The Mandalorian and Grogu: The BRWC Review. By Jake Peffer.
It’s been seven years since the last time a Star Wars movie hit the big screen. After The Rise of Skywalker premiered in 2019 and was met with lukewarm reception, Disney decided to shift their focus for Star Wars. Over the last seven years the franchise has seen several series make their way to Disney+. These series have allowed Disney to expand the universe and create new stories within the world. The first series, and arguably one of the best, to hit Disney+ was The Mandalorian. Fan and critic reception has been mostly positive for the three seasons of the show. After toying with a fourth season, Disney decided to scrap the idea and do a new Mandalorian movie and return Star Wars to the big screen.
With The Mandalorian and Grogu, the movie follows Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu on a new adventure. Now working for Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) and the New Republic, Mando and Grogu are hired by the Hutt family to track down Rotta the Hutt, the son of Jabba. Rotta has been kidnapped by Lord Janu and is being forced to fight in gladiator style battles in hopes of gaining his freedom. Mando and Grogu must do what they can to save Rotta and get him back home.
The biggest question when transitioning a show to the big screen is what can be done to make this more of a theater experience? Sadly, this still feels like a Disney+ series, only with a higher budget. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it’s not exactly a good thing either. This feels more like two-hour long episodes of the show stitched together rather than a feature length movie. When it comes to the storyline, there isn’t much there to raise the stakes, so everything feels safe and like the filmmakers aren’t willing to take too many big risks.
Despite it feeling more like the Disney+ series, it is nice to see a new Star Wars movie in a theater again. Something about seeing these movies in a packed theater just adds an element that is hard to replicate at home, even with the best home theater setup. One aspect that is ramped up compared to the show is in the action set pieces. There are some great action sequences that are made just for the theater. The special effects in these scenes are solid and when the action really gets going it packs a nice punch.
Where the effects don’t quite land are in some of the creature designs. There are numerous creatures introduced here and a lot of them are hit or miss when it comes to their effects. The entire Hutt family all look rough. In scenes where they fight it is hard to tell exactly what is going on because of how poor the characters look. Thankfully for Grogu, and a few other characters, puppets or animatronics are used. This adds an element that the digital characters are missing and it just gives these characters more life in their appearance.
Grogu gets a lot of moments to shine throughout the runtime. They are able to do a lot with his character and there are some genuine laugh out loud moments that are executed well involving him. Pedro Pascal is great once again returning as The Mandalorian. He has a great presence as this character, even with being behind a mask for ninety eight percent of the performance. The rest of the cast don’t get a whole lot to do but everyone is doing a fine job. Sigourney Weaver is a welcome addition as Colonel Ward. Jeremy Allen White does a good job providing the voice for Rotta; however, his modulated voice sounds a tad off at times.
While it certainly has its flaws and it probably could have just been another season of the Disney+ series, The Mandalorian and Grogu is still quite a bit of fun. The action set pieces, humorous moments and good performances make this one worthwhile.
Grade: B-
