Date: Sunday, May 24 2026
Time: 10am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)
Review:
My sister suggested we go see this. And honestly, it was a no-brainer.
As long as I’d been alive, we’d gone out to see every Star Wars movie that hits theaters. My first was the re-release of the original 1977 film in the 90's. All thanks to my mom’s fandom, which she owes to my dad for taking her to see the original on a date. He jokes that he’s regretted it ever since, lolIn case anyone was wondering, because I know I was, you're not going to be completely lost watching this movie if you'd never seen The Mandolarian series. There are some easter eggs and references but you won't miss out on any enjoyment if you happen to be a Star Wars fan who'd never streamed anything. And in terms of continuity, this supposedly takes place between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. So after the death of Darth Vader but before Poe met Finn and The New Order filled the void left by the Empire.
Right off the bat, we see the titular duo on a mission and the Mandalorian kicks some major ass. It sets the movie off on a good tone. The only one that maybe disagrees with this was Ward, played to perfection by Sigourney Weaver, who's less than pleased that the man they were after wasn't brought back alive.
Can I just say how cool it is how Sigourney Weaver has essentially become the queen of sci-fi franchises? Starting with Alien, then Ghostbusters and of course, Avatar. Even though she died in the first movie, she remains a part of the franchise playing the daughter of her character.
Only major one she hasn't done yet is Star Trek. Seeing as they've leaned into streaming as well and their last movie was over a decade ago, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
The main mission the duo takes on for this movie is to bring home the Rotta the Hutt, who was supposedly being held prisoner in Shakari. Rotta is the son of Jabba the Hutt- the notorious gangster Han Solo had worked for in the original trilogy. The alliance was asked to do this by his cousins, a pair of Huttas referred to as "the twins".
Once we got to Shakari, that was the moment I really locked into this movie and things started to get really good. I thought maybe it was the same city-like planet that was featured in Episode II so I did a little research. It is not, but I came across a line saying how Shakari drew influence from prohibition era Chicago. I don't know if it was because it reminded me of Coruscant (the Episode II location) or it reminded me of a location I'd played through in a video game (Kingdom Hearts II or Jak II), but it quickly became one of my favorite Star Wars locations ever. Possibly my favorite. Especially once the awesome music kicked in.
As much as we all love John Williams- the man is a fricking legend when it comes to movie scores, including this franchise- I'd read a lot of hype about Ludwig Göransson as well.
I looked up whether this movie had a post-credits scene and the result on Google confirmed no. However, it mentioned how those who do stick around will be treated to more of Ludwig's score from the Shakari scenes as well as a little Easter egg in the cast credits.
While Shakari is a hot bed for crime and criminals, it was a really cool place to spend time in. We got a fun little cameo from Martin Scorsese, who does the voice of a street vendor the Mandolarian keeps getting information from.
Then we have the arena where we find Rotta the Hutt. He's employed by one of the city's top gangsters, if not the biggest gangster, as a fighter. Thanks to this experience, Rotta has become possibly the most buff Hutta in the whole galaxy. I mean, the dude's a slug with a six-pack. That's impressive! He's also a character you can't help rooting for. He'd worked hard to get out of his brother's shadow and thanks to the voice acting of Jeremy Allen White, he has a lot of humanity to him. (Just looked him up- he's the star of that critically acclaimed FX series, The Bear). Although he's happy to be at the end of his tenure as a hired fighter, he makes the Mandolarian's life difficult by being the one prisoner who doesn't want to go back home.
This leads us to a great fight scene in the arena where Rotta's employer reveals the only way his employment is going to end is in one final match where he's doomed to fail. He and the Mandolarian have to team up to deal with the other creatures, including a couple that I recognized from the "it is unwise to upset a Wookie" scene in the original movie.
The main reason why the Alliance agrees to do this rescue mission for the twins- they have information on a notable member from the remnants of the Empire. This person winds up being Rotta's employer and the Mandolarian catches him and brings him back to the Alliance to face justice. And he ultimately agrees not to bring Rotta back to his home planet.
BUT if we'd learned anything from Han Solo, the Hutts are a race you do not double-cross. Unfortunately, the Mandolarian has to learn this the hard way and the results are catastrophic.
Up to this point in the movie, Grogu doesn't get to do much. He's cute and feisty and gets into a little bit of mischief. He's very likable and fun to watch, but he's just kinda there for most of it. For much of the third act, though, the Mandolarian finds himself incapacitated for a bit and Grogu finds himself on a mission to save him. If there was any doubt as to why he shares half of the movie's title, this section puts that to bed.
We have a few good battles to end the movie, including a flight sequence with Sigourney Weaver as one of the X-wing pilots, and that's basically it.
All of us really enjoyed it and had a good time. Compared with the other movies, it was better than the Han Solo movie and Rogue One... I hadn't seen the prequels recently with the exception of Episode II for May the 4th, but I liked this better than those. And maybe a little more than the recent trilogy we got. I'd probably have to see all the movies again to be sure, although we'd be hard pressed to find anything that'd top Episodes IV through VI.
Also, a quick shout-out to Jon Favreau for directing. He had been heavily involved in the Star Wars streaming series as a creator/director/producer. But in terms of sci-fi, this was probably his best work.
His debut in this genre was Zathura back in 2005. I'd never seen the movie, but in some interview, I remember him saying how that movie didn't get the kudos it deserved because it was up against the 4th Harry Potter movie in the box office. Of course his biggest claim to fame was Iron-Man and how that launched him and RDJ into the stratosphere. But I can't help but consider him thinking about his younger self and the disappointment over Zathura's reception and how thrilled that person would be now with him putting out a damn good Star Wars movie. I don't know why but something tells he'd been a fan of the movies for a long time and getting to put out something like this had been a dream come true.
Grade: A-
Trailers:
Minions and Monsters
- a slightly longer, different trailer than we'd seen previously
Supergirl
-the same trailer we'd seen a couple times already
He-Man- Masters of the Universe
-with all the hype that's been leading up to this movie, I just hope it's good for the sake of the fans who'd been waiting for something like this. One of my cousins was a HUGE collector of the action figures growing. All I know about it is a couple characters, including Skeletor. He looks really cool in the trailers, but it's a little disappointing that his voice is different from what I'd heard in passing. I guess they opted for this change to make him more threatening as a villain.
The Odyssey
-Again, I hope this winds up being half as good as it's being hyped up to be. This is the first full trailer I've gotten a chance to see. It took me a few seconds to recognize Tom Holland as Telemachus, son of Odysseus and it's kinda disappointing to see Robert Pattinson, again without a British accent and as a bad guy. It'll be interesting to see Matt Damon in this huge role. As good as he was as Jason Bourne, this is his biggest role yet.
-My only concern is the runtime.... I know it's a fricking epic, but if it's over 3 hours, I'm waiting until it comes out on cable. A big reason why the source material is so long, in my opinion, is that there are sooo many instances where a character is introduced as "the son of this person who was the son of that person." Who cares?! That's why I went to Cliff Notes after every chapter- to make sure I was keeping up the story in between all of that unnecessary padding. Unfortunately, the way these movies go and how Christopher Nolan tends to operate, they'll find ways to extend this way longer than is necessary.
Disclosure Day
-once again, Steven Spielberg is doing something involving aliens. I think it's about making the public aware of aliens and that Area 51 exists and so on. But it's not the kind of thing I'm interested in
-it's based on a book, takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and the main character is an ex-marine. The book came out in 2012 and apparently went into production a couple years ago. Based on the implications behind this apocalypse, I thought maybe it got sidelined for a couple years because of 2020. Although that the books like the Andromeda Strain became very popular around that time, so who knows?
Moana live-action
-unless something else comes up, this will probably be our next trip to the movies
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