WARNING: SPOILERS
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
The Mandalorian and Grogu finally return, this time in theaters! The first true Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian and Grogu serve as a precursor for the potential fourth season of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. Following Din Djarin, the titular Mandalorian (or “Mando” for short), formally adopting Grogu in season 3 as his son and Mandalorian apprentice, the duo now act as de facto peacekeepers from the New Republic of the Outer Rim of the galaxy, still under the influence of the now-defunct Empire.
After a (rather messy) mission on what appears to be Hoth, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his foundling Grogu are asked by the New Republic, led by Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), to track down the mysterious warlord Coin (Jonny Coyne) after the Hutt Twins (JJ Dashnaw) promise intel in exchange for rescuing Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), son of the late Jabba, from the crime lord Janu on the moon of Shakari. Receiving a brand new ST-70 Razor Crest starship (complete with Grogu’s old bedroom) as part of his payment for the last mission, Djarin discovers Rotta has become a famous (and incredibly swole) gladiator who refuses rescue, believing one final fight will free him, but Janu secretly plans to kill him in a Dejarik match. After Djarin and Rotta are forced to fight together in an arena overrun with monsters, they escape with help from Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), and Rotta reveals that Coin and Janu are the same person and that the Twins intend to murder Rotta to seize control of the Hutt Cartel. Djarin captures Janu and hides Rotta, but bounty hunter Embo (Dave Filoni), after intercepting Rotta’s ship, captures Djarin and delivers him to the Twins on Nal-Hutta, where Djarin survives a near-fatal dragonsnake encounter with Grogu’s help. Refusing to flee, Djarin and Grogu infiltrate the Twins’ palace, battle their droid army, and free Rotta, who defeats the Twins by dropping them into the dragonsnake pit while Embo escapes. The New Republic destroys the palace, Ward reveals the Twins, and Janu has been working together all along. Rotta joins the New Republic, and Djarin coaches Grogu on how to pilot the Razor Crest.
Given the immense success of the original The Mandalorian series and the growing popularity of these now-iconic figures in Lucasfilm history, it’s almost inevitable that they should get their own feature film. The thing I really like about this movie, though, is the fact that it could be seen as a standalone film. Even without the obligatory opening crawl (which is much shorter than usual, in the expectation that people saw the first three seasons—and I missed the third), I wasn’t as confused as I usually was whenever I see sequel films without any context whatsoever, especially like those of the MCU. However, this time around, I didn’t really need much context to see this movie, due to its search-and-capture type storyline, which doesn’t really take too much notice in the previous seasons. Despite this, it’s still a pretty engaging film, with the suspense and the action of the typical Star Wars experience.
As also expected of the franchise, the special effects of the film stand out. Mostly due to the advancements of CGI by this point in time, the appearance of these different planets, especially Nal-Hutta and Shakari, as well as the various CGI-generated alien species and droids in the film, looks and move in a much more fluid, less choppy kind of way. Special mention goes to the various Hutts in the film, especially Rotta. In the original Episodes IV, VI, and I, we don’t really get to see his father Jabba move, and most of the time, he’s controlled by quite a few human puppeteers, meaning that his facial features don’t really show a lot of emotion. This is averted by his son, who not only is seen moving around on a larger basis, but even fights (a lot)–something seldom seen in a Hutt. Because all the Hutts in this film are fully CGI-animated as well, that means their usual expressiveness has been amped up a lot more than just blinking and moving their mouths.
The film itself is one of the most engaging and suspenseful of the franchise. While most of the original regime of The Mandalorian remains constant, in the fact that Mando and Grogu are tracking notorious imperial officers for bounty (as is custom for the Mandalorian tribe), some ideas are unique to the film. For instance, the most glaring is Grogu taking care of Djarin while the latter is poisoned with Dragon Snake venom. Despite being a fifty-year-old baby (the key word is baby), Grogu is surprisingly decent at playing caretaker of Djarin, after all this time of being the poor, vulnerable one…even if he bumped Djarin’s head on the wall of the makeshift shelter he made for his guardian. Another rather surprising change is the idea of non-corrupt Hutts in the form of Rotta. Unlike his notoriously sleazy father or, well, the species in general, Rotta actually wants to live a normal life free of slander and corruption, claiming that after his last fight, he wants to be his “own man”, something that’s never been heard of from any known Hutt imaginable.
My only real complaint is that the storyline feels a bit cliché for its time. The idea of the heroes going to capture someone, finding out it’s a fluke, and the bad guys were the ones who helped them the entire time feels much too familiar to make it a truly original plotline. Star Wars has a legacy of being one of the most unique franchises in film history, but unfortunately, The Mandalorian and Grogu have one of the more commonly used tropes for their time. In all honesty, while I did expect this for a bounty hunter film, I did hope for a slightly fresher storyline that felt more unique than the previous seasons of Mandalorian. Every season seems to have a brand new setting different from each other, but for me I think The Mandalorian and Grogu just seems to go full circle to season one, especially with the idea of Mando being convinced one way or another to let go of and start trusting his bounty (Rotta), just like he did with Grogu all the way back in the season premiere.
There are also a few considerable Easter Eggs for this film. We do have several characters from all over Star Wars history, the most well-known examples being Zeb Orrelios from Star Wars: Rebels, along with Rotta the Hutt and the bounty hunter Embo, both from The Clone Wars, though the former has grown quite a lot since then. In addition to this, there are some very glaring throwbacks to the original show or past Star Wars media, like Mando’s line “I can bring you in hot, or I can bring you in cold”, the first line the bounty hunter ever said in season one of his titular show, the reintroduction of Mando’s original ship, the Razor Crest, which was replaced by an N-1 Starfighter by the third season (which can also be seen parked at home in Nevarro) after the original was destroyed in the second, Rotta being supposedly kidnapped and the Twins asking Djarin and Grogu to reclaim him being a major plot point in the original The Clone Wars animated film, the Twins’ dragonsnake pit being a direct callback to Jabba’s Rancor pit in Return of the Jedi, and the opening scene of the two wrecking three AT-AT walkers being highly reminiscent of the first battle in The Empire Strikes Back. Many scenes of Grogu when he’s taking care of Djarin more than call back Yoda, especially when the kid picks up a walking stick of his own, constructs a mud hut, and meditates in the middle of the forest–meaning he truly lives up to his affectionate nickname “Baby Yoda” quite a bit. There are even some out-of-universe nods as well–the hilariously cute scene of Mando trying (and failing) to tell Grogu how to activate the Razor Crest’s engine only for the baby to fire both of the ship’s missiles calls back to a rather iconic scene between Rocket Raccoon and Baby Groot in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, while the introductory scene of X-Wings against the sunrise harkens to Top Gun. Even Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets gets an honorable mention when Djarin faces off against the dragonsnake. He even gets himself a fatal wound from the creature!
Overall, The Mandalorian and Grogu managed to do a good job returning Star Wars to the silver screen (or IMAX if you want). Though the storyline is a little predictable, the premise is as action-packed and as enticing as the original series.
