Flash Gordon first appeared as a newspaper comic strip in 1934, and soon surpassed the competition to be the most popular sci-fi story of the pulp era. The strip ran daily in papers worldwide until 1993, and was recently revived as a web comic. But perhaps most significantly, it inspired three Saturday serials. The precursors of the modern television series, serials were 15 minute shorts which played at movie theaters on weekends between newsreels and feature films. Each episode would end with a cliffhanger, with the heroes in mortal peril, only to escape the next week. Serials were incredibly popular with young audiences, including a young Californian named George Lucas, who never forgot the magic of watching Buster Crabbe fight Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe. After the runaway success of American Graffiti, Lucas had carte blanche from Hollywood. His first instinct was to adapt Flash Gordon, but in 1974, Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis owned the film rights, so Lucas decided to make his own version, which ultimately became Star Wars.
Flash forward to 2019, when Iron Man director Jon Favreau introduced the first live action Star Wars TV show, The Mandalorian. Freed from the heavy mythological resonances of the Skywalker Saga, which ended ignobly with The Rise of Skywalker, Favreau got back to the franchise’s Flash Gordon roots with wacky monsters and weekly cliffhangers. Star Wars has always borrowed from other genres, and Favreau incorporated both samurai stories, specifically Lone Wolf and Cub, and Westerns like Have Gun Will Travel. When the 2023 SAG/WGA strikes roiled Hollywood, the fourth season of The Mandalorian was shelved, and Faverau and Lucasfilm’s new creative director, Clone Wars mastermind Dave Filoni, decided to make it a feature film.
Having seen The Mandalorian and Grogu, I can say that this was a bad decision. It’s not necessarily that it’s a bad film. As a weekly newspaper film critic, believe me when I say that there is much worse material oozing through theaters and streamers. It’s that it is an uneven experience which would have gone down much better in 30-minute chunks.
The film opens five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. The New Republic is struggling to reclaim the galaxy, with many worlds ruled by former Imperial officers turned warlords, backed by what’s left of the Empire’s war machine. Our hero Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), now working as an independent contractor for the Republic’s Adelphi Rangers battalion, dispatches one such warlord with the help of Grogu, the tiny, Yoda-like force sensitive creature who has graduated from his charge to his partner. Mando’s New Republic handler Colonel Ward (Sigourney Weaver) pays him with a new ship and a new assignment: Find the fugitive Imperial war criminal Coin. The only lead they have on Coin’s whereabouts is through the Hutt crime family, who promise to help only if Djarin can rescue their cousin Rotta (voiced by Jeremy Allen White) from the clutches of rival crime lord Janu (Jonny Coyne).
But when Djarin and Grogu catch up with Rotta on the urban planet Shakari, he’s not exactly a prisoner. Instead, the son of Jabba The Hutt has gotten super jacked and is having the time of his life as a pit fighter. With just one more bout on his contract with Janu, Rotta is looking forward to gaining his independence and going on to greater heights of gladiatorial fame and fortune. But Djarin discovers that the fix is in; Janu has no intention of giving up the most valuable fighter in his stable. So Mando and Grogu must rescue Rotta against his will, which brings up a host of new complications.
The film’s origin as a serial of 30 minute TV episodes is painfully evident. There are some great set pieces, such as the opening sequence set in a snowy mountain fortress and a near silent interlude when Grogu nurses the injured Mandalorian back to health in the swamps of Nal Hutta. But the episodic nature of the story means that every 20 minutes or so, the momentum comes to a screeching halt, such as the inexplicable scene where Djarin and Grogu return to their little cabin on Navarro for a little mid-film R & R. Industrial Light & Magic’s visual effects are top notch, including a fantastic stop motion sequence from Star Wars legend Phil Tippett. Favreau wisely keeps Grogu as a puppet through the film, which makes the little guy even more adorable. But that triumph is undercut by the off-putting CGI character design of Rotta the Hutt, made even worse by White’s checked-out voice performance. The musical score by Ludwig Göransson totally misses the mark, proving how valuable John Williams has always been to the franchise.
There has been a lot of great Star Wars TV, from the epic sweep of late-season Clone Wars to the painterly animation of this year’s Maul: Shadow Lord. Star Wars on the big screen needs to feel epic, something even J. J. Abrams’ despicable Rise of Skywalker understood. And that’s The Mandalorian and Grogu’s biggest shortcoming. It feels more like a filler Marvel movie than the Greek tragedy of Revenge of the Sith or the faded glory of The Last Jedi. If you’re just in it for ILM’s artistry and some spectacular pew-pew, it’ll serve you just fine. But personally, I expect more from a galaxy far, far away.