Is there any more tired and predictable way to begin the first few minutes of a tale featuring a legendary fighter than having him show up to rescue some innocent victims of an evil warlord? Nope … no effort was expended here to find a unique or memorable way to introduce our hero, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), AKA The Mandalorian, and his apprentice/adoptive-son, the cute and diminutive Grogu.
After several minutes wasted watching The Mandalorian dispatch the evil-doer and his cadre of incompetent soldiers, we transition to a New Republic base, where Din expects to be paid off by his boss lady, Commander Ward (Sigourney Weaver). The legendary mercenary is now working for the good guys but is selective about what work he accepts. And the next gig is not to his liking.
Ward needs him to capture a guy named Coin, who’s at the top of the New Republic’s most-wanted list. A couple of challenges: They don’t know what Coin looks like, or his whereabouts. Who knows? The Hutt Twins, siblings to the infamous Jabba. The Hutts’ asking price for this info? Rescue their beloved nephew, Jabba’s son Rotta, from the gangster Lord Janu.
Din is inclined to decline. The Hutts are too powerful and slimy (literally!) to be trusted. But it turns out the pay isn’t in cash. It’s an offer he can’t refuse: A vintage Razor Crest ship (a design that evidently has some sentimental value for him), which he can have … to go off on that mission.
Got all that? Don’t worry. It doesn’t get much more complicated, plotwise. Din and Grogu set out on the first leg of their mission. They root out Lord Janu but, from there, none of their plans – predictably – work out as they’d predicted.
In a Star Wars movie, you’d expect a few smackdowns with monstrously ugly aliens, but golly, The Mandalorian sure does have to hack his way through a lot of alien flesh as he pivots here and there in pursuit of his mission. Turns out Rotta is not exactly a prisoner. There are some betrayals to suffer, and some brushes with death. The movie becomes mildly entertaining once Grogu has some important stuff to do. But too little, too late.
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Oh gosh, this hurts. What went wrong? Yeah, something is indeed missing. Interesting characters. Meaningful stakes. A story, for chrissakes.
I was able to follow the plot threads because I’d seen and loved all three seasons of the TV series. But will non-aficionados of The Mandalorian storyline fully grok everything? Take Grogu. He’s a baby of the same race as Yoda, but little of what we learned about him in the TV series gets mentioned here. So if you haven’t seen the TV series, does it make sense that the little moppet can levitate things? In the TV series, Grogu was relentlessly curious and cute and playfully doing things that led to complications or mayhem. Here? It seemed that, occasionally, the screenwriters remember they need to do something with him and shoehorn in a bit of whimsy, an occasional cute image. He gets some serious work toward the end, but then it’s back on the shelf.
Also … the TV series was full of singularly interesting protagonists and antagonists, who had clearly defined motivations. Very little of what made the series so watchable is in evidence here. One gaping question: So, Coin is the biggest villain in a galaxy chock full of villains. Why? What has he done to offend The Republic? Destroyed a planet? Enslaved a race of ragamuffins? The Hutts, that Janu guy, the mysterious bounty hunter. Nada. Visually they’re distinct, but nothing distinguishes them as anything more than bad guys because the lazy screenplay simply says so or implies it. In a case of art imitating life, it’s as if the characters in this universe, like the actors in this movie, are showing up for the paycheck but don’t really revel in their roles.
Pedro Pascal’s actual on-screen facetime can be counted in minutes. Yes, according to The Mandalorian code, he can never remove the helmet. But when he’s onscreen he’s kinda glum and not trying hard to be angry or concerned. While he did the voice work, all the actual acting and fighting was done in costume by Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder. Sigourney Weaver had a few snarky lines, but she’s capable of so much more … which the screenwriters failed to give her. The best “acting” throughout was the voice work of Jeremy Allen White as Rotta, transforming the giant slug into an idealistic young dude who yearns to be better than the heritage thrust upon him by his unfortunate parentage.
Do the snake/dragon creatures swimming around in the Hutts’ killing pool remind you of Luke and Han in the trash bin in the original Star Wars? How about that arena where Din and Rotta fight? Any Thunderdome vibe? Or the forest where Grogu cares for Din. Dagobah, anyone? Are these homages? Just coincidental similarities? Am I imagining these (and other) similarities? Or are we seeing real signs of a lack of vision and attention put toward creating something original?
I don’t hate The Mandalorian and Grogu. But I certainly don’t love it, as I’d hoped. I just wish there was more. More stakes for example, than capturing a bad guy whose crimes and misdemeanors are barely mentioned. More personality, especially more quippy dialog. More X-wing battles and fewer standard shootouts with awkwardly rendered robots and wrestling matches with mindless monsters in swamps and pools. If you’re a Star Wars completist like me, you’ll of course give it a look so you can get all riled up about how I’m misunderstanding the brilliance of this particular flick. If not, I’d recommend you at least postpone viewing and instead watch all of the TV series. Those are definitely worth your time.