I’m usually not one for reviewing films and trying to quantify what I liked, disliked, and how I would personally do something differently after watching a movie. There’s thousands of decisions made when creating a film that I would never understand, and that’s why I typically go into movies with almost no expectations of how I think it should be. I’m far from an excerpt on filmmaking (though I have an animation degree & an art history minor so…that must count for something, right?). I also am against sharing specific thoughts I have on social media – especially twitter – but I’m going to hope this is a safe space!
When I originally created a schedule for what I was posting each day for Jakku Journal, I was hoping to write about something that fully captured my attention in The Mandalorian and Grogu: a deeper dive into the story, an analysis of the arcs of the characters, but that’s clearly not the case…so this has turned into a movie review for The Mandalorian and Grogu. (spoilers ahead!)
I went to opening night with my parents & brother because we were all home prior to my cousin getting married that following Saturday. The theater was packed – there were people of all ages and even a few people that came in costume! My initial thoughts were that it felt very tonally in-line with the TV show and it was pretty much what I had expected. Upon asking my mom, notorious for giving the review ‘I can’t wait to watch that again and pick up on more of the story’ said, “That was fun!” and “I basically understood everything that was going on…there wasn’t a whole lot not to get”. Which is similar to what people had been saying the past few days after seeing advance screenings – this film is the perfect introduction to Star Wars as it’s not lore heavy and dependent on knowing the history of any of the characters. You just need to know that there’s a Mandalorian and there’s Grogu.
I actually put off writing this post for a full week (it was supposed to be posted May 30th) because I honestly didn’t know what to say about this movie – which is odd for me. Most of the time when I watch a movie, especially a Star Wars movie, there’s at least one thing during the film that absolutely captivates me and I can’t stop thinking about. The character dynamics, insight into the Force, a new planetary culture explored…
But as the credits rolled during my opening night viewing of The Mandalorian and Grogu, I had no real thoughts on it. I had a fun time, I loved all the action and seeing characters like Grogu and even Zeb up on the big screen for the first time – but that was it. There were no additional concepts to dive into, no emotional arc that revealed something astounding, and no real intense need to stay seated and watch the entire thing again.
It’s unlike me to admit this but…man I really would have rather hated the movie instead of having no real thoughts about it. At least then the movie would have been trying to say something that I disagreed with. Instead the movie felt like it didn’t try to say anything in the first place. Again – I had a fun time – but the thing I love about Star Wars is the characters and the human stories that are told, and I felt like that was mostly missing from this film.
It honestly felt most akin to the Ewok films (which is absolutely not an insult – those films are great and borderline unhinged in their own way). It just didn’t feel like a Star Wars film to me. Then again, I’ve been saying for the past few years that not every movie needs to be the biggest spectacle of the decade and hit levels iconic as Avengers: Endgame. Sometimes an adventure film is exactly what’s needed – and that’s exactly what this film is.
All this being said, I absolutely loved all the physical special effects in the film. The work done by Tippett Studios was instantly recognizable to me and was a great visual callback to the Original Trilogy; it felt like a warm hug of nostalgia seeing miniatures move a bit jankily on the screen. The puppetry in the film was also absolutely outstanding. There’s something joyful about seeing characters that are physically there and giving a performance and not motion captured and dropped in later. The Anzellans are SO FUN and the puppetry team should be incredibly proud of their work bringing Grogu to life over the past 7 years.
Grogu was surprisingly my favorite part of the film. I’m not a certified Grogu hater, but Grogu Capitalism™ is overwhelming at times (and I’m just asking the merchandise team to make Star Wars items for women that aren’t just Grogu. There’s plenty of other characters women like too!!). He’s a fully formed character in the film and has agency throughout. He feels like an actual hero for the first time rather than being a MacGuffin or just there to look cute. The sequence where Din is unconscious and dying after being bit by the Dragon Snake is a standout moment in the film. Reminiscent of Yoda on Dagobah, it’s a nice slower moment in a film otherwise jam packed with fight sequences. It was a breath of fresh air. The audience slowed down and focused on Grogu, on the rocks & trees, and the energy between one another – reminiscent of how Yoda describes the Force in The Empire Strikes Back. It was lovely to see Grogu out on his own and not in the shadow of Mando while on a mission (or even Luke during his brief time training as a Jedi).
Controversial opinion: I’m honestly torn on Rotta in the film. As a concept I love that he was brought back after making his first appearance 18 years ago in The Clone Wars movie, but…agh I just don’t know if I would have cast Jeremy Allen White. I’m still torn on the amount of Basic he speaks as well as the cadence of his dialogue. It feels too modern to me and I would have potentially been more okay with it had it reflected speaking cadences from the 1970s/80s (if that even makes sense). It just feels odd for a Hutt to be speaking like that. But then again, my expectations of how Rotta should speak are based on Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi – and he’s nothing like his father; he’s his own man. Therefore, I probably shouldn’t judge him for not sounding like his father.
(Ziro the Hutt also speaks primarily in Basic in The Clone Wars and he sounds like an Oil Baron so there’s precedent for Hutts not speaking Huttese and I really shouldn’t be complaining).
The number of creatures featured in this film were absolutely off! The! Charts!! It’s very reminiscent of Return of the Jedi in that sense and I can absolutely see the influence Favreau and Filoni’s childhoods playing with Star Wars action figures has on this film; the creatures are the coolest toys in the toybox. I’d be remiss to not mention that I missed having practical Hutt puppets in the film, but it’s very clear why they couldn’t have used them and it would have looked awkward if they had used both puppets and CGI…but how cool that we got 3 main Hutt characters in one film!
The locations that stood out to me the most were Shakari & Coin’s estate. Having visited Chicago many times in my life, the inspiration for Shakari was instantly recognizable. I also particularly loved the interior of Coin’s Estate and how unique it was to the Star Wars universe. I wish there were screencaps out for the film already because I’d love a closer look – but from what I remember it reminded me of an Art Nouveau / Prairie School style architecture (the stained glass in particular reminded me a bit of Frank Lloyd Wright, who also had his studio in Chicago). Star Wars so often features metal and gray architecture, it was nice to see more organic shapes and wood so heavily featured in a location. I remember even noticing the electronic door panel had a unique look to it that felt both distinctly Star Wars, but still fit within the unique look of the building. (It’s truly killing me at the moment that I can’t find any images of this location yet so look at the details more). Nal Hutta was very interesting as well, particularly the surrounding wilderness outside the Hutt Palace. Foresty and swampy without feeling too similar to Endor or Dagobah.
I have a few thoughts I don’t necessarily need to fully expand upon and I don’t know where I would put them in this piece so enjoy a bulleted list of additional thoughts to wrap all this all up:
- The structure of the film was so weird to me and it genuinely left me disoriented the first time I watched the movie (I’m not sure why this was). I think that might have affected my first viewing experience, because when I saw it again I had a much better time and felt more grounded in the story.
- Embo is there. I don’t remember liking or disliking him from The Clone Wars necessarily but it literally could have been any other Bounty Hunter and it wouldn’t have changed anything.
- One thing I am mad about is that they didn’t include “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” No opening scroll is fine because it’s not a Skywalker Saga film, but literally every other movie has the classic blue text.
- I didn’t hate the opening credits as much as I thought I would knowing it’s a first for a Star Wars theatrical film. It allowed for some gorgeous shots that only existed to be pretty and allowed the score to really shine.
- Sigourney Weaver was there…I wish there had been more for her to do more with the character. It doesn’t matter though because she looks so f-ing cool in her X-Wing pilot gear at the end of the film.
- Dave Filoni was also there…TWICE
- I was surprised how engaged I was in the story considering how heavily the cast featured puppets, CG characters, and characters in masks. You’d think that would be a detriment but clearly it wasn’t.
- The score! Oh my goodness the score!!! I might go ahead and write an entire post someday about Ludwig Göransson’s work for The Mandalorian. I need to continue to listen to it to fully form my thoughts – but it would be a crime if this wasn’t nominated for Best Score at the Academy Awards this year.
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(like I said earlier – there’s almost no images out for this film, so I’ll likely come back at a later date and add in some screencaps!)
Jakku Journal 