![The Red Right Hand Movie Reviews [Matthew Stogdon]](https://reviews.theredrighthand.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/cropped-header1.png)
Director
Jon Favreau
Starring
Pedro Pascal
Jeremy Allen White
Sigourney Weaver
Jonny Coyne
Following the events of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin [Pascal] and his young ward, Grogu, continue their adventures as bounty hunters for the New Republic. Receiving marks for former allies of the Empire, taking them down, and collecting the bounty. This latest mission has our leads crossing paths with the duplicitous Hutt twins, who are trying to locate their missing nephew, Rotta [White]. And that’s pretty much it for plot, I’m afraid.
There are conversations to be had about franchise oversaturation and dilution with the various Star Wars TV series, and while they’re all necessary and relevant, let’s try and critique this movie as a standalone cinematic experience. But even with that consideration, this release still comes out hollow and measly. In truth, there feels like a clear timeline of dawning realisation. First off, we have the cold open which has brilliant pacing and scale – just the right level of action adventure you’d want and expect from a Star Wars feature. Then, you notice half an hour has passed, but there’s little sense of wonder or excitement; instead we have video game style conversations with NPCs. Djarin goes to a location, he asks a question or two, then travels to the next location, asks someone else a question, maybe gets into a fight. And while that’s a reductive way of describing every detective or bounty hunter story, these interactions feel turgid – like we’re wading through to get to ‘the good bit’.
Finally, after an hour of back-and-forth and a smattering of CGI monster fights, we get an entire cutaway section of Grogu on his own little quest, which ultimately feels like a standalone episode and kills the pacing. And the reason for all this is that this movie has an endemic structural issue: it feels like an entire season of the show condensed for a two hour narrative. What’s worse, there’s no b-plot, or strong focus on supporting cutaways, meaning we’re exclusively with Mando, which makes for a very sluggish, dull movie. Not entirely because of that focus, simply because this tale isn’t compelling enough to maintain our attention.
So, the story is threadbare, but how do the characters fare? Worse, unfortunately. When The Mandalorian premiered alongside the bloated mess that was Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, it felt like a breath of fresh air, and Pascal was phenomenal as the titular bounty hunter. On paper nothing has changed, but there’s so little for him to do, and the more the script tries to manufacture conflict, the more it reveals lazy falliblities and cracks in his armour. What’s worse, if you’re not on board with the Grogu/Anzellan cuteness, there’s very little redeeming about this film, because it leverages a great deal of “Grogu does something endearing” as padding. And I’m not just being a disgruntled old man, the problem is none of it lands outside of its surface intention. Over multiple seasons we’ve witnessed this masked man and his puppet friend have equally heartwarming and heartrending encounters and exchanges, and they all resonated and meant something. Frankly, the most glaring sin here is that there are essentially no character arcs. Everyone starts and ends the film with the exact same outlook and development. Just another day on the job.
And, of the very few supports, everyone looks bored. You’ve got Steve Blum throwing a few cliche lines as fan favourite Zeb Orrelios, Jonny Coyne being a fairly two dimensional gangster, and the utterly criminal waste of Sigourney Weaver, who is essentially sleepwalking through this. The only standout, if for how odd his inclusion is, is Jeremy Allen White as Jabba the Hutt’s son, Rotta the hench Hutt who speaks with a regular American accent is – a character returning from easily the worst Star Wars cinematic release: 2008’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The CGI is never really convincing, the idea of an excessively muscular Hutt arena fighter who’s trying to escape his father’s legacy fails to germinate, and the line deliveries come off as contrived. Oh, and speaking of Hutts, the shocking twist that the Hutt Twins couldn’t be trusted isn’t even worth spoiler tagging. Especially as their motivation for tracking Rotta down would have come to pass if they hadn’t contracted Djarin – which feels less like kismet and more like writing lacking finesse.
Regrettably, a lot of Star Wars content has devolved into a series of inside references and callbacks, and subsequently, nothing presented here has any emotional weight, narrative consequence, or significance outside of “mission of the week”. If you had a sizeable but limited TV budget, and this is your big screen outing, it should both earn that spot and go to excess with the opportunity. The problem is, The Mandalorian and Grogu arrogantly expects to be in cinemas because it’s Star Wars. It neither has to justify its existence, nor procure support because it boastfully assumes audiences will come regardless of quality. But with its vertical loop writing emulating syndicated television – taking the characters on a journey that turns everything upside down but ultimately returns them to the same spot – all we’re left with is a bland and painfully inconsequential release that will frustrate and go unnoticed in the longterm.
Release Date:
22 May 2026
The Scene To Look Out For:
After the cold open, Djarin is gifted a new ship: an uncustomised Razor Crest. Making it the earliest warning sign that this film was in trouble. Why? Because we’re looking at a worryingly tight nostalgia loop – already taking vehicles from the first series of The Mandalorian and plastering them front and centre to elicit a positive low hanging dopamine hit. As well as repainting an already established toy-line to feed back to the same die hard fans. It’s a minor point but if you can see the motivation behind it, it’s a stark one.
Notable Characters:
The problem with a lot of Dave Filoni’s involvement is the knotted interconnectivity of the lore. You can watch an episode of the show and some random alien will turn up for a few scenes and we’re expected to jump and cheer. Don’t worry about proper introductions and character development here, we’ve already got years of adjacent content for you to consume. Don’t know anything about the bounty hunter sent after Mando? That’s on you. This film seemingly has no obligation to develop them outside of a silent stalking figure. Are there a few engaging fight scenes? Sure. Does the design look cool? I guess. Then that’s more than enough to sell the toys. Get consuming.
Highlighted Quote:
“Big pipe, huh?”
In A Few Words:
“Is this the way? A weak, predictable feature devoid of significant stakes?”
Total Score: 2/5
