Franchises and universes have been around for a while in pop culture, though integrating television and film together has long been a haphazard, imbalanced roller coaster of hits and misfires.
George Lucas created a world far beyond the galaxies in his mind when he developed “Star Wars,” and yet with prequels and sequels, offshoots, novelizations, and television shows, the battle between good and evil, Jedi and Empire, has raged for decades on both the big and small screen.
The highly popular Disney+ television show “The Mandalorian” finally receives its big screen debut with writer-director Jon Favreau’s “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a space western following its titular characters as they hunt for the last remnants of a now fallen Empire.
What audiences get over the course of more than two hours feels less like a cohesive movie meant for the big screen and more like two supersized episodes of “The Mandalorian” stitched together and packaged to maintain moviegoer interest in “Star Wars” films while continuing to drive Disney’s corporate profits.
The film is relatively linear as the title characters are tasked with hunting down an elusive and mysterious Imperial leader hiding in plain sight on the outskirts of space, while also tangling with relatives of the infamous Jabba the Hutt.
Casual moviegoers do not have to be canonically aware of everything that has happened in “Star Wars” lore to follow and be entertained by the overall narrative, though the film certainly takes certain liberties in assuming audiences are more aware of places and characters than someone who has only seen the original trilogy might be.
Despite its blockbuster scale, “The Mandalorian and Grogu” features only fourteen credited cast members in total, with much of the film relying on masked performances, CGI creations, and voice acting rather than tangible onscreen chemistry.
There is not much of an ensemble cast to speak of, as most characters are either hidden behind helmets or voiced through CGI creations, and “The Mandalorian and Grogu” often carries the feel of an animated film despite technically being live action.
Pedro Pascal, as the Mandalorian, delivers a Clint Eastwood-like man with no name cadence that reflects his loner anti-hero character, though it does not provide audiences with a particularly engaging protagonist, as viewers are clearly meant to derive most of the film’s warmth from Grogu. The character, from the same species as the iconic Yoda, provides much of the film’s limited humor and lighthearted energy.
Pascal performs well opposite green screen environments and CGI creations, but hiding behind a helmet prevents meaningful emotion or character development from emerging.
The same can be said of Emmy winner Jeremy Allen White, who provides the voice work for Rotta the Hutt, son of Jabba, in a key supporting role. Yet the part is written so one-note and bland that it could have easily been replicated through AI voice generation to nearly the same effect.
There are very few live action performers throughout the film, with Sigourney Weaver and Jonny Coyne, as Lord Janu, both delivering solid supporting efforts in a project that does not require much from them. In fact, famed auteur Martin Scorsese, known for criticizing blockbuster franchises as theme park entertainment rather than cinema, ironically voices a character in the film, creating a strange double standard considering his longstanding criticism of modern franchise filmmaking.
Visually, there are very few standout moments that justify a trip to IMAX screens, though it’s clear that Favreau and cinematographer David Klein are heavily influenced not only by the larger “Star Wars” universe, but by blockbuster filmmaking as a whole.
There is a clear visual lift from the original “Top Gun,” with spaceships flying low beneath glowing sunsets, while a large Coliseum sequence evokes less of traditional Roman gladiator epics and more of the pivotal arena battle sequences from Marvel’s “Thor: Ragnarok.”
The lone standout element of “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is the immersive score from Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, though at times the emotional grandeur of the music clashes with the comparatively hollow spectacle unfolding onscreen.
“The Mandalorian and Grogu” is canonically the twelfth feature film in the “Star Wars” universe, and the third released outside of the three primary trilogies. While it is not among the worst made nor worst acted entries in the franchise, there is little about the film that remains memorable after leaving the theater, and it represents a significant downturn from the vastly superior “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” or even the origin tale “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Ardent fans of “The Mandalorian” television series, or “Star Wars” as a whole, will likely find the film inoffensive and lightly entertaining.
More casual audiences, however, particularly those unconcerned with avoiding spoilers, have little reason to rush to theaters prior to the film’s inevitable arrival on Disney+.
