The Mandalorian and Grogu (Christian Movie Review)
The film offers enough spectacle to keep kids entertained and plenty of nostalgic callbacks to please diehard Star Wars fans, but if Disney is looking for a way to revitalize the beloved franchise for future generations, this is not the way.
About the Film
Star Wars holds a cherished place in pop culture history. Unfortunately, despite being a top-tier Hollywood franchise, it has been coasting on dwindling goodwill for years. There hasn’t been a new Star Wars film in theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2016. (In contrast, an entire trilogy of Sonic the Hedgehog films has been released since then, with a fourth on the way.) At risk of being relegated to a mere Force Ghost from a “more civilized age,” Disney now seems to be attempting to revitalize the franchise by returning to the well of one of its biggest successes. The Mandalorian (aka “the TV show with Baby Yoda in it”) is arguably the pinnacle achievement of Disney-era Star Wars. The characters are now making their big-screen debut, with mixed results. The Mandalorian and Grogu offers enough spectacle to keep kids entertained and plenty of nostalgic callbacks to please diehard Star Wars fans, but if Disney is looking for a way to revitalize the beloved franchise for future generations, this is not the way.
Turning an established TV show into a blockbuster film is an interesting decision, and the result is exactly what viewers might expect: a movie that feels like a TV show, albeit an incredibly expensive one (though the digital aliens somehow look worse than what George Lucas pulled off in 1977). The movie is essentially two supersized episodes smashed together, with a clear breaking point in the middle.
The Mandalorian and Grogu is enjoyable . . . from a certain point of view. By typical movie standards, it’s not great. But Star Wars isn’t a normal story. Star Wars: A New Hope was the first live-action film I saw as a kid and the first one I ever watched with my own kids. Star Wars is a generational rite of passage. Depending on the age and expectations of the viewer, there’s enough fun adventure and action scenes in this film to make it entertaining. I didn’t like the movie, but I enjoyed watching it with my 11-year-old kids (and they liked it more than I did).
Jon Favreau served as the film’s director, but this is very much the creation of Dave Filoni, the new top dog at Lucasfilm and the creator of the great animated shows The Clone Wars and Rebels. For better and worse, The Mandalorian & Grogu feels like an animated story told through the medium of a live-action film. The story structure is episodic and features frequent action sequences. The film also has the goofiest and most “kid-friendly” tone since The Phantom Menace. On a positive note, there has been clear attention given to the visuals. Several shots are among the most impressive in the entire Star Wars canon.
The Mandalorian & Grogu is better for people who really like Star Wars than for general audiences, as it contains the most “Star Wars” ever crammed into a single movie. From prequel-era droids to sequel-era aliens to live-action debuts of characters from the animated shows, it contains callbacks from nearly every prior iteration of Star Wars. Remember Chewbacca and R2-D2 playing space chess? Well, the aliens from the game appear for real this time, even re-creating moments from that iconic scene. If you’re craving a hefty dose of “Star Wars,” then this film will likely scratch that itch.
The flip side of the Republic Credit is that this is arguably the first Star Wars movie in which knowledge of existing Star Wars material (not just of the three seasons of The Mandalorian, but of the trilogies as well) is essential. The problem isn’t that Star Wars newbies can’t grasp the plot but that the film doesn’t give any reason to care about the story or the characters without building on viewers’ existing goodwill. It plays out like an “adventure of the week” episode in movie form, a story designed to fit into the larger context of a show.
Even as someone who is familiar with the Star Wars canon, I never felt emotionally invested in the story. It isn’t really about anything beyond getting Star Wars content onto the big screen. There is no clear objective, journey, or character arc, and the plot is inconsequential to the larger Star Wars universe. Sure, the action is fun, and the nostalgic callbacks are amusing. But the whole experience feels somewhat hollow, a lot of spectacle without any soul.
Overall, The Mandalorian & Grogu feels like a movie that is arriving several years too late. It’s been three years since the show’s divisive third season, and six since the “Baby Yoda” craze was in full force. Younger viewers may still enjoy embarking on an action-packed adventure into a galaxy far, far away. But if Star Wars is going to endure as more than a showcase of its cherished past, then it must return to the storytelling roots that made it beloved in the first place.
For Consideration
On the Surface—(Profanity, Sexual content, violence, etc.).
Language: A character says that some bad guys can “rot in h—.”
Violence: Characters are blasted with lasers and torched with a flamethrower, but it is all tame, standard Star Wars fare.
Sexuality: None.
Engage The Film
Good Shepherds and Loving Flocks
The main theme in The Mandalorian & Grogu is nostalgia. Beyond that, there is a focus on generations and legacy. Rotta the Hut, the son of the evil gangster Jabba the Hutt, wrestles with living in his father’s shadow. He doesn’t want to continue the legacy of crime and villainy (Side note: I’ll be honest, it bothered me far more than it probably should have that Rotta continually talks about wanting to be “his own man.” Look in the mirror, buddy. You ain’t no man).
The relationship between Mandalorian and Grogu also explores this theme. In the two-episode structure of the film, the first half sees the Mandalorian as Grogu’s protector and guardian. In the second half, the dynamic is flipped. Grogu must rescue and protect Mando. Articulating the film’s theme, the Mandalorian makes a statement along these lines: “The old take care of the young, and the young take care of the old. This is the way.”
The film contrasts the legacy of a bad father (Jabba) with that of a good father (Mando) and offers a positive message that young people can choose to forge a new path (a message that has permeated all Star Wars stories). The clearest scriptural parallel is Paul’s relationship with Timothy. The apostle exhorts, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12).
