Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu: Jon Favreau’s entry into the Star Wars franchise is a good showcase of what is wrong with it, and perhaps with other large, open-ended cinematic franchises. It doesn’t feel like it belongs simply because it chooses to do something different: its scale is undeniably smaller (there is no fight for the freedom and for the soul of the universe, after all), and it’s connected to the original films only indirectly. But had it gone the other way, it would probably be (accused of being, at least) repetitive. Still, this feels like a long television episode, and that’s because it is precisely what this is. Nevertheless, the story of the bounty hunter who goes on a multi-layered mission accompanied by a lovely Jedi baby is generic, undeveloped, and somewhat dull.

The Mandalorian, partly played by Pedro Pascal, is less a character and more an action figure; Pascal is wasted as his delivery is, by design, passionless. Grogu is rather cute, but as a baby, it’s not as enticing a character either. Sigourney Weaver, as his main client, phones in her performance. The film is aesthetically indifferent; composer Ludwig Göransson’s musical score deliberately avoids John Williams’ themes while creating something interesting and different.