Mandolorian and Grogu movie

[LadyTevar]

Short Version -- I enjoyed it, just as much as I enjoyed the TV series. It was still family-friendly, it had Din Djarin again showing why he could out-think and out-fight most opponents, and Grogu had grown a little and was able to do more than be the Baby In Distress.

Great fights, Good story. It gave me exactly what I wanted to see.
I give it TWO THUMBS UP for being solid entertainment, and I would buy a DVD of the movie just so I could watch it again.




Longer version, NO SPOILERS:

Lots of great callbacks and easter eggs which I totally geeked out on.

Rotta the Hutt -- last seen in Clone Wars, captured by Separationists, returned home by Ashoka on a solo mission. How he wound up in debt as a gladiator isn't fully explained, but I'd bet The Twins wanted him somewhere 'useful' for later.

The Twins -- last seen in Book of Boba Fett, staking their claim on Jabba's Operation that Boba had taken over by Right of Arms. (Makes one wonder why they hadn't moved on Bib Fortuna, who Fett killed to take over as the new kingpin. Could Fortuna have been The Twin's puppet ruler?)

Zeb Orrelios -- Really nice to see Blum with more than a cameo on the TV show. He's not lost his touch as pilot or in a fight.

The X-wing Pilots. Yeah, I was giggling like made seeing all our favorite Directors from the TV show back in pilot's outfits. Even Filoni was piloting a Y-wing!

But the absolute "OMG DID THEY REALLY DO THAT" was the beasts in the Arena. Each of them jiggled old memories in my brain, I'd seen them before, but it wasn't until there was a good view of the Arena Floor design that it smacked me in the face.
The Holo-game R2 and Chewie were playing on the Falcon. These were the beasts from the Holo-game, and one did the same move R2 used against Chewie (which triggered the epic line "Let the Wookiee win").

Other nice touches -- Nal Hutta, right out of SWTOR.

The Albino "Dragonsnake". I swear I have seen that thing's image somewhere, that full head lifted coils looped image. Maybe it was in a long-ago comic, but I have seen that thing before.

[bilateralrope]

The area immediately around the Twins palace felt a bit diseased to me. Mainly the lighting, though I'm not sure that those green growths around there were trees. Especially with them growing on the palace.
Spoiler

The palace itself also seemed less than structurally sound. Especially with whatever held up the ship Din Djarin crashed into it and how it fell in on itself after the airstrike.

Also, it amuses me to think that everything happened because the Twins wanted to see Rotta die in front of them. Instead of letting him die in the arena like Coin had planned. While things would have gone better for Coin if he hadn't been so quick to share that the match was fixed.

But what can you expect from an Imperial pretending to not be one while keeping stormtroopers in full gear at his home ?

Coin seems like he would spill everything once the Republic interrogator figured out to appeal to his ego.

[Bedlam]

I found it firmly middle of the road, not actually bad but I don't think there was anything which really stood out to me as being great.

I didn't really ever get any feeling of peril to the protagonists. Mando vs 3 walkers, doesn't work up a sweat. Lots of stormtroopers protecting Coin 'there's so many we'll need help' nope two of us will just walk into a room and down a corridor and shoot them all down no trouble at all!

[LadyTevar]

So...

How many of you got the EasterEgg with the Arena fight? When it clicked for me I squeed.
Spoiler

It was the "Chessboard" from the Millenium Falcon. The Floor was painted in triangular quadrants, all the released monsters were beasts shown in Chewie and R2's match, and the one beast picked up and slammed the other just like R2's move against Chewie that spawned the phrase "Let the Wookie Win".

[Chaelos]

I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. It felt like a higher-budget season of the show with the filler cut out. The soundtrack slapped, the scenery and monsters were interesting, and I really appreciate both the puppetry and the stop-motion animation.

Only two things didn't really work for me (well, other than whoever decided to completely waste Sigourney Weaver in a stock "The Chief" role). One, as already noted, Mando can basically tear through Stormtroopers like tissue paper. He's borderline immune to blaster fire and has a ton of toys that are perfect at shredding them, and thus the stakes felt so low in those scenes that I was reminded unhappily of The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, where our Buff Heroes might as well be fighting scarecrows stuffed into Nazi uniforms. But fortunately Mando spends most of his time not fighting Stormtroopers, and thus gets to face off against opponents that routinely kick the crap out of him.


The other thing was the Spoiler

New Republic airstrike at the end. Even when it was explained afterwards that the Twins were double-crossing the NR, it just seemed... odd to call down a missile strike on an ostensibly neutral target, especially after the bad guys had basically already been defeated. (Incoming swarm of eminently beatable battle droids notwithstanding. But I recognize that this is Star Wars, so we have to get our designated ship battle in somehow.

Anyway, if you like the show, you'll probably like the movie. This is a multimedia franchise in conversation with itself: a feature length outing with training wheels just to see if it's ready for bigger and better things (and box office returns) yet.

[bobalot]

I think I'll actually watch this.

It doesn't seem like the recent Disney slop.

[LadyTevar]

I think I'll actually watch this.

It doesn't seem like the recent Disney slop.

It is definitely NOT recent Disney Slop. Give it a chance, see what you think.