Why the American press is very disappointed by the new Star Wars

The wonder of the original saga seems to have given way to a television vision. Despite its obvious means, the new film would absolutely look like an XXL episode of the Disney + series…

Will the box office of the new Star Wars live up to the franchise’s enormous legacy?

Nothing is less certain. While The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives today in French theaters (before its American release on Friday), the excitement is surprisingly little palpable on the networks, and even among fans of the saga. As if the release of the new Star Wars film – the first to be shown in cinemas in 7 years – was no longer really an event. A lasting impression, reinforced by the scathing criticisms of the world and American press: The Mandalorian and Grogu would be less a new feature film in the galaxy far, far away, than a bloated Disney+ series extension for the cinema.

For ComingSoonthe observation is even brutal. The site believes that the saga has lost its status as an event since the mixed reception of the last trilogy and the proliferation of spin-off series. Result : The Mandalorian and Grogu looks more like “a TV movie coming to the cinema”. The reviewer even judges that Lucasfilm delivers here “the weakest Star Wars film of the Disney era“, a feature film incapable of making the franchise important or indispensable. According to him, it is akin to “a 2h12 Saturday morning cartoon“, a secondary adventure that adds almost nothing to the universe.

Same criticism from the side of The Playlistwhich describes the blockbuster as a “big episode of TV, expensive and unimportant”. Despite the spectacle, the cameos and the antics of Grogu, the media considers that the Mandalorian’s move to the big screen is never really justified.

At the house of Colliderthe criticism is even more direct: the structure of the story “feels like a condensed collection of discarded episodes rather than a real film“. In other words, the project would completely keep the mechanics of a TV series, without succeeding in finding a cinematic breath.

Vulture shares exactly this sentiment. The site even estimates that The Mandalorian and Grogu “probably should never have become a movie“. The review explains that the feature film often resembles “several special episodes stitched together“. The film would then function above all as a sort of transition before a future season of the series, more than a work designed for the cinema.

On the side of Hollywood Reporterthe verdict is more nuanced, but the problem remains the same. The media recognizes that Jon Favreau succeeded in giving the project a visual scale worthy of Star Warswith a bigger budget, spectacular action scenes and sequences calibrated for IMAX. “The film looks, sounds and feels like a Star Wars film. But despite this prestigious envelope, the story remains desperately small and inconsequential.” The newspaper even doubts that a new spectator could come away from the film with the same wonder as that once provoked by the original trilogy…

This is also the root of the problem for many American media. Star Wars seems to have lost its aura. Duluée in the side projects. Variety perhaps best sums up this unease: “Will the public go and see The Mandalorian and Grogu expecting a real movie Star Wars ? Yes and no. In bringing the series to the big screen, Disney ultimately offers nothing more – nor less – than a few nice, entertaining and semi-forgettable episodes strung together, even if it all still benefits from spectacular action scenes worthy of a big-budget blockbuster. But it’s impossible to escape this impression: The Mandalorian and Grogu deeply retains a small screen logic. And deep down, maybe Star Wars has become this today…”