The Mandalorian and Grogu

*1/2 out of ***

2026, 132 mins, Rated PG

Directed by Jon Favreau

Written by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, and Noah Kloor.

Based on “Star Wars” Created by George Lucas.

Produced by Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, and Ian Bryce.

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Brendan Wayne, Lateef Crowder, Jonny Coyne, Martin Scorsese, Sigourney Weaver.

28 years ago, while I was working my first job as a concessionist at a movie theater, there was a rare practice that occurred with the popcorn popper. During show sets where the lines were so busy that the popper couldn’t keep with the crowds, the manager would make a call to dump last night’s leftover popcorn into the popper to match the demand. Customers would see this and some of them complain that popcorn was not fresh popped like they wanted to be, but they would ultimately accept the situation because we didn’t have a choice.

That would a similar situation to going to see “The Mandalorian and Grogu”, the latest Star Wars adventure. You want something that’s fresh and exciting, similar to the first season of “The Mandalorian” tv show, but what you get feels like stale leftovers from the show’s rather weak third season.

The plot, such as it is, involves Mando (Pedro Pascal) and his foundling, Grogu, who work for the New Republic. Mando accepts a mission to go after the warlord Commander Coin which turns out to be a rather pointless detail because the moviemakers prioritize other characters and situations over what is stated to be Mando’s main objective. That objective is so totally inconsequential that you’ll forget about it by the end of the movie.

This leads him to the Hutt Twins who tell him they will exchange intel on Commander Coin if they rescue Rotta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) who is the rightful heir and son of Jabba the Hut who, as you remember, was killed in “Return of the Jedi”. So now they’ve given us a sub-mission that, again, is prioritized over the main objective.

Mando and Grogu then travel to another planet, whose name I can’t remember, where they find that Rotta has an amazingly bemuscled physique and is living as a gladiator who fights opponents for big money while living in a cage. He wants to get out of his contract with the bookie because he no longer wants to live this way so he agrees to one more fight to be the ultimate champion of champions. Little does he know the bookie has a trick up his sleeve for that last fight because, of course he does, and that would fill the need for this to be a “rescue mission”.

Rotta is a disaster of Creature Design. For those of us who are Star Wars purists know that Huts by their very being are not muscular characters like humans. They resemble giant slugs and have enough body mass to assert intimidation without resorting to what looks like frequent workouts at the gym or injection of steroids. Rotta looks so roided up that it’s a wonder his tail hasn’t begun shrink, because that would be presumably the thing that shrinks on a Hut instead of his private parts. Another thing about Rotta is he speaks in English the whole time, probably a concession to the teenagers in the audience who presumably can’t or don’t to read subtitles.

The movie takes several timeouts for encounters with thankless side characters (one of them voiced by Martin Scorsese) who have little or no baring on the plot except to lengthen it out to a more than two hour runtime. There’s probably enough plot here for maybe a very weak 90 minute episode not a 2 ¼ hour feature film.

It’s not all bad, though. I quite enjoyed the first eight minutes in which Mando takes down an opponent seeking to restart the Old Empire. The sequence is so exciting, especially watching how Mando moves through the space as he vanquishes his enemies, that it recalls the freshness of the first season. If you watch this movie based on the opening, you’ll think you’re in for a really good time. But then the plot takes over and it’s all on autopilot from there.

Jon Favreau co-produced, co-wrote and directed the film and his talent seems entirely misplaced on this slop. He has seemingly forgotten everything that the made the show, which he created, so good and the characters so appealing and compelling in the first place. It’s a shame to see him take a holiday with this thoroughly pointless exercise. I hope the money was good for him.