
The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026)
The only character growth in this movie is that Mando let Grogu push the hyperspace button. Who cares??? This felt like the Seinfeld of Star Wars movies - nothing happens, nobody changes.
Jeremy Allen White gives one of the most phoned-in, worst voiceover performances I’ve ever heard committed to film. Martin Scorsese somehow gives one of the best - go figure. Pedro Pascal is half phoning it in too, but shoutout to his body double. That guy deserves a raise. Absolutely committed performance. I’m also convinced Sigourney Weaver and Pedro Pascal were never on set together for even a second.
I’m struggling to know who this movie is for. The theater was full of kids, but it’s just violence end to end - the same action sequence of Mando kicking and shooting some guy in the face, over and over. Plus it’s kind of scary? Two jump scares got me. Some scary monsters in this thing.
I thought there might be some thematic thing about fathers - Jabba’s son has a bad dad, Grogu has a good one - but by the end it just lands on “some dads are good and some are bad.” Shrug. That’s the thesis, I guess.
The film looks bad too. Grey and brown sludge, Xbox 360 energy. You can see the edge of the Volume in several scenes. It all feels small. Say what you will about Rise of Skywalker - that film looked good, was filmed dynamically. This doesn’t crack my least favorite Star Wars spot - Rise still takes that - but it’s maybe second. Possibly behind Attack of the Clones.
There were some sequences I liked. Grogu on his own worked. I unfortunately did enjoy the Babu Frik squad. And the movie got exactly one laugh from me - the bonk sequence when Grogu’s healing Mando.
Also, this movie just throws out rules established in the previous seasons. Mando was all chill about taking his helmet off, and now suddenly everyone cares again? Very confusing.
Also on Letterboxd
Works on My Machine
Get the next post by email. My newsletter covers homelab builds, AI tools and open source, and it goes out when I have something to say.
It's free, and you can unsubscribe anytime. You'll get an email to confirm first.
If you liked this review, consider sharing it on Hacker News, Bluesky, LinkedIn, or X.

Joe
Karlsson
I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.
More about me →