Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu Review: Bigger Screen, Less Wonder

During the height of the “peak TV era,” The Mandalorian stood out from the pack by blurring the line between television and cinema. Week after week, the show brought Star Wars-calibre spectacle to the small screen in thrilling 40-minute bursts.

Now, with director Jon Favreau at the helm, the series makes the hyperspace jump to theatres — in glorious IMAX, no less. In theory, this sounds like a natural fit. In practice, the move to the big screen brings new challenges and expectations this series may not be equipped to handle.

The Mandalorian’s adventures span three seasons and 24 episodes of TV, yet audiences can dive into this film without brushing up on the program’s mythology. Favreau opts for a lean, standalone story in the spirit of the show’s first season, allowing even newcomers to follow along without getting lost in three seasons of sci-fi lore.

When the story begins, the Mandalorian Din Djarin (voiced by Pedro Pascal with physical performances by Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder) and Grogu are working as independent contractors for the New Republic. Taking assignments from the all-business Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), the duo travels the far corners of the galaxy hunting down former high-ranking Empire officials.

When a high-value Imperial fugitive proves elusive, the Mandalorian must do business with the Twins, a pair of cutthroat Hutts operating one of the galaxy’s largest crime syndicates. The Twins offer the Imperial warlord’s whereabouts in exchange for tracking down Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), son of the infamous crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Accomplishing this mission proves easier said than done, as Din and Grogu are forced to battle crafty bounty hunters, robot armies, and giant nightmarish beasts.

Mandalorians live and die by the creed, “This is the way.” Disney abides by a different motto: you can’t have too much of a good thing. Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu was custom-made to please the streaming series’ fans. It features all the exotic alien worlds, perilous missions, and beloved character dynamics that made Din Djarin and Grogu pop culture staples, and transitions them to the silver screen. But transferring these elements to the big screen doesn’t automatically make this movie feel like a cinematic event.

The Mandalorian and Grogu plays like a slightly beefed-up The Mandalorian episode, but a watered-down Star Wars movie. Star Wars films follow a template, promising larger-than-life characters, transportive world-building, and awe-inspiring visual effects. And The Mandalorian and Grogu gestures toward these elements without making any of them sing.

First off, the heroes and villains fail to make lasting impressions. Din has always had the personality of a wet blanket — that’s a feature and not a bug. But Favreau does a poor job surrounding him with larger-than-life characters for his stoicism to bounce off of. With the exception of a sprightly short-order cook (voiced by Martin Scorsese), the supporting cast never pops. It’s great to see fan favourite Zeb Orrelios (Steve Blum) show up, but the film doesn’t grant him enough to do. And despite so much of the plot hinging on Rotta the Hutt, he remains dull and underdeveloped.

Part of the joy of Star Wars comes from venturing to new worlds and meeting bizarre alien creatures. But even this fundamental pleasure falls short, as the film’s reliance on weightless digital monsters and environments shot on The Volume takes away much of the magic. The story shows ambition on paper, but the dull lighting and synthetic-looking creatures lack Star Wars’ signature tactile feel. CGI bounty hunters and Hutts are far less appealing than handmade puppets and actors buried beneath layers of prosthetics.

While the film technically checks the right boxes for a Star Wars movie, it lacks the narrative and technical big-screen aspirations of even lesser entries like Solo and The Rise of Skywalker. The Mandalorian and Grogu would make for an entertaining few hours of television, but when it comes to what most fans expect of Star Wars movies, it doesn’t come close to clearing the franchise’s legendarily high bar.

In terms of cinematic spectacle, The Mandalorian remains light-years ahead of sci-fi TV competitors like Star Trek and Doctor Who. But Star Wars on the silver screen is a genre unto itself, and with that revered legacy comes a unique set of expectations. The Mandalorian and Grogu delivers more bombast than the streaming series ever could, but fails to deepen the emotional stakes or evolve the ongoing saga in a meaningful way. It’s a half-step forward for the show, but a minor blip in the franchise’s larger legacy. Fans get all The Mandalorian they could hope for, but not enough of the Star Wars movie they deserve.