Star Wars arrives back at cinemas for the first time in seven years without a fanfare, quite literally, The Mandalorian and Grogu has no opening crawl, but it does have a title sequence and, fortunately, a recap. These days, it helps in the modern galaxy far, far away to know when you are a long time ago, especially those who haven’t followed the adventures of Mando and Grogu for three seasons on Disney+.

The New Republic is busy establishing itself following the fall of the Empire (See: Return of the Jedi), with the Mandalorian (Din Djarin, also weirdly known as Mando) and his young apprentice Grogu officially signed up to track down and round up (but more usually blow up) the remaining Imperial warlords. But when his New Republic broker (Sigourney Weaver) suggests a little quid pro quo with famed gangsters the Hutts, Mando isn’t keen.

The Twin siblings of Jabba the Hutt (see: Return of the Jedi)—have crucial information on the whereabouts of a notorious Imperial lynchpin they’re offering in return for rescuing their captured nephew Rotta the Hutt (see his previous kidnapping in The Clone Wars). The thing is, can you ever trust a Hutt?

When The Mandalorian arrived on Disney+ in 2019, it was a huge success partly because it didn’t move quickly. Creator and showrunner Jon Favreau just picked up shreds of lore to produce a pretty slow, character study spin of greatest hits and wish list moments set a few years after the destruction of the second Death Star that closed the original trilogy. So that this step to the big screen feels like a condensed season four isn’t a surprise or a bad thing when it comes to steadying the franchise back in movie theatres.

New Lucasfilm head Dave Filoni and Favreau’s dance around world consolidation and making a cinematic experience skews toward the small screen. There are stunning moments, like a Dragon Snake ethereally rising to fill the screen, or Mando back in the cockpit of a Razor Crest (the ship he started the series in, gifted as payment because of sentimentality), chasing enemy fighters into the exosphere as the blue sky fades to stars. But the concept is saddled with pretty mundane end-of-saga shenanigans. 

There are none of the sweeping themes that backed the Original Trilogy to ease its jump from set-piece to set-piece. Taking the minimalist route of the franchise’s western roots, there’s no memorable dialogue. Exposition and slide transitions into clunky dialogue scenes that see characters pop into planets for a few minutes are all part of the Star Wars mix, too, and this film knows it.

Grogu gets his moment during late-second-act trauma, injecting plucky chutzpah, some of the best laughs and moments of calm. The indomitable little guy, a feat of endearing physical puppetry and enhanced effects, could well be the hero of the whole franchise these days, and given his long life, agelessness, easy agent fees, and lack of dialogue, Disney probably aren’t too unhappy with that.

The Mandalorian and Grogu’s threat is mid-par, but the joyful gold of seeing the bounty hunter and his apprentice bumbling through high-stakes missions just needs ‘a threat’. 

On the human side, we brush with two Imperial warlords, one (Jonny Coyne’s brilliantly named Janu Coin) will be familiar in passing from the shadowy Imperial threat in the Mandalorian series—he’s a wrong un from the moment you hear his English accent. But both are pretty throwaway, a bit of posturing behind a barrage of snowtroopers or stormtroopers—the biggest sign of how Star Wars’ push to tell bigger stories has minimised its most iconic parts.

The Twins, the Yin and Yang of the Hutt world, are slimy throwbacks to the refreshingly un-human heyday of Star Wars. Rotta appears, laughably as a very old photo from The Clone Wars animation (wink, wink), but is no longer a hutlet. He’s a distractingly hench big guy, with Jeremy Allen White giving him an American drawl—distracting to begin with, but you get over it. The Hutts at least provide some, um, violent Hutt-on-Hutt action. Other action sequences, particularly one gladiator duel, are a blur of special effects and distracting alien designs, where characters seem to swivel around like John Travolta in a Pulp Fiction meme. 

Fortunately, Ludwig Göransson is a gift to the proceedings, often holding things together and elevating them as he builds out his monumental tribal-march theme from the series for the bigger screen with every instrument in the outer rim. A highlight is the synth backing to bounty hunter duels, which is a really welcome addition to the saga. Staying for the credits is rewarded by a playful Cantina swing version of the Mandalorian theme.

The Mandalorian and Grogu isn’t Favreau’s action peak, but that wasn’t what made Iron Man work, either. There are a few missed opportunities in the action (particularly the final assault on the Twins’ HQ), but overall it’s a steady and worthwhile return for the franchise to the big screen that does its job and collects its gold. Plus, if you catch the 3D version (which it is very much filmed for), you get to see civil war-era AT-ATs in the snow in all their multidimensional glory, which really is worth the price of admission alone.