The heart of space adventure is gone and in its place is aimless wandering, writes Iltalehten’s Juho Rissanen.
Grogu and Din Djarin are once again wandering around the galaxy in a film that looks like an extended episode of a TV series, which doesn’t really inspire or make you laugh. LUCAS FILM
The Mandalorian and Grogu
USA, 2026
Directed by: Jon Favreau
IL rating: ⭐⭐
A new film set in the world of the Star Wars saga The Mandalorian and Grogu is like a long episode of a TV series transferred to the big screen. And no wonder, because the background of the film has three production seasons and a total of 24 episodes The Mandalorian TV series (2019-2023).
If you haven’t watched the TV series, the movie feels confusing to say the least, because its background story is not explained in more than a few sentences. The viewer is assumed to know what everything is about.
Jon Favreau (Iron Man, Iron Man 2) directed by the film takes place in time between the original Star Wars trilogy and its sequels, i.e. in the aftermath of the destruction of the galactic empire.
TV series The Mandalorian introduced viewers to the kind-hearted bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his protégé, the small and cute Grogu with Jedi powers. The duo’s adventures took them across the galaxy and into fierce battles.
The film continues the story of the TV series from where the third production season ended. In principle, this is a good idea, because the characters and the relationships between them have already been introduced, and this way you can jump right into the middle of the action, as the movie does. But from there everything starts to go wrong.
The film’s biggest stumbling block is its clumsy and unsurprising script. Without revealing too much, we can say that in some The Mandalorian even the episodes of the TV series have had bigger stakes than in this movie, which mainly focuses on finding and rescuing one character. When the movie ends, nothing has really changed. A few great fight scenes have been seen, but that’s about it.
Although both Din Djarin and Grogu are likable characters, the film still feels stilted and calculated, and at no point does it reach the heart of the original Star Wars trilogy.
In addition to the thin script, the film exudes a sense of urgency. Everything seems to have been done by the Hutas, except for a few fight scenes, which have clearly been invested more.
Even the good actors haven’t really gotten anything out of it either. Ever young Sigourney Weaver76, and other stars deliver their lines tepidly and colorlessly as if they were shopping at a grocery store. Some of the scenes are frankly so bland that it feels as if they were canned in the first take in order to move quickly forward.
Only occasionally does the film convey a sincere sense of adventure, but these moments are unfortunately fleeting.
Two things in the film in particular arouse considerable irritation. First of all, Din Djarin, played competently by Pedro Pascal, has emerged as an incredibly skilled fighter, a true superhero who survives completely impossible situations and seemingly overwhelming enemies with almost no problems – until the script dictates that he must get into trouble, when even a weak enemy can capture him in a way that seems extremely easy. A solution to this problem could have been easily built by making the hero less overpowering in the fight against the empire’s soldiers, and on the other hand by making him a bit more challenging to defeat. Now, many of the film’s solutions seem mostly unintentionally comical, because they have clearly been thrown together hastily just to make the next dramatic twist in the script happen.
Another annoying thing is the wonderful walking and whistling from place to place. The film loses its tension when the main characters quietly wander around in scenes that feel overlong. By cutting these out, the film would have been shortened by a few minutes and maybe had a little more punch.
It’s always great to admire the world of Star Wars on the big screen, and the visual effects in this film are mostly fine, with a few exceptions. In the future, however, in big-budget films of this size, one would hope for a more careful investment in both the script and the direction of the actors.
The Mandalorian and Grogu premiered in Finland on Wednesday, May 20, 2026.
