The Mandalorian and Grogu
What is it ? : We begin with an Imperial Warlord bullying some villagers, he demands more tribute from them, but one complains that pirates are causing them to lose money, the Warlord guns him down and asks if anyone else has any complaints. They meekly agree with him, but the Mandalorian arrives to arrest him on behalf of the New Republic, his stormtroopers cause a distraction allowing him to escape.
Outside Grogu hides from an Imperial on a AT-RT, but while he disembarks to look for Grogu, the Mandalorian arrives, grabs the walker and guns down the Imperial, and Grogu and he give chase to the AT-AT the warlord has fled on. He boards and fights his way through the AT-ATs, but the Warlord once more slips away aboard an INT-4 interceptor, leaving explosives counting down. The Mandalorian uses the AT-AT guns to take out the Warlord, before escaping in the nick of time using his jetpack and rendezvousing with Garazeb Orrelios on a U Wing transport.
They arrive back at the base, and Colonel Ward gives him a new Razor Crest as a downpayment on his next mission, to help rescue a Hutt for the Twins, which in exchange they will give them the location of Coin a mysterious Imperial Warlord who has the secrets of everything the Imperial Remnants are planning.
Zeb, The Mandalorian and Grogu travel to Nal Hutta to meet with the Twins, who reveal that their nephew, Rotta, Jabba's son (Stinky from the Clone Wars movie), has been kidnapped on the world of Shakari, so the group travels there.
The Mandalorian and Grogu leave the Razer Crest by jetpack, and land in the Cyberpunk styled city. They bribe a vendor for the location of Rotta, only to find he's on all the adverts as he's a star Gladiator. They go to the gladiatorial ring and watch him win a fight fairly easily, and notice that he enjoys the adulation of the crowd.
The sneak in to speak with him, and he expects them to be assassins, revealing that the Twins want him dead, as he is the heir to Jabba's empire which currently they're running. He has no interest in the criminal empire, as he was always treated as Jabba's son, but now he is a champion, adored by the crowds. He reveals that the next fight he takes will be his final one, and he'll retire with riches.
The Mandalorian goes to look for the man that owns Rotta's contract, getting in a brawl in a bar which attracts the attention of the gang lord, Janu. Janu says that Rotta will make him rich as the final fight is a Dejarik match where he will face off against all of the monsters from the holo game Dejarik, and will be fatal to the Hutt. He also offers the Mandalorian money to fight in the gladiator matches, as people will pay handsomely to see a Mandalorian fight.
They sneak back in to see Rotta to tell him the truth, but he alerts Janu's men, who gas the pair. The Mandalorian awakens in the arena to face off against Rotta, who he beats, but then surrenders to give Rotta his final victory and get freedom. But Janu says he has won freedom from life and unleashes all the monsters.
As they fight, one of the monsters causes the security fields to be deactivated, and the monsters provide cover for them all to escape, but Rotta doesn't want to go back to the twins and face death so tries to escape, but is caught by Zeb in the Razor Crest.
As they leave with him, the Mandalorian mentions the price for capturing Rotta was the identity and location of Coin, and Rotta reveals that Janu is Janu Coin, the very man they're looking for.
They turn around and go back to Shakari, with Rotta revealing the location of Coin's compound, and they break in and capture him, escaping by speeder and racing back to the Razor Crest with Coin. They battle some fighters that the Imperial Remnant launches at them, and escape into Hyperspace.
Back at the Republic base they hand Coin over to Colonel Ward, who advises them that they broke their contract with the Hutts, but the Mandalorian reveals that the Hutts were intending to play both sides, and reveal the New Republic to Coin.
Rotta, Grogu and the Mandalorian go to Nevarro back to the Mandalorians home, and he arranges for a gun smuggler to take Rotta away so he can be free, meanwhile he contracts the Anzellans on Nevarro to upgrade the Razor Crest to similar specifications that his old one had.
As they work through the night, he realises someone is approching the cabin, and he gets Grogu and the Anzellans to sneak out although one of them is caught by an Anooba, while the Mandalorian battles a Kyuzo Bounty Hunter, Embo (also from The Clone Wars series), but sets off a trap and collapses unconscious.
As he is taken away on Embo's starship, Grogu is taken by the Anzellans to their own tiny starship, where Grogu's head brushes the ceiling, and they give chase.
The Mandalorian awakens on Embo's ship, and manages to distract the Anooba long enough for the Anzellan to escape, and is shocked unconscious once again. He awakens on Nal Hutta where he is taken to the Twins, while Grogu and the Anzellans rendezvous with their comrade who was captured, and begin infiltrating the Twins fortress.
The Twins reveal they've already captured Rotta, and they remove the Mandalorians helmet to dishonour him, although he counters that if they die so does the dishonour. But they tell him that Hutts live a long time, as does Grogu's species, so while they'll keep and torture the Mandalorian for the rest of his life, they'll then move onto Grogu.
They drop the Mandalorian into a pit, where he fights a bunch of creatures in the water pit beneath their throneroom, and give him his helmet back when he is victorious, but then he is attacked by a Dragonsnake, which bites him, poisoning him. Grogu arrives through the sewers, and detonates an explosive at the entrance to the water pit and they all escape into the wilderness.
Arriving back at the Anzellan ship, the Mandalorian realises he won't fit aboard, so sends them all away, smashing one of the pursuing droids and grabbing his blaster, he goes on a rampage destroying loads of droids before succumbing to the poison.
His unconscious body soon is covered with insects, and a scorpion creature approaches his unarmoured chin, but it is swallowed and eaten by Grogu, who hides the Mandalorians body under some foliage until the droids have passed. He then constructs a small mud enclosure to hide the body in better, repeating banging the Mandalorian head on the end as it is too small for his entire body.
Grogu goes and gets water, feeding it to the Mandalorian, and goes to get some food, finding a crashed starship which he ignores, and a fishermans hut where he steals some fish. The next night he returns again, and the fisherman confronts him, but take pity on Grogu as he's the bottom of the food chain, hiding him when Enbo comes inquiring if anyone has seen Grogu or the Mandalorian.
Afterwards the man makes a cure to the Dragonsnake poison, but says it might be too late, so it might just be a matter of making him comfortable.
Grogu feeds the cure to the Mandalorian, before falling asleep next to him. The next morning he has awoken, and tells Grogu that it is the way of things, that the elder take care of the young, and then the young take care of the elders.
They go to the crashed starship, discovering that it is the gun smugglers ship they sent Rotta away on, fight some more creatures before the Mandalorian reactivates the ship, and they must make a decision, they can try to escape, but be on the run, or they can go on the attack, Grogu agrees to go on the attack.
They fly the ship and crash it into the twins fortress, and fight their way to the throne room, but Enbo is there and the Mandalorian and him fight, but Grogu frees Rotta from his captivity and he fights the twins, while Enbo's Anooba attacks Grogu.
Grogu calms the Anooba, while Rotta smashes the floor, causing Enbo, the Twins and himself to fall into the Dragonsnake pit. Grogu catches Rotta using the force, and Enbo slips away from the Dragonsnake which swallows the Twins.
The many droids of the Twins attack, but Colonel Ward and the New Republic arrive having been contacted by the Anzellans, X-Wing's fight Hutt starfighters, while the Mandalorian instructs them to fire missiles at his position. They do so, and Rotta, Grogu and the Mandalorian leap from the fortress down into a lake as it explodes destroying all the droids.
Zeb picks up the three in his U-Wing, and they all go back to the New Republic base, where Rotta expresses an interest in joining up and Zeb says he might have a uniform in his size. While the Mandalorian and Grogu board the Razor Crest and Grogu activates the hyperdrive as they speed off into the galaxy. . . .
High Points : While not one of the best Star Wars movies, and perhaps lacking in almost any rewatch value, this is not a bad movie as so many internet reviewers have said. It's not ambitious, it's not ground breaking, it's not complex, and if anything it's a bit made for the kiddies. But it's a solid and overall entertaining movie.
The MVP award goes to Rotta. He's an appealing and interesting character, with a real storyarc of his own. A Hutt who is sick of being judged for his father and family, he thinks that his wins in the arena have won him recognition, but sees the crowd turn on him when Coin orders his death, then seeing that perhaps the New Republic is accepting and a place he could really make a home with.
Low Points : I did think the movie dragged a little in the middle, from them returning to Nevarro, through to the Mandalorian being unconscious and Grogu caring for him, it seemed slow. But for all that it was still interesting enough, and for my wife she loved that part of the movie.
I also thought it was a bit too cutesy, Grogu is bad enough, but the Anzellans are just a bit too designed to sell toys. But again, my wife loved them and wants an Anzellan keychain.
The music is a bit jarring in places, and the special effects aren't great, with some things looking like small models (not looking as good as the 70's movie, and actually looking a bit like 70's BBC scifi level), with Grogu often just looking like a puppet.
And I wouldn't be my nitpicky self if I didn't comment on, the Crashed Starship on Nal Hutta, crashed only a couple of days before they find it, but it is overgrown with foliage already?
And the Razor Crest, they take it to Navarro to upgrade it, are interrupted while working on it, but it's at the New Republic base at the end of the movie?
So what do you really think ? : I enjoyed it, while it totally abandons so many storylines from the Mandalorian TV series, and even though it hints at one of the plot lines (they're capturing Coin to find out what the Empire is up to), it totally abandons that one as well. But for what it is, a sidequest involving The Mandalorian and Grogu, it's a lot of fun, a lot of action, and an overall good time.
Final Words : I've heard mention that this is going to be the end of the "Mandoverse", which saddens me, as I want to know what happens with the Mandalorians, with Elie Kane, Doctor Pershing, and even Colonel Tuttle, as well as so many other storythreads.
I thought we might get some of that when they went to Navarro, and thought we might get the IG droid they left as sheriff making an appearance, even if Greef Karga (Carl Weathers) couldn't make an appearance (I think in the original draught of the script his role would have been that of Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver).
Oh, and was also surprised to see Martin Scorsese listed in the opening credits, and thought it was just someone with the same name. But no, it's the famous director doing a voice cameo in the movie.
Score : 8/10
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