Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) – Review.
Best Laid Plans.
*** SPOILER ALERT ***
For the third time in two years we‘re about to have another Star Wars film unleashed upon us and will likely get one each year for the foreseeable future with Disney, understandably, looking to maximise the potential of this cultural behemoth. Anticipation for The Last Jedi is, as to be expected, extremely high given that it’s the eighth film in the main saga and the direct follow-up to 2015’s incredibly successful The Force Awakens. But whilst we wait with baited breath to see what’s next for Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren, lets take a look at the Star Wars film that’s something of an anomaly, not being, as such, one of the numbered films in the ongoing series and instead the first of several planned spin-off films.
What Rogue One did differently to the 7 Star Wars films that preceded it is branch off from the main Skywalker saga and focus on the brief events depicted in a line from the opening crawl of the 1977 original where the rebels steal the plans to the Empire’s dreaded Death Star. Rogue One is Star Wars taken out of its comfort zone, an experiment if you will on the viability of expanding the film franchise into the wider Star Wars Universe with the focus removed from the familiar story arc of the main saga. Yes, familiar characters are present but in a supporting role only and a few amount to little more than cameo appearances. So did Rogue One succeed and how does it fare when compared to the other Star Wars films?
For me Rogue One very much succeeds on a number of levels. I’m a Star Wars fan brought up on the original trilogy and very much of the original trilogy generation who was burned by the woefully disappointing prequel trilogy. The Star Wars fan within me was left hurt, jaded and bereft of some of the love I once had for the franchise. Then The Force Awakens came along and after now having watched that film several times and having written a lengthy essay on it for this very site, I can safely say that it was a film that, for me at least, felt out of sync with the original trilogy. It didn’t feel like a natural, organic continuation of the Skywalker saga and felt very much like a film that played it safe, aimed for as broad an audience as possible and moreover felt like a film made by a committee. I feel no urge to watch the film again, even in preparation for The Last Jedi. I found it bereft of any true depth or memorable scenes and even Han Solo was given short shrift with a death that wasn’t adequately followed up and ultimately lacked the expected emotional heft.
Given that these two films so closely followed one another in their inception and are the first two Star Wars films made under the Disney umbrella, comparisons are both relevant and unavoidable. Rogue One didn’t dazzle with a complex plot, few of the characters were fleshed out with backstory and therefore we were left to fill in the blanks ourselves as to their motivations. But where in The Force Awakens, Finn’s jarring turn from highly trained Stormtrooper to morally righteous rebel felt utterly artificial, here both the rebel protagonists and the villainous Imperial officers seem far more organic. Accusations of Rey being a “Mary Sue”, a protagonist who is good at everything are soundly justified in that her character is never placed in a position of true peril that causes us to believe that she may not make it through to the next film. This robbed The Force Awakens of much required dramatic tension. There was no edge or grittiness to the film whereas Rogue One was blessed by a very palpable sense of impending doom. Our heroes were all aware of the importance of their mission, as were we, the viewer having seen its ultimate power unleashed in A New Hope. Rogue One has a feel akin to that of the Dirty Dozen and the many similar suicide mission war films of the ‘60s. From reading the earliest synopsis I’d hoped for a more adult film that didn’t pull it’s punches. From one of the earliest scenes in the final film where Cassian Andor showed a degree of ruthlessness that makes Han Solo shooting Greedo first seem tame in comparison, I was reassured that my fears of another neutered Star Wars film were put at ease.
The performances across the board range from slightly wooden, but these are few and far between, through to perfectly acceptable to outright brilliant. The standout players here include the reprogrammed Imperial Droid K-2SO, voiced to perfection by Alan Tudyk, his snarky inability to filter his thoughts imbue the film with much of its well gauged humour. The leads Felicity Jones and Diego Luna are both far more natural actors than the two young leads from The Force Awakens and are well cast with a pleasing avoidance of a cliched romantic attachment although their mutual respect and admiration for each other is nicely handled.
Donnie Yen plays the Force sensitive Chirrut Îmwe. If it wasn’t for the eradication of the Jedi he’d have surely been amongst their ranks. We see him put the Force to use in subtle ways that allow him to see far more than others in spite of him being blind. Yen’s phenomenal martial arts abilities are also showcased to crowd pleasing effect. Along with K-2SO he’s arguably the most interesting of the supporting cast.
On the side of Evil we have Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, the Imperial Lieutenant Commander that oversees the construction of the Death Star but who must answer to two of the original trilogy’s main antgonists, Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader himself. I’ll touch on Tarkin’s appearance later on but for pretty much every Star Wars fan, seeing Darth Vader unleashing his fury upon hapless rebel troops is arguably the highlight of a pretty much flawless third act.
One way to compare The Force Awakens to Rogue One in microcosm is to look at the two main Imperial Officers in each film, General Hux and Orson Krennic. Both are played by great actors but sadly Hux is a scenery chewing pantomime villain, all sneers and wild eyes. It’s a woefully overacted part that I found utterly cringe inducing. Krennic however has at least basic layers of depth to him. His motivation is to earn the recognition of the Emperor and his frustration at knowing that he’ll forever be robbed of that by his superiors comes across well. His nuance and subtlety as an actor come to the fore and there’s one brief scene where he’s sat on a shuttle with his cadre of black clad Death Troopers and without words, his body language alone shows his acceptance of the futility of his role within the Empire. It’s this more careful handling of characters and greater show of restraint that marks the two films apart.
Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn Erso’s father Galen lends the film a much needed element of depth as an Imperial scientist responsible for the construction of the Death Star. He’s a decent man that has been coerced and manipulated into doing the Empire’s bidding, one would imagine much like many Imperial Officers, but when he realises the true use of the super weapon, he builds into it a weakness, one that is later exploited by a certain farm boy with a skill for piloting. This perfect fix to one of Star Wars’ minor illogical plot points is one of several aspects of Rogue One that give it a sense of purpose and validity.
From a technical standpoint Rogue One absolutely astonishes with some of the most jaw dropping action set-pieces and visual effects yet seen in a Star Wars film. Not since Return of the Jedi’s phenomenal third act have we seen action as well executed and as grandstanding as this. The long awaited return of the AT-ATs (or to be precise, slightly different cargo carrying versions called AT-ACTs) from The Empire Strikes Back Will please many fans. The implementation of unused footage of the Red and Gold leaders from Star Wars (I refuse to call it A New Hope), reintegrated into the space battle above Scarif was fan service of the very best kind. It wasn’t forced fan service, made great use of some excised footage and fit perfectly within the continuity of both this film and the film that follows it, chronologically speaking that is.
The film paces itself well in that we are drip fed enough spectacle and action throughout coupled with as much character moments as the film requires to maintain a nice balance going into a final act that will please even the most cynical of Star Wars fan. There are so many ingenious moments that will enthrall fans such as when the rebels use a Hammerhead Blockade Runner to push two Star Destroyers into each other, the ensuing destruction being a sight to behold and showing the sheer desperation on the rebels part and the importance of their mission. This is a war film set within the Star Wars framework that certainly appears to achieve all that director Gareth Edwards set out to do.
Where Rogue One also succeeds is in showing that in these days of a modern Hollywood, so averse to taking risks with its mega franchises, a studio such as Disney no less seems to have allowed Edwards to make a far more grittier and adult film than their handling of The Force Awakens would suggest. I’d argue that this is the most adult of all the Star Wars films and the satisfying ending that we have in this final cut of the film may well be a product of those extensive reshoots that people were getting the jitters about. There are indeed a number of scenes from the trailers that aren’t in the final film and they mostly appear to be from the final act. If there was an earlier version that took a safer route then credit to the studio for making changes and giving us an ending where the running theme of sacrifice for the greater good is taken to it’s most logical and satisfying conclusion.
The use of real shooting locations adds immeasurably to the feeling that this is a real universe and the gross artificiality of the prequels is nowhere to be seen. These locales are no doubt augmented by visual effects but it’s done so in such a seamless manner as to be virtually undetectable and credit to the ILM and the various other effects houses for their incredible work. This is another film that demanded to be seen in IMAX theatrically and made great use of the format.
All that being said, Rogue One wasn’t perfect. Michael Giacchino’s score is something of a step down from the quality of John Williams’ generally flawless work across the series. In his defence he was brought in very late in the game and given only a few weeks in which to create the score. Nevertheless some of Giacchino’s new, original cues pale somewhat in comparison to the iconic music that added so much to the other Star Wars films. That said there are just enough uses of Williams’ familiar themes to remind us where we are.
There are many fan-servicing elements that are peppered throughout the film. Some feel organic and provide many of the film’s most pleasing moments. Others seem a little forced but the these are kept to a satisfactory minimum. More than any other Star Wars film, the core audience of Rogue One would appear to be the hardcore fan so those with only a passing interest of the franchise may not derive anywhere near the same degree of enjoyment from it. It’s handling of the CGI de-aging process to create artificial versions of either much older or long-dead actors was met with some derision from fans. Personally I don’t find the resurrected Peter Cushing or brief appearance of a young Princess Leia to be that much of a distraction and after a while accepted him for what they were. If filmmakers don’t make these early bold attempts to develop the process then it will never be perfected so kudos to them for trying.
Rogue One is a film that I went into with almost neutral expectations having been bitterly disappointed by the prequel trilogy and underwhelmed by The Force Awakens. I found myself, in the third act especially, consciously aware of my inability to contain the utter glee that I was feeling as I once again had long lost feelings of awe at what I was seeing on screen brought to the surface. Rogue One is easily the most beautiful looking of all the Star Wars movies and is replete with some truly jaw dropping imagery. The Star Wars fan within me had been all but lost as I saw the franchise developed but not in ways that satisfied my expectations as to what I’d liked to have seen from the prequels and the third trilogy. It holds up to repeat viewings, something for me that The Force Awakens failed to do and I look forward to seeing it again.
Rogue One reinvigorated the Star Wars fan within me and what the film does best is enrichen the Star Wars mythos whilst showing the original trilogy the respect it deserves. What is also did so well was to take us right up to that iconic opening scene from 1977. It’s cyclical handling of the story in how it embellishes what we know without offering any jarring contradiction is evidence of a director and creative team who are likely themselves huge longstanding fans of the saga. I’m hopeful that now Disney/Lucasfilm have found their feet, that The Last Jedi will follow Rogue One’s approach and be edgier and more willing to take risks than The Force Awakens did, whilst still feeling like an organic continuation of the Star Wars saga. I’ve heard Rogue One described as the best fan-film ever made. It’s a film that’s clearly been made by fans for the fans and it’s to those fans that this film will most greatly resonate and appeal and that’s perhaps as fitting a description as any.
Film ‘89 Verdict – 9/10
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is available on DVD & Blu Ray.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in the U.K. December 14th and the US the following day.
