By Kian Roy.
One of the biggest movie franchises of all time has returned to cinemas this week with the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu. The Star Wars franchise had taken over six years off after the mixed reactions to the final film of the sequel trilogy Rise of Skywalker, planning the future of Star Wars movies and focusing on television shows.
The Mandalorian and Grogu stars Pedro Pascal and Jeremy Allen White and is directed by Jon Favreau who created the Mandalorian TV show and is a key part of Star Wars moving forward.
It follows Mandalorian and Grogu as they take on high stakes missions hunting down dangerous fugitives and protecting the galaxy from the fallen empire.
The film is a fun, light-hearted adventure that brings The Mandalorian and Grogu to the big screen but very much serves as a fourth season of the TV show condensed down into a one-hundred-and-forty-minute film. While being an enjoyable movie, the question remains; was this the right film to release as the sci-fi franchise’s first film back after the failure of the sequel trilogy?
While it brings some fun action sequences and it’s great to see Star Wars back on the big screen, it plays like a string of stake less, stitched together TV episodes rather than an actual cinematic event.
The Mandalorian and Grogu fails to develop any of the characters that had previously shown up in the TV show. Din Djarin is as expected, but at some point there must be growth within the character in order to stop it from coming repetitive and stale.
Grogu is used more as a wholesome marketing tool than an actual character with a progressive narrative arc which is ultimately where the problem lies; it feels more like a corporate promotional technique that an actual film that is made for the fans.
The movie does have positives, with the main one being Ludwig Guranson’s score as the Oscar winning composer returns with yet another outstanding score to add to his ever growing resume. As well as the score, the action provides some entertainment that fans will enjoy, but is ultimately overshadowed by the movie’s pointless story.
Overall, The Mandalorian and Grogu is an unnecessary cash grab that fails to elevate any of its characters and serves as an underwhelming return to cinemas for a Star Wars franchise that continues to deliver more bad than good movies.
