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Is The Mandalorian & Grogu the movie to save Star Wars? We found a story that feels small, stagnant, and ultimately forgettable. Here's our full review and analysis of Lucasfilm's current creative struggles.
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00:00Oh, hey, Din Grogu. Thanks for joining us in the studio today, I guess.
00:06I guess I just wanted to ask, like, what this Mandalorian and Grogu movie was all about.
00:11Like, its purpose, you know, its reason for existing.
00:16Nah, strong silence type, I see. I get it, you know, I totally get it.
00:19I, too, would probably also be a bit silent if my movie got hit with the big old stinky sign
00:26by Rotten Tomatoes as well.
00:28I totally get it.
00:30Wait, Grogu. Grogu, no!
00:32Let's talk about this. Let's just talk about this.
00:35There's no need to resort to...
00:38God.
00:41Oh, that guy has anger issues.
00:46Hey, everyone. You in here for WhatCulture, and if you hadn't guessed already from that bit of nonsense right there,
00:52we got to go see The Mandalorian and Grogu in cinemas today, and, well, I can confirm to you all
00:58right now
00:59that it is, indeed, a movie.
01:01A movie that exists.
01:03That has the title The Mandalorian and Grogu.
01:07Some things happened in it, but I don't think any of them mattered.
01:11Disney's latest Star Wars film arrived seven years after the critical dud that was Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker.
01:19In the years between then and now, Star Wars has basically lived on the small screen, namely the streaming service
01:26that is Disney+.
01:27There have been highs within that streaming era, such as Clone Wars Season 7 and Tony Gilroy's Andor,
01:35but there have also been a fair share of doozies, too.
01:38Most notably, The Book of Boba Fett and a Kenobi spinoff that everyone pretty much agrees would have been far
01:45better as a movie.
01:47Which is what it was going to be before a little old Mandalorian gunslinger came along
01:52and proved to Lucasfilm that streaming was a safer bet than the box office.
01:57Until it didn't.
01:59You see, within these last seven or so years, Star Wars has been in a bit of a headspin,
02:06defined by a reactionary approach to film development,
02:09which has seen projects from the likes of Steven Soderbergh and James Mangold
02:13either being rejected out of pocket entirely,
02:16or getting announced only to be then left in some sort of development limbo.
02:21This scanner gun methodology was alleviated somewhat by those aforementioned strong streaming offerings,
02:28but the misses became more prevalent and difficult to overlook,
02:32especially when it came to The Mandalorian,
02:34with Season 3 of that show reaching a nadir of nostalgia-driven storytelling,
02:39stagnant character development, and a hemmed-in visual identity that committed the ultimate sin.
02:46It made Star Wars feel small.
02:48The solution to this downward trend for Lucasfilm,
02:52after fans were growing restless at the lack of movie releases
02:55and the declining quality of The Mandalorian,
02:58has essentially been to action a stopgap,
03:02shifting plans yet again and moving Pedro Pascal's New Republic hero, Din Djarin,
03:07from the small screen to the big,
03:09with an adventure that harkens back to the halcyon days of, um, six years ago,
03:13where Mando's story was smaller in scale and the focus was firmly on his relationship
03:18with his little rambunctious green tyke.
03:23Again, reactionary.
03:24Now, you might be thinking that this is all a bit unfair
03:27and that we should be judging The Mandalorian and Grogu on its own merits as a piece of cinema.
03:33And yeah, that's right.
03:34You are totally right in saying that.
03:36But in terms of understanding why it's been met with broader skepticism
03:41and why Disney is already in damage control mode,
03:45claiming that Sean Levy's Star Wars Starfighter is the real movie
03:48that will reignite the galaxy far, far away on the big screen,
03:52it's essential context.
03:54And I would not be surprised at all
03:56if Mando and Grogu ends its box office run with numbers comparable to
04:00or even worse than that of Solo, A Star Wars Story.
04:04A result that would kind of be even more harsh,
04:08given the indifferent reception to Solo
04:10seem primarily driven by Star Wars saturation,
04:14whereas Mando has been given, like, a seven-year birth
04:17to ingratiate himself to the masses.
04:20But here's the thing.
04:21If Mando and Grogu is the safe bet to bring Star Wars back,
04:25then that, by its very nature, signals its disposability.
04:30And Jon Favreau has made an incredibly disposable film,
04:34hampered by a smaller-than-usual budget for a Star Wars project
04:37and a, frankly, diabolical lack of ambition.
04:41So many of the early reactions to Mando and Grogu's preview screenings
04:45the other week kept describing the film as fun
04:48or a popcorn movie or something to switch your brain off to.
04:53But I really think Star Wars fans should be demanding more.
04:57It's one thing to say that Mandalorian and Grogu surfaces the less severe
05:01and more pulpy inspirations of Star Wars,
05:04which, for the record, I absolutely love,
05:06but another thing entirely to say it does those things well.
05:10I get wanting to meet a movie on its level,
05:13but genre and homage shouldn't be an excuse for timid execution,
05:18which, for all but a few nice action scenes and moments of pathos
05:22between Din and Grogu, Favreau and writer Dave Filoni's film sadly has in abundance.
05:28And gosh, there's also a metric ton of that awkward second-screen style writing going on here,
05:34where characters repeatedly remind you of what they're thinking and doing
05:38and what's happening with the plot,
05:41which, again, to me, along with the meeker budget
05:44and the return to more nostalgic comforts
05:47signals a lack of confidence at every level of this film's production.
05:52And honestly, that's a huge shame,
05:55because The Mandalorian and Grogu are fundamentally great characters,
05:58and when the film allows them to riff on each other,
06:01grow closer, and build that bond,
06:04it's all very palatable.
06:06Same goes for when Favreau really leans into the pulpy nonsense factor of Star Wars,
06:11whether it's Martin Scorsese is a nervous flat-meat fry cook,
06:15or Rotta the Hutt fending off the Jarrick monsters in a gladiatorial arena,
06:19or even the array of spooky monsters he and the VFX wizards at ILM
06:24managed to throw in for good measure,
06:26and there are loads of them in here.
06:28It's really cool.
06:29There is very clearly a genuine affection for and understanding of
06:34Star Wars' unique visual language in this movie,
06:37especially when it comes to puppetry,
06:39because all that stuff is amazing,
06:41but one that is sadly let down by occasionally ropey digital imagery,
06:46and a TV feel that sprouts up most noticeably in those more brightly lit sequences.
06:52Also, I do need to mention Rotta here,
06:54because as most of you will know,
06:56he's voiced by Jeremy Allen White,
06:58and, well, if you've ever wanted to know what a Hutt would sound like
07:02not speaking Huttese and you hadn't already seen the Clone Wars movie or TV show,
07:07or any of the other expanded Star Wars fiction where they do speak in English,
07:11or Galactic Basic,
07:13well, Mandalorian and Grogu has you covered,
07:16and it's kind of weirdly jarring, I gotta say.
07:19Now, I should be clear,
07:20Rotta is absolutely the highlight of the film for me.
07:24He's fun to be around,
07:25he has a great back and forth with Steve Blum's Zeb,
07:28again returning from Star Wars Rebels,
07:30and not in a manner that's at all intrusive,
07:33which was surprising,
07:34and, yeah, it's just nice to see a roided up Hutt
07:36throwing his weight around everywhere.
07:39He's got those slugdominals on lock.
07:41I also haven't even mentioned Sigourney Weaver's character,
07:45who's just kind of...
07:47there?
07:47I'm not gonna complain about seeing Sigourney Weaver in a Star Wars movie,
07:51because, come on, it's Sigourney Weaver,
07:53but there's also nothing really to her role in the film
07:56beyond providing a sense of authority and gravitas,
08:00which, to me, feels like a bit of a waste.
08:03And that casting in and of itself
08:05also just really exemplifies the listlessness
08:08of The Mandalorian and Grogu as a film,
08:11commissioned out of necessity and backlash
08:13so as to be so deathly afraid of controversy
08:15that it leaves barely an impression.
08:18There are sequences and moments to hold onto
08:20that recaptured the joy of the show's peak,
08:23and maybe even a few that lean into a side of Star Wars
08:26we don't always see enough of,
08:28and in a fun way, too.
08:30But by the time the credits roll,
08:31I'm not really sure Favreau, Filoni, or Lucasfilm
08:35would be able to tell you
08:36what the point of any of it actually was.
08:40Which, again, is maybe the point.
08:42You get the sense from the Star Wars projects
08:44we know are moving ahead at speed,
08:46the Starfighters, the new sequel trilogy,
08:50and so on that Disney wants disposability on the big screen.
08:54Because controversial Star Wars, well, that's scary.
08:58And away from the animated highlights
09:00like the recent and brilliant Maul Shadow Lord
09:03and the Bad Batch,
09:04folks like Filoni and Favreau seem content for Star Wars
09:07to be a toy box that recollects comfort and nothing else.
09:11But I don't think stuff like The Mandalorian and Grogu
09:14or The Rise of Skywalker
09:16will stand the test of time for that exact reason.
09:20George Lucas's prequel trilogy was, yeah,
09:22amazingly divisive upon its release,
09:25but regardless of your thoughts on those movies,
09:28I don't think anyone can deny they had moxie,
09:31you know, they had pizzazz,
09:32they had creativity cursing through their veins.
09:36They were new.
09:36They developed a new aesthetic led by Doug Chang,
09:39and come on, that is the biggest thing
09:41that Star Wars has been crying out for
09:43ever since Disney's takeover.
09:45We're so used to these Star Wars projects
09:47recycling imagery from the original trilogy
09:50and now also the prequels,
09:52but we're still waiting on something new and expansive.
09:56We sort of got that with the High Republic,
09:58but that didn't expand in the way a lot of people,
10:01I think, were maybe expecting.
10:03And yeah, we need something desperately, desperately new
10:06that feels like Star Wars, but is pulling from
10:09a new creative well.
10:11Because I think that's how you honor George Lucas.
10:13You don't just copy him,
10:15you do something new with the storytelling tenets
10:19that he laid down,
10:20but create your own unique visual identity
10:23that, again, still feels Star Wars-y,
10:25but isn't just recycling TIE fighters
10:27and X-Wings ad infinitum.
10:30And yeah, at one point in time,
10:31The Mandalorian was new.
10:33It did have its own aesthetic
10:34that, yes, did pull from the original trilogy,
10:37but now it feels like less of a novel concept
10:40and more just another part of a brand
10:43that can be spun off
10:44and merchandised as part of one big, banal magic kingdom,
10:48of which Fortnite seems to be weirdly the epicenter of
10:52for some reason.
10:54Sure, it has nothing to do with Disney
10:55like throwing loads of money at Epic or anything.
10:58Sure, sure, there's no connection there whatsoever.
11:03It's so weird.
11:04And yeah, those are my thoughts on The Mandalorian and Grogu
11:07and why I think it's flopped with critics
11:10and is predicted to be the worst grossing Star Wars movie
11:14of the Disney era.
11:15But let me know your thoughts.
11:16Did you enjoy the film?
11:18And honestly, I'm excited and happy for you if you did.
11:20Are you hoping for a Road to the Hut spin-off?
11:23And yeah, let me know down there.
11:24And be nice,
11:25because I cannot deal with a Mos Eisley Cantina situation in there.
11:29It's scary.
11:30Either way, thanks for watching.
11:32Big love to Babu Frick and the boys,
11:33and I'll hopefully see you next time.
11:36Bye.