Sam Adams Delivers New Mandalorian Movie Critique With Worst Star Wars Verdict
Sam Adams’ new mandalorian movie critique says The Mandalorian and Grogu is a lifeless, half-hearted Star Wars film. The review lands as the franchise returns to movie theaters for the first time in seven years.
“The bad news is I don’t know what you’d have to do to have a good time at this lifeless, half-hearted movie, which brings Star Wars back to movie theaters for the first time in seven years, since the similarly dreadful The Rise of Skywalker.” Adams also wrote that if the film is not the worst Star Wars movie, “it might be” and is “certainly the least: the least essential, the least engaging, the least necessary.”
Jon Favreau’s two-hour sketch
Adams says the film runs for “two hours and change” but never gets beyond “the outline of a plot” and “a rough sketch.” That is a sharper problem for a theatrical return than for a streaming season, where connective tissue and lore-heavy detours can be easier to absorb.
Jon Favreau directed the movie and co-wrote the screenplay with Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor. Pedro Pascal voices Mando, while Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder play the character largely while helmeted.
Rise of Skywalker comparison
The comparison to The Rise of Skywalker does more than supply a familiar franchise benchmark. Adams is arguing that this film is not just weak, but weak in the exact place Star Wars most needs clarity: a movie meant to reset its theatrical presence after seven years away.
That makes the movie’s use of familiar figures like Jonny Coyne’s warlord Janu and Jabba the Hutt’s twin cousins feel less like momentum and more like carryover. The review also notes that the film includes a neon-lit netherworld and a remote jungle fortress, but says those settings do not add up to a developed story.
George Lucas and The Phantom Menace
Adams contrasted the movie with George Lucas’ approach in The Phantom Menace, saying, “Say what you want about The Phantom Menace, but George Lucas had something he wanted to get off his chest.” He added, “Also, the pod-racing scene is pretty neat.”
That is the real drag here: a franchise return built to feel consequential, met instead with a review that says the film is not only thin, but unnecessary. For readers deciding whether this is worth a theatrical ticket, Adams’ answer is blunt — the movie does not just miss the mark, it barely reaches one.
