Review: 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' is old-school 'Star Wars,' with strong action and a fun sense of adventure

I grew up as a “Star Wars” fan, someone who at age 12 took two buses to get to the other side of Spokane, Wash., in the summer of 1977 to attend the one theater in town playing the original movie. (In my eighth-grade journalism class that fall, I wrote a critique of it — my first movie review.)

However, I was resistant to jump into the TV series spun out of the movies. That galaxy far, far away, I’ve always thought, needed to be seen on a big screen.

Now comes “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” the first live-action release spun out from one of the franchise’s TV shows. (“Solo” and “Rogue One” were prequels of the original trilogy, and “The Clone Wars” predated the animated series that followed.) And where I may not know the ins and outs of the lore behind the characters, I didn’t find that ignorance a barrier to enjoying an old-school example of “Star Wars” action and adventure.

For folks like me who didn’t watch the show, a quick bit of background: Our hero here is Din Djarin, a former bounty hunter played by Pedro Pascal — though, with the helmet he is honor-bound to always wear, it’s hard to tell. (In the closing credits, two other actors are credited as Pascal’s body doubles.) Din has given up that mercenary-for-hire life to be father and protector to Grogu, a toddler of 53 years who’s of the same species as the old Jedi master Yoda. 

Still, Din, who’s sometimes called Mando, now works for the New Republic — this movie is set between the events of the original trilogy and “The Force Awakens” — hunting down the remnants of the Galactic Empire. The Republic commander, Col. Ward (Sigourney Weaver), sends Din out on a tricky mission: Return Rotta the Hut (voiced by Jeremy Allen White), the surviving son of Jabba the Hutt, to the two Hutts currently ruling the deceased Jabba’s crime syndicate. Once Rotta is returned, the twin Hutts will give the Republic information to capture the Empire’s biggest fugitive, Janu Coin (played by Johnny Coyne, showing how lazy “Star Wars” writers are getting in naming characters). 

Din, with Grogu on his shoulder occasionally using The Force to move stuff around, discovers Rotta on a planet fighting in gladiator battles — and being so ripped that several “Star Wars” fans may put him on their “hear me out” lists. Din also learns that the guy holding Rotta’s fighting contract is … wait for it … Janu Coin.

This is just part of the somewhat twisted plot that director Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) and his co-writers, Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, devise in a script only slightly elevated from a couple of back-to-back TV episodes. Where Favreau succeeds is in staging one dynamic action set piece after another, highlighting Din’s skills as a hand-to-hand fighter and his dexterity with a blaster and flame-thrower.

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” also marks the first “Star Wars” live-action movie that isn’t directly or indirectly tied to the fate of the Skywalker family (unless you count the parts Rian Johnson put in “The Last Jedi” that J.J. Abrams tried to memory hole in “The Rise of Skywalker”). It is, as Obi-Wan Kenobi once said, taking the first step into a larger world — but still only baby Yoda steps.  

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‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu’

★★★

Opens Friday, May 22, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action. Running time: 132 minutes.