzellans (voiced by Shirley Henderson), the hilarious Babu Frik-type engineers helping them out. It’s very hard to connect to a masked, monotone character like Mando, so those guys – and their comic relief – were very much needed.
But there is plenty to appreciate, from the incredible CGI, puppetry and sets, to the weird and wonderful characters, a pulsating futuristic score from recent Oscar winner Ludwig Goransson and decent action setpieces (as long as they don’t involve CGI monsters duking it out). Alongside all the Grogu scenes, I also enjoyed the Top Gun-style homage over the opening credits and a sequence set on Shakari, a bustling metropolis where we first meet Rotta, a slug with a six-pack. These highlights should leave you feeling reasonably entertained, but perhaps not fully engaged or invested in the story.
If you haven’t seen The Mandalorian TV series, never fear, you don’t really need it. I’m sure it’ll give you a deeper understanding of the characters and various moments, but I hadn’t seen the show and I followed it just fine. This is a standalone story with mostly new characters. All you need to know is that Mando is a bounty hunter and Grogu is his Jedi sidekick. As long as you’ve seen the Star Wars movies, you’ll get the rest.
The enjoyable parts do their best to make up for the underwhelming, oddly structured whole. However, Lucasfilm really needed something narratively stronger to mark their return to features and The Mandalorian and Grogu falls short. That being said, if you’re a diehard Grogu fan, you’ll be a pretty happy customer because his scenes are amazing.
In cinemas Friday 22nd May