Mando and Grogu’s lackluster big-screen adventure

There was a time when a seven-year gap between “Star Wars” movies would have seemed quaint. “Return of the Jedi” came out in 1983, and fans would have to wait until 1999 to see a new movie set in the “Star Wars” universe. In 2019, “The Rise of Skywalker” premiered, and while it still grossed over $1 billion worldwide, audiences and critics hated it (yours truly included). It caused Disney to pull back on its “Star Wars” plans and focus on small-screen offerings like “The Mandalorian.” After three seasons of the mostly good show, Disney has brought Mano and his little green friend to the big screen.

Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarian (Pedro Pascal, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder) and Grogu are on the hunt for the remnants of the Empire.

Here is the thing. When a TV show becomes a movie, it needs to justify the transition. The stakes need to feel bigger, the action more elaborate, and the characters need to go places that the TV show wouldn’t let them. None of that happens in this movie. This is just a few episodes of the show smushed together. The story is small, the action is all stuff we could have seen in the show, and the characters show no growth. There are characters in this movie that get no introduction. As someone who has watched all of the animated shows, I know who Zeb (voiced by Steve Blum) is, but he just shows up randomly, hanging out with Mando. If you haven’t seen him in other things, you are given zero reasons to care about him beyond the fact that he sometimes flies Mando places.

I think my biggest issue is that I am just getting sick of the traditional “Star Wars” iconography. There are Stormtroopers and AT-ATs in the movie, and I could not have cared less. I know those were included to tap into nostalgia for the original movies. I am not against setting stories during the rise/fall of the Empire, but do something interesting with it. Look no further than “Andor.” It is set in the same time period as the original movies (just before “A New Hope”), and there is not a single jedi to be seen. We see exactly one use of The Force-a Force Healer-in 20 episodes of the show. And we all know how I feel about that show. It was story first, universe second.

There are a few things I did enjoy about this movie. The first one is a quick thing. You may have noticed that Mano is played by three different people. Pedro Pascal is the star behind the mask, but he is not always the one in the costume. The coolest thing that “The Mandalorian and Grogu” did was credit the other two performers. They are second- and third-billed during the credits. I thought that was a great way to honor those men whose faces you never see but who are part of the performance of this movie’s main character.

At one point, Mando is incapacitated, and Grogu has to take care of him. Since Grogu doesn’t talk, it basically becomes a silent movie for a little bit as Grogu figures out how to care for Mano. It also highlights the benefit of doing something practically and not with CGI. Grogu is a puppet, so he really interacts with things, and it feels real.

I want more from my “Star Wars” movies. This universe is huge, and yet all that the movies and TV shows want to focus on are these few years from the birth of the Empire to the Fall of the First Order in Episode Nine. As much as I disliked “The Acolyte” (and that puts me in some very toxic company), I appreciated that it was doing something different and was set in a time way before the movies. I want interesting stories from all over the history of this universe, but sadly, I do not think that is going to happen anytime soon.

6/10

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action

2h 12m