"The Mandalorian and Grogu" - Just like old times.

Did you know it's been seven years since the last Star Wars movie (The Rise of Skywalker) was released? It's hard to believe, but that's because Disney has released seven different streaming series during that time, two of which have had multiple seasons (Andor and The Mandalorian). The obvious question here is why send The Mandalorian and Grogu to the silver screen?

The short answer is The Mandalorian and Grogu scratches that Star Wars itch. Much of what I want to say about M&G is the same as what I said about Solo: A Star Wars Story. M&G is a perfectly adequate movie that plays things very safe. It does the things we want it to do, but doesn't really give us anything new to play with in our heads. It's a solidly entertaining movie, but not one that makes you crave more. Unless, of course, you crave more because you're the kind of Star Wars fan who says "May the fourth be with you" on May 4.

The obvious expectation going into M&G is that it will just feel like an extended episode of the series. That's not a bad thing, by the way. Star Trek features ten movies of that nature (the three in the recent reboot trilogy don't count) and at least half of those were pretty good movies. M&G doesn't feel so much like an extended episode, but more like an entire season condensed down into an extended episode.

M&G features the titular characters hunting former Imperial officers who are up to no good. M&G opens with an action sequence where Mando (Pedro Pascal) and Grogu (Grogu) take out one these officers, then return to a New Republic base for payment and their next assignment. The base is run by Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver), who scolds Mando for killing the Imperial instead of bringing him in alive for questioning, then offers him a new Razorcrest ship as payment for that mission, as well as for the next mission. She wants Mando to rescue a kidnapped Ratta the Hutt (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) and take him to the Hutt twins (Jabba the Hutt's cousins; Ratta is Jabba's son). In exchange for Ratta, the twins will provide the whereabouts of Imperial crime lord Janu Coin.

Since the Hutts have never been fleshed out in official Disney Star Wars canon beyond crime lords, this movie seems like the perfect opportunity to do that. Or rather, a full Season Four of The Mandalorian seems like the perfect opportunity to do that. Two hours and twelve minutes is not enough time to develop a crime syndicate and spend more time developing Mando and Grogu and develop a storyline where it feels like there's something more to them hunting down former Imperials and develop a brand new character in Ratta. And the movie has to spend significant time on action scenes because this is Star Wars.

Since this movie is called The Mandalorian and Grogu, not The Hutt Gambit or subtitled with something Huttese, the Hutt twins and their syndicate get the barest minimum of development. Ratta gets a decent amount of attention, but his character is barely more than a side quest for our title heroes. Likewise with Janu. In fact, midway through movie, Mando and Grogu complete the greater task regarding the capture of Janu, reinforcing the perception that the movie is really just a couple of episodes of a series. The latter half of the film is an extra Ratta side quest.

Despite those shortcomings in the story, the rest of the movie reminds us why we keep coming back for more Star Wars. For one thing, the visuals are downright awe inspiring. The ships look amazingly real, as real as the full-scale models filling Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World and Disneyland. And the creatures, particularly the dragonsnake, appear just as real. So, when the battles and action scenes play out, you can’t help but soak them in without ever blinking.

For another, the movie doesn’t have any glaring flaws. It takes care of business, giving us some new and interesting characters and some simple plots to follow. And it gives us a bit of playfulness with Grogu and Pascal. The closest thing to a flaw was the choice to have Ratta speak English the entire time. I know it was done to help disassociate him from being an evil Hutt, but it was weird the entire time.

Without a doubt, this film would have worked much better as a limited series, if not a full season of The Mandalorian. But I’m not going to complain. It’s been seven years since we got a Star Wars film and Andor is the only other one that people would like to see a movie from. You know, like Rogue One.

Rating: Ask for a couple of dollars back because even safe Star Wars movies are still Star Wars movies.