My Mandalorian & Grogu Review (Plus A Livestream Later Today)

Before the review, which will contain spoilers, we need to conduct some business. Two livestreams in one month? Apparently so. There will be livestream later today at 11 AM ET. Come back here later and look for a post with the below image for an embed of the stream so you can live comment with us. My spoiler review of The Mandalorian & Grogu follows the image:


Okay, so now for my review of The Mandalorian & Grogu. This WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS, so please look away if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Let me state up front that I was entertained while watching the movie. They day that it comes out on Disney+, I will be excited to be able to watch it again that evening. After that second watching, however, I will probably start forgetting that the movie ever existed. There are no meaningful stakes that compel placing it in permanent viewing rotation. I'm almost in disbelief over that fact that, aside from some incremental advancement in the nature of their relationship, absolutely nothing changes for the main protagonists. Din and Grogu pretty much end the movie exactly where they started. That's fine for an episode of television, which is essentially what Mando & Grogu is, but it's not very compelling for a movie. The only character who undergoes meaningful change is Rotta, which is why I've been saying that this is essentially a Rotta the Hutt movie. And there are rumors of a forthcoming Rotta series, which if true (big if), almost confirms that point.

I grow weary of these movies becoming video game plots. The gated progression of "in order to unlock missions a, you must first complete a side quest b" is growing tiresome. The whole point of a video game is to get through it, but as an active participant. Such mechanics work in that context. But as a movie goer, you're a passive participant, and just "getting through it" can become tedious. That's how I viewed the uncessary chase scene with Rotta. We all knew where the plot was going, so it felt uncessary. It comes across as fluff to extend the run time. Speaking of video games, Din getting captured for Lord Janu's gladiatorial games was lifted almost directly (and unapologetically) from Fallen Order when Cal gets captured for Sorc Tormo's gladiatorial games. That bothers me a bit. I would rather see the original source translated to live action than have it lifted and repurposed.

While I enjoyed them, I found nothing remarkable for most of the action scenes. What made is special was the winks and nods for hardcore fans. But aside from that, there's nothing significant for long time fans of Star Wars. There's no ties to the larger lore, or meaningful advancement of the overall pot. So who is this movie for? The story only works for casual fans who just want a fun romp, but the action isn't special or novel enough to enjoy without a hardcore fan's understanding of the deep cuts. It's highly anecdotal, but my wife and I represent these two groups. She didn't get what made the Amani or dragon snake special, so it was just a run of the mill action piece for her. I feel the target of this movie lies in a no man's land between these two groups.

I thought the CGI was uneven, and mostly poor. The rendering of the AT-AT's was terrible. They almost looked like they were lifted from one of the animated series. The CGI on Zeb's face was great, but when shown walking, Zeb was graceless and looked like a marionette from Team America: World Police. When the Amani took to the water, the shimmering effect looked like it was rendered on a previous generation console. Martin Scorsese's Hugo Durant, on the other hand, was rendered with immersive photo realism in my opinion. The one thing that I absolutely loved what the Ray Harryhausen / Phil Tippet stop motion effects on the Twins' enforcer droids. That was far, far and away my favorite part of the movie. It was "chef's kiss" good. But again, I worry that casual fans won't appreciate that that herky-jerkiness was absolutely intentional, and view it as a cheap effect.

I need to repeat that I don't know for whom this movie is intended. That plot isn't meaty enough for harcore fans, and the action isn't special enough for casual fans. I feel this was a mistake. Mando and Grogu's big screen debut should have been saved for a major plot point in their story, and not a Saturday morning serial. The modest box office thus far tells me I'm right.

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