The Mandalorian and Grogu

Credit: Lucasfilm

Perhaps it’s just a matter of expectations. I went into The Mandalorian and Grogu with mine set accordingly. Star Wars has been the very definition of a mixed bag over the past three decades or so, and I’m used to disappointment. Nevertheless, I walked out of this movie with a big grin on my face. Unlike Season 3 of The Mandalorian, The Mandalorian and Grogu is a delightful, action-packed, often hilarious little space Western.

Critics have been harsh, unfortunately. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a 63% aggregated score, ahead of just four other Star Wars films: Attack of the Clones (62%), The Phantom Menace (54%), The Rise of Skywalker (51%) and The Clone Wars (18%). This is pretty wild to me and I can only assume that the critics, well, the critics must be crazy. Audiences paint a more positive picture, giving the film an 89% on the Popcorn Meter (placing it fourth from the top). But as with all things Star Wars, I’m sure this is going to be divisive. There’s an entire cottage industry on YouTube built on Star Wars hate (much of it deserved).

Like I said, my enjoyment of The Mandalorian and Grogu is at least partly thanks to expectations. Mine have been fairly low with regards to pretty much any Star Wars project not titled Andor, though I thought Skeleton Crew was a fun little romp and the new Darth Maul animated series, Shadowlord, is excellent. I was a massive fan of The Mandalorian when it debuted seven years ago, and Season 2 was also quite good, but the show fell off a cliff in Season 3. They say first impressions are everything, but that’s not really the case with television. The third season left a bad taste in my mouth. I felt more than a little trepidation heading to the movie theater.

I shouldn’t have worried. The Mandalorian and Grogu was everything I hoped it would be. Lots of great fight scenes. Baby Yoda being really cute alongside his little Anzellan quartet and their endlessly funny lines. A pair of larger-than-life villains in the twin Hutts. The return of an all-grown-up Rotta, Jabba’s buff-but-gentle son. I didn’t expect Rotta and Grogu to be so adorable together. I also didn’t expect this to be such a spiritual successor to The Return of the Jedi.

There’s no major confrontation between a Sith Lord and a Jedi Master father/son duo, but in many ways Rotta’s rejection of his own wicked father checks that box. I wonder if some of the love/hate division over this movie will be similar to fan splits over The Return of the Jedi, much of which came down to the Ewoks. As a kid in the 80s, I grew up with Star Wars and I adored the Ewoks and still do. The humor in The Mandalorian and Grogu is very much along the same lines. Cute aliens doing cute things, especially when it’s Grogu and Babu-Frik and the gang, which really had the audience in my theater chuckling.

Then, of course, we have the Hutt villains, similar to The Return of the Jedi’s first act, and a jungle planet that certainly echoes Endor, and some Yoda-in-a-swamp scenes, with Grogu finding his very own crooked walking staff and building a mud hut.

The plot is a little on the thin side, but that’s not really a mark against the film. It feels very much like an old Western. The Gunslinger versus the evil Rancher (or space crime syndicate bosses, as the case may be). Bounty hunters facing off, nearly invincible against normal bad guys, but hard-pressed in an even match. The Mandalorian has always embraced the Western roots of the original trilogy, even in the soundtrack. Speaking of which, Ludwig Goransson really outdoes himself with the score. We get all the familiar themes from the show, but with a bunch of variation and some cool techno stuff as well.

New characters this time around include Zeb from Star Wars: Rebels (so not “new” exactly but new for a lot of fans, since we only glimpse him in The Mandalorian) and Sigourney Weaver’s New Republic character, Ward, but very little of the show’s cast outside its protagonists. I wish we’d gotten a couple more cameos from the series. IG-11 (Taika Waititi) would have been a great addition, as would Migs Mayfeld (Bill Burr) or Cara Dune (though Gina Carano’s relationship with Disney is anything but cordial). Maybe a sendoff for Greef Karga (Carl Weathers). Still, this is clearly a movie made for both old fans and new audiences, and the film doesn’t bog itself down with series lore or characters, which is probably for the best.

Is this the best Star Wars ever made? Not by a long shot. I understand if you went in with really high hopes, how it might seem a little disappointing. Or, if you’re a jaded fan who has all but given up hope in the Star Wars franchise, I can see how this wouldn’t really rally your faith. Maybe I’m just easier to please (though I’m often accused of just hating everything!)

Is it still a fun action-adventure that’s worth a trip to the movies? Absolutely. It’s a genuinely entertaining Star Wars film that doesn’t rely on the Force or Skywalkers or emo Sith lords or subverting expectations. Honestly, if Disney had just made more fun Star Wars movies like this instead of the messy sequel trilogy or the countless lackluster Disney+ shows, I think the franchise would be in a much healthier state right now. Here’s to hoping this sets a new tone for what’s to come, though obviously I’d be happy with richer and more complex stories as well.

Could this have been a Season 4 instead of a film? Sure, probably. I doubt we would have gotten so many great cinematic moments, and the story would have been stretched out further than it needed to be, filler making up the difference in runtime, and we wouldn’t have gotten to see it in theaters. I’m glad we got the movie instead.

P.S. The period between the Battle of Yavin (aka Endor) and the sequel trilogy is really pretty empty in modern Star Wars. The Mandalorian and Ahsoka are the only real attempts at filling in the gaps, and I think that’s a shame. I could absolutely see an Andor-like spy series taking place in this time period that mirrors our own Cold War, with Thrawn (or a Thrawn-like character, since he’s been somewhat ruined in Ahsoka) serving as the mysterious nemesis and enemy spymaster. Lots of stories waiting to be told in this era, some of which could be plucked from the many books written after the original trilogy came out.

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