I’ve been out of touch with Star Wars for some time now. Yes, I’ve heard amazing wonderful things about “Andor”, I still haven’t made time for it and I refuse to be shamed for that. I’ve long since grown frustrated with the way streaming services do business, and I’ve been burned too many times by too many TV series that got cancelled before they got good or after they turned sour.

In the particular case of Star Wars, I have a difficult time getting back into that franchise. The fanbase has grown toxic, the sequel trilogy was a mismanaged fiasco that only looks worse in hindsight (to say nothing of that disgraceful Galactic Starcruiser goatfuck), and getting back into so many different disconnected TV shows takes more of a time commitment than I’m willing or able to put in. Which sucks, because I like what the franchise is doing in principle.

I like that Star Wars has finally chosen a single dedicated primary storyteller to oversee the franchise, and it sounds like Dave Filoni is doing a fine job. I like the idea of stepping away from the Skywalkers to explore more of the galaxy far far away. Most of all, I appreciate the notion that stepping away from cinema has apparently meant learning from the executive mistakes that fucked up Solo and the sequel trilogy. (And hell, even Rogue One had its behind-the-scenes issues — just ask Alexandre Desplat.)

Alas, streaming business isn’t what it used to be, now that lockdown is over and theaters are back open. And the recent guild strikes threw another wrench into a great many plans for TV and film. So here we are with The Mandalorian and Grogu, complete with Jon Favreau writing/directing, alongside writers Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, all of whom are foundational producers on the show. This is what they made in place of a fourth season for “The Mandalorian”, hopefully marking a lucrative return to form for Star Wars in cinema.

And surprisingly, it’s actually quite good. Visibly flawed, but good. And remember, that’s coming from someone who knows virtually nothing about “The Mandalorian”, outside of the pinball game and other pop cultural osmosis.

We lay our scene sometime after Return of the Jedi, at a time when the nascent New Republic (here personified by Colonel Ward, played by Sigourney Weaver) is struggling to build and maintain a new status quo. Thus they’ve hired mercenaries like our enigmatic Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and his young Force-sensitive apprentice Grogu to track down any Imperial refugees trying to build their own criminal enterprises in the process of rebuilding the Empire. Unfortunately, things are going a bit more slowly than the New Republic would like, as Mando’s targets are all too dead to be brought in for questioning.

For his latest assignment, Mando is tasked with finding an Imperial warlord known only as “Coin”. Problem: What he looks like, where he is, and what his real name are all unknown. Bigger problem: As far as anyone knows, the only ones who know anything about Coin are the Hutts.

Buckle up, folks. This is where things get messy.

See, Return of the Jedi didn’t just open up a power vacuum with the death of Emperor Palpatine (no, we’re not getting into that here) — it also opened up a totally separate power vacuum with the death of Jabba the Hutt. The matter is further complicated with the disappearance of Jabba’s son (Rotta the Hutt, voiced by Jeremy Allen White). Thus Jabba’s cousins (I’m sorry I can’t confirm who voices “The Twins”) conscript Mando to find and retrieve Rotta in exchange for information about Coin.

What’s worse, it turns out that Rotta’s wound up on some kind of dystopian urban hellscape moon, run by another criminal mastermind (Lord Janu, played by Jonny Coyne). In fact, Rotta’s made quite a name for himself as a professional gladiatorial fighter, and he has no desire to be rescued. The complications keep piling up from there.

First of all, it bears repeating that Rotta has spent however many years training to be an accomplished fighter. Which means that he’s a giant slug who poses a legitimately imposing physical threat. I don’t know if that’s ever been seen or done outside the mainline films, but it’s certainly new to me.

Something else about Rotta is that he’s desperately trying to escape the shadow of his father. He would literally rather die as his own person than go back and keep on living under his relatives. There’s a generational theme here that nicely mirrors the Mandalorian/Grogu relationship.

Speaking of Rotta’s relatives, there are politics to consider. It’s entirely possible that the Twins only want Rotta back so they can tie up a loose end and make sure there are no other challengers to claim what Jabba left behind. Thus Mando is stuck in a position where he has to choose whether to trust Rotta or the Twins. He could tell the heartless criminal slugs to go to hell, or appease those same criminals for the sake of getting intel that the New Republic needs.

It’s a compelling moral predicament. One with a solution that comes far too easily.

There’s no getting around it, folks: The plot structure for this one is all over the place. There are plot holes and thin contrivances and convoluted plot turns every which way. The structure is so wonky, it’s almost like the filmmakers tried to cram an entire season’s worth of content into two hours. Even so, the plot remains clear enough that we always know who the good guys and bad guys are and what they’re trying to accomplish, so there’s that.

Which brings me to the action scenes. Gotta be honest, there are problems here. Which is hardly surprising, as this team was built for television work. Little wonder they had so much trouble shooting and editing an action scene on this scale. Even so, the various shootouts and dogfights are fun to watch nonetheless. For all their faults, the action scenes are fast-paced, explosive, inventive, and fun to watch, and that’s enough for me.

It certainly helps that while Mando is clearly shown to be a badass capable of taking on whole armies without a scratch on him, he’s not invincible. Indeed, the filmmakers put a great deal of effort into showing how Mando can be captured or surprised or incapacitated. On quite a few occasions, he’s forced into combat without his weapons or most of his other toys, the better to show us what he can do with skill and wit alone. Hell, Mando is all but completely helpless through a huge stretch of the runtime, the better to show what Grogu is capable of without him.

The cast and crew went all-out with this one. The production design is every bit as sterling as we’d expect from this franchise, and I love seeing so many physical puppets like they used back in the days of the Original Trilogy. I need hardly add that Pascal and his stunt doubles are all exceedingly well-practiced at playing the character by this point, and White does surprisingly well for himself as a voice actor under all the Hutts’ characteristic audio layering. And of course we’ve got Sigourney Weaver, Steve Blum, Steven McKinley Henderson, and goddamn Martin Scorsese all elevating the film simply by showing up.

(Side note: Keep an eye out for Dave Filoni himself, making a prominent cameo as an X-Wing pilot. They even brought in Anthony Daniels for a quick voice-over cameo as a droid who isn’t C-3PO).

Flaws and all, I had fun with The Mandalorian and Grogu. It’s got shootouts, dogfights, aliens, monsters, robots, arbitrary Force magic, with just a hint of family drama and political intrigue. In short, it’s Star Wars. I’m at a loss for what more anyone could ask from a Star Wars movie.

I came to this one with the expectation of good, clean, science fantasy whiz-bang fun, and that’s exactly what I got. And speaking as someone who still hasn’t watched the show, I genuinely appreciate that the film is self-contained enough that anyone can enjoy it regardless of how familiar they are with the Dave Filoni era.