A Rogue One Review

“The force is strong with this one”, is probably what most people would say about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This movie has an exciting and talented cast, a very interesting premise, and quite frankly a lot of hype to live up to. Star Wars has grown to be one of our world’s most dominant franchises and if you have any doubt about that look up the box office returns of The Force Awakens. However with each success comes the anticipation and expectation to outdo yourself. Rogue One certainly fit the bill for that though with its totally different approach to the story. Which is impressive considering they had to make an entire movie out of one line in the prelude of A New Hope! Maybe the movie title in itself is a representation of their approach to the story with going rogue. They decide to ditch the norms of the traditional “trilogy stories” and “go rogue” with the story. This new approach and new look on the Star Wars story seems to have paid off (both literally and figuratively) for Lucasfilm and Disney though.

Before I go into everything I didn’t like I want to reiterate that I did greatly enjoy the film. I think it was very good at what it did and what it was trying to do so it was a refreshing and interesting take on this entire universe. However there are some issues I had with the story and they essentially come down to two main flaws, the story and the characters.

Let’s first discuss the story. In terms of the plot everything seemed to be okay as far as I could tell. What I mean about the story being flawed is really in the editing. In the beginning of the movie they are trying to establish all the different characters and where they are all at in the story but they set them at several different locations and at one point in the span of about 10 minutes I think they cut to about four or more locations. When you are trying to cut that many locations together in that short of time, while it might be necessary to establish everything and everyone in the story, it can make the audience member a little disoriented. It became hard to keep track of where we were and who was where. It was fine later in the film when all the characters were united and traveling together but in the very beginning it was quite a lot to keep track of.

The other issue with the story is a fundamental flaw I think the film might not have been able to do anything about. With this being a spin off movie taking place in the Star Wars universe but following new characters it is difficult to establish a character’s emotional value in just one film. In the past with the trilogies we had several movies to get to know characters and have more elaborate set ups and payoffs. However with a one movie story arc you have to set them up quickly in order for us to know the necessary information to understand what is happening in the story but also need to establish an emotional connection with these characters. In my opinion the movie wasn’t able to completely establish that emotional connection so when we reach that conclusion where the rebels stealing the plans all die, while it is sad, the intensity of that scene doesn’t seem to be as high as it could have been.  

Then in terms of character development as a whole it would have been nice to see a little more. To be perfectly honest I didn’t think their journeys were super articulate in the story for some of the lesser characters. Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso obviously had her journey and that was very clear but some of the lesser shown characters seemed to have gone by the wayside. Also there was great deal of assumed details for each of the characters. The most prominent example of this was Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. He is a man who has seen war with the Empire and he is barely holding it together both mentally and physically. But at this point in the story we only really see him when he’s crazy and distrusting of literally EVERYONE. We never saw him before he was like that and it really just raised more questions than answering them. And this could be applied to a lot of the characters, like why did the pilot choose to defect? I know he didn’t agree with the Empire’s values anymore but what led him to that decision. We were essentially dropped into this one moment in the story with very little backstory that never really got explained.

All of that said I found all the character’s profoundly interesting and part of the reason I was frustrated was simply because we didn’t see more of them. I mean who doesn’t love the blind Jedi (wannabe) Chirrut Imwe? He fights, he is wise, and he has a hilarious line of, “are you kidding me?? I’m blind!”, when the rebels put a bag over his head. They all had their unique skills and it was interesting to see these different people with different backgrounds be united by one cause, the Rebellion.

Which leads me to what I liked about the movie! I really loved how they tied everything in to the universe. They had character appearances, props, lines, and so many throwbacks to the original series and the prequels (even though I pretend they don’t exist). They really illustrated and bridged the gap of what happened between the last prequel film Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. With these kinds of spin off stories it is important to keep it grounded in the universe that they exist in and I think all the throwback elements they included into this film really blended its way into the rest of the franchise while also maintaining its own independence.

The fact that their approach was different was good too because the feel of it being a war movie that takes place in the Star Wars world was very apparent. Down to the details of how they shot the action sequences along with how the story was told. Which made it very interesting to watch. From the very first moments of the film the way it was shot and the gritty feel of the film makes it clear from the beginning that this is going to be a different Star Wars film than the previous ones we have seen. Someone told me that, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens was for my inner child while Rogue One was for me now”, and I can’t help but think that they put it perfectly. This is most definitely not a feel good movie at the end. Obviously they end on hope which is an uplifting ending but everyone still died at the end and that is emotionally heavy. But that might have been the point of the film since it wasn’t a part of the main trilogy story.

Now my final thoughts are on something that I both liked and am a little confused by, Darth Vader. I understand that including him in the film is iconic and if you are going to do it then you need to give him and epic moment. Boy does Garreth Edwards deliver on that! The scene I am referring to as we all know is the part where he absolutely DESTROYS the rebels trying to escape with the Death Star plans. Now if you watched A New Hope like I did before the film (or really any of the films) you’ll realize that Darth Vader really doesn’t lead the charge ever when there is a boarding party or a battle. But if he can do what he did on that Rebel ship, taking out 8-10 rebels without breaking a sweat, why doesn’t the Empire use him more? I loved the moment and thought it was a great use of action and special effects but when you try to fit it in with the rest of the franchise it is a bit confusing. I acknowledge that the original trilogy did not have the same technology we do now so I understand the technical limitations but it is still a confusing moment to me to include that scene.

Overall I think it was a great film and definitely worth seeing. The special effects are amazing, you see some truly spectacular performances, and this refreshing addition to the Star Wars world is very welcomed and interesting to watch. Now all we have to do is see where Han Solo was for all of this!