Cert – 12, Run-time – 2 hours 12 minutes, Director – Jon Favreau
In order to capture a former Galactic Empire commander, bounty hunter The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu must rescue the fight-pit-champion son of Jabba The Hutt (Jeremy Allen White).
After seven years away the return of Star Wars to the big screen has been made to seem less and less big the nearer it’s gotten. Despite a range of TV series, with varying receptions, there’s uncertainty as to how this feature outing for one of the first and most successful of those series will perform, or if there’s even appetite for it. The film itself certainly feels less grand than initial expectations may have expected, screenwriters Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor changed plans for a fourth series of The Mandalorian and adapted them into this adventure for Pedro Pascal’s titular bounty hunter and young apprentice Grogu (a delightful bit of practical puppeteering whenever on screen).
Indeed, the feeling of a condensed series is present throughout much of The Mandalorian And Grogu from the base plot of obtaining information about a target by fulfilling a demand by another group. The points in question see The Mandalorian sent to find a mysterious former Galactic Empire commander, the whereabouts of whom are unknown apart from by the Hutt clan who are willing to hand over information for the return of Jabbas son Rotta (a fight pit champion voiced by Jeremy Allen White). Along the way additional tasks crop up and you can see the divide between segments that would almost end and start each episode in a series.
There are certainly stronger moments and sequences throughout, the action varies and while some moments can feel full of spectacle others can feel a bit messy – Mando claims multiple times to the Colonel who sends him on missions (played by Sigourney Weaver, who appears to be enjoying being in a Star Wars film as much as we do seeing her in one) that the job got messy. In the early stages the sound and visuals are fantastic. Ships and AT-ATs blowing up, cliff-edge fights; there’s a reminder of just how great Star Wars can look. Both in the sense of the finale of Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi and the costumes and sets of the original trilogy. Especially in the fluid action-based opener which sees the two leads at work, however as things developed and the narrative from Point A to Point B via Point C and D and the consequences of Point C it became apparent that what I was focusing on more were the visuals over the story at hand.
Even as the climax is being built towards, the stages of the battle at hand started to draw out and test the run-time. At around 2 hours, not including credits, the film feels much closer to two-and-a-half. There may be plenty of sights and genuinely unsettling creatures; the likes of which I don’t remember seeing in a Star Wars film before, made for the big screen but there’s only so far such things can take you, especially when what these visuals collect into can seem quite dull. An extended sequence focusing on Grogu going off on his own slight tangent seems to rely on the appeal the character has and the occasional exhales of amusement he provides, it’s ineffective as a bigger point for a prolonged amount of time and simply feels like, unfortunately, unnecessary padding.
I’ve seen the TV series labelled a number of times as a space western, if so there’s not as much of that tone here as certainly there’s an attempt for a film that’ll work for more casual viewers, and slots into a slightly familiar Star Wars tone – although with some differences, largely courtesy of Ludwig Göransson’s score which captures some traditional John Williams-esque tones while bringing in a couple of intriguing techno-style tracks; especially when visiting a metropolitan city, featuring an amusing role for Martin Scorsese. Perhaps that tonal change is the biggest one made for this filmic adventure for the likable lead pairing, aside from making trims to a series outline to fit into a 2-hour feature. For a film that has so much to impress visually, much of what’s around it often feels, while amusing, dully lax.
While it has a good number of solid action sequences and leans into the likability of the titular pair, The Mandalorian And Grogu has drawn out periods of disconnect within its condensed series narrative that not even the visual spectacle and detail can bring excitement to.
Just A Little Bit Random 