The Mandalorian and Grogu brings Star Wars back to movie theaters for the first time in seven years, and the return lands with a thud. In a new Mandalorian movie critique, the film is called a lifeless, half-hearted movie that may be the worst Star Wars has ever produced.
That judgment comes from a story built around Sam Adams’ assessment of Jon Favreau’s film, which he wrote with Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor. Adams says the good news is that viewers do not need to have seen all three seasons of The Mandalorian to follow the tale of a ruthless bounty hunter and his little green sidekick. The bad news, he says, is that it is hard to imagine what would make this movie feel alive. He argues that if The Mandalorian and Grogu is not the worst Star Wars movie, it is at least the least essential, the least engaging and the least necessary.
The film opens up a franchise that has spent years shifting between television and the big screen, but this version does not seem interested in earning the size of its comeback. It brings back the warlord Janu from The Mandalorian season 3 and Jabba the Hutt’s twin cousins from The Book of Boba Fett, yet those returns do not add much weight. The plot, as Adams describes it, has only the outline of a story: Mando is sent to hunt down a foe of the New Republic and ends up being hunted himself. Beyond that rough sketch, the movie never develops much further.
That is the sharpest problem with the film, because the character once felt like a way in for anyone who did not want to be buried under Star Wars lore. When The Mandalorian arrived in 2019, it felt like a reprieve from the lore-encrusted bent of Rogue One and Solo. But even then, the series ended its first season with a revelation that only made full sense to viewers who had seen The Clone Wars. By the time this movie reaches theaters, the property is already on its umpteenth fresh start, and this one is built on a foundation that feels less like a story than a checklist.
The casting and mechanics only underline the gap between the idea and the execution. Pedro Pascal voices Mando, while the helmeted Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder play him largely on screen. The result may be efficient for a streaming series, but on a movie-sized canvas it does not amount to much more than movement without urgency. Adams compares the whole enterprise with The Rise of Skywalker, which he calls similarly dreadful, and even reaches back to The Phantom Menace to note that George Lucas at least seemed to have something he wanted to get off his chest. The pod-racing scene, he writes, is pretty neat. This film, by contrast, gives the audience little reason to stay invested once the novelty of seeing Star Wars in theaters again wears off.
And that is what makes the new Mandalorian movie critique sting: this is not just a weak chapter, but a movie that seems unsure why it should exist at all. Star Wars is back in theaters, but the question the film leaves behind is simpler than any mystery it tries to build. After seven years away, this is the return the franchise chose to make.
