Theatrical Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu

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, lol

We may not keep up with the plethora of streaming series but we'd seen every movie.

In 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

The Dog Stars

-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

20. Avatar (2009)

Code-name: Na’vi

(but of course…)

 

Writer/Director: James Cameron

Composer: James Horner

 

Cast:

Jake Sully- Sam Worthington

Grace- Sigourney Weaver

Norm Spellman- Joel David Moore

Dr. Max Patel- Dileep Rao

Trudy Chacon-Michelle Rodriguez 

Colonel Miles Quatrich-Stefan Lang

Selfridge- Giovanni Ribsi

Neytiri- Zoe Saldana

Moat- CCH Pounder

Tsu’tey- Laz Alonso

Eytukan- Wes Studi

 

Notable Awards and Nominations:

OSCAR- Best Cinematography

OSCAR- Best Visual Effects

OSCAR- Best Art Direction

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Picture

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Director- James Cameron

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Sound Editing

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Sound Mixing

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Film Editing

Nomination- OSCAR- Best Original Score- James Horner

Golden Globe- Best Director- James Cameron

Golden Globe- Best Picture- Drama

Nomination- Golden Globe- Best Score- James Horner

Nomination- Golden Globe- Best Original Song- “I See You”

 

Write-up:

 

Getting politics out of the way first…

 

…a) because I hate politics in general and b) politics, no matter which side you’re on, stirs up a lot of negativity and I don’t want that bringing the vibe of this entry down

 

I suppose you could say “Avatar” is one of those “love ‘em or hate ‘em” sort of movies. There are strong opinions on both sides. I strongly support and adore the hell out of this movie. But I’d hate for people to take the opposite view for political reasons.

 

Going into this movie, despite how it might look on the surface, I didn’t want to see it for politics. I didn’t come away making it into this big political racket. On those grounds, I did see similarities between it and “Pocahontas” where the white man came to America for gold (much as they did to Pandora in this movie for this mineral ‘unobtainium’). Other people were saying it was akin to us invading Iraq.

 

That part, I really didn’t get. Still don’t. The mere insinuation of that just pisses me off. I mean, James Cameron had this idea in mind of years, long before we even invaded the Middle East, so they were just using the movie to suit their views.

 

But where I will get into the politics of it… how the hell did “Avatar,” arguably the most talked about picture in 2009 NOT win Best Picture? And it lost to a movie few ever heard of before awards season? A lot of us were still figuring out how “Brokeback Mountain” lost to a complete unknown film.

Seriously, if Hollywood is so liberal, why do certain pictures, considered to be very liberal, not get top honors?

 

I don’t remember much of what I saw in theaters in 2009. I didn’t start seriously keeping track until the following year. But “Avatar” blew my freaking mind… and the four of us saw it in 2D. My dad even came to the theater with us and he hadn’t been with us to a movie since 2002.

 

Then I saw it again with my mom and two of my aunts in 3D. Absolutely worth it. Just like it was worth it to get on blu-ray. Like the paper insert says, it’s “the movie blu-ray was made for.”

 

Escapism at its finest

 

In general, I am a huge sucker for escapism. “Avatar” took it to a whole new level. To this day, it’s probably the only valid argument for 3D movies in existence. Mainly because James Cameron knew to shoot it in 2D and 3D, opposed to converting it to 3D in post-production. That’s where you get the sloppiest of efforts. Ironically, one big example of what NOT to do regarding 3D film-making occurred in Sam Worthington’s other major film credit, “Clash of the Titans” and its ill-advised sequel.

 

The majority of “Avatar” was filmed in Hawaii, but you really did feel like you were in another world entirely. Everything was so beautiful. The creatures were so imaginative and gorgeous. My favorites were the banshees, those flying dragon-like creatures… so beautiful. The Na’vi are also really fascinating creatures. They’re so at peace with their environment, believing everything has its place and the balance of everything must be kept. Between the CGI and the motion-capture, this was special effects at its absolute best. Nothing quite like this has ever been done before and who better to handle it than the director of freaking “Titanic.”

I still maintain that movie was a waste of 3 hours and Leonardo DiCaprio dying at the end is reason enough to never sit through it again. So depressing and not worth the ugly sobbing. Still impossible to this day to hear “My Heart Will Go On” without tearing up… it’s frustrating that he’s such a handsome guy but most of his movies aren’t my type and those that are, he dies at the end… oh well, moving on.

 

Because of its sheer length (almost three hours), it’s not the type of movie I like to watch very often. Usually, I see it once a year or every couple years. But whenever I do, going back to Pandora is just one big jaw-drop.

 

Cast of Characters

 

As always, spoilers ahead

 

On this surface, this is another one of those movies where it really is more about the characters and visuals more than the actors. Most of which were relative unknowns going into this.

The only exceptions to this, I think, were Zoe Saldana, Giovanni Ribsi and CCH Pounder. I don’t remember any of their other credits, but they were faces and names that I knew were already out there. And Sigourney Weaver, of course, is the biggest name on the ticket.

 

Sam Worthington was an Aussie apparently living out of his car when he auditioned for the role of a lifetime.

Unfortunately, his other credits are few and none really held water. Movie fans and mythological buffs know what a waste of time the “Clash of the Titans” movies were. They bared little resemblance to the original version and the mythology wasn’t even accurate. Other than that, I knew Sam had done the thriller bomb “Man on a ledge” and had gotten himself into trouble with DUIs and such in reality.

 

It’s too bad because he played a damn good soldier. And like Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker,” experience taught him how to color outside the lines of the reality he’d come to distrust… the only difference is that Jake Sully wound up fighting for a much greater cause: the survival of a planet’s ecosystem and its dominant race.

 

Zoe Saldana, of course, is a bad-ass as Neytiri. All the guys can go as crazy as they want, raving how she’s this “9 foot tall naked blue chick,” but she’s probably one of the most lethal creatures you’ll find on Pandora. And that’s just her attitude ;)

Then again, there are times where Neytiri is hard to listen to because when she flips out on you, she freaking loses it… part of it being her vocal chords with the screaming.

 

There’s a lot of girl power in this movie, which is a rarity, and you get it in all forms.

Just as Neytiri is strong in her skills and her body, Grace (Sigourney Weaver) is strong in her heart and her mind. In layman’s terms, she knows her shit… especially when it comes to Pandora and the Na’vi. Then again, she, Dr. Patel and Norm has been studying them for 3 years, so they’re practically experts. And considering Jake is going into this with no real time to train because he’s a genetic match for his late brother’s avatar, anyone else in the AVTR program seems like an expert compared to him.

 

Grace spends a lot of this movie butting heads with the men in the military department, no matter how much they refuse to listen, she fights for her ideals to the death. And anyone who’d seen the “Alien” franchise knows just how much of a bad-ass butt-kicking actress Sigourney Weaver is (something I really didn’t appreciate or take note of until after this movie).

 

Michelle Rodriguez, who I believe had also been around for a while before “Avatar”, has a lot of sass that’s so admirable. Especially in the third act where she helps the AVTR people get where they need to go to help the Na’vi in their direst hour. She has no problem standing up to authority and just as willing to sacrifice herself for her beliefs.

 

As much girl power is in this movie, it does really suck that it gets most of them killed or almost killed.

 

With a bit of cautionary tale thrown in there, this really makes me hate us, the human race, in general because we’re capable of so much destruction. And for what? Is it really worth destroying a whole ecosystem just to save ours? What’s to stop that destructive cycle from continuing?

 

Sure, “Avatar” has a little bit of “Pocahontas” in it as it does have a little “FernGully”… supposedly there was so much discussion of plagiarism that “Avatar” was deemed ineligible for “best original screenplay” awards…

NEWFLASH! NOTHING IS ORIGINAL ANYMORE!

 

But while on the subject of plagiarism, when “Avatar” was first announced, I took issue with the name as a fan of the animé series.

I thought it was going to be based on “Avatar: the last airbender” and when that wasn’t the case, I contested that they couldn’t use the word.

It’s even sadder that the live action version that was released by M. Night Shamylan was a complete bust… they pronounced the names wrong and the way the characters were written, it’s as if they didn’t see the series at all..

 

…I shudder to think that “The Giver” adaptation will top that degree of mediocrity and non-adaptation, but based on the trailers, it’s leaning that way already.


Coming Soon


"Avatar" is the beginning of the end of my countdown.


With the exception of three of them, the rest of my top 20 favorite movies fall under one or some of the following categories:


1) I deem them the best in their given genre/director/actor
2) they started on a given genre of movies I became fond of
3) they were life-changing for me personally


The three exceptions have the following things in common:
1) They gained their accolades years after their release
2) I saw them all for the first time within the last 3 years because I couldn't ignore the accolades from movie fans and critics
3) like "Avatar," they had valid arguments for the "Best Picture Oscar
-ironically, two of them came out the same year so obviously they couldn't BOTH win


*I should also note with two of them, I only saw them once... which was the case with "Butch and Sundance" (I was lucky enough to catch "Rebel without a cause" and "little miss sunshine" a second time before writing my entries on them)... a little idiotic, but considering how high Richard Roeper and movie fans who follow the Reelz Channel rate them, my rankings will make sense once they're revealed


As for #19 next week, it got me officially started in the superhero genre. Also made me a fan of a particular actor...
Coincidentally (seriously I did not have that in mind when I put this list together), it was the movie my dad saw with us in 2002, which would be the last time until "Avatar" 7 years later.