David R. Walker

Posts Tagged ‘Shirley Henderson’

Star Wars:

The Mandalorian and Grogu

Director: Jon Favreau

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Allen White, Martin Scorsese, Shirley Henderson, Jonny Coyne, Steve Blum, Hemky Madera

Running Time: 2 hours and 12 minutes

Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Iron Man and Cowboy and Aliens director Jon Favreau bravely enters the Star Wars Universe with panache and skill in his new film Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu starring a fantastic Pedro Pascal as The Mandalorian, a bounty hunter in a galaxy far far away.   

The bounty hunter along with his cute side kick Grogu, who is like a miniature Yoda are sent on a mission by Colonel Ward wonderfully played by Oscar nominee Sigourney Weaver (Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl) to retrieve the nephew of the nefarious gangster Jabba the hut, Rotta the hut, voiced by The Bear star Jeremy Allen White. Sigourney Weaver in her fabled career has done every sci fi franchise including Avatar and Aliens so she is the perfect choice to appear in this Star Wars. Weaver is the queen of science fiction.

As the Mandalorian and Grogu travel across the galaxy to strange planets and bizarre circumstances they come across Rotta who is being held on an urban planet, with a production design reminiscent of Blade Runner.

Rotta is meant to be returned to the Hutt family but when the Mandalorian disobeys that order and sets him free, he gets embroiled in a series of monster clashes on the swampy home planet of Jabba the Hut and soon faces near death, devastation and despair.

Grogu as diminutive as he is, gets some help from some fellow creatures as they go back to rescue The Mandalorian from an intergalactic double cross.

Warning this film is deep sci-fi and will only appeal to fans of the Star Wars films. Despite the films lengths and that some scenes could have been edited, what elevates Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu is the brilliant original musical score by Swedish film composer Ludwig Goransson who has won three Oscars for best original score for Sinners, Oppenheimer and Black Panther.

If you love film music, Goransson is the master of propelling a narrative forward just using amazing orchestral sounds.

The second thing that makes this Star Wars film so riveting is the superb visual effects, despite the lack of human faces in the film. Most of the film is made up of monsters and robots except for Sigourney Weaver and a very dead pan Pedro Pascal in the unmasking scene in the swamp of the snake dragon.

While the acting and storyline is not fundamental in this genre, what this film really delivers in terms of deep sci fi is stunning visual effects, perfect world building and entertaining action sequences on various diversified planets involving X-Wing fighters, occasional storm troopers and numerous swamp creatures.

Highly recommended for Star Wars fans only, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu gets a film rating of 7.5 out of 10 and is worth seeing.

This film cements Pedro Pascal‘s status as a contemporary Hollywood leading man, a Chilean actor who has catapulted to fame since he first appeared in HBO’s sensational series Game of Thrones.