There are reasons to be apprehensive about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Prequels and spin-offs (this movie is both) are hard judged by committed fan bases and the Star Wars tribe is more dedicated than most.
Throw in the fact that this movie underwent some reshooting, and you add to the sense of apprehension. However, Rogue One – which releases today – is not only an enthralling Star Wars movie, it’s a beacon of hope for the future of the series.
Chronologically Rogue One takes place between Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV – A New Hope and follows new character Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones).
Jyn is the daughter of an Imperial scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who is the man responsible for creating the first Death Star. She is tapped up by the Rebellion after they receive word of Galen’s apparent change of heart and warnings of the yet unnamed super weapon.
Saying anything more would veer into spoiler territory but, weirdly, speaking of the ending does not. We already know that the Rebels steal the Death Star plans, blow up the space station and have a big celebration with medals afterwards. What Rogue One has to do, is make us care about the events leading up to that stage and the characters involved in a pretty pivotal piece of Star Wars lore.
The cast is rock solid in this regard. Felicity Jones makes the headstrong Jyn a more compelling character than Rey from The Force Awakens in spite of the character’s clichéd back story. Whereas Rey was considered a Mary Sue – able to overcome every obstacle with a seemingly endless list of talents – Jyn is more grounded and realistic. Jones’ portrayal of the scarred young woman in over her head is top notch.
Jones’ costar is Diego Luna playing a Rebel who has been fighting the Empire since he was a child. This character, Cassian Andor, is the shady rogue of the Rebellion. There’s no glory or honour in his sabotages and assassinations both on screen and what’s alluded too in the dialogue. This character, like Jyn, has a simple motivation – redemption – but he serves as a nice reminder that both sides of the conflict commit some horrible acts in the name of their struggle. Luna has the chops to make this work, to make you worry about one man’s soul while a planet-destroying weapon hangs over head.
The rest of the cast is a rogue’s gallery that, again, reflects the Rebellion in terms of its rag tag nature. Special mention must be given to Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe – a blind warrior-monk who doesn’t use the Force, but practices the way of the Jedi. His interactions with both enemies and allies were always a delight to watch. His quips are funnier than the new sassy droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), but he easily switches to a more serious tone on a dime. He also kicks about as much ass as you’d expect – Yen is a famous martial artist and he is given a few scenes to strut his stuff.
As you can imagine, stealing the secret plans of the Death Star from the Empire wasn’t easy. As the cast overcomes obstacles and many, many laser blasts, the characters grow in front of the audience.
All the people, places and machines you see in this ride feel like authentic pieces of the Star Wars universe. While it does rely heavily on CGI for a lot of this, it’s not as egregious as the prequels and you can see that it was put together with loving hands.
Special mention must be given to the retro-futuristic aesthetic on display here. As it precedes a movie that was made and released in the 70’s, the filmmakers decided to keep the look from that period. The banks of computers have rudimentary screens with big buttons and levers, some of the costumes have that absurd combination of proportions and colours, and many of the male actors rock ridiculous moustaches.
This all just feels like genuine Star Wars canon.
Rogue One should be commended; any form of media is seeking to evoke an emotional response, and Rogue One managed this without purloining any ideas or plot points from any other Star Wars films. The Force Awakens can’t say the same.
Looking past this movie as a standalone success, it’s also a great proof of concept that Disney can handle this beloved franchise as it gets further away from the original trilogy. As probably the darkest movie of the lot (soldiers and machines are destroyed en masse), the House of Mouse was brave to go in such a gritty direction.
Oh, and we didn’t hear a single Wilhelm scream in the entire runtime of the movie. 0/10. Just kidding. Kinda.
Rogue One succeeds against expectations. The Force is strong with this one.
