When The Force Awakens arrived in December 2015, Star Wars was untouchable, but despite over $2bn at the global box office and the remaining films in the trilogy bringing in north of a billion dollars there was trouble ahead. Rogue One made a billion, despite a troubled production, while Solo hit the skids at the box office, and The Last Jedi divided opinion. With nothing on the big screen since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019, much rides on the success (critical and financial) of The Mandalorian and Grogu. Can it reunite a fractured fandom? No pressure then….
First, the good news. The film is a lot of fun, with dizzying action, on-point humour (there’s more genuine laughs than most comedies), memorable music and visual effects. The film skilfully builds the world Din Djarin and Grogu inhabit, Pedro Pascal is effortlessly cool as Mando, Grogu remains a charming addition to the canon, and Jon Favreau directs with a steady hand… so (to paraphrase our beloved Princess) surely we have everything we need.
Despite all of that, there are issues. The plot is paper thin, with little at stake other than the continued existence of our lead characters, while the leaders of the Imperial Remnant range from incompetent to underwhelming. The Twins (first introduced in The Book of Boba Fett) are the film’s main villains, secure in their headquarters on Nal Hutta and presiding over a menagerie of creatures (and there are a LOT of aliens in this creature feature, including a four-armed Ardennian chef voiced by Martin Scorsese). There are child-friendly jokes and brutal kill scenes right next to each other (Mando is a wrecking machine), while the action regularly flits from stunningly cinematic to scenes reminiscent of the small-screen streaming series.
Jeremy Allen White voices tortured teen Rotta the Hutt (present far more in the film than one might expect and speaking basic rather than Huttese), while Sigourney Weaver is very welcome but underused as Colonel Ward. Look out for a number of cameos from faces that usually reside behind the camera, and if the fantastic Zeb (voiced by Steve Blum) doesn’t make you want to go back and re-watch Rebels, nothing will.
Fun, visually impressive, packed with action, and coming after the substantial feasts of Andor and Maul – Shadow Lord, it’s probably the right film for the right time as we head towards the 50th anniversary. Let’s hope the fandom agrees.
THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU is in cinemas from May 22nd.
