Star Wars: The Mandalorian And Grogu (Review)

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:01][music] [music] >> So, I want to be fair and start off by instantly saying this review is going to contain spoilers. So, if anyone watches this and they get something spoiled, I've said it from the word go. You know there's going to be spoilers. Hello and welcome back to another video, guys. It's been a while.

[00:00:30]Been very busy as per usual, my usual excuse. I don't even know why I bother.

[00:00:36]>> [laughter] >> But yeah, I of course I want to still keep coming on here and making videos, especially when there's something I really want to talk about.

[00:00:42]And there's a new Star Wars film out.

[00:00:44]So, something I really want to talk about, of course.

[00:00:49]So, anyone who's new here, anyone who doesn't know, I feel like I was born at a fantastic point in time for Star Wars. The prequels were coming out when I was a kid.

[00:00:58]So, I grew up with the original six George Lucas films, not just the original three.

[00:01:02]I had this great appreciation for the prequels as a kid. They were my favorites because they were so action-packed and crazy. Of course, now as an adult the originals are my favorites. I love those films. But I have this great appreciation for the prequels and there was a period of time where there wasn't a lot coming out of Star Wars. So, I read a lot of the novels, I got the comics, played all the video games.

[00:01:22]And just through YouTube expanded my knowledge on Star Wars lore and that's why it's always been my favorite thing because I think Star Wars always had a really cool lore behind it.

[00:01:32]Then I grew up with things like The Clone Wars and there's loads of Clone Wars references in this particular film, which is great. And kept up with it ever since through a lot of the other things which Disney have now brought on like starting off with Rebels and then going into other things.

[00:01:47]Some stuff's been really good like Andor is the biggest standout from the Disney era. And some things haven't been very good. And for me, it's the sequels, you know, they started off okay, but especially with the last one, The Rise of Skywalker, you clearly had people in who didn't understand the lore of Star Wars and the world of Star Wars that's been created, um, kind of got thrown in the bin a bit with that last film. And instead of the characters being well-written and they taken the characters in an intelligent direction, they just decided to make them superheroes and it was just rubbish. It was It was nonsense. Um, so the last Star Wars film for me was such a huge letdown.

[00:02:25]Coming into this one, I was a bit optimistic. I like The Mandalorian show.

[00:02:28]I thought the first two seasons were really good. I have a soft spot for The Book of Boba Fett. I can see that it is a disappointing show for a lot of people because Boba Fett was not as great as he could be. Instead, it felt like a a Mandalorian 2.5 series.

[00:02:45]Um, but I still had fun with it and I liked the last three episodes, The Mandalorian ones.

[00:02:49]>> [clears throat] >> Mandalorian season 3, there wasn't really anything particularly wrong with it, I didn't think.

[00:02:54]Um, but it was very fillery. It seemed like they didn't have a clear direction.

[00:02:59]Which becomes even more evident when this film got announced because originally it was going to be a full season. It was going to be a lot darker, apparently according to Jon Favreau, the director.

[00:03:08]Um, but instead, the higher-ups at Disney Lucasfilm, which would have been Kathleen Kennedy at the time, um, which of course is now shifting to Dave Filoni, which I believe is a good thing. Not going to get into that. Um, they decided, you know, that the Grogu sells too much. He's too much of a a cash bag that we've got to turn this into a movie now. So they shifted course and they made this. Now me, I've always liked the darker side of Star Wars, hence why one of my standouts that I mentioned was probably Andor and why this year I preferred the Darth Maul series which came out earlier this year, which was incredible, by the way. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. Um, but anyway, The Mandalorian and Grogu, the trailers for it didn't exactly wow me, but it came It's come out. I'm a day late because I've been in Florida and funny enough I was just at Galaxy's Edge. I bought Luke Skywalker's Return of the Jedi lightsaber there, which cost me a small fortune. But anyway, you know, um so I'm a day late on seeing it, but this morning I got up, and all my mates are busy cuz the sun's out, everyone's in the pub having a normal life, which is where I'll be going after this, hopefully.

[00:04:09]Um and I went to the cinema on me Larry Lundson to see this, because it's Star Wars. I can't miss Star Wars. Any other film, any Avengers comes out, if I have to wait a week to see it, I have to wait a week to see it, or any other films that I'm interested in, any other blockbusters or films I'm just really excited to see. Star Wars, no, got to see that as soon as possible.

[00:04:28]It's my favorite movie franchise, and yeah, how do I feel about the film?

[00:04:32]We're 4 minutes in, I haven't said how I feel about the film. I thought it was good.

[00:04:37]And that's the end of the review.

[00:04:39]>> [laughter] >> No, I thought it was good. For what it is, it's an extended episode of The Mandalorian.

[00:04:47]In a way, it's it's it's an interesting thing, because I could have seen them cramming this into a two-episode plot, maybe, in the show. But instead, they've actually expanded on this story.

[00:04:58]They've picked it apart a bit more, and they've stretched it into a full-edge full-length feature film, which in my opinion, I actually works. There wasn't any points where I got bored.

[00:05:09]None of it really felt particularly fillery, and nothing also felt overly rushed. It felt like the film, in terms of its pacing and the run time, was pretty spot-on.

[00:05:19]And that's one of the things that Jon Favreau has always been good at doing as a director, whether it's something as silly as Elf, or the first two Iron Man films. Say what you want about the second Iron Man film, I think that film also has very good pacing, and it doesn't feel stretched or overly too short.

[00:05:34]And I think that's one of the things which Jon Favreau is fantastic at as a director. Visually as well, there's some really cool shots as well. There's lots of cool back shots when they're in the Razor Crest, behind Mando's head, and you can see them flying through hyperspace. Some really cool shots of Grogu, um, but you know, coming in and out of tunnels. And the Grogu things are hard one to kind of capture because there are times where you can tell it's a puppet. Even though the animatronics and what they've done to make him come to life is actually fantastic. But there are times where you can tell it's a puppet and there are other times where it looks fantastic. It's It's a bit of a strange one I find. But Grogu himself, he's a fun little character. You know, the general public love him. And I think they're they're still going in an interesting direction with him. I'm waiting for them to take the next step in his character's evolution. Um, you know, obviously when we saw him he was a baby. Now he's he's started using the force and then he's got some Mandalorian armor. This one, I don't know what I was expecting. I was maybe expecting him to say his first words or something. Um, but they they definitely take the step in terms of there's a point in this movie where he ends up saving Mando. Um, >> [clears throat] >> which is interesting because most of the time it's Mando saving him. Um, but yeah, I was expecting maybe a little bit more evolution for his character in this. But nevertheless, um, the plot itself feels very similar to what we've seen before.

[00:06:52]Mando needs to get information. He has to go here to do a job for this person.

[00:06:55]And when he gets that job done, he can go back to them and get the information.

[00:06:58]And then boom, there we go.

[00:07:00]Um, and that's very much how I would say actually more or less the first two acts of the film feel. And then of course, there is a twist which you can kind of see coming. It's nothing shocking. And then the end of the film feels a bit more like, "Oh, okay. Mando's sort of doing this for himself a bit here." And it's cool. It's a bit of a drive to the character a bit more than just, "I'm doing a job." And I get that, you know, he's he's sort of a mercenary kind of not really a bounty hunter, but you know, the the the whole point of his character is doing jobs for people. But I thought it would the back half of the film took a more interesting approach.

[00:07:32]Um, the main villains of this film are the Hutts, the two twins that we see in The Book of Boba Fett who have sort of taken over the Hutt crime industry after the death of Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi, which is really cool because obviously in Return of the Jedi we see Jabba the Hutt die, but the Hutt Empire still lives on. And The Clone Wars very much expanded upon that cuz we go to Nal Hutta, which is a planet we spend a lot of time on in this film, which is really cool. And we see a lot of the Hutts in The Clone Wars, the ones which are working alongside Jabba.

[00:08:03]And it's really cool that we're finally going back there and expanding upon that and seeing where the Hutt Empire, if you will, the Hutt Syndicate um what it's up to now after the Empire is sort of fallen.

[00:08:15]Um And of course we get reintroduced to Rotta the Hutt, which is a a character I never thought I'd see come back. I saw The Clone Wars movie in cinema back in 2007, 2008. I can't remember when it came out. My parents took me to see it.

[00:08:30]And of course I've watched Clone Wars since episode 1. Um seeing Rotta the Hutt again is something I never thought we'd see. Um it was an interesting take on the character seeing a jacked-up beefy Hutt, which I actually kind of liked. What I didn't like was the Hutt speaking English.

[00:08:48]Um especially the villains, the twins. I get that Rotta has a lot of scenes and for him to be talking in the Hutt language the whole movie would have been annoying. Subtitles so much. General audiences aren't going to like that.

[00:09:01]Kind of get that. They could have done a side plot where it's like, "Well, Rotta never spent any time with the Hutts.

[00:09:05]That's why he picked up Basic." Um but the twins speaking English, I I really wasn't a big fan on that. Um and [snorts] it's just little things like that which I I didn't love about the film. Um but anyway, we see Rotta again, which was an interesting um side plot. I I would love to see him get reunited with Ahsoka. I wonder if she'd actually call him Stinky now. Hopefully not. The character's gone through a lot. She's not a kid anymore. But that would still that would be an interesting reunion in a future season episode of Ahsoka or the we get another season of Mando. I don't know what the plan is from here for the character.

[00:09:40]Um Sigourney Weaver is in this and she just fit in so well into this is the universe and she was perfect. I think they cast her really well and again I hope that she's not wasted in just this one project. I'm hoping that if they do another season or another movie that we can still keep to get seeing her character.

[00:09:59]Um Zeb coming back as well. I know he briefly popped up in Mando season 3.

[00:10:04]Great to have him back. Um you know, I'm a huge fan of the Rebel show and all the Rebels seem to be getting their moment in spot of spotlight in live action with the Ahsoka show having them pull out Canon for obvious reasons.

[00:10:16]Um but Zeb was left out. He was missing from the party. So I'm I'm really pleased he got his moment here, but I'm hearing he is going to be back in season 2 of Ahsoka.

[00:10:26]Um which is interesting because it is like well Mando may be crossover into the Ahsoka show. That would that would be fun.

[00:10:32]Um Yeah, and of course the loads more Clone Wars references in this as well which I loved you know that we're seeing battle droids again working for the heart also they've been reprogrammed they're bit more um trashy looking.

[00:10:46]>> [laughter] >> Um but it's great. Obviously the originals came out before the prequels made to the battle droids didn't exist but then the sequels and stuff decide to try and ignore every everything that the prequels did. The the sequels they had this um mindset that we've got to ignore the prequels completely that we don't even see any species from the prequels which is just ridiculous.

[00:11:08]Um so it's great to see them again and again we do get to see some species from all eras of Star Wars. Um I forget the name of it but we get to see some of Greedo's species in this one. We get to see um one of the Jedi Council member Saesee Tiin's species working for um the Imperial guy with the two horns. So it's it's great. I think Jon Favreau done and Dave Filoni obviously as well who's working on this they've done a great job at really including bits that people know, sprinkling in some new, and while Ahsoka's very much going to pick up on the Imperial side of things with Grand Admiral Thrawn coming back into the universe, this obviously dived into a more side villains with the Hutts, which I thought was very, very fun. And of course, Embo's in this. You know, we're talking about Clone Wars references, and I nearly completely missed off Embo, who was great. And I love that he survived because my favorite bounty hunter in all of Star Wars is Cad Bane. And it was so excite exciting seeing him come back in Boba Fett for them to do him in in one episode.

[00:12:05]>> [laughter] >> So, there's still the hope that we'll get to see Embo again because he's a very cool character. Um And yeah, lots of little references in the movie here and there. You know, you see Dave Filoni sitting in the background with a couple scenes. Um also, right at the start, it there's an R2 unit which looks like R2 getting loaded into an X-wing. Whose that?

[00:12:24]Luke's X-wing? Was he visiting the Rebel base? Hmm, I wonder. I don't know. I haven't really done any research yet.

[00:12:30]Maybe it's confirmed, maybe it's been denied online. I don't know. Uh but anyway, the film itself, yeah, it it didn't blow me away. Um there's some issues, of course, with I wish that some things were developed more.

[00:12:41]Um and there's areas where some visuals could have been tidied up, I think. But as it is, it it it feels like a really fun extended Mandalorian episode. Should it have been more?

[00:12:54]Probably.

[00:12:55]Probably. It's a Star Wars movie. And that's another thing which also annoyed me a little bit about the film.

[00:13:01]The just the way it opened. We don't have a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. And then we have intro credits, like, you know, directed by, cinematography by, score by.

[00:13:11]Didn't like that. All of it. It's just little things like that which I didn't like um because it's a Star Wars movie.

[00:13:17]It's not your normal Hollywood blockbuster. It's not a Marvel film.

[00:13:21]This is a Star Wars film. These are kind of a bit more special, I think, a more unique.

[00:13:26]And it felt I say I I I had a feeling it was always going to feel like a Mandalorian episode, of course. You know, it's it's it's it's coming off the back of a free series run. Um but I was hoping it would still feel more like a Star Wars movie.

[00:13:41]Which at times it did and then at a fair few times it didn't. Um but anyway, you know, overall, what what can I say about the film? It's it's good. It's good. It didn't blow my mind, but it's entertaining. Had fun with it. It's much better than I'm probably going to say it's much better than The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, for sure. Um you know, it's more interesting, I think, than The Force Awakens, because it's a complete copycat of A New Hope.

[00:14:08]Um it's not better than Rogue One.

[00:14:11]But it's probably on that Solo level for me, where it's it's fun. It's harmless.

[00:14:15]It's it is what it is. Um it didn't do anything to offend me. It didn't piss me off. And I just went in and had a fun time with it. And that's exactly how I feel about Solo. So, for me, probably on that level. Um but yeah, guys, we've we've we've had a new Star Wars film.

[00:14:27]That's great. Um it's not as exciting as it probably should be.

[00:14:31]Um and I wish I could say I'm that excited for Starfighter next year with a unique um new story, um new characters and cast, obviously Ryan Gosling.

[00:14:43]But it's set after the sequels, which doesn't overly interest me. And Sam Levinson directing, who I'm not a big fan of. So, we'll see. We'll see.

[00:14:53]>> [laughter] >> Um but anyway, guys, there we go. The Mandalorian and Grogu, if I was to rate out of 10, um maybe a six and a half, seven, somewhere in that ballpark. Um it's a fun time. It's not going to blow you away, but for what it is, yeah, it's good. It's entertaining. Um but anyway, guys, thank you so much for watching, as always. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button, like the video, leave a message, and as always, I'll see you next time for another video. Bye-bye.