Half the time Pedro Pascal doesn’t even show up to play the character he plays, the film has to take his helmet off (and then give it right back two minutes later for no logical reason) just to confirm he’s actually in the movie
Also fun fact one of the actors who does most of the acting for John Mandalorian is John Wayne’s grandson (Brendan Wayne) which I only found out recently because I don’t care about John Mandalorian
to me this is the biggest robbery, Brendan Wayne could get to show his face and acting chops but everyone will remember Pascal who barely takes up the role to merely show his face.
I don’t think Pascal’s a particularly good actor either, and his overexposure in everything these days doesn’t help it.
Should also say as someone who has done stage acting: acting and conveying emotion and expression without the face is not an easy task. Wayne gets so undersold.
The latter point kinda strikes me as something that’s oddly underutilized outside of superhero movies. Somehow those seem to be the only ones that regularly have characters’ faces obscured as part of their default designs.
Well, well, well, family film night and the theater supplying a generous deal on tickets and food. I attended having no knowledge of The Mandalorian television series (streaming services in general are personally not quite the thing, at least, not yet, but how I shall vehemently defend my local theater).
Of what to share on a personal verdict…
Recall those action films of the eighties. Oh, perhaps no substance to twist and unfurl the mind and conscience beyond a plate of mac and cheese, but what a delicious course it was and nothing to leave the tummy with an ache.
Yes, I liked it. More than Solo anyway.
I’m testing spoilers…
The Mandalorian and Grogu, or The Mandalorian: The Motion Picture as I deeply miss such a format for film titles:
I felt as if Rotta repeated his motivations twice in his conversation with The Mandalorian as he already stated his life’s philosophy after his match with that unnamed gladiator he flattened. However, the younger children might have required an extra explanation, therefore, moving on…
Oh, and HA, to everyone who thought watching the 08 Clone Wars film was a waste of time. Clearly, such an act was only half of a waste of time.
In some ways, I think to take the type of villains in Solo, Crime Boss removing the ability to speak from the inhabitants suffering under their iron rule while dealing in contraband of which results in a group of villagers engaging in a generational warfare to protect themselves, and place it within this film. Imagine, Mando, who has suffered extreme loss himself, aiding the leader of Enfry’s Nest (We shall find a “cooler“ name, however.) to maintain their sanity in continuing their mother’s mission without delving into the same depravity of their enemies. Reinforces the ideal of “The old protect the young. The young protect the old.“ hmm?
Yet, I believe The Mandalorian television show already covered such a field over three seasons, yes? Commander Coin reminded me of that one Imperial Character in the Force Unleashed games, the one who collected wookie pelts and had a whole room dedicated to dangerous creatures he killed.
Instead of Embo, why not have a parallel to Mando’s character as besides a handful of Imperials and members of the New Republic, he is the only human character truly focused on? Well, I suppose The Twins could be seen as an inversion of Mando’s creed as the two hutts despise the young (Rotta) and seek to end him. Though, one would think the revelation of The Twins feeding information to the Imperial Remanent while conducting negotiations with the New Republic to be something of far more relevance than a casual mention could convey.
Alright, I’ll admit. I did want to see the villain and hero parlay in conversation as Grogu tip toed out of the house with his friends. The wicked teasing there, the virtuous comeback revealing the villain’s weakness here, all leading to a satisfactory comeuppance in the third act erupting in theater applause. I mean, Embo cannot just leave after making young children cry for a moment in thinking their favorite little talking alien became dog chow. (Due to seeing a Snowtrooper receiving a good ol’ head crunch while falling to their demise in the opening act, I thought we would witness an uptick in violence by seeing the remains of the little alien in the alien dog’s mouth. In some ways, perhaps he should have sustained cuts and bruises, but I supposed my heart has soften over the years and I would hate to break up the little band with such a death. Reading Resa’s death in Dark Times is already enough trauma for a lifetime.)
I like the concept of Grogu caring for The Mandalorian in a reverse of roles. Although, at first I was unsure if he was making a type of grave for Mando until the joke about Mando’s helmet. Speaking of Mando, the insects crawling on him as he neared death reminded me of the song “Shovel and Faith“ by Immortal Chorus. Strange thought in the theater, I am aware, but the song began to play in my head for a bit.
Now, if we are witnessing flight sequences as seen in The Mandalorian, I can only imagine the treat that will be flight sequences in Starfighter (considering the fellow behind Top Gun Maverick’s sequences is in charge of that, how splendid.) My experience was elevated in that, while my theater does not yet have IMAX screens (we just updated to reclining seats, okay?) I took full advantage of the reclining seat to feel as if I was on a roller-coaster. (Looking up at the “sky” was so fun.) I loved the sunset behind the squadron of X-Wings entering the New Republic compound.
Oh, hi Zeb.
To complain further than merely lacking substance (see my original food analogy), well, I am quite confused at such words from critics. If one desires more mature content, Andor and Rogue One are available. However, with the world appearing quite bleak, especially for the children (and to an extend parents) I think we all deserved a bit of a nice break to the melancholy.
I think I got spoilers to work now.
In conclusion, quite enjoyable getaway for the whole family. However, the writers of this film sure do enjoy their Star Wars monsters. (I admit. So do I. Now give us the Jeby.)
I finally watched Mandalorian and Grogu, and it was certainly… something…
The soundtrack was great, but the story was, uh… less so.
I liked the Anzellans and Grogu, and the scenes where Grogu was wandering around the forest were perhaps my favorite in the movie. That said, I really wasn’t sure most of the time why the Anzellans stuck around so long. Like, I get that their friend was kidnapped, but they can’t be friends enough with Din Djarin to go into the Hutt palace–that’s practically a death sentence.
The new alien monsters looked incredible, especially the purple and white ones from the arena. I was happy but not surprised to learn that they were an adaptation of the monsters from the classic game from the Millennium Falcon. Much of the other CGI was also pretty decent.
I didn’t think Rotta’s voice really fit him. I am glad that they actually brought in Zeb’s voice actor, though, after the off-putting live-action Rex in Ahsoka. I’m fine with casting clone troopers in live-action with their original live-action actor; however, when a character has an iconic voice, one expects that iconic voice, no matter their face… but I digress.
I do feel that the movie often felt like two plots stuck together. The movie meandered a little after Rotta was rescued and the Imperial Warlord was captured, and didn’t really pick up its footing again until the water serpent battle.
The movie was a little more violent than I was hoping it would be. I’m reluctantly okay with lightsabers, blasters, and such in normal Star Wars movies and shows, but if I wanted Marvel levels of kicking and punching, I’d watch a Marvel movie.
Overall, I just hope that Star Wars’ next project is more original. I know people generally didn’t like The Acolyte, and nobody seems to talk about Skeleton Crew, but those are my favorite Star Wars projects since the beginning of The Mandalorian, if only because they tried something new. (Yes, I know they weren’t the best things ever–I’m not here to argue that.) And yet, Disney is unlikely to make something new happen to Star Wars, given how they seem to be milking nostalgia whenever possible. (And they still hasn’t added The War Between the Land and Sea to Disney+ despite a contractual obligation! Grr!)
I am tentatively excited for Star Wars: Starfighter, if only because Matt Smith is going to be in it. Let’s hope it’s better than this movie.
I feel like TM&G is the safest, most sanitized corporate film to retry a testy brand that they’ve clearly burned before, that does nothing new and does it moderately okay. And the end result, according to the box office, is that nobody cares.
Matt Smith and Ryan Gosling being in Starfighter does make it a more interesting watch, but I didn’t pay to see TM&G and I don’t think I’m paying to see that one unless word on the street says it’s the greatest thing sliced Darth Maul.
Having dealt with Morbius “enthusiasts“ the previous year, I am thankful for a gap in time to prepare for next year’s onslaught between them and their allies…The Doctor Who Fandom.
Although, perhaps these snippets of Star Wars: Starfighter “leaks“ are mere ramblings of a reborn SuperShadow who has returned to bless the internet once again.
In all fairness, I think it kind of sucks that Star Wars has loads of melee weapons that never get used, even when featured prominently in the movies (the Royal Guard vibrostaffs, everyone’s knives, basically all weapons other than lightsabers– heck, even the Mandalorians have combat knives, and outside of maybe two fight scenes between each other, they never use them at all). I could honestly go for more hand-to-hand fighting as well, it’s not often that Star Wars has fight scenes that aren’t shot-for-shot recreations of every other studio’s WWI and WWII action scenes.
I am really, really late to the party here. I would’ve come here to share my thoughts on The Mandalorian And Grogu sooner, but…well, life happened. And since it’s a boring Sunday afternoon, why not?
So my dad and my brother and I saw the movie on Memorial Day, and this was the mindset we went in with:
Even though, as I said in a previous post, I wasn’t too hot on Mando Season 3, I still went into the movie with an open mind. And I was pleased to find that it was just a simple, good time at the theater. Although, objectively speaking, it might not have been the “return of Star Wars” we probably deserved.
First off, I liked that the movie largely focused on Mando and Grogu navigating the galaxy’s criminal underground. Over the years, we’ve had a lot of Star Wars movies and TV shows about wars between large galactic superpowers, which is all well and good, but not everything has to be “grand” and “epic.” This movie brought back the feeling of the first 2 seasons of the Mandalorian series, and I thought the storyline was fairly well written-especially if you consider this to be an extended episode of the show, which is what I think the filmmakers were going for. The plot wasn’t exactly wafer-thin, but it wasn’t too complicated, either. Sabretooth hit the nail on the head pretty well:
I also liked what they did with the Hutts in the movie. It was cool to see Rotta all grown up-and fighting as a gladiator? Wow. Now THERE’s something new. And even though I really didn’t care for the Twins when they were introduced in TBOBF, the movie managed to work them in pretty well. In TBOBF, they just kind of…existed (at least from my memory), but here? They actually had bearing on the plot. It was also nice to see Embo again.
The Anzellans were also kind of cute. Which is kind of ironic, since I didn’t really fall in love with Babu Frik in TROS. Though it could be because the Anzellans actually had a little more to do in this movie, and that made me care for them a little more.
However, as far as the title characters go…this is where I start to get kind of mixed. There wasn’t anything “wrong” with their dynamic. Not at all. It was nice to see Grogu tend to Mando when he was flirting with dying-and, in turn, I’ve always appreciated the fatherly approach Mando takes toward Grogu. As nice as this kind of dynamic is…the movie didn’t really do anything to change or evolve it. Which would be fine if this was just another episode of the TV show, but no. It’s a feature-length movie, and the first theatrical Star Wars project in seven years. You’d think an event like this would bring some kind of ■■■■■ to the status quo, but that’s not the route they went with.
I actually kind of agree with this take, too. The movie didn’t really “destroy” anything, but at the same time, there wasn’t much that it built on.
And that, I think, is the main issue with The Mandalorian And Grogu.
Star Wars’ grand return should’ve been, well, grand, but it isn’t. It’s just an extended episode of a Disney+ show featuring characters that arguably got oversaturated. A few years ago, this movie might’ve been a big hit, but right now, in 2026? It’s only made $342 million on a budget of $165 million. Which is even less than Solo’s infamously low box-office gross. To be fair, Solo was only considered a “bomb” because its production budget got blown out of proportion, but as far as I know, MAG’s production wasn’t anywhere near as troubled. And in any case, $342 million vs a $165 million budget-which doesn’t even factor in marketing costs-isn’t going to net you a very high profit.
In short…Mandalorian And Grogu was a fun movie in the short term, but in the long term, it really hasn’t restored the franchise to its former glory.
…yeah, pretty much.
You pirated the movie, didn’t you?
Same. I liked Solo when it first came out, but unfortunately, it hasn’t stood the test of time too well. There are still things I like about it, but on the whole, it’s my least favorite Disney-produced Star Wars movie.
Yeah, I’m hoping that movie will be good too. I’m actually a bit more excited for it than I was for MAG, simply because it’s the first major project to take place after TROS. We’ve had so, so, SO many stories taking place between ROTS and ANH, and ROTJ and TFA, it’s gotten pretty oversaturated. So I’m looking forward to them treading new ground. Unless they’re just fighting the First Order Remnant or something stupid like that.
Really hoping Starfighter pulls on the history of doing air combat based off of WWII Air Force propaganda films (or use similar shots to the Top Gun movies). I really want to see more of the New Republic starfighters at some point, since they never used the B-Wing that was at their base in MAG.
Maybe we’ll finally see that B-Wing from The Mandalorian in action (idk why they parked one at the base, but didn’t use it on a mission that necessitated the use of heavy munitions on structures).
Ahsoka S2 adapting Thrawn Trilogy
Possible A’Sharad Hett inclusion in Ahsoka S2
Starfighter set in a time period with no central governing authority featuring a main character named Kade from a rough upbringing fighting military warlords with a starfighter from possible Imperial Remnant
Possible Darth Talon in Maul Shadow Lord
Possible secret facility on a water planet in Starfighter looking mighty close to Dac…
I still wish they’d use more EU ships that already exist. There’s a lot of gunships/fighters/freighters, etc. that would absolutely make sense to have in any upcoming movie (Dash Rendar’s freighter, all Black Sun starfighter designs, the TIE Punisher, Bossk’s Hound’s Tooth), and I’m really surprised no one at Disney has realized how much money they could farm just by actually using these ships’ gimmicks as plot points…
I’m excited for Matt Smith to be in Star Wars; his appearance in Starfighter will mark the third Doctor from Doctor Who to make his Star Wars debut, following Richard E. Grant and David Tennant. Of course, given Morbius, Matt Smith being in a movie is hardly a sign of guaranteed success, but it does mean that the movie has a good chance of being entertaining.
