Brief Story Line
Din Djardin aka The Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal - The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Wonder Woman 1984 etc) together with his apprentice Grogu had been working for The New Republic capturing Imperial warlords and reporting to Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver - Avatar: Fire and Ash, A Monster Calls etc). After finishing a mission, he was tasked to capture another warlord whose location was hidden. In order to get the information, Mandalorian had no choice but to help free Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White - The Rental, The Bear TV series etc) from the clutch of Lord Janu (Jonny Coyne - The Toxic Avenger 2023, The Trial of Christine Keeler TV series etc).
However it would not be an easy task and both Mandalorian and Grogu had to face a lot of danger in order to save Rotta.
So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
As fan of The Mandalorian series, I was delighted to watch him and Grogu once more cause I felt their story had not been properly concluded after the series finale. I actually only finished the final season two weeks ago as I got myself ready before seeing this movie. So the ending was still fresh in my memory which felt like the beginning of more adventures. After reading more info, apparently the third season was not meant to be the final, but due to the Hollywood SAG strike in 2023, the planned fourth season was replaced with a movie instead.
Anyway seeing this film in the cinema was a pleasant experience cause I was able to wach all the action and awesome special effects on large screen supported by wonderful sound effect from our favorite studio with Dolby Atmos. I said in my review of the series that the effects of Grogu was not too great, but as I was already accustomed to seeing him, I no longer felt it as a shortcoming. Btw my wife never watched the series at all, but I did not insist on her doing it before seeing the movie as I was confident it would not make her confused of the story. I just told her that Grogu had been taken care by the Mandalorian and they were like father and son, which was all the information she needed. However, she did mention her interest in watching the series sometime later after finishing this film as she enjoyed it a lot just like I did.
The movie still focused on the cool action and style of the Mandalorian (which my wife also admired) plus the adorable Grogu. Obviously the strength was also on the lovely bond between the two of them which was so fun and enjoyable to see. We liked the almost nonstop action and the intensity especially during the scene in the cave and the finale. To be honest, I actually felt this film to be an entertaining stand alone and did not have that very strong Star Wars feel compared to other spin off movies like Rogue One or Solo which were clearly connected to the main 3 trilogies. However it actually worked in our favor since it did not really require complete knowledge of the universe and we could still understood and enjoyed it even with just limited info.
Aside from the cast I mentioned above, the movie also had other support cast such as Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (Kim's Convenience TV series etc) reprising his role as X-wing pilot Carlos Teva, famous director Martin Scorcese providing the voice of shopkeeper Hugo, well known voice actor Steve Blum as Mandalorian's Pilot friend Zeb Orrelios and several others. The film was directed by Jon Favreau (The Lion King 2019 live action remake, Iron-man etc) who also created the series which meant that it was in the best possible hands to continue the story. He was also credited as writer together with Noah Kloor and Dave Filoni (director of animated series like Avatar: The Last Airbender, Star Wars: The Clone Wars and few others) who portrayed X-wing pilot Trapper Wolf in here. Oh before I forgot, this movie had 132 minutes duration including closing credits but no mid or post end credit scene.
Overall to me and my wife who are definitely not the biggest fans of Star Wars franchise compared to others, we felt this to be an entertaining action adventure movie with plenty of moments to enjoy particularly the lovely relationship between Mandalorian and Grogu, plus the joy of seeing Grogu's cute behavior (that scene involving him and those little technicians were still hilarious). Sadly critics were not too impressed and it only got mixed reviews. Even though some audience seemed to enjoy it, the Box Office performance did not look promising at the moment. Regardless of critics or audience views though, I think you would still like this movie especially if you like the series. But if you are hard core Star Wars fans, then you might find this to be a bit underwhelming.
This is the way.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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