THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU
IN THEATRES 21ST MAY 2026
Wednesday 20th May 2026
Written by: Rashid AlKamraikhi
This is breaking new ground for Sense, and we’re not here to review just for any old flick. Our film critic debut is for one of the biggest film franchises in history, Star Wars!
On the way into the cinema, we walk past a mural by local artist, DRAPL, that we later find out in the screening preamble consisted of some 100 hours of work. It looks absolutely amazing, and after viewing DRAPL’s Instagram, it seems he is responsible for more than a few epic murals that can be found around Brisbane. We enter the building and are cast into the mix of those both dressed glamorously for the occasion, and light (and dark) sabre wielding cosplayers. Tom and I are in our usual gig attire, née, everyday clothes. We’re just here representing our own rock and roll part of the galaxy.
Pictured: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU Mural by DRAPL
After getting our obligatory photo taken with a ‘Baby Yoda’ we were ushered into the cinema, grab a box of complimentary popcorn (thanks!) and get ready for the show. As mentioned before, there is a bit of a preamble and hyping up about this being the first cinematic Star Wars experience in seven years, but I’ve already made significant headway into my box of popcorn, and want to save some for the movie. Let’s go!
Pictured: TOM, RASHID and GROGU Photographer: Josh, J&A Photography
THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU opens with a couple of paragraphs of exposition. It’s no opening crawl, and the text doesn’t even have a blue glow around it, but it’s enough to set the stage for an opening scene that dives straight into the action. If you are walking into this movie blind, it’s more than enough to establish that Din Djarin, aka Mando, is a complete badass, and that Grogu is cute as @#$!. If you are an experienced fan of the series, it demonstrates that they have become a pretty well oiled machine when it comes to getting the job done, especially with Grogu’s increased proficiency in using The Force. From the Bond-esque opening, we move on to the next bounty mission that sets up the main plot line of the film, and for the sake of staying spoiler free, that’s about as much of a synopsis of the plot as I’m going to give.
Pictured: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU
Now I must admit that for the last several years my fandom of Star Wars has veered more towards the ‘postanalytic’ side of it, to the point where consuming the content has become almost secondary to the laughs and discourse that come after, from the vicious cut downs it receives from YouTube commentators such as Overlord DVD, and Australia’s own Robot Head, to the nuanced thoughts and critiques by Thor Skywalker, and Star Wars Meg. I’m sure the more heavy handed critics will hone right in on the many cases of deus ex machina, classic trope dependencies, and Beskar coated plot armours that proliferate the film, and there are a few jarring moments that broke the immersion for me while I pondered why certain choices were made, but it didn’t take me too long to reason with them before I was swept back up into the rollercoaster ride that this movie takes us on.
Pictured: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU
Some other early critiques that came out about the film were about it’s structure feeling ‘episodic’ and ‘video gamey’. Yes, you could see how the movie could be sliced up into episodes, but you could say the same about a lot of film’s that follow a classic adventure narrative, and in regards to sections that seem ‘video gamey’, I think that speaks just as much about wanting to capture the attention of a culture that spends so much time immersed in playing games, as it does about how far video games themselves have come in the past 50 years, right alongside the Star Wars franchise itself. I mean, you wouldn’t be able to compare The Godfather to Pong back in the 70’s, but the lines between the mediums have become drawn so fine now in this day and age.
Pictured: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU
In the end, it leaves me thinking objectively about what this film has actually set out to do, as opposed to what I, or anyone else, may have wanted it to do. Did it get Star Wars back on the big screen? Yes. Did it provide an enjoyable cinematic experience full of thrills and spills? Yes. Did it reignite the Star Wars film franchise and the sizeable associated merchandise empire that goes with it? Well, that one’s still to be determined, but I’m certainly here for the discourse!
