Directed by Jon Favreau from a story and screenplay by Favreua, Dave Filoni & Noah Kloor, starring Pedro Pascal, Jeremy Allen White, Steve Blum, Sigourney Weaver with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee & Martin Scorcese.

The Mandaloiran and Grogu is at its best when the filmmakers are reveling in the pulpy, adventure serial roots that were the initial inspiration for this whole Star Wars thing in the first place – those moments when the Lone Wolf and Cub of the galaxy far, far away, overcome strange and unfamiliar worlds and monsters mostly by their wits, space magic and a jetpack.

To be sure, the bulk of the latest Star Wars film is fun in the popcorn cinema sense: gunfights, explosions, chases, creatures, spaceships. Where the film struggles to fully enthrall are the elements that call attention to characters and history that has come before in the franchise. “Lore” is the word. The film does not collapse under the weight of these elements, remaining consistently entertaining, but when the cinematic language is nudging, asking “You remember this guy? Huh?” it may lose audience members who have not consumed the entire canon to date.

For the most part the film is accessible to people who have not seen the series of which it is a continuation. The title characters are broadly drawn, and barely need dialogue to make themselves known: The stoic, hard-edged mercenary with a deep tenderness for his ward, an unwaveringly loyal and gifted infant. Together they hunt villains to the lawful order of the universe. The details barely matter; a plot involving twin giant slug crime-lords offering up a wanted war-criminal in exchange for the rescue of their nephew also barely matters. It is a mechanism to propel the duo forward to the next set piece – some of which are not quite as engaging as others. There are sweet, quieter character moments that can genuinely tug at the heart, though those loaded with dialogue can make the eyes glaze over a little.

The performances are a little harder to quantify in this kind of picture. Pedro Pascal as ‘Mando’ has a compelling voice, and radiates pathos and menace with a look in the few moments when his face is shown. However the film credits an additional two performers for the role – Lateef Crowder as the stunt performer and Brendan Wayne as the ‘suit performer’. Grogu (Baby Yoda) is brought to life by a team of practical creature builders, puppeteers, digital effects animators and sound designers, and is arguably more compelling than his adoptive father. Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) lends vocal talent to the role of Rotta the Hutt, though the creature itself is a fully digital performance and the voice is modulated so as to be unrecognisable as the one time Boss. Most other characters appear for brief interactions only, with Weaver’s peacekeeper Colonel Ward assigning missions and handling exposition, but Martin Scorcese (yes…that one) drawing genuine smiles as a nervy alien informant.

The Mandalorian and Grogu is, ultimately, disposable. Like those Serials of yesteryear, which were never intended to be watched repeatedly, this film is a fun story that sits in the progression of a larger one, but won’t particularly reward a revisit.

On a personal note…

I am a bit of a recovering Star Wars tragic and I recently introduced my young son to the original films, on which he reflected “Good, but I wouldn’t watch it again.”

He did, however, come with me to watch this film, and immediately insisted that we watch the series together.