Any TV series made into movies need to be bigger and better than just a long episode of the TV series. Some movies do it well – the “Star Trek” movies, “South Park Bigger Longer Uncut” – while others not so well – “The Simpsons Movie”, “The X-Files” movies, “Sex and the City” movies. Unfortunately, the new Star Wars movie – “Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu” pretty much falls into the latter category.
Anyone who has watched the show recognizes the storyline for the movie because it’s also the storyline for some of the TV episodes. It makes sense since the movie was written by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor (who have all written TV episodes) and directed by Jon Favreau (who directed some TV episodes).
The Mandalorian Din Djarin (voiced by Pedro Pascal – and sometimes played by him when his helmet is removed – stunts by Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder) with his friend/sidekick/trainee Grogu (also called “Baby Yoda”), is tasked with finding a member of the Empire by the New Republic Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver). To find the person, he needs to contact other people – including a food-cart type character voiced by director Martin Scorsese and a couple Hutts (relatives of Jabba the Hutt from “Return of the Jedi”). The Hutts say they will help him if Din Djarin helps them with something they need (which often happens in the TV series).
If you’ve never watched the TV series, you probably have a lot of questions. For example, “The Mandalorian” is a race of people – it’s not his name (Din Djarin is his name). He almost always wears a mask because it’s part of the Mandalorian creed. “This is the way” as they say. Why is Grogu with him? The answer is sort of a long story. At one point in the TV series, he leaves Grogu with Luke Skywalker.
If you don’t watch the TV series this movie may also be unusual for you. There’s very little use of “the Force” – Grogu uses it occasionally. There are very few scenes with starfighter battles. Most of the fighting is hand to hand combat with the occasional laser guns – including some fights with creatures. There are no lightsabers in this movie. Even the opening titles aren’t like the other Star Wars movies and some credits play at the start of the movie like the TV series, while in most of the other movies all the credits are at the end of the movie.
If you watch the TV series, you may also have a big question: Why is this a movie. The movie obviously spent a lot more money on visual effects that the TV series does. However, that shouldn’t be the only reason to make this a movie instead of a “special episode” of the TV series. I’ve watched the TV series and I didn’t really see anything that indicated that this should be a movie instead of a “special episode” of the TV series.
Overall – 5.5 out of 10.
LOS ANGELES FILM REVIEW 