Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu

★★☆☆

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)

Runtime: 132 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action.

I might be narrowing myself into this point of view, but I've seen film discourse online that have condemned The Mandalorian and Grogu as "death to creativity and death to cinema!", while simultaneously praising other flicks like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie or Michael as the greatest, most entertaining and blazingly spectacular film since the invention of it. The current cinematic landscape is absurdly funny; we're living in an era that selectively prioritises originality, experimental projects and nostalgia that specifically resonates with audiences. If you're going to persecute one film for being something you dislike, why let your guard down, furiously defend another and even worse, attack those who don't share your level of enthusiasm just because the subject matter happens to be something or someone you worship?

I'm not trying to point fingers, and it's perhaps unsuitable of me to vent out some of my personal frustrations about what I perceive as blatant hypocrisy. So let's get back to what actually matters. At the end of the day, Jon Favreau's Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu isn't so much as a catastrophic wreck to cinema, but something that merely exists beside its peers. As I often like to say, "harmless yet insubstantial." The same can be applied to many other releases playing on multiplex screens. It's basically a two-hour video game cutscene, with shootings, explosions and its characters having to complete one task after another, but it has the good taste to be lightweight and entertaining in the moment. That's not enough to justify its existence.

How would I go about describing the plot? It's like stitching several episodes of the television series together. But so much of what worked beautifully was because of the television format, where we slowly knew more about the elusive figure, how he changes from emotionally locked to eventually warming up to Grogu, greater mystery and worldbuilding. Since the series has already done all the heavy lifting, The Mandalorian and Grogu exists as an opportunity to see characters we love on screen again, but their personal journeys are already complete, giving the film a larger hurdle to clear that it doesn't fully rise up to. In this aspect, the film is arguably unnecessary. But it's got a great score, mostly from Ludwig Göransson working overtime, some genuinely good moments and touches of human flourishes that occasionally plunge into the dread of mortality and the cruelty of time. One day, one of them will be gone. How would the other one process, adapt and endure? I wished it contemplated on these more, before cutting back to the chase and directing all emotions back at bay.

To put it short: Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu are enlisted by the New Republic, where Ward (Sigourney Weaver) assigns him a mission to rescue Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White) from captivity, in exchange for information from the Hutt twins on the whereabouts of Commander Coin. As expected, it doesn't go smoothly according to plan, and there are various detours that slowly reveal the film's episodic structure, as it pivots from one subplot or character to another. The action sequences are exciting, but there are also times where it gets chaotic - it's hard to discern what's going on - and the film's visual effects have also received substantial criticism. Still, it's staged and paced well enough, with clever usage of aspect ratio changes.

Light and inconsequential, the movie revolves around the duo embarking on side missions. There's a multitude of mini stories here which are interesting, ranging from the duo's continued friendship, loyalty, underground crime politics, to even Rotta's journey of self-redemption, but in attempting to juggle so many things on its hand, the film ultimately only raises a slight impression on all of these. It's quite concerning that I was more invested in Rotta than the duo, whose friendship is unconvincing here; Grogu mostly exists to look cute, run around and save Mandalorian, while Djarin himself has no character avenues to go. From the onset, The Mandalorian and Grogu is inadvertently trapped in a narrative and thematic corner, something that it actively tries to get out of. They have the individual moments, but it ultimately doesn't cohere into anything significant, instead opting to skim through all the small stuff to get back to the action.

While it's unclear what the film is trying to achieve, and there's little innovation in the proceedings, its gears are at least moving and sufficiently kinetic for most viewers to overlook these deficiencies. Adventure, sword clashing, aerial dogfights and creatures are things promised and delivered, plus the nostalgia of it all might just be enough for fans of the franchise to find it endearing. The best of Star Wars knew to be more than that.