The Mandalorian and Grogu has the sad “dishonour” of being the first Star Wars film released post-1998 I didn’t see in the cinema (due to… “unfortunate personal events”, let’s say) but that does mean I missed out on one of the main complaints about the film: that it felt just like an extended episode of the show rather than a big blow-out movie experience. Watching at home meant it was just like a special episode of a favourite TV show of mine (though with a far higher budget, obviously…) and for that reason I enjoyed myself, for the most part. Let’s take a look.
The film kicks off with a fun action set piece with the Mandalorian himself Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his foundling Grogu taking out an ex-Imperial warlord on a snowy planet, complete with some always-fun AT-AT action. He’s picked up by Zeb (still voiced by Steve Blum!) who has a big role here presumably due to the budget allowing his mostly CGI self to appear more often, and the two head back to the New Republic’s Adelphi base where Mando is criticised for killing the Imp rather than capturing him for questioning. He is given a new assignment and indeed a new Razor Crest ship by Col. Ward (Sigourney Weaver) involving rescuing Ratta the Hutt (weirdly voiced by Jeremy Allen White, which I remember people assumed was a gag for the longest time…) from a crime syndicate on the planet Shakari on behalf of “the Twins”, the successors of Jabba’s criminal empire, in exchange the Hutts would give them the location of ex-Imperial Janu Coin (Jonny Coyne… coincidence?) who they don’t even have a picture of.
No matter what you may think of the film overall, this was a great opener!
The mission takes a turn when Mando finds that Ratta is actually fighting in an arena and is happy with his life, only needing to do one more fight before his contract ends and he can go free, but our Mandalorian bounty hunter soon confronts the syndicate leader and finds out he plans to kill Ratta in his final match by unleashing tonnes of monsters (all of whom come from that classic holo-chess board from the first Star Wars film!) Ratta doesn’t believe him and actually gets Mando captured, leading to the two having a fight. Mando wins but he concedes the fight to allow Ratta to go free but the syndicate boss unleashes all the monsters anyway to kill them both. In the ensuing fight the arena wall defences break and the monsters go free, leading to Ratta fleeing because he says the Twins only want him so they can kill him and cement their claim to Jabba’s lands. Mando and Zeb capture him though because they need the location of Coin only to find out from Ratta that the syndicate boss and Coin are one in the same and that the Twins were playing them. They believe him and one assault on Coin’s compound later and they capture the former warlord and bring him back to Adelphi, soon letting Ratta go free.
Col. Ward isn’t thrilled as she believed they were working with the Hutts but lets it go and Mando and Grogu retire home to work on the new Razor Crest with the help of four always-funny-and-cute Anzellans. Sadly over night a bounty hunter called Embo captures Din and takes him back to the Twins on Nal Hutta, where they remove his helmet (so Pedro can get paid properly I guess) and send him down a pit to die, all the while Grogu, now on his own for the first time, joins up with the Anzellans to head to Hutta and rescue him…
The annoying baby from the Clone Wars film sure had one hell of a growth spirt…
It’s a fun film, the action set pieces are exciting and often involve landscapes and CG models doing things unfeasible with a TV budget, so I’ll give the film that much; storywise it felt like an extended episode but visually it looked bigger. Still though, with the exception of getting a new Razor Crest if you watched the end of Mandalorian Season 3 and then watched the hypothetical Season 4 you wouldn’t have missed anything by not watching this. Also I just want to mention that Dave Filoni and some of his director friends all appear as pilots in a shot at Adelphi base, which is fine for a funny background cameo, but then they appear later in X-Wings and Y-Wings delivering dialogue, often badly which ends up giving the impression the pilots are completely bored of the action going on around them. Put yourself and your mates in a film as a background cameo, sure, but don’t actually give yourselves dialogue in an important scene when you’re not actors!
Overall Thoughts:
“Just cruisin’ with ma boys.”
The Mandalorian and Grogu is a fun two hours in front of the telly but I can completely understand people’s displeasure with spending cinema money to see it as despite the obvious high budget and fun set pieces it does feel inconsequential to the overall “Mandoverse” part of the Star Wars timeline. Still, if you set your expectations right and view it just as an extra long special episode of The Mandalorian then you’ll enjoy yourself.
Mando gets his helmet back and escapes with the help of Grogu and the Anzellans but their ship is too small so he tells Grogu to go without him, soon collapsing due to the poison of a giant Snake Dragon that he fought against. Grogu doesn’t leave though and instead spends days looking after Din, including getting help from a local who provides him with medicine. Once he’s well again Mando and Grogu head off to the Twins’ palace to rescue Ratta, who they’d captured earlier (forgot to mention that bit), and after a good old fashioned fire fight and a martial arts duel with Embo they free Ratta, who then feeds the Twins to the Snake Dragon after a weird looking Hutt fight. The New Republic arrive in the previously mentioned stilted dialogued dogfight scene and blow up the Twins palace as Mando, Grogu and Ratta manage to jump into a lake to survive, soon being picked up by Zeb.
Pedro earning his fee for the day (that’s not a genuine slight by the way, he’s a great guy by all accounts!)
Col. Ward reveals that they came to help because Coin admitted he knew about the Hutts’ planned betrayal. Ratta decides to stay on Adelphi Base and help out while Din and Grogu head off in the Razor Crest for ventures new, complete with the Mandalorian allowing Grogu to use some of the controls for the first time.