Dave Gray
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« on: May 26, 2026, 11:57:00 am » |
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The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)
Premise: A bounty hunter gets a job to take down a missing criminal with the intent of gaining info on a crime lord.
Rating: Terrible.
The Mandalorian and Grogu lacks the building blocks of what makes a film. It doesn't have any dynamic characters. It doesn't really tell a story. The plot exists to move characters into action sequences, but no characters grow or change. There are no stakes, as Mando isn't invested in the mission. He is hired to do a job, and other than the risk of his failure, there is nothing to be lost if he doesn't capture his target.
I'm kind of stunned that this movie seems to be given faint praise by the Star Wars community. It has a lot of reminders of things you used to like from other Star Wars, but it doesn't say or do anything. ...not even anything new. It doesn't say anything. The conflict, resolution, and characters are all things we've seen before and their motivations are either non-existant or carried over from other properties. In addition, the film regresses the state of things, as the show has done recently. Mando gets a new Razorcrest ship, for some reason, unrelated to any plot point, but it's just backtracking the characters to a previous point in time.
From a production standpoint, the film looks cheap. There are some cool hand-to-hand fight sequences at the beginning, but much of the rest of the action is with cut-rate CG characters that don't look as good as Jabba the Hutt did well over 40 years ago. The environments are bland and muddy. But I think the worst part is the performances. Mando is not an interesting person to deliver dialogue. He talks very monotone. That can work, if the characters around him are vibrant. (I think of a movie like Dredd from 2012). Unfortunately, Pedro Pascal is barely in the movie and most of the performance is ADR and detached from the scene. The character of Rotta the Hutt is also monotonous and slow and understated. Grogu doesn't talk. The little mechanic guys speak in gibberish like the Minions. Aside from a sequence at the beginning with some Imperials gathered around a table, I can't think of two human characters that delivered lines off each other.
There are references to other Star Wars things that doesn't mean anything here. Zeb from Rebels is here with no character traits. As is Embo, a bounty hunter. They make sure to show us a hologram of Rotta the Hutt as a baby, for some reason. There are lots of reminders of monsters from other things. But there is nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing to say.
The standout is probably the soundtrack, which has an interesting synth vibe that felt unique in this universe.
I am going to sound crazy, but I think this is the worst Star Wars movie. There are Star Wars movies that I hate more, like The Phantom Menace, but those movies at least have character arcs. They are trying (and failing) to tell a story, but their characters grow and change and we leave the film in a different place than we started. They are egregiously bad in a way that this movie isn't but they are trying to say something. This isn't doing that. This is a movie for people who want to be reminded that they like Star Wars but have no interest in a traditional story, with a plot, character traits, an arc, or stakes.
I am jealous of my friends that enjoyed it, because I just find it to be absolutely nothing and what is there doesn't look particularly good.
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