The Mandalorian and Grogu

Finally got so see this much anticipated film.  The audience was surprisingly large for a movie nearing the end of its initial release.  Not expecting much from a story line that had left me rather cold, I was surprised both at how well the film stood up as a story and how well composed the visual product was.  A film where the major character only shows his face --reluctantly -- for a few seconds and where his buddy only speaks in slight whimpers does not seem to offer a lot to engage the spectator.  Yet, The Mandalorian and Grogu moves along extremely efficiently, perhaps because it mixes in just the right amount of detective noir and measured humor to modulate the fight scenes and military sci fi content.  There are tasteful tributes to the rest of the vase Star Wars canon, without the irritating leaning that typifies so many sequel efforts.  Nothing is permitted to steal the show or overpower the various elements, not even the presence of the Queen of Outer Space (not a Gabor, but THE Weaver) as the leader of the rebel/republican alliance.  One of the elements that pleased me most was the way the middle course of the movie, where the Mandalorian is near death and Grogu is forced togrow up quickly and save them both, shifts registers to a more emotive and thoughtful pace.  It is like a changing tempo in a symphony that still blends completely into the themes of the other movements.  Speaking of which, the music in this epic deserves special accolades, covering a range of cohesive themes that underline the sweeping confrontations in the John Williams tradition and also shift without jarring into the suspenseful or gentler parts of the plot.  The more I think of it, The Mandalorian and Grogu stands out for me as a more carefully crafted artwork than the other prequels and sequels, putting it in a class with Rogue One as a masterpiece that can be enjoyed on its own.