Review - The Mandalorian and Grogu

The first Star Wars film in seven years arrives with a simple, unglamorous mission: take the most beloved duo Disney has produced in a decade and prove they can carry a cinema screen. On that narrow brief, The Mandalorian and Grogu succeeds. As a film in its own right, one with a spine, a rhythm and something to say, it is considerably shakier.

The setup is familiar to anyone who followed the series. The Empire has collapsed, Imperial warlords are scattered across the galaxy, and the fragile New Republic needs people willing to do unpleasant work in ugly corners. Enter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his apprentice Grogu, hired by Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) to clean up what the Rebellion left behind, with a rescue mission involving Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) as the engine that drives them from planet to planet.

Where it works: action, score, and the big screen

Two things carry this film, and they carry it a long way.

The first is the action. Favreau stages combat with genuine confidence in blaster shootouts, aerial pursuits, close-quarters brawls and creature encounters, and there is a real craftsman's pleasure in how these sequences are choreographed and cut. The film has that adventurous, serial-matinee energy the franchise was built on, and when it is moving, it moves beautifully.

The second is Ludwig Göransson's score. It is, without exaggeration, the best thing in the movie. Göransson understands that this material lives or dies on emotional shorthand, and his music does more heavy lifting for the characters than the screenplay ever manages.

And then there is the presentation. Seen in 3D on a large screen, this is a legitimately impressive piece of exhibition: the depth work is used with restraint, the sound design is enormous, and the sheer scale of the thing justifies the ticket. If you are going to see it, see it in the best format available to you. Watched at home, I suspect a fair amount of this review's goodwill would evaporate.

Where it strains: pacing, CGI, and character

The central problem is rhythm. The Mandalorian and Grogu lurches from one action sequence directly into the next, with almost no connective tissue between them. There is no room to breathe, no quiet scene to let a moment land, no space for tension to accumulate before the next set-piece detonates. The result is an odd, counterintuitive effect: relentless action becomes monotonous action. By the final act, the spectacle stops registering as excitement and starts registering as noise. I found myself checking how much time was left, not something a Star Wars film should ever inspire.

The episodic structure is part of the cause. This plays less like a feature and more like a run of consecutive television instalments stitched together, each with its own mini-objective and its own climax, none of them building toward anything larger.

The visual effects are the other sticking point. There is far too much CGI here, and the film is not always careful about hiding it. You will know the moments when you see them, sequences where the tactile, lived-in grubbiness that made the series feel like Star Wars gives way to something weightless and obviously synthetic. The franchise's greatest visual asset has always been the sense that you could reach out and touch it. That asset is spent carelessly here.

But the deepest disappointment is the writing. The characters arrive fully formed and leave fully unchanged. Din Djarin's arc, the reluctant protector, the man learning to be a father, was the emotional engine of three television seasons, and the film has almost nothing new to add to it. Grogu is charming, as always, and the film knows it, leaning on that charm as a substitute for development. Weaver is given far too little; White's Rotta is more plot device than antagonist. The material is here for something genuinely affecting about apprenticeship and inheritance. The film gestures at it and then cuts to another chase.

The verdict

The Mandalorian and Grogu is a competent, good-looking, frequently exciting film that does not aim high enough. It is fun in the moment and forgettable on the drive home. If you are a fan of the show, you will find enough here to justify the trip, particularly in 3D, particularly with a good sound system, particularly if you are content to let the action wash over you without asking too much of it.

Just do not expect it to move you. And it should have.

7/10, a rating that reflects the action, the music and the theatrical experience more than the film itself. Note, too, that I am a difficult audience by default; a 6 or 7 from me is not the dismissal it might look like elsewhere.