Review: "Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu"

Sometimes I think I’ve seen too many movies.

I say this because I often find myself spotting scenes in current movies that were obviously borrowed or stolen from movies that I’ve seen.  That has been happening a lot lately.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is the latest example.  It’s a movie made up of very familiar scenes from previous Star Wars movies as well as other franchises like Star Trek, Blade Runner, Guardians of the Galaxy, Gladiator, and Top Gun, just to name a few.

There is a lot of recycling going on.

And that’s a shame, since my strong interest in this film stemmed from my love of The Mandalorian series that ran on Disney + years ago and its originality.  I was hooked.  It was beautifully shot, using state-of-the-art digital imaging techniques, but at its core, it was a series of really well-written scripts.  Each episode was a gem.

It offered a fresh off-shoot direction for the Star Wars franchise with two new characters who charted their own unique storyline.  The mysterious, helmeted Mandalorian character was a new kind of hero -- strong, invincible and unbreakable.  He was a ray gun for hire, a descendant of TV Western hired gun heroes from the past (like Richard Boone’s Paladin from the 1950s series Have Gun - Will Travel).

The Mandalorian shared a strong similarity with another 1950’s TV Western hero.  His voice sounds (Pedro Pascal) eerily familiar to that of the late Clayton Moore who played The Lone Ranger.  Give a listen sometime.  Two masked heroes, pretty much the same voice.  You be the judge.

The Mandalorian character was cool—a lethal version of Inspector Gadget, who could summon up an arsenal of weapons (including a mini-flame thrower) in the blink of an eye.  He was as cool as hell.

And then there was Grogu, who everyone thought was a baby Yoda despite being emphatically informed otherwise (could have fooled me).  They sure look alike.  He added cute as hell to The Mandalorian’s cool as hell.  It was a great pairing, one that developed into an odd, unlikely but sterong father-son relationship.  It worked.

And so, the stage was set for a movie spin off.  I smiled when I saw the first trailers.  It looked like a sure-fire sci fi, fantasy flick.  How could it possibly miss with Jon Favreau at the helm?  His resume included both the Iron Man and Avengers series as well as the holiday classic Elf.  He also directed episodes of the aforementioned Mandalorian TV series.

Sadly, there is no such thing as a sure thing.  At least not in Hollywood.  Lots of things can and do go wrong from time to time.

Early reviews of The Mandalorian and Grogu bashed it for being boring.  I wouldn’t disagree.  Despite the knock-out visuals, effects and action sequences, it somehow lacks heart and substance. 

It goes heavy on cute, both with Grogu and the four, Ewok-sized alien mechanics who weave in and out of the plot.  Cute becomes silly and consequently works against the drama Favreau tries to generate in this Star Wars, Saturday Matinee inspired, cliffhanger-style film.

There are plenty of spaceships, ray gun blasts, explosions and strange creatures to go around, including the most menacing giant serpent to ever slither across the big screen.  Unfortunately, it’s a lot of sound and fury, signifying nothing (as William Faulkner might have put it).

The Mandalorian and Grogu just tries to check off all the boxes relating to fan expectations.  In doing only that, it fails to serve up the level of drama and suspense that made this franchise successful in the first place.

Even the casting of Sigourney Weaver and Martin Scorsese fails to elevate the level of excitement.  It’s hard to believe that Sigourney is the same tough space hero who famously defeated Ridley Scott’s Alien back in 1979.

In the end, The Mandalorian remains the same other worldly warrior we’ve seen in the past and Grogu remains a perpetually bouncing, ever-inquisitive baby, stuck in a time warp that he shares with Maggie Simpson from The Simpsons cartoon show.  They are arrested development characters doomed to never grow up.

Chalk it up as a missed opportunity by the writers who could have done so much more with Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu but chose to stick with the status quo, not take any chances that might jeopardize major box office revenue.