The Mandalorian and Grogu is a "movie" that exists

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:00]Yeah, I saw it. I wasn't excited for it cuz it didn't look exciting, but I figured far be it for me to skip out on the first Star Wars movie in seven years. This is the grand cinematic follow-up to The Rise of Skywalker, the previous Star Wars movie that came out.

[00:00:17]So, is The Mandalorian and Grou better than The Rise of Skywalker? Well, yeah, obviously. I saw a dead deer on the side of the road today, and that was better than The Rise of Skywalker. But with that said, is The Mandalorian and Grou better than any other Star Wars movie?

[00:00:35]Um, The Mandalorian and Grou is a 2026 American action adventure science fiction film directed by John Favro, who co-wrote the film with Dave Fona and some other guy I don't know. Over the past few years, it's been pretty well documented that Favro and Fona have significantly fallen off in terms of delivering quality Star Wars products.

[00:00:54]instead choosing to rest on their laurels and deliver awkwardly directed, stiltedly written, unengaging, glutil fan service. But see, I thought there might be the slightest chance that they would put a bit more effort in for Star Wars first theatrical film in 7 years.

[00:01:11]Surely this movie wouldn't be an awkwardly directed, stiltedly written, unengaging, glidfilled fanervice fest, right? Um, The Mandalorian Grou is a 2026 America. Okay, let's stop beating around the bush. This movie is bad. It is staggeringly dull and boring. Right from the first shot, you can tell this is not up to the standards of a theatrical release. It's this dark, blurry, conveniently round room that lets you know right away this was shot in the volume and not on an actual set.

[00:01:43]The opening action scene has some fun moments, but I often got taken out of it by how poorly lit so many of the shots were. This is a consistent issue with the film until the last third. Like legit towards the end, I think they remembered how to light a Star Wars movie. But prepare to not really be able to see that much for an hour or so. It's a very cheap looking movie filled with a ton of goblyg CGI creatures that flail around and feel absolutely weightless.

[00:02:09]You can't really say that about the sequel trilogy. They used pretty expensive looking CGI that actually immersed you in the Star Wars world.

[00:02:17]here. I guess they figured having puppets for Grou and the Baboo Fricks was enough and we'd be content watching a CGI slopfest everywhere else, but whatever. The movie kind of looks like ass. That's fine. Star Wars movies have never been known for looking good. Oh, wait. How are the characters in this?

[00:02:37]Well, have you seen any episode of the show? You get the gist. Dingjarun is just doing his thing in this. He doesn't grow or change as a character at all.

[00:02:46]You could replace him with any other character and it really wouldn't impact the plot. Surprisingly, they do a nice little interlude with Grou later on that somewhat advances this character. We get to see how he operates without Den's protection. And I actually thought it was a nice addition considering it's the only time he doesn't just stand around and look cute. Oh my god, I am so sick of Grou cute moments registered trademark. I am completely immune to them. Now, someone on Twitter brought up a great point. Imagine if Guardians of the Galaxy was still doing baby Groot seven years later. I get it. He does cute things. None of them even remotely landed for me in this movie because I've seen them all before in the show. Even the Baboo Fricks. Yeah, they talk funny, but also I got enough Babu freak in the Rise of Skywalker. Do something new.

[00:03:33]Okay, here's something new. We brought back the baby hut from the 2008 Clone Wars movie, except now he's grown up and voiced by Jeremy Allen White. Okay, that sounds ridiculous and stupid. But you know what? I got to be honest. Ro of the Hut was kind of my favorite character in the movie. I don't know, man. It was pretty silly, but I actually did kind of feel for him wanting to break away from Jabba's shadow and be his own man. It doesn't feel too glo shity since Rada didn't have a character before, so he's basically a new character in this movie.

[00:04:04]And I thought it was a nice change of pace for Hut to be so noble and heroic.

[00:04:08]It's a lot more interesting than the main villains of the movie being those twins from the Book of Boba Fett who aren't nearly as slimy or intimidating as Jaba was. Embo is back, you know, cuz he was in Clone Wars and he was cool in Clone Wars, so he's back. He gets some decent fight scenes, I suppose, but again, you could replace him with any bounty hunter character and nothing would change. I'm not going to cream my pants seeing Embo in live action. This movie doesn't add a single thing to him as a character. Zeb is also here for at least the first half. And I have to ask why. Legit, he's just there. He doesn't even really do anything cool. He just drives the ship for Den and Grou. We're not even introduced to him. You're just expected to know who Garazbelios is. I mean, casual fans can just assume he's a pilot friend of Mandos, but it's not like he's going to leave an impression on said casual fans cuz he doesn't do anything significant. nor does he have any engaging banter with Mando. Remember when characters in Star Wars movies had banter? That's like the one thing you expect Star Wars characters to have. The [ __ ] Clone Wars movie had banter. Here, everyone is just a soulless husk meant to take us from one CGI setpiece to the next. And they're not particularly good CGI set pieces either. There's this part where a bunch of dangerous monsters from an arena are set loose. And you'd think that could lead to some good carnage.

[00:05:33]But this is Disney Star Wars. We can't have anything too violent now. So instead of biting people's heads off or clawing into them, the dangerous monsters just kind of throw people. Wow, that's so scary. It's just such a sauceless movie. Like sometimes Den could get a few decent kills on people, but it's nothing we haven't seen already in the show. That's the main issue here.

[00:05:56]This plays out entirely like an extended episode of the show. It doesn't change the status quo. It doesn't push Grou or especially Den very far as characters.

[00:06:07]I'm pretty sure if they ever get around to season 4, this movie won't really matter to it. Star Wars movies used to feel a little consequential. Things would change. Characters would get tested. events would feel significant enough to the point where the story felt like it was worth being seen on the big screen regardless of the quality of the movie. This is the first Star Wars movie I've ever seen where I came out of it saying, "Yeah, that didn't need to exist." And what a sad thing to be saying about a film in this franchise. I guess a Star Wars movie doesn't need to be super consequential in order to justify existing, but at the very least, it should be fun and exciting. The most excited I got in this entire movie was seeing Steven McKinley Henderson's name in the opening credits. Like, ooh, he's in this. I like him. He plays a swamp creature with like 10 lines, so that was neat. Oh, yeah. I should also talk about the Scorsesi alien. Um, Scorsesi seemed bored when voicing him. This is nothing like his Academy Award-winning performance in Shark Tale as Mr. Sykes.

[00:07:12]He's actually the best part of that movie, whereas here, I forgot to talk about him until now. Sigourney Weaver also seemed bored in her role. I'm bored just talking about this movie. Sorry, I went off track. What was I even saying before? Oh, yeah. The movie is not engaging or interesting or fun. It has its moments. Like, it's cool seeing a hut body slam into people and some of the pew pew laser stuff is passable.

[00:07:35]Mainly though, there is one element of this film that is head and shoulders above every other aspect of it, and that is the score. Lewig Gorenson goes absolutely nuts on a movie that frankly couldn't deserve it less. He remixes some of the classic motifs from the show and adds this Cynthy flare to them.

[00:07:56]Often there will be nothing interesting on screen, but the music is going nuts regardless. I haven't seen a composer trying this hard to singlehandedly carry a film like this since, well, the Phantom Menace, I guess. Honestly, in sharp contrast to John Williams Oscar nominations for The Rise of Skywalker and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, I actually wouldn't mind if this movie I didn't like got a score nomination at the Oscars, except Lwig is probably going to get him for the Odyssey instead. Well, whatever works.

[00:08:24]Other than the score, there is nothing about this that feels cinematic in any way. By the standards of the show, it's painfully average. Not the worst The Mandalorian has ever been, but certainly in the lower half of episodes. But as a movie, this is egregiously bad. Ugly, uninspired, entirely disposable, and to top it all off, just plain unfun. I mean, at least the Mario Galaxy movie looked good. [ __ ] hell. I'm giving this a 4 out of 10, which is the same score I'd give Mando season 3. They're kind of on the same level. Not the worst things to come out of Disney Star Wars, but god is this a solid case for the franchise to be put out of its misery.

[00:09:09]You know, part of me wonders if Star Wars would be in better shape in a different medium. It's all over the map.

[00:09:14]There's video games, books, comics, radio dramas. They've never done a Broadway musical, though. That could be intriguing. I'm always thinking about how to adapt random pieces of fiction to the stage, which is actually why I created an exclusive series on Nebula, make it a musical. I go through random works of fiction that not many people have probably considered a Broadway musical adaptation being made for, and I try and figure out how that would practically work. I analyze the plot and figure out which moments should have associated musical numbers, as well as determine what adaptational changes should be made to a story in order to bring it to the stage effectively.

[00:09:51]There's three episodes available right now based on Cars, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and even Super Mario Sunshine. And you can watch them exclusively on Nebula, an ad-free independent creatorowned streaming platform specializing in thoughtful content. You can find a ton of original and engaging videos on the platform from some of your favorite creators such as Legal Eagle, Tearzu, Patrick Williams, Abigail Thorne, and so many more. Plus, you can even watch my videos early, uncensored and adree on here. It really is the definitive Shea Frillis experience, and you can enjoy content from so many other creators. On top of that, new Nebula paid subscribers will get guest passes, which you can give to your friends and family so they can try out Nebula for a week. There's no payment info required to redeem one, and no restrictions on what guest pass holders can watch. If you want to join Nebula and watch Make It a Musical, then I've got some good news. With my link, you can get 50% off an annual subscription to Nebula. It's just $30 a year, coming down to $2.50 a month at go.nebula.tv/shafrillis.

[00:10:59]Either click the link or scan the QR code. And have fun enjoying all the original content Nebula has to offer, including my own exclusive series. Hope to see you there.

[00:11:15]Oh yeah.

[00:11:26]Oh.