The Mandalorian and Grogu Review

Jon Favreau moves the show onto a screen ten times the size and changes almost nothing else, which is either the point or the problem depending on which critic you read. The set pieces are the strongest part. The gladiator pit is staged with weight, the chase across Shakari has a scale television never afforded him, and Ludwig Goransson's score does more emotional work than the screenplay manages.

Pedro Pascal spends the film behind a helmet and still gets a performance out of shoulders and pauses, Sigourney Weaver gives the New Republic officer more gravity than the part deserves, and Grogu remains an extremely effective piece of design. What critics divide over is everything holding those pieces together. The plot is a fetch quest inside a rescue inside another fetch quest, the warlord is a name rather than a threat, and the film keeps resetting to a status quo it cannot disturb because the character has more television coming.

Jeremy Allen White voices Rotta as a joke that runs out early. Some of the digital work looks thinner than the series managed on a smaller canvas, daylight exteriors worst of all. Warm, competent and weightless, entertaining for two hours without ever justifying the trip.