Padding Problems Plague Sometimes Fun, Sometimes Exciting Mando & Grogu
If you’ve ever wondered what watching a movie made of pea soup looks like look no further, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is here. Now listen, I get it, the show is pretty good, Grogu is cute, we have a feature film budget and Jeremy Allan White — seems like a foolproof strategy, right? While there are some fun and occasionally touching moments throughout the film, this movie carries at least 40 minutes of dead weight and you can really feel it in the latter half of the film. That said, the film is basically exactly what it says on the tin, it is the Mandalorian, and Grogu is there too, but it does feel rather disconnected from the latter seasons of the show.
While Seasons 2 and 3 of The Mandalorian find Din Djarin struggling with what it means to be a Mandalorian, if he even still believes in The Way, here Din is basically just spouting catchphrases and his eventual delivery of “this is the way” feels not only unearned but like a major character regression. This movie has to straddle the line of supporting the diehard Star Wars fans and the fans of Pedro Pascal and/or Grogu who have maybe never seen an episode and on the whole I think this concept made the film feel messy. White does OK as Ratta the Hutt, and Sigourney Weaver is serene and radiant in her New Republic commander role. There’s one cameo that made me roll my eyes so hard I’m amazed people couldn’t hear it.
The biggest issue with this movie is structural — there is not even close to 2 hours 12 minutes’ worth of plot here and they compensate by supercharging their action scenes and often adding action into scenes that don’t need any. For the record, when the lights flickered on about halfway through the film I assumed we must be almost at the end because I really couldn’t fathom how they could escalate any of the action we’d already seen. Realistically they didn’t, there was just more shooting, stabbing and exploding and with the exception of brief moments of Grogu mischief there wasn’t a lot going on that I’d describe as fun. The tonal whiplash between Grogu and the rest of the film at points chafed.
Chatting about the film with a colleague after the fact we both were talking about how we were expecting one more big emotional beat to actually tack the film down but we didn’t get one. This film is also about as apolitical as it could be, the Empire is bad, obviously but this film implies that the folks that operate on their own (in this case the Hutts) are worse. It feels lazy and could certainly be read as indulging in a “both-sides” argument. The message basically ends up as “being good is good”
The soundtrack was really a saving grace here. They experiment with new sound profiles and really elevate the whole picture. The puppetry was exceptional and Grogu’s walk cycle made me giggle. There were some good jokes and some fun moments of action but the ugly color and the bloat in those action set pieces didn’t leave me wanting a second helping.
I give Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (Lucasfilm; PG-13; 2 hrs 12 mins) a 3 out of 5.
