Review: The Mandalorian and Grogu is … fine

影评：《曼达洛人与格罗古》……还行

Hopes were arguably high for The Mandalorian and Grogu, director Jon Favreau’s big-screen offshoot of the popular Disney+ series The Mandalorian. After all, there hasn’t been a new film in the Star Wars franchise since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker wrapped up the three trilogies that make up the so-called “Skywalker Saga.” 人们对《曼达洛人与格罗古》（The Mandalorian and Grogu）寄予厚望，这是导演乔恩·费儒（Jon Favreau）将热门 Disney+ 剧集《曼达洛人》搬上大银幕的衍生作品。毕竟，自 2019 年《星球大战：天行者崛起》为构成所谓“天行者传奇”的三部曲画上句号以来，星球大战系列电影一直处于空窗期。

The new film is … fine. It’s an average Star Wars outing, and it will give families a solid Memorial Day Weekend entertainment option. It’s just not the spectacular home run that might have helped launch the flagging franchise into an exciting new era, and diehard Star Wars fans hoping for more are probably going to be disappointed. (Some spoilers below but no major reveals.) 这部新片……还行。它是一部平庸的星战作品，能为家庭观众提供一个不错的阵亡将士纪念日周末娱乐选择。它只是没能成为那记能帮助这个日渐低迷的系列开启激动人心新纪元的“全垒打”，那些期待更多的星战死忠粉恐怕会感到失望。（下文包含部分剧透，但无重大情节泄露。）

Grogu (fka “Baby Yoda”) won viewers’ hearts from the moment he first appeared onscreen in the first season of The Mandalorian, and the relationship between the little green creature and his father-figure bounty hunter, the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), has only gotten stronger. With the 2023 Hollywood strikes delaying production on season 4 of the series, Favreau got the green light to make this spinoff film. 格罗古（曾用名“尤达宝宝”）自《曼达洛人》第一季首次亮相以来就赢得了观众的心，这个绿色小生物与他的父亲般角色——曼达洛人丁·贾林（佩德罗·帕斯卡饰）之间的关系也愈发深厚。由于 2023 年好莱坞大罢工导致该剧第四季制作延期，费儒获得了拍摄这部衍生电影的许可。

Mando and Grogu (as his apprentice) are hunting down the scattered remnants of Imperial warlords on behalf of the New Republic, taking orders from Sigourney Weaver’s Colonel Ward, a former pilot with the Rebel Alliance. These missions tend to get messy, with Mando being Mando. Ward really wants the warlords alive to get useful intelligence from them, but they understandably don’t like to come quietly, so sometimes, well, they die with their henchmen. Can’t be helped. 曼多和格罗古（作为他的学徒）正代表新共和国追捕帝国军阀的残余势力，并听命于西格妮·韦弗饰演的沃德上校——一位前义军同盟飞行员。这些任务往往会变得一团糟，毕竟曼多就是曼多。沃德上校真心希望抓活的以获取有价值的情报，但军阀们显然不愿束手就擒，所以有时，嗯，他们只能和手下一起送命了。这也是没办法的事。

After Mando takes out his latest target, a disappointed Ward offers him a new mission: tracking down Rotta the Hutt (Jeremy Allen White), son of the late Jabba, on behalf of the Hutt Twins, who took over Jabba’s criminal enterprise. In turn, the twins will provide crucial information on the whereabouts of an elusive Empire warlord named Coin. Mando accepts, mostly because Ward offers him a newly refurbished Razor Crest-like ship, just like his old one that blew up at the end of S2. 在曼多解决掉最新的目标后，失望的沃德给了他一项新任务：代表赫特双胞胎（接管了贾巴犯罪帝国的势力）去追踪贾巴之子罗塔（杰瑞米·艾伦·怀特配音）。作为交换，双胞胎将提供关于一位行踪诡秘的帝国军阀“科恩”的关键情报。曼多接受了，主要是因为沃德承诺给他一艘翻新过的、类似“剃刀冠号”的飞船，就像他在第二季末被炸毁的那艘一样。

The various trailers were thin on plot details, and it’s now clear why: There isn’t much of a plot. Favreau has said that he came up with a new story rather than the one he’d planned for The Mandalorian S4 because of the switch from a streaming series to a theatrical film, but things still feel pretty episodic. The film is largely comprised of a series of side missions in service to the larger arc. There’s some space travel, a fight scene with a cute Grogu moment, a victory, and another cute Grogu moment, then it’s on to the next mission. Rinse and repeat. 之前的预告片对剧情细节遮遮掩掩，现在原因很清楚了：根本没什么剧情。费儒曾表示，由于从流媒体剧集转为院线电影，他构思了一个新故事，而不是原计划中《曼达洛人》第四季的剧本，但整部电影依然感觉非常碎片化。影片主要由一系列服务于主线的小任务组成。一些太空旅行，一场带有格罗古可爱瞬间的打斗戏，一场胜利，再来一个可爱的格罗古瞬间，然后进入下一个任务。循环往复。

It’s all very well-trodden ground with familiar beats happening at the expected times; even the fight scenes are kinda meh. The dialogue in Star Wars films has always been notoriously wooden and uninspired, and The Mandalorian and Grogu is no exception. Good actors can salvage such lines, and Pascal is a very good actor, but it’s much harder when your character wears a helmet the entire time and can’t really emote. 这一切都是老生常谈，熟悉的节奏在预料之中的时间点出现；甚至连打斗场面也显得平平无奇。星战电影的对白向来以生硬和缺乏灵感著称，《曼达洛人与格罗古》也不例外。优秀的演员或许能挽救这些台词，帕斯卡确实是一位好演员，但当你的角色全程戴着头盔、无法展现表情时，这难度就大多了。

Otherwise, we’ve mostly got stunt-casting as fan service. We love Weaver, but she’s utterly wasted here. It’s nice to see Embo the bounty hunter from The Clone Wars in his live-action debut, and the return of Zeb Orrelios (voice by Steve Blum), plus the Hutt family characters from The Book of Boba Fett. But casual moviegoers will neither know their history nor care. 除此之外，影片大多是靠噱头选角来讨好粉丝。我们很喜欢韦弗，但她在这里完全被浪费了。能看到《克隆人战争》中的赏金猎人恩博（Embo）首次真人亮相，以及泽布·奥雷利奥斯（史蒂夫·布鲁姆配音）的回归，还有《波巴·费特之书》中的赫特家族角色，这固然不错。但普通观众既不知道他们的背景，也不会在意。

All that said, there’s no denying that Grogu’s antics are pretty cute, and the little green puppet pretty much carries the entire film. (Grogu partnering with the tiny Anzellans to rescue a kidnapped Mando is tailor-made for merchandising.) The strongest segment is the quietest: Mando collapses from a poisonous bite from a Dragonsnake in the Nal Hutta swamp. 话虽如此，不可否认的是，格罗古的举动确实非常可爱，这个绿色小木偶几乎撑起了整部电影。（格罗古与小小的安泽兰人合作营救被绑架的曼多，这一情节简直是为周边商品量身定做的。）最精彩的部分反而是最安静的片段：曼多在纳尔赫塔沼泽被龙蛇咬伤中毒后倒下的那一幕。