Pedro Pascal Concludes Press Tour in Tokyo as 'The Mandalorian and Grogu' Reviews Land

Pedro Pascal has completed his press circuit for The Mandalorian & Grogu, touching down in Tokyo just one day before the film hits theaters.

The 51-year-old actor appeared at the Japan premiere on Tuesday, May 19, at Grand Cinema Sunshine in Tokyo alongside director Jon Favreau and a Grogu robot. Pascal reprises his lead role from the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, with Sigourney Weaver joining the cast.

The film follows legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pascal) and his young apprentice Grogu as they work with the fledgling New Republic to protect the galaxy following the fall of the evil Empire and the scattering of Imperial warlords.

Critical reception has been measured, with the film earning a 60% average on Rotten Tomatoes based on 103 reviews as of May 19. Among Star Wars theatrical releases, only The Phantom Menace (1999) at 54% and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) at 51% scored lower.

The New York Post awarded three out of four stars, noting the film functions as "a very different kind of 'Star Wars' movie — an elongated and beefed-up episode of television that aims neither to be part of a broader saga nor expound on one."

AV Club gave it a B, observing that "The Mandalorian & Grogu is almost aggressively anti-thematic, preferring to keep even its most obvious parenting metaphors muted and largely unexplored. The movie wants to show you a good time, and it does. Some of its creatures even have some semblance of soul."

IndieWire assigned a C+, calling it "inessential and inoffensive, frequently adorable and fun for the whole family" while suggesting Jon Favreau's film "feels like three good-enough TV episodes smushed together."

The Associated Press gave two out of four stars, writing: "It's been nearly seven years since there was a new 'Star Wars' movie released in theaters and there are lots of ways to do it. 'Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,' a disjointed off-ramp that lacks the scale and ambition of its sisters, fails the task. As the Mandalorians might say, this is not the way."

The Times UK was the harshest critic, awarding one out of five stars and asking: "Would someone please put Star Wars out of its misery? It's an ailing pop cultural mutant, unrecognisable from the chirpy fable that George Lucas revealed to the world in 1977."