THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU

Review by John Larkin

Very minor spoilers ahead

Going into THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU, I was not expecting some radical reinvention of STAR WARS. At this point, we have already had three seasons of THE MANDALORIAN with Din Djarin and Grogu. We know the rhythm of their adventures. We know the appeal. We know the merchandising power of Baby Yoda, who long ago crossed over from popular STAR WARS character into full-blown cultural obsession.

So the question was never really, “Do people still like Mando and Grogu?” Of course they do. The real question was whether this movie could justify itself as a movie.

For me, the answer is a resounding no.

As a lifelong STAR WARS fan, I went in hoping this would feel like a meaningful expansion of the universe. After such a long absence from theaters, this felt like an opportunity for Lucasfilm to reconnect the theatrical side of STAR WARS to something larger. Maybe this would open doors into other stories and remind us why STAR WARS belongs on the biggest possible screen.

Instead, THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU is shockingly isolated, strangely small, and dramatically thin. It does not branch out. It does not deepen the mythology. It does not build toward anything especially exciting. It plays less like a cinematic event and more like a few filler episodes of THE MANDALORIAN loosely inflated into one feature-length presentation.

It might be the most underwhelming and uninspired theatrical film Disney has ever mounted. It simply feels like content that was promoted. Worse, it often feels like content that shamelessly embraces the simplest possible route to appeal to a younger audience without acknowledging the need for any real semblance of adult storytelling. That is especially frustrating when compared to the six George Lucas films, which, at their best, understood how to speak to children and adults at the same time.

The irony is that the film is being sold with a heavy emphasis on IMAX, with the “Forged for IMAX” branding clearly meant to connect the format to Mandalorian armor, craftsmanship, scale, and spectacle. I saw it in IMAX, and it still did not feel cinematic. It felt oversized rather than grand. The image was large, but the storytelling was small. The action filled the screen without filling the imagination. That distinction matters. A movie can be huge and still feel weightless.

The action sequences are muddy and unsatisfying. There is plenty of movement, but very little impact. The visual effects often have the synthetic, frictionless quality that has become too common in modern franchise filmmaking. At times, the CGI barely rises above the kind of AI slop we are all becoming numb to, imagery that technically shows you things happening but gives you almost nothing to feel. The shots do not breathe. The geography is often flat. The tension rarely builds. Scene after scene seems to gesture toward excitement without ever really getting there.

There are the faintest sparks throughout, hints that the material could become more emotional, more mythic, or more indelibly tied to the deeper mythology of the STAR WARS universe. But the payoffs arrive weakly or never arrive at all.

The emotional connection is also surprisingly faint. Din and Grogu have been beloved characters because their bond, especially early in THE MANDALORIAN, had a quiet mythic simplicity to it. A warrior and a child. A bounty hunter and an innocent. A hardened survivor learning tenderness. But by now, the dynamic feels static. The movie does not really find a new emotional angle on them. It assumes affection rather than generating it. For complete newcomers, it is a strikingly flat introduction to both their characters and their relationship.

The choice to use the Hutts as central villains is one of the few ideas that initially feels bold. There is something promising about focusing more directly on their world, their politics, their grotesque physicality, and the logistics of how these creatures move through power.

But the execution turns painfully silly. Instead of feeling dangerous, the Hutt material often becomes awkward. Having them speak English on camera drains away some of their alien menace and makes them feel too plainly like comic creations. Jeremy Allen White is a terrific actor, but the choice to cast him here is baffling. After all the vocal manipulation, his performance often comes across less like a distinctive new STAR WARS creature and more like Seth Rogen trapped inside a visual effects experiment. It is hard to know what the intended effect was, but on screen it becomes distracting.

The casting and star-cameo approach in general is a problem. Sigourney Weaver is an iconic screen presence, but that is exactly the issue. She brings so much legacy with her that her appearance can pull you out of the universe rather than draw you deeper into it. The same goes for Martin Scorsese, who voices an alien creature while embracing a caricature version of himself. STAR WARS has always used recognizable actors, but the best casting makes them disappear into the world. Here, too often, it feels like famous people are being dropped into the frame because the movie needs significance it has not earned dramatically.

The most baffling example may be Dave Filoni, newly minted President of Lucasfilm, giving himself not one but two separate cameos, including one where he seems to be dressed essentially like himself, cowboy hat and all. It is bizarrely distracting. Instead of feeling like a fun insider nod, it feels self-conscious and self-mythologizing, and it took me out of the movie completely.

THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU is essentially a work of brand maintenance.

It is not offensive in the way some failed franchise entries are. It is not aggressively terrible. It is worse in a way, because it feels complacent. It feels like Disney and Lucasfilm looked at Grogu’s popularity and decided that was enough. Put him on the big screen. Give him some action. Add a few familiar faces. Make it large. Sell the event.

But the event never arrives.

The saddest part is that STAR WARS still has so much potential. This universe can still be strange, emotional, tactile, frightening, funny, mythic, and moving. It can still deliver images and characters that burn themselves into the culture. But that requires risk. It requires purpose. It requires filmmakers making something because the story demands to be told, not because a character has become too valuable to leave on streaming.

Even the lack of a post-credit scene surprised me. Not because every movie needs one, but because the film’s very existence seems to imply that it is meant to be part of something larger, even though it does almost nothing to connect itself to anything larger. It neither stands fully on its own nor meaningfully points forward. It just ends, leaving behind the faint sensation of having watched a few TV episodes that wandered into the wrong format. It all feels like a huge missed opportunity.

For casual viewers, and especially younger viewers, the appeal of this film may be enough. For fans who simply want more time in this corner of the galaxy, there are moments that will pass the time. But as a theatrical return for STAR WARS, this is a weak, underwhelming entry, and easily the weakest big-screen chapter the franchise has offered.

That is the real disappointment. Not that THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU fails to reinvent STAR WARS, but that it barely seems interested in trying.