The Mandalorian and Grogu: a cinematic snack with an IMAX budget
The Mandalorian and Grogu looks good, is fun and won’t offend anyone. But there’s one thing it isn’t: the cinematic event that Star Wars fans have waited six years for.
Don’t worry: the following film review doesn’t contain any spoilers. I won’t tell you anything that isn’t already known or shown in the trailers. The Mandalorian and Grogu will be in cinemas from 20 May.
Sometimes you go to the cinema and you just know the film’s going to be good. And then there are films you just hope will be good – and cross your fingers.
The Mandalorian and Grogu falls into the second category. The film’s definitely fun. It looks good and won’t offend anyone. But six years after the last Star Wars film, I was secretly hoping for… more. Yes, it does what it needs to, it’s solid, reliable and free of major flaws. But it also feels like it’s going through the motions. Just with a very big budget.
This could’ve been a series…
It’s no secret that The Mandalorian and Grogu was originally planned as the fourth season of the series. But at some point, Lucasfilm decided to turn the material into a feature film. A decision that’s immediately noticeable when you watch it.
It’s structured episodically, following the adventure-of-the-week model that made the first two series so charming. Mando chases imperial remnants across the galaxy, has to do the Hutts a favour, frees someone from the captivity of a gangster boss on a foreign moon – and all of this brings him closer to a bigger goal.
This is familiar territory and not the problem in itself. The problem’s the pacing. The film hits the ground running right from the start with plenty of fun, then the brakes slam on. When it manages to find its rhythm again, it loses it immediately, picks up speed again… and then it’s suddenly over.
Like a learner driver who hasn’t quite mastered the clutch yet – sometimes it moves forward, but most of the time it’s stuck.
It’s clear where the end of each episode was originally planned and where the next one would’ve started. It’s precisely what I was worried about. When you try to force the series structure into a two-hour film format, things get complicated.
Source: Lucasfilm/Disney
I’m aware I’m contradicting myself here. I used to complain that The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi and others felt like films stretched into half-baked series and probably would’ve worked better as feature films. Now I’m complaining about the opposite.
Maybe the problem isn’t the format at all. Maybe it’s that, for years now, Lucasfilm hasn’t seemed like a studio that tells stories, but one that constantly has to react to new strategies. Series become films. Films become series. Characters disappear and reappear. And somewhere in between, Star Wars slowly loses its sense of what’s actually big enough for the cinema.
Oh, if only Lucasfilm had known what it wanted from the beginning…
What series 3 started
It felt different back then. Especially in its first two series, The Mandalorian was radically small – not in terms of budget, but in terms of narrative. Din Djarin, the Mandalorian, was a previously unknown main character in a story that wasn’t about some galactic destiny and wasn’t interested in Jedi or Sith. This worked so well with the audience because it was simple and powerful.
In fact, creator and director of The Mandalorian Jon Favreau told me exactly that. The foundation of the story was intentionally small, familiar and based on the archetype of the battle-hardened warrior and the small, vulnerable creature – Grogu – who accompanies him on his travels. A kind of intergalactic Léon: The Professional, embedded in the Star Wars universe.
Then came series 2 – with it a finale that essentially said it all. Luke Skywalker himself appeared, took Grogu under his wing, and Din Djarin’s goal – to take Grogu back to «his» clan and therefore safety – was achieved. The story had reached a bittersweet, but natural conclusion.
But Disney, of course, had no interest in letting go of a story that – at that point – was almost the only element of Star Wars that still had fans and generated an audience. So, it had to keep going. A story was hastily cobbled together about how Grogu didn’t stay with Luke after all and returned to Din Djarin – told in The Book of Boba Fett, a spin-off. And in series 3, Favreau attempted to delve deeper into the mythology surrounding Mandalorian culture.
It’s an interesting idea, but the execution led to Din Djarin being relegated to almost a supporting role in his own series at times. The scope of The Mandalorian grew more than the simple premise of the warrior and the vulnerable creature could’ve allowed. And the result is considered by many – me included – to be the weakest series of the Mandalorian universe to date.
Source: Lucasfilm/Disney
The Mandalorian and Grogu is Favreau’s answer to that botched third series. He worded it well in an interview: «Telling stories is like gardening. Sometimes you just have to prune it back». And that’s exactly what the film does. It refocuses on Din Djarin and Grogu, on their dynamic and on what this story has always been.
But now this deliberately shortened story has suddenly landed back on the biggest stage there is. One step forward – and two steps back. I don’t get it.
Surpasses visual expectations
To be fair, I have to say the film makes the most of its visual potential. After the first teaser, I was very sceptical about whether Lucasfilm had actually given the film a theatrical budget or whether it would look like a very expensive TV episode at best.
This concern was unfounded. The Mandalorian and Grogu looks like a film. Full stop. At the press screening, I even got to see it on an IMAX screen and in 3D. Not bad.
The action sequences are hard-hitting and the choreography’s spot-on as Din Djarin – armed with a sword, pistol, rifle, flamethrower, grenades and his jet pack – cuts through droids, aliens and storm troopers. He’s a one-man army, as a Mandalorian warrior should be. Then add space battles, huge explosions and a host of new worlds – from swamp-filled jungles to urban environments which look somewhere between Coruscant and 1930s Mafia Manhattan.
Source: Lucasfilm/Disney
Anyone going to the cinema to see The Mandalorian and Grogu won’t regret it, at least not in terms of the visuals. And those going specifically for Grogu will also be thoroughly entertained. The little creature gets plenty of endearing and funny moments, while the dynamic between him and Djarin works almost every time.
It’s just the wrong stage…
Nevertheless, The Mandalorian and Grogu is and remains a film that – while visually impressive – tells a story that really belongs on TV. Not that it’s bad. It’s good enough for me – it just lacks the scope and emotional impact that I personally associate with Star Wars at the cinema.
The characters barely develop, the story lacks depth and there are no memorable surprises. What we get is – in the best sense – «Din and Grogu on an adventure» as a well-made blockbuster. It’s fun. But it leaves precious little lasting impression.
Source: Lucasfilm/Disney
Was that intentional? Favreau said in an interview that the film should also serve as an entry point into Star Wars for newcomers – for viewers who’ve never seen the series and may even be encountering Star Wars for the first time.
This is actually where the film succeeds. But that’s the dilemma: anyone who’s followed The Mandalorian since series 1 and grown with these characters is hoping for some kind of development after a six-year hiatus from the big screen. They’re looking for a breakthrough, a story that achieves more than a single episode of the series ever could. The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn’t do that. At all.
Source: Lucasfilm/Disney
Maybe the film doesn’t have to be anything more. Maybe it’s perfectly fine that it doesn’t aspire to be an epic, doesn’t delve even deeper into the mythology and doesn’t unveil any new, major secrets. Maybe it’s just allowed to be an entertaining afternoon at the cinema. I respect that. But as someone for whom Star Wars in cinemas was always the event of the year – something I looked forward to for months – it feels a bit underwhelming.
In a nutshell
A good snack, but no feast
Three out of five stars often sounds like a half-hearted «okay». That’s not the case here. The Mandalorian and Grogu’s an honest, well-made film that knows what it is and sticks to it. It’s fun, it won’t offend anyone and it’s unlikely anyone’ll hate it. There’s just no reason to.
«Snackable content», as we call it in the editorial team.
The thing is, writing about a snack is just as unsatisfying as eating it – quick, thoughtless and five minutes later it’s already forgotten. The Mandalorian and Grogu feels exactly the same. Like a content snack with an IMAX budget. Well done. Entertaining. But consumed quickly. And honestly? Six years after the last Star Wars film, I was hoping for a feast.
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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