01/06/2026

LYFE MONDAY | JUNE 1, 2026

25

Weaver plays Colonel Ward, who serves as Din’s New Republic contact.

Ű BY AMEEN HAZIZI

MOVIE REVIEW

A FTER years away from cinemas, The Mandalorian and Grogu marks a strangely small return for the Star Wars franchise that once made the galaxy feel vast. Directed by Jon Favreau and written by Favreau, Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, the film continues the story of Din Djarin and Grogu after the events of The Mandalorian . Pedro Pascal returns as Din, with Jeremy Allen White voicing Rotta the Hutt, Sigourney Weaver appearing as New Republic commander Ward and Jonny Coyne playing crime lord Janu Coin. Small screen feel For all its theatrical scale, The Mandalorian and Grogu feels more like a made-for-TV movie than a proper cinematic event. It has planets, monsters, bounty hunters, Hutts and a bigger budget, yet it rarely justifies why this story needed to be told in cinemas instead of as The Mandalorian season four on Disney+. The film is painfully mid. Its main idea seems to be pointing at minor characters, side designs and familiar corners of Star Wars canon while asking audiences to feel rewarded for recognising them. That may satisfy diehard fans who track every animated appearance and background alien, but it leaves the film feeling thin for general audiences. This is where the so-called Mando-verse starts to feel like a creative trap. The original appeal of The Mandalorian was how it viewed Star Wars from the outside. Din was not a Skywalker, Jedi or major political figure. He was a masked cowboy moving through the edges of the galaxy, taking jobs and surviving in places the main films rarely stopped to examine. This film moves him further away from that. Instead of deepening Din

No way, not necessary

o The Mandalorian and Grogu showcases Star Wars ’ problem and Grogu’s bond or giving them a story with real consequence, it folds them into another web of warlords, crime families and returning characters. Even Solo: A Star Wars Story , flawed as it was, had clearer character work and a more coherent idea of what it wanted to say. Din loses focus Pascal is fine as Din, although much of the role remains voicework. The film’s decision to remove his helmet again feels forced, almost as though the studio wanted to remind everyone that Din is indeed Pascal and not simply another performer inside the suit. That might have worked if the unmasking carried stronger emotional weight. The series previously made the helmet and creed central to Din’s identity, especially when he had to atone for removing it. Here, the moment feels more like branding than character drama. More frustrating is how Din comes across as less fatherly toward Grogu. Their relationship has always been the heart of the series, but this film often reduces that bond to commands. His instructions to Grogu

The film runs 132 minutes, and follows Din and Grogu as they are drawn into a mission involving the New Republic, the Hutt Twins and Jabba’s son Rotta.

some creatures a tactile oddness that feels refreshing in a modern blockbuster. Some monster designs are fun and the Nal Hutta material has atmosphere. But other sequences, especially the gladiator set piece, collapse into CGI noise. Martin Scorsese’s cameo as four armed cook Hugo Durant is one of the film’s funniest moments, largely because the creature somehow looks exactly like him. There is also a possible link to Rio Durant, Favreau’s character from Solo , who belongs to the same species. Franchise fatigue The larger problem is what The Mandalorian and Grogu says about modern Star Wars . Recent Filoni-led live-action projects have become increasingly underwhelming. The Book of Boba Fett was mediocre. The Mandalorian season three was a major step down from the first two seasons. This film continues that decline. The exception remains Andor , which proved Star Wars can still be sharp, political and dramatically rich without leaning on constant recognition. Even The Acolyte at least tried to give the franchise a different perspective before it was cancelled after racist backlash. The Mandalorian and Grogu feels like Disney playing safe at a time when safe has become exhausting. The same problem extends beyond S tar Wars . Live-action remakes, unnecessary sequels and corporate franchise management have made too many recent Disney projects feel like content instead of cinema. This film is not a disaster, but it is thin, unnecessary and too dependent on fan-service machinery. Wait for streaming unless curiosity is enough to justify the cinema ticket.

thrones. But White’s voice work feels flat, with little emotional range or personality. At times, it sounds as if the lines were recorded without much connection to the scene. Zeb is cool for Star Wars Rebels fans, but to general viewers, he is another Glup Shitto. Embo is also fun in theory, though he carries the same problem. He feels like a deep-cut bounty hunter included because someone wanted another animated character in live action. It is hard not to suspect the film wanted the effect of using Cad Bane, only for The Book of Boba Fett to have already wasted him. Janu Coin is a weak villain with thin motivation. Favreau and Filoni may have thought naming the character after actor Jonny Coyne was clever, but it is not. Messy plotting The film’s plot issues pile up fast. Why would the Hutt Twins contract Din to bring Rotta back just to torture or kill him if he was already likely to die in the gladiator pits? Why would Janu invite Din into a rigged fighting pit after admitting contenders are meant to lose? Why would the Hutt Twins remove Din’s helmet, say they plan to sell it on the black market and then throw it back into the arena during the fight with the dragon-serpent creature? These are not minor complaints. They weaken a story that already feels low on urgency. The film also misses an obvious chance to use Din’s childhood trauma with battle droids. His distrust of droids was once rooted in surviving the Clone Wars, yet his confrontation with the Hutt battle droid army does not explore that history in any meaningful way. Visually, the film has flashes of interest. The stop-motion work gives

Pascal voices Din, while Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder perform the character physically on set. sometimes sound closer to a dog owner calling a pet to heel than a guardian caring for a foundling. Grogu remains Grogu – cute, curious and wiser than his size suggests. The film’s best sequence comes during a lull, when he is left to protect a sick and weakened Din on Nal Hutta. For a brief stretch, the movie becomes an almost fairytale exploration of the Hutt homeworld. Grogu building a small hut also recalls Yoda’s home on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back , raising a fun possibility that this species may have some instinctive shelter- building habit, almost like beavers building dams. Wasted cast Weaver is badly underused as Ward. For an actor so closely tied to science fiction through the Alien franchise, giving her a thin New Republic commander role feels like a waste. She is barely in the movie and does little beyond move the plot along. The film could have at least kept her in regular contact with Din during the mission, but even that opportunity is passed over. White’s Rotta the Hutt is more interesting in design than performance. A buff Hutt fighting in gladiator pits is a funny and visually striking idea, especially for audiences used to seeing Hutts as heavy, sluggish crime bosses sitting on

0 Director: Jon Favreau

0 Cast: Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, Jonny Coyne, Martin Scorsese, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Blum E-VALUE 6 ACTING 5 PLOT 5

Grogu’s scenes with the Anzellans highlight the film’s stronger practical effects, with puppetry giving the small characters a more tactile screen presence. – ALL PICS FROM IMDB