‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ First Critic Takes Are In After Premiere

InnovationGaming‘The Mandalorian And Grogu’ First Critic Takes Are In After PremiereByPaul Tassi,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. News and opinion about video games, television, movies and the internet.Follow AuthorMay 15, 2026, 09:31am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.The Mandalorian and GroguLucasfilmWe have now hit the “social media embargo” for The Mandalorian and Grogu after its big premiere last night, and at midnight ET, the internet was flooded with impressions from those lucky enough to attend.An embargo like this means you are allowed to tweet your impressions, with some limitations, rather than publish full reviews, the kind that would be scored and thrown up on Rotten Tomatoes, so The Mandalorian and Grogu has no score yet.How is it doing? What’s the vibe? I’ve read dozens of these so far, from normal critics to Star Wars superfans, and the reaction is generally mixed to positive, perhaps skewing more positive. Then again, social media impressions from early viewers often skew positive more generally.The bad: Some are saying it’s dull and lifeless and that it does, in fact, just feel like an overly long episode of the show that did not need to be on the big screen. Here’s a sampling:Jonathan Sim: “One of the weakest ‘Star Wars’ movies. An emotionless, predictable experience that doesn’t push Din Djarin anywhere interesting. Dull, unexciting fight scenes; just CGI monsters. Action figures mashed together. A long, colorless made-for-TV movie.”MORE FOR YOUGriffin Schiller: “THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU is...fine? An inoffensive, technically impressive spectacle that's kinda a snooze fest. Very much structured like an abridged season of the tv show which unfortunately plays like watching the cutscenes of a Star Wars video game instead of playing one.”The MandalorianDisneyThe good: Others are saying that it’s a lot...