Rogue One Review

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     Disney has been pretty intent on bringing back Star Wars, haven’t they? Not content to simply continue the saga of the Skywalker clan, standalone movies have now been planned to flesh out this great universe and explore corners and stories that can’t be hit in the primary films. The first of these films is Rogue One, based on a relatively minor plot point from A New Hope, and with Godzilla director Gareth Edwards promising us a darker and more mature movie. Do they succeed? Let’s find out.

      Rogue One takes place in the immediate months before A New Hope, focusing on the team that stole the plans for the Death Star. The fractured Rebel Alliance recruits young thief Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) to lead the hunt for her father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), one of the creators of the massive superweapon. Along with intelligence officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his droid K2SO (Alan Tudyk), Jyn sets out to save her father and hopefully the galaxy, picking up warrior monk Chirrut (Donnie Yen), armed mercenary Baze (Jiang Wen), and Imperial defector Bodhi (Riz Ahmed) to aid them. However, on their tail is the director of the Death Star project Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), as well as that most famous of Sith Lords, Darth Vader. 

     When Gareth Edwards said that this was going to be darker, I had no idea that this was what I was going to get. This is a war film and it does not pull any punches, with more ambiguous characters, some interesting (if underdeveloped) moral questions and a good helping of violence. Within the first fifteen minutes we see one of our main heroes murder somebody in cold blood, as if to let you know that this isn’t going to be some goofy fun. I applaud this film for taking that step and showing that this franchise has plenty of room for more mature content while still being safe enough to be PG-13. And it’s not just the violence or the story beats that show it, it’s the world. Stormtroopers have dirt and wear on their armor, while our heroes are almost always wearing worn down clothes and using rough weaponry. Many scenes are set in darker worlds or areas, with the turning point of the film taking place on a dark, storm-ridden planet, showing a more subtle touch here that takes a good director (at least with visuals) to pull off.

     The two words in the franchise name are both represented well here, but I’ll start with the “Star” part of it. The planets introduced here are all stunning and diverse, each beautiful in their own way. The moon of Jedha looks like a Middle Eastern warzone, with mountain fortresses reminding me of ancient strongholds I read about in school (and rebel fighters dressed more like ISIS than Han Solo), while the planet Scarif resembles an island paradise. Edwards also shows off the scope of the universe excellently, with some beautiful shots featuring the Death Star eclipsing a planet’s sun and the huge AT-ATs emerging from the fog during the final battle. It’s probably the best looking Star Wars film to date, and that’s saying something.

     More than any other film in this franchise, Rogue One emphasizes the war part of the title, with several action sequences that blow away any non-lightsaber fight in the series. Each of the heroes gets their chance to shine, with Donnie Yen in particular getting to show off his martial arts prowess, and the action never gets too boring or too ridiculous. There are no lightsabers involved here and no use of the Force, and that actually works to the film’s benefit because it seems like this is a real, grounded war with real stakes. The sense of scale also applies to the battles, with the space battles in particular showcasing the limitations of the Rebel fleet against the massive Star Destroyers that the Empire has at their disposal. It’s the last action sequence on Scarif, though, that really impresses because it goes full-on Saving Private Ryan. Massive armies engage in battles on the ground, in the skies of the planet and even in outer space, with our heroes fighting against a ticking clock before the Death Star arrives. It’s a truly breathtaking and awesome sequence, and one that must be seen on the big screen.

     Despite all of these positives, there are major flaws that really detracted from the experience for me. The least of these problems is some rather problematic use of CGI to digitally recreate characters from A New Hope. One use is unnecessary but only in a brief shot, but one particular character is brought back again and again, to the point where it was getting distracting and downright unsettling. Anyone who is worried that CGI could one day replace actors just needs to look at this and have their fears assuaged, because this character is creepy as hell and the film would have been better served by just hiring a real actor. The other is just a part of the annoying fanservice that pops up throughout, but I won't go into that because I know it won't bother some people. 

     My biggest complaints come from the script, particularly in how quick and underwritten many of this story feels. The first twenty or so minutes jumps from planet to planet to planet for brief minute-long scenes, giving the feeling that somebody sneezed while editing because this problem never shows up again. The too-quick pace continues to be an issue because, like Doctor Strange, important character beats just appear out of nowhere in order to move things along rather than serve the actual characters. The pace also zooms through elements that are originally set up as being vital to the film, but ultimately get left behind. The Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), is supposed to be the character that makes us look at the Rebels in a negative light, but he has such little screen time that you wonder why he was even there. Several characters are supposed to be more morally ambiguous, but after one scene of ambiguity all that goes away and is never really brought up again. Things like that occur a lot throughout the movie, which leads me to my biggest complaint. 

     Star Wars, despite all the action and the special effects and the lightsabers, is all about the characters at the center of this grand space opera. We’re invested in what happens because we care about Luke and Leia and Han and Chewbacca, and it is through them that we feel the triumphs and the heartbreaks that they do. Rogue One does not have that crucial element, and the blame for that falls purely on the writers (the actors are all quite good). Each character, hero or villain, is a flat two-dimensional character that never seem real or relatable in any way and only do things because the script demands it rather than any real motivation. Donnie Yen’s Chirrut never goes beyond being an Asian grandmaster stereotype, Director Krennic is the sniveling weasel stereotype, and the list goes on and on. Jyn and Cassian, the two most developed characters, both switch their perspectives on the war on a dime, without any real time devoted to it. This is a massive failing because with a story with stakes as high as they are and the feeling that anyone could die, I never felt connected to any of them. One of my criticisms in The Magnificent Seven was that certain characters were underdeveloped, but those characters are miles above the Rogue One crew in terms of personality and established traits. These characters are vehicles for the plot and nothing more, and I think it’s a shame that the thing that was always the strongest aspect of Star Wars is just done so poorly here. 

     Bottom line is that Rogue One is a very fun action film with some serious flaws. It’s got great space battles, the occasional funny bit of dialogue (mostly from K2SO) and some jaw-dropping scenes that more than justify the ticket price. However, don’t go into this expecting to like any of the characters or feel attached to them, because there’s nothing there to latch onto. It’s a massive achievement and a massive disappointment, but overall it's a good time that represents a good right step for this franchise to take.

My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now.

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