Is The Mandalorian and Grogu a Star Wars entry that returns to the glory days of the franchise or does it inspire maudlin music on a mandolin?
Let’s take the leap into hyperspace and find out. No spoilers.
The Mandalorian and Grogu
The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first Star Wars movie to hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker (2019). More films were teased (another Rian Johnson trilogy, the return of Rey Skywalker, something about a rogue squadron, Lando), yet The Mandalorian and Grogu is what we got. How did Disney arrive at this decision?
Grogu is maybe the best arrow left in their marketing quiver.
They overshoot or undershot (or just plain shot) every other target: fans, boys, fanboys, girls, lesbians, the Chinese and the general audience, but Grogu is a psyop specifically designed to appeal to the grandmother demographic.
Grogu reminds grandmothers of pinching cheeks and baby giggles. It makes them yearn to nest in front of the screen with their progeny and be the family that exists in the cobwebby corners of their fading brains. So, they cajole their brood into an outing.
“You don’t have to get me anything for Mother’s Day, but I heard there is a new Star War movie coming to the picture house. Maybe we could go to that if you are not too busy not visiting me. Also, pick me up early so you can dust the top of my refrigerator…”
And the brood agrees. They realize they can also use this opportunity to drop mother off at the old folk’s home after the movie and sell her house to buy a hot tub.
“This is the way,” Disney says.
Thanks to targeted product design and familial guilt, Disney has a chance to make money on their latest attempt to peddle the Star Wars brand.
The Maudlin and Grouchy
At one time Jon Favreau was hailed as the guy who could save Star Wars. Legend says he gave that up after the scooter chase in Book of Boba Fett. Nevertheless, he returns to write and direct The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Favreau is workmanlike in his duties. He sprinkles in a focus group-recommended amount of John Mollo designs and callbacks while not being overt enough about it to be distracting. Sometimes he even manages to generate an energy unit or two.
Favreau is joined by the other guy destined to save Star Wars: Dave Filoni. This is unlikely to happen, however. Filoni is a grown man who wears a cowboy hat…unironically.
Even Robert Rodriguez eventually realized a non-descript cap was a better option than a cowboy hat. A cowboy hat doesn’t make a Hollywood player look like a creative maverick. A cowboy hat makes a Hollywood player look like a side character from a Coen Brothers movie that owns a honkey-tonk funeral home.
Overall, the two of them assemble a movie that makes use of its parts. As for how satisfactorily they assembly the parts…that is up for debate.
Mandy-lorian
Pedro Pascal stars as the Mandalorian. His first name says tacos, but his last name (and maybe his nose) says Passover lamb. This kind of range perhaps explains how he ends up in every other movie.
In The Mandalorian and Grogu, Pedro is fine. The warrior-monk archetype is difficult to screw up, and his monotone voice is a genuine nice touch. It gives the character a sense of Zen aloofness to whatever chaos unfolds around him.
Sigourney Weaver is about the only other human of consequence in the film. Sigourney is fondly remembered for movies like Alien, Aliens, Ghostbusters and Galaxy Quest. Then one realizes Galaxy Quest happened 27 years ago.
How does this casting make any sense?
Again, grandmothers. Sigourney Weaver gives them a character to relate to, so they are motivated to send out sassy memes of Grogu via telegram and go to their bridge club and give a glowing review to encourage more grandmothers to coerce their families to take them to see The Mandalorian and Grogu.
“One of the picture-players was just like us. I even spotted an adult diaper disposal slot in the cab of her flying space plane, but my favorite part is still the little frog elf. He even eats the kind of candies I keep in the dish on my radio station receiver. I bet I could crochet him.”
Sigourney basically plays a member of the Space Mossad who hires the Mandalorian to track down fleeing Imperial war criminals. Most of her performance is via phone. Metaphorically.
The rest of the parts are creatures. Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) voices a Hutt with muscles. Martin Scorsese voices an alien shopkeeper. A short alien shopkeeper.
Groo-gu the Wanderer
The Mandalorian and Grogu starts out like a James Bond film, complete with an opening adventure and then a mission that sends the main character globetrotting.
Watching the Mandalorian mow down bad guys is fun in a low-rent, sci-fi John Wick kind of way. He is too overpowered, though. For example, one Mandalorian can do what an entire Rebel force could not do on Hoth.
The creatures and robots have neat designs. Pedro’s voice acting is solid. If the movie had focused on those things, it could have achieved decent marks.
But The Mandalorian and Grogu can’t focus on those things because it needs to keep grandmothers in mind. Every time the Mandalorian does something cool, the camera cuts to Grogu doing something cute, which makes the movie schitzo.
Either pick cute or gritty, Favreau and Filoni, you can’t do both. Likely, they know that, but they were overruled for marketing purposes by She Who Shall Not Be Named.
Regardless, I genuinely grew to hate that robed booger. It is especially frustrating because it is totally obvious that removing all elements of Grogu would have made a better movie.
Other issues include the trash CGI. The backgrounds are fuzzy and washed out. None of the worlds seem real. The movie visits a variety of environments, including one that resembles Blade Runner, but is apparent they are all one environment: a hard drive.
Another sin is the dialogue of Jeremy Allen White’s character. It’s extremely on-the-nose, like it was written by a high school counselor determined to let kids be hip to the knowledge they don’t have to be like their parents.
Finally, The Mandalorian and Grogu hits a lull in the third act that is a taxing journey through cuteness and contrivance.
The Mandalorian and Grogu
The Mandalorian and Grogu is the first Star Wars content I watched in a long, long time. The Force Awakens is the last Star Wars film I watched in a theater. Rise of the Jedi is the last bit of Star Wars I streamed. I never watched any of the TV shows. I simply stopped caring. The product was not crafted for my sensibilities.
Of all the new Star Wars movies I have seen, which includes Rogue One and Solo, The Mandalorian and Grogu is probably the most watchable despite its issues. It at least was not stuck on the rails of nostalgia. It had some freedom to do its own thing. Plus, it was a welcome break from all of that Skywalker/Force stuff. The movie simply needed to ditch the cuteness and focus on the grittiness.
Only grandmothers like Grogu. In that case, they should have made Matlock and Grogu and left the Mandalorian to the people who still have the teeth to sink into something of substance.
