by Anthony O'Connor
Worth: $12.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, Sigourney Weaver, David Acord
Intro:
… dramatically inert yarn that progressively feels more and more like a slog.
In 2026, Star Wars as a franchise finds itself at something of an artistic impasse. The much-touted sequel trilogy ended up being a damp squib with a creatively bankrupt first part with The Force Awakens (2015), a beautiful but abominably scripted second entry with The Last Jedi (2017) and an absolute shocker of a conclusion with Rise of Skywalker (2019). 2016’s Rogue One was pretty bloody great, mind you, but Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) didn’t make much of an impact.
On TV, things are a bit ropey too, because while Andor was genuinely the best Star Wars has ever been, we also had to grit our teeth through dross like Obi-Wan, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. Other shows like Skeleton Crew were actually pretty good, but no one watched the bloody thing! And while The Acolyte attempted to tell new stories in a galaxy far, far away, it struggled to find a committed audience and was cancelled after one season.
The one bright spot, the unqualified success, is The Mandalorian. Conceived as a stripped back space western, a kind of celestial riff on Lone Wolf and Cub, the Disney+ show reminded audiences of the simple but engaging yarns that can be told in the Star Wars universe. It was a big hit with audiences and critics alike, and managed to knock out two pretty solid seasons before the wheels came off in the third.
Still, the idea of a Mandalorian movie wasn’t a bad one. Perhaps it could be a chance for creator/director Jon Favreau to expand upon his work and make a truly unmissable cinema experience that puts bums on seats, eager for the latest helping of space battlin’ goodness.
So, does he succeed with The Mandalorian and Grogu?
Nup.
The Mandalorian and Grogu’s opening is as good as it gets in this flick. Set sometime after the events of season 3, we meet Mando/Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu aka “Baby Yoda” (an adorable wee puppet voiced by David Acord) on a mission to hunt down and either capture or kill the remaining Imperial warlords who are still stroppy about having their arse handed to them at the end of The Return of the Jedi (1983).
After this rousing intro, Mando heads back to the New Republic base where leader Ward (Sigourney Weaver) sends him on a side quest to track down Commander Coin (Jonny Coyne) with the help of Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), Jabba’s kid, who first needs to be rescued from slavery. Sadly, from that point on, the film stops feeling like a movie and begins to resemble exactly what it is: three or four middling episodes of The Mandalorian strung together for a far-too-long runtime.
It’s not even that The Mandalorian and Grogu is a terrible film. It’s not interesting enough to be that. Instead, it’s the least imaginative take on the material possible, a perfectly serviceable series of uninspired adventures shot in that flat, overlit way that seems to be all the rage with big studio films.
Sure, there are some cool monsters, interesting locations and adequate action sequences. And, let’s be real, Grogu remains extremely cute even if you’re a bit sick of seeing his merchandise everywhere. But the film itself just… is. There are no themes, no arcs, neither Mando nor Grogu change at all during the seemingly endless minutes you spend with them. Jeremy Allen White has the closest thing to a character arc and it’s barely perceptible with the naked eye. Also, the notion of a buff Hutt looks as ridiculous and unconvincing on screen as it does on the page.
On the slender plus side, the score from Ludwig Göransson is truly terrific and there’s a sequence late where Grogu has to take charge of events and it’s delightful. But these are brief, temporary distractions from a flat, dramatically inert yarn that progressively feels more and more like a slog. It’s the kind of film that is likely to cause existential crises for older Star Wars fans as they wonder, “If this is really what it’s all come to? Can I no longer experience joy in the things I once loved? Or are those things, you know, just a bit shit now?”
Look, if you’ve got bored ruggies to keep entertained, maybe The Mandalorian and Grogu will fill the role of cinematic babysitter. However, if you’re expecting more, if you’re hoping that in 14 years of ownership Disney could have come up with more than one decent film (Rogue One), one spectacular TV show (Andor) and a handful of okay ones – you’re likely in for a rough ride. It’s not a terrible movie, but it is, sadly, terminally bland(alorian).
