Star Wars is back! And it has nothing to say. After seven long years, the galaxy far, far away has returned to cinemas with Jon Favreau’s The Mandalorian and Grogu, a feature-length spin-off from the Disney+ series, and it is less a film and more a 130-minute video, one you would find on your social media of choice. It’s a film devoid of humanity, emotion, story, or characters, and it fully relies on you, the audience, to fill in the pieces. So why would anyone make such a film? And why would it be the follow-up to an equally failed movie, The Rise of Skywalker? Because Lucasfilm, and by extension the Walt Disney Corporation, has nothing to say. Not a single iota of an idea or thought they want to communicate outside of “hey, wanna buy this toy?”
For all of George Lucas’ faults, he made movies. Stories about the human experience deeply steeped in his fascination with history and the cyclical nature of our lives. The prequels are flawed, but they are films about how empires fall, how fascism rises, and how it all happens right under our noses. The Mandalorian and Grogu could not care less about relating its story to anything in our human lives. It’s a fetch quest within a fetch quest, with Pedro Pascal working for exactly one week on set, Sigourney Weaver giving a career-worst performance and Jeremy Allen White playing roided-out Jabba the Hutt as Carmy. What’s seemingly even crazier is that this film’s plot is nearly identical to half of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, which, if you forgot existed, so did everyone else. That film was essentially the first four episodes of the TV show smashed together and put into theaters, with Anakin and Ahsoka having to find Rotta the Hutt (aka Jeremy Allen White), deal with Hutt twins, and ultimately accomplish absolutely nothing.
Why am I spending this much energy on a children’s movie? Because we cannot let movies become this emotionally hollow, this devoid of meaning and purpose and life. Star Wars has always been “made for kids,” as George Lucas loves to say, but that doesn’t mean it has to be nothing at all. Toy Story is an incredibly mature film made for kids. A children’s film doesn’t have to be pointless.
The polar opposite of this movie is Andor, the Disney+ series led by Tony Gilroy. A show that had SO much to say, and did it with a host of new characters in a world we already know so well. It’s exemplary television and writing. A lot has been said about it already, but it’s hard not to see the Ghorman Massacre in what occurred in Minneapolis this January. Gilroy and co. had a clear understanding of the story they wanted to tell, and they executed it to the highest degree. It is still possible.
The last Star Wars film that had anything to say was The Last Jedi, a great movie with a great thesis: LET THE PAST DIE. Rian Johnson was clearly making a film for the next generation, one where the center of the universe no longer revolved around the Skywalkers.
“The greatest teacher, failure is. Luke, we are what they grow beyond. That is the true burden of all masters.”
— Yoda (The Last Jedi)
That’s a line that makes me tear up even as I write it today. “We are what they grow beyond” should be the rallying cry for this current era of Star Wars, one that allows filmmakers and artists to actually explore this promised galaxy far, far away. Yet Disney shuddered, Lucasfilm capitulated, and for that we received The Rise of Skywalker. I fear we may never see another Star Wars film that has something to say.
Do or do not, there is no try, and Disney has seemingly decided to do not. I have little hope for Shawn Levy’s upcoming Starfighter film, but we’ll have to wait and see. Until then, we have Mando and Grogu, a litany of tie-in merchandise, and not a single thing worth saying.
