That’s it? After seven long years without a STAR WARS film on the big screen, the saga returns with a middle-of-the-road, play-it-safe action adventure starring everyone’s two favorite characters, Din and Grogu.

Just like some of Dave Filoni’s animated work, I keep questioning who this is actually for. You’ve got the adorable Grogu dropped into violent, dark set pieces, and the result is too scary for young kids and not scary enough for older ones. Even setting that aside, I don’t understand why this particular Mando and Grogu story is the one Jon Favreau and Filoni chose to tell on the big screen. The old CLONE WARS animated movie ran a similar Hutt-family plot, and it limped to an 18% on Rotten Tomatoes.

My biggest frustration is that the whole thing plays like a TV episode. The plot leans so hard into that format that its two separate threads could’ve easily filled a 2-3-episode arc, and the action just isn’t strong enough to warrant the theatrical treatment.

It gets worse whenever Rotta the Hutt shows up. Every time he’s on screen in the first two acts, the movie grinds to a halt and buries us in exposition dumps that hammer the same themes three times over, when once would’ve done the job.

And yet, despite all my fanboy grumbling, I’m still landing on a positive review. Why? Three reasons:

Din/Mando: He’s a genuinely complex character. Even in the series’s worst episodes, he stands out as one of the best in the entire STAR WARS universe.
Grogu: He’s the most adorable creature ever to grace STAR WARS, full stop.
Monsters: There are a LOT of brutal monster battles, and the film earns every bit of its PG-13 rating.

Final Thought: The old may protect the young and the young may protect the old, but nothing could protect me from walking out with seriously mixed feelings on the latest STAR WARS.

It’s available in theaters now.

STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU

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