Movie review: Will The Mandalorian and Grogu save Star Wars?

 

The Mandalorian and Grogu poster. 

As you are almost certainly aware, Star Wars has been in trouble for awhile now. Ever since Disney bought the IP from George Lucas the general consensus is that the series is on life support, if not totally dead. Whatever goodwill was gained from the purchase was first killed by The Last Jedi, utterly annihilated by Rise of Skywalker and then The Acolyte spread the ashes across the four corners of the Earth in humiliatingly woke fashion. 

"Star Wars is dead" they say, and for good reason. Disney Star Wars has been more bad than good. Sure, everyone can point to the excellent Rogue One, it's cerebral and serious TV show follow up, Andor, and the first two seasons of the Mandalorian as "Good Disney Star Wars", though there is even debate about that. And some would put the newly released cartoon Maul: Shadow Lord in that category as well. But Those three titles I mentioned before greatly overshadowed the good, to the point where a lot of folks don't care about The Mandalorian and Grogu despite it being the first Star Wars movie in seven years. Given the theater I was in was 2/3rd's empty on an opening night showing, excitement seems to be pretty low.  

Clearly Disney needed to change course and it's not surprising that they picked The Mandalorian as the template. The first two seasons were great. A space western combined with the basic premise of Japanese series Lone Wolf and Cub it immediately struck a chord with audiences, largely because of the lower stakes, the "monster of the week" format and the charming relationship between a bounty hunter and his little green alien son. 

However, it too fell into the Disney curse as the third season was not as well received. Instead of focusing on The Mandalorian himself along with Grogu, it somehow became the story of how Kara Thrace... I mean Bo-Katan Kryze, reformed the Mandalorian home world. I didn't hate it but it was a major departure from the first two seasons. It was not helped that almost two episodes of the series was buried in the otherwise dreadful Book of Boba Fett. 

Given that context it almost seems like this movie is too late. Had it been released after season 2 of the show it would have done gangbusters but now? There are rumors that this movie will flop. The real question is will anyone even care about this movie regardless of the quality?

That's not a question I am ready to answer but what I can do is say that The Mandalorian and Grogu is one of the better things Disney has done. It's obviously not at the level of Andor or Rogue One, but it might be at the same level of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian TV show. It's not a perfect movie by a long shot, but it's not offensive, it didn't fall into the woke nonsense that crippled the wider Star Wars series and it was, if nothing else, pretty fun. 

The basic plot of the movie is that the two titular characters are working for the New Republic, which replaced the Galactic Empire after Return of the Jedi, hunting down former war criminals. After a brief opening where they destroy an Imperial Warlord, the pair take a contract offered Sigourney Weaver's Colonel Ward to rescue Rotta the Hutt, who happens to be the son of Jabba the Hutt, also from Return of the Jedi. They end up fighting monsters, imperials and even enemy starships. 

It's not a super complex plot and you can pretty much guess how the story is going to go before you are through it, but it's also well done and it has a lot of fun moments in it as well. The score is well done and the puppet work for Grogu and a few other minor characters remains a major selling point. Grogu is cute little monster as always. 

This is an action movie, through and through, and as an action movie, don't expect some major plot developments for the rest of the Star Wars universe. This is a movie mostly about how the Mandalorian and Grogu are becoming an actual team and it does, refreshingly, refrain from making the stakes too high. 

Grogu is the highlight of the movie and it's good to see him grow from the rather useless prop he was in the first few episodes of the TV show into a competent sidekick himself. He's obviously not on the level of Mando, but he gets his licks in as well. It's funny that a character that is nothing more than a well designed puppet can be the core of the movie, but he is. 

What may confuse people who are casual fans at best and may not have seen any Star Wars properties since Rise of Skywalker (ugh) are the constant callbacks to other Star Wars products, mostly from Dave Filoni's cartoons and shows (the man himself makes an appearance as an X-Wing pilot). Most of the call backs are easy to miss, Zeb Orrelios works as an alien buddy even if you don't know who he is, and Embo works as a villain too, largely because of his cool design.

But the problem is that I don't know if people are going to know about Rotta the Hutt. He comes from the 2008 The Clone Wars film, which served as a pilot movie for the cartoon show, The Clone Wars. That movie was so poorly received that most people don't even remember that it's a movie, and even the fans of the Clone Wars TV show recommend skipping it (and I do as well, it was not good even if the show that followed it eventually got good). Making the third most important character of the movie a call back to an obscure on poorly received movie is certainly a choice, especially since he functioned as nothing more than a living McGuffin in that film.   

It's too bad, since I liked Rotta as a character. He's absolutely playing into the "not all X are bad" trope but it was absurdly fun to see a 1000 pound slug man as something more than a lazy and gross monster. Indeed, he's a mighty gladiator and it's hilarious to watch him fight. I didn't know I needed to see a ripped slug man beating the utter crap out of gladiators, stormtroopers and monsters, but it turns out I did. Sure, the concept of a good character from an otherwise evil species isn't anything groundbreaking, but it's at least well executed here and he's probably the funniest character in the film.

Other highlights have to include some of the fun fight scenes, with the gladiator fights being a highlight for me. And, unlike a lot of Disney Star Wars, they actually remembered that there should be space battles, well at least atmospheric ones, where starfighters are blowing each other up. The film also had some genuinely funny moments, most of them coming from Grogu. 

Most of the humor derives from him or the other tiny aliens running around doing things that are inherently funny for a 2 foot tall creature to do. It's not deep humor and it might fall flat for some people, but I liked it. I also have to say that the creature, ship and location design was very good as well. It absolutely feels like Star Wars, but also feels like what is here isn't a rehash of what came before, things have evolved a bit, still recognizable but new and different. 

A lot of folks were worried that the movie was going to be woke, and that seems to largely overblown. I think Disney finally realized that nobody wanted to see a coven of lesbian space witches or a legacy character from the Original Trilogy humiliated because they are the wrong race and gender. The closest thing to wokeness is the racially diverse starfighter squadron and Weaver's Colonel Ward and both of them are entirely forgivable and feels a lot more like 1990's style race and gender blindness than box checking. If that's the tier of wokeness these days, then it's clear the culture has changed to a much more tolerable level. For toning this down alone the film deserves praise. 

What is strange to me is how uneven the CGI is in this movie. Some of it is breathtakingly good, especially the starfighter scenes in the beginning where they are flying into the sunset. But the opening scene where the Mandalorian steals a mini walker and rides it down a cliff looks shockingly bad and would have been embarrassing in the TV show, let alone the 1st movie in the Star Wars series for seven years. The Hutts in the film occasionally look bad too, but they are wisely mostly left in gloomy locations which helps them play a bit better.

Acting is also another weak point. Sigourney Weaver seemed to be phoning it in, though given how little she has to do (she's basically Mando's boss) that's not a surprise. Pedro Pascal is ok, but he too doesn't have too much to do in terms of actual acting, almost all of his scenes are action scenes, and I am guessing most of that was a body double. If you go into this film expecting to see acting on par with something in Andor, or even the Original Trilogy, you will be disappointed, but it's also not on the same level as some of the bad acting in Star Wars films we have seen before. I'd put it on par with what you see in the TV show though. 

My last major criticism is pacing. The films opening and first two acts are extremely fast paced and rarely give you a chance to breath. There's only a few quiet non-action scenes and the film could slow down a bit. But then in the third act there is a section where the pace crawls to an absolute stop. Grogu basically plays Minecraft in the swamp for what feels like a third of the film, though realistically it was probably 10 minutes or so. Either way, the pacing is absolutely off and it's my biggest criticism of the film.  

There are a few other nit-picky things that I didn't care for. I do have a problem with the fact that of the dozens of enemies the pair face, only a few of them are actual threats. Stormtroopers continue the tradition set in Return of the Jedi where they are more of comic relief than an actual threat and it's not like the majority of the battle droids in the third act are any better. The same could be said with the starfighter battles as only one ship on the hero's side is shot down, and that was at least partially on purpose. At least the monsters, the giant battle droids and Embo give Mando a fight. This is a huge problem with Disney Star Wars and I do think they need to bring back some mook tier villains that actually pose a threat to the heroes. 

The other nit-picky thing is that I genuinely don't like Pedro Pascal. You only catch a glimpse of him in this movie. There is a brief period in this movie, (which isn't a spoiler because it was spoiled in the trailers) where he is without his helmet and my honest reaction was "ugh, this guy, again". Pascal is an annoying person politically and he's very much overexposed and if you have difficulty separating art from the artist you are forgiven if you want to skip this movie, though, to be fair, the advantage of Mando almost always wearing his helmet is that you forget he's even playing him. 

So what's the final verdict for me? This was not a perfect movie by any stretch. But given the extraordinarily low expectations I had for it, I was presently surprised. It felt like an hour and a half version of season 1 episode of the TV Show, and that's actually fairly high praise. I probably put it right on the line between "actually pretty good" and "mediocre" with the scale tipping to the former, not the latter, mostly because I genuinely enjoyed the space fights and big chungus gladiator Rotta. 

It's probably the 2nd best Disney Star Wars movie, after Rogue One of course, and I put it above all three of the sequels by a large margin. I might even put it ahead of the two weaker Prequel movies, The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars, as those two films had even bigger problems with pacing. I guess that means I put it in the upper mid tier then as far as Star Wars movies go, and I will probably watch it again when it comes onto Disney Plus. 

Would I recommend it? That really depends. I think general audiences might like it as a dumb popcorn movie, though they might be a little lost. Fans of The Mandalorian and Star Wars in general should see it as a decent addition to the canon, though not without flaws. But I also don't think it will be good enough to win back the former fans that Disney lost with the absolute crap they put out since the bought the IP. I'd say see it if you are curious or are a genuine fan of The Mandalorian TV show, but either skip it or catch it on Disney Plus in a few months if you aren't. 

Will it be enough to save Star Wars? I honestly don't know. I didn't see it with anyone else and didn't stick around to listen to what other people are saying. The critics were tepid in their support of it, but the Rotten Tomatoes score for viewers was a lot higher. Good word of moth might be enough to save the film, but I still think there are just too many former fans that gave up on Star Wars for good after the sequels and The Acolyte for it to be a big success. 

Either way though, I do think it's a positive direction for the Star Wars series to go in. I had been saying for awhile that the series needed a lower stakes romp that had as little to do with the sequels as it could and this film does that. And it was genuinely refreshing to see a movie with almost zero wokeness. Perhaps Disney will really be able to turn Star Wars around, especially if the next movie, Ryan Gosling's Starfighter, is well received as well. 

Controversial anti-Trump Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has lost his primary race.

 

Thomas Massie. New York Post. 

Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie has lost the primary race for Kentucky's 4th district. New York Post. In what turned out to be the most expensive Republican primary race in US history, Massie faced challenger Ed Gallrein, a former Navy Seal and farmer. Gallrien won the race comfortably according to the Associated Press, with an almost 10 point lead when the race was called. Massie was a seven term incumbent but had angered President Donald Trump and many of his supporters for many reasons. Massie voted against key legislation, including the One Beautiful Bill act, which accomplished many of Trump's legislative priorities. Massie often clashed with Trump over spending, often voting with Democrats to stop legislation he did not like. But Massie also angered Jewish groups for not supporting Israel, leading to massive spending from Jewish groups. Massie's defeat comes on the heels of Senator Bill Cassidy losing his seat in Louisiana and President Trump endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent John Cornyn.  

My Comment:

President Donald Trump continues to assert his authority over the Republican Party. Massie came at the king and missed and now he's out on the street, or at least he will be after the midterms. But this is a lot bigger than a single primary in a safe Republican seat in Kentucky. It's a major victory in the battle for the ideological center of the Republican Party. 

Massie was an ideologue to be sure. He often voted against popular bills like the OBB act because he had some kind of issue with the spending levels. He absolutely cared more about whatever pet issue he had of the day than actually scoring victories for his party. 

President Trump is the exact opposite. Trump is absolutely not an ideologue. He's a deal maker and what he actually wants is to win. In this way, Trump is a much smarter man than Massie ever could be and it's been the main inter-party war since Trump walked down the steps. Trump and MAGA are the pragmatists, they want real wins and want the party to be something other than the Washington Generals to the Democrats. Massie couldn't care less about that and instead wanted to make perfect the enemy of good. 

Personally, I despised Massie but not so much for being an ideologue. Rand Paul is one as well, and I certainly don't hate him. But Massie lost all credibility with me with his Jeffrey Epstein stunts. Massie pedaled conspiracy theories and nonsense about Epstein and even indicated that Trump himself might be a pedophile, or at least a pedophile supporter. And his efforts to hurt Trump with these insane remarks also backfired when he was unable to deliver a single person that the justice department could go after. 

I've researched Epstein since 2015 and it's been very clear for awhile now that Epstein was a fixer, who also happened to be a pimp. His role in human trafficking was a lot more limited than folks realize and Massie either didn't know this or didn't care. There was never going to be any further charges in the Epstein case as most of the players were dead, much of the evidence was lost because of his mishandled 1st arrest under the Bush Administration. 

But Massie, again, made perfect the enemy of good. It wasn't enough that a lot of people that weren't prosecuted were at least convicted in the court of public opinion, he wanted everyone who had anything to do with Epstein, even some that were totally innocent, to go to prison, presumably without the protections of due process. It was all insanity and I am glad he got punished for it. 

Israel was also a major factor in this as well. The antisemitic right generally latches onto anyone who is remotely critical of Israel and Massie was certainly that. However, they don't actually have all that much power and apparently, they don't actually vote either. Massie was laser focused on Israel and even said that his opponent was busy at APIAC headquarters so he couldn't concede to him. It just goes to show that a few loud voices on X don't actually amount to anything. 

Speaking of those voices, they have been absolutely insufferable and I am glad they are eating crow. Some of them are saying they will vote for Democrats or Libertarians in the midterms, but I am not scared because, like I said above, they don't actually vote. I'm going to enjoy a nice beer tonight thinking about that. 

As for President Trump, it's pretty clear he's cleaning house. Bill Cassidy is out, Thomas Massie is out and John Cornyn is next. And the Post mentioned that even Lauren Boebert could be next. And it shows a level of confidence that gives lie to the media narrative that the GOP is going to get wiped out in 2026. Indeed, if that was the case, I don't see Trump purging his enemies. Had the VRA Surpreme Court ruling gone a different way, along with the Virginia redistricting, perhaps things would be different, but is sure seems like Trump is confident that he will keep the House and the Senate in 2026. Could that be hubris? Sure, we all know the midterms are bad for incumbency rule, but I think it's a lot more likely than most folks think. 

Livestreamer "Chud the Builder" charged with attempted murder. Here's why his claims of self-defense will likely not work.

 

The aftermath of the shooting. USA Today.

Dalton Eatherly, better know by his online handle, "Chud the Builder", has been arrested for an incident that left both him and another person wounded. USA Today. Eatherly is a controversial streamer known for getting into confrontations with black people for views. He did so again outside of a courthouse in Clarksville Tennessee. He made a racist statement to a black man and then was attacked by the man, leading to Eatherly shooting both the man and himself. Eatherly is claiming self defense. The incident was the 2nd incident in a week involving Eatherly, after he was arrested after being kicked out of a local restaurant. 

My Comment:

This case has blown up on social media and for good reason. Eatherly is a joke of a person and the kind of streamer that thrives on causing drama. He's also a Nick Fuentes fan, probably because he's chasing clout. And there is some spirted debate online as to his actions and if this shooting was legally justified. There's actually a lot to discuss here. 

The exact incident was that the black man that Eatherly shot, warned him to not use any racial language or there would be a fight. What exactly was said is unclear, but given Eatherly's Chud the Builder account on X, it's pretty clear it was something racist. The black man then punched Eatherly (sucker punched was the word I have seen used) and Eatherly responded by opening fire, wounding both himself and the black man.

Eatherly and his fans do not seem to understand the concept of self-defense. Under Tennessee law, you do have the right to fight back if someone threatens your life. However, there is a really big exception to that and that is the fact that you can't provoke the fight in the first place. Eatherly has very clearly done so when used racially charged language against the black man, even after he was warned not to. In this case, Eatherly was using "fighting words", basically consenting to a fight. Had he simply attempted to walk away he might be able to claim self defense then, but I haven't seen any evidence that he has done so. And, given the facts of the case as we know them, I don't see how anyone can argue that he wasn't the one to provoke the incident. 

Eatherly's supporters say that this is a 1st amendment issue, but it absolutely isn't. The content of the speech isn't the issue here, it's how it was delivered. Eatherly was picking a fight, not making some kind of grand political statement. Sure, the black man should not have responded with violence to Eatherly's words, but you can't pick a fight with someone and then claim self defense. That's not how the law works in Tennessee, and indeed in most states. And it's not like Eatherly was charged for his words. He was charged because he shot someone, so there is no 1st amendment issue in the first place. 

Even worse is Eatherly's social media. His X account is still up and there's a lot of stuff on there that is going to be a nightmare for his defense attorney. He had many tweets where he was saying that he was going to end up shooting someone. That's going to be even more damning for any jury as the prosecutors are going to be able to present this as a premeditated crime. Eatherly's words imply that he was out looking for trouble and wanted to use self defense laws as a way to commit murder of a black person because he hates them. And it's really hard to argue otherwise. 

And that's why I am angry about this case. Eatherly was angry that there are black people out there that would cause violence just because they hear the n-word or other racial slurs, but how is he any different than that? He wanted to kill someone for no less stupid of a reason. Indeed, he's doing a lot to confirm the prejudices of those that hate white people as he is an actual racist that wanted to hurt black people. 

I also think that this goes to the issue with modern clout culture where folks like Chud the Builder and Johnny Somali can go out and humiliate people for no other reason than views. There's zero reason for this kind of content to be viewed or made and I don't really understand why it exists in the first place. Who wants to watch some moron make everyone else's life miserable? Indeed, it's kind of surprising that these kinds of streams don't end up in violence more often. 

Regardless, I can't see any scenario where this case doesn't end with a conviction or a plea deal. Eatherly ruined any chances of that with his X comments and the fact that if you use fighting words on someone and they take a swing at you it's not going to be self defense if you shoot them. And the jury is absolutely going to hate him, nobody likes these kinds of streamers and everyone is going to think that he was the one that caused this situation in the first place. 

Vladimir Putin says Ukraine War is likely to end soon

 

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Fox News/AFP. 

Vladimir Putin has said that the Ukraine War is likely coming to and end. Fox News. The statement came after a three day ceasefire was announced and a 1000 for 1000 prisoner exchange. The ceasefire mostly held, though both sides accuse the others of violating it. Russia celebrated Victory Day, marking their defeat of Nazi Germany, though celebrations were scaled back. Putin said he wanted former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to lead the negotiations. The war has largely devolved into a stalemate, with little in the way of territorial gains this year. 

My Comment:

Putin's comments here are strange. There is nothing on the battlefield that suggests either side will achieve a major battlefield breakthrough. Ukraine's recent gains have been overstated, largely because of how the conflict works with traditional front lines being rare and large "grey zones" being contested by small groups of soldiers are the norm. But it's undeniable that the war has ground to a halt in terms of territory being taken. 

It's possible that Russia has some major offensive planned but given how this conflict works, it seems pretty unlikely. Massing troops, tanks and vehicles in a modern conflict is a sure way to draw drone fire and if either side was doing so we would know about it given how many casualties they would take even before the offensive has begun. 

What seems more likely is that Putin might be considering making a deal. I don't think it has too much to do with the battlefield at all though. Instead it's about domestic pressure as the Russian people may be getting tired of the war. Russia has been willing to bear the burden of the conflict so far, but with the battlefield frozen folks might either want a breakthrough or a ceasefire. 

And it's very important to note that Russia's geopolitical situation has absolutely changed. Venezuela was a major Russian ally, but now has entirely switched sides, to the point where President Trump was floating the idea of making it the 51'st state (which isn't going to happen). Venezuela wasn't an important ally, but it was an ally and now they are absolutely not. 

But it's the Iran war that has likely disrupted things for Russia. Iran was a key ally and had been supplying Russia with arms, most notably drones. Russia replaced much of these sales, but it's also clear that Russia cannot rely on Iran as an ally. Russia didn't really need either of these allies, or Syria for that matter, but it absolutely is a factor. 

And I would also say that both conflicts were entirely one sided and might have sapped Russia's confidence that if the war did spiral out of control they could still beat NATO. While Europe remains a paper tiger, the United States demonstrated they are a lot bigger threat than Russia may have realized before, especially when demonstrating new technology. Indeed, that may have been what the recent UFO release could have been about, some of the sightings are undoubtably US military technology that hasn't been disclosed. 

With all that being said, I don't think a peace deal is likely in the short term. Neither side has budged at all from their war goals. Russia still wants the territory they haven't actually conquered yet and Ukraine still demands all of the territory Russia has conquered. With neither side willing to budge, I don't see how any kind of peace deal could happen. 

I still think that unless Ukraine has some kind of major collapse (which is very possible) the most likely end to the war is a negotiated settlement. I am guessing that Russia will have to give up the territory they claim but haven't captured and would have to exchange some land they conquered in the north, while Ukraine would have to give up their claims on the Donbas and Crimea. How we ever get both sides to agree to that is beyond me...  

Virginia Democrats propose replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court after they ruled against their gerrymandered map.

 

Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger. New York Times.

Democrats in Virginia have proposed replacing the entire Virginia Supreme Court after they ruled against their gerrymandered map.  New York Times. Democrats in the state are described as "desperate" after the Virginia Supreme Court overturned their latest gerrymandered map that would give Democrats four new house seats. The scheme would require lowering the retirement age for Supreme Court justices to 54 or younger, which is the age of the youngest member of the court. A new Court could be installed then and they would then rule that the current maps were unconstitutional for the same reason why the gerrymandered districts were. The vote to amend the constitution requires a notice to be placed at courthouses and neither redistricting move did so. However, such a scheme is seen as an extreme longshot, as they only have until May 12th to change the maps in Virginia without it affecting the election. With the Supreme Court of the United States unlikely to intervene, Virginia's current maps will likely remain in place for 2026.

My Comment:

The Virginia gerrymander will go down as one of the biggest own goals in history. The Democrats spent $70 million on the vote, which barely passed at 51%, and considerable political capital on it. Indeed, Governor Spanberger bet her political future on the vote and at this point she's essentially a lame duck. 

I do understand why the Democrats are so desperate. They have pretty convincingly screwed themselves over. Conventional wisdom says that the Democrats are going to win the House in 2026 but the path is extremely narrow. Indeed, some projections have the Republicans at 217 seats that are at least "lean" Republican. If that's the case then they would only have to win one more House district they need to keep control of the house. 

I actually think that this is more likely than the media likes to report. Indeed, the only real issue holding down the Republicans is the Iran conflict and though the conflict drags on without a resolution, I can't imagine it won't be anything but a memory by November. Democrats probably know this, which is why they tried this gerrymander in the first place. 

However, I do have to think that the effort to gerrymander itself has done a lot of damage to the Democrats in general. The maps were so blatantly partisan that even folks supporting the Republican gerrymanders thought it was crazy. The maps were made to dilute the votes of the folks in Western Virginia by forcing tentacle-like districts extending from Washington DC, all the way to the borders with West Virginia. 

This particular plot though, is even more beyond the pale and it's insane to me that it leaked that they were even considering this. Indeed, I almost think the New York Times report was put out to put a kibosh on this effort. Not only does the plan have an almost zero percent chance of working, actually doing it would enrage just about everyone. It would be the most naked partisan powergrab in recent history and would permanently tarnish the Democratic Party. Given that fact and the fact that they only have two days to get new maps in play, I don't think any of this is going to happen. 

I have been wanting to write a post about the vibe shift in the Republican Party, and this is as good as any. Republicans have been stacking up the wins this week and the political headwinds they have been facing seem to have evaporated. Even the groypers/America First/woke right have been put into their place with Vivek Ramaswamy beating Casey Pustch in Ohio. It just seems like a lot of the hope and optimism that was seen on the right during the first year of Trump's term has returned now in his second year.