It's safe to
say that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was one of my most anticipated films of
the year. I have lived and breathed Star Wars my entire life, ever since my dad
sat me down with the original VHS tapes, and made me watch the original trilogy.
I have loved this thing since I was a little boy, I've played with the toys. I
love Star Wars, so naturally going to this film, I was on edge, I was trembling,
my heart was beating, I was waiting to see just every little moment of this
movie. I wanted to see how the very first ever Star Wars anthology film, would
open what they have a crawl, would they not have a crawl? What would they do
differently with the score, what would the characters be like, how would
everything wrap-up.
I've avoided
all theories and speculation articles about this film, I have not read a single
spoiler which by the way, this review will also be spoiler-free. I went into
this film as a humongous fan, but also with an open mind, who obviously knows
what the majority of this film is going to be about, because if you've seen Episode
IV: A New Hope, you know that Leia had the Death Star plans, but how did these
plans come into the hands of the rebels, and that's where this movie comes into
play.
The character
Jyn Erso, portrayed by Felicity Jones, and a team of rebels go out on a very small
mission, to attempt to retrieve these Death Star plans and hopefully turn the
tide in the battle against the Empire.
Let's start
with the pros first: I really like the fact that this was a grounded, realistic
Star Wars movie, it was sort of like a very fun action film that takes place in
the Star Wars universe. It feels suitably small-scale despite its massive budget
and incredible special effects, despite the fact that they're traveling all
over the galaxy to many planets, there was something that felt more contained
about this movie, which was refreshing. The film also features gorgeous action set-pieces,
with mind-blowingly good CGI, and I'm talking about the space stuff, the ship
to ship battles, the stuff on the beach battle that we were all very excited to
see. The CG here is virtually flawless.
It is so well
imprinted within this film, that it feels completely seamless with the human characters.
There's a lot of sequences, especially within the beach battle where you see
the AT-AT is walking around, and it's often shown from the perspective of the
humans on the ground, so you get a way of relating to it, and it also depicts
the size very well, just something that Gareth Edwards, who directed this film,
did a really good job in with Godzilla, making him look gigantic. You really
felt the size of that creature in that movie, and you feel that with a lot of
the CG in this film. It's very well incorporated with the people that are on
the ground.
The performances
are all (almost) uniformly great. Felicity Jones is terrific, Diego Luna is very
good, Riz Ahmed is great. In regards to the new characters that are in this
film, I would say that Donnie Yen and K2-SO the droid, are my favourite new
additions to the Star Wars universe. I thought Donnie Yen was a complete badass
in this movie, all his fight scenes were really cool, and I like his character,
there's a lot of good humour there, and speaking of humour, K2-SO is by far the
shining example of it in this film. He has so many great lines, he's such a fun
and likeable character, he's easily my favourite part of this movie in regards
to the characters. I also appreciated the brief call-backs, and references to
other Star Wars films they're there, but they're not overpowering. The film is
wise enough to trust its own story, and be fun in its own right, whilst not
relying too much on things of the past that we appreciate. But they're there in
small doses, and if you pick up on some of them it's going to make the experience
more entertaining for you.
The aesthetics
of the film are also beautiful, the production design feels used, dirty, lived
in, the type of Star Wars we like to see, the sort of dirty futuristic world,
where it feels tangible and real, and I love the prop creatures as well that
were on display, a lot of really fun stuff. Also, this film puts to rest a
decades-long complaint with Star Wars fans, I can't say what it is but this
film addresses a very specific complaint that many people had with the Star Wars
universe, and it did it in a very emotionally satisfying way. And let's talk
about a certain character named Darth Vader that we all know is in this movie,
he has an incredibly awesome scene, an extremely satisfying seen that gave me
goosebumps. It is great, it is great…
…which leads me
into my negatives, because this film is not perfect. Rogue One, I think is an enjoyable
film, I do not think it's a great film. To be honest, I left the theatre, a
little underwhelmed. I was kind of disappointed mainly with the
characterization. Jyn Erso is really the only character that we’re given a reason
to root for or care about. The majority of the other characters are set up in a
very sloppy fashion. For the first act of this film, there are aspects of the
first act that did feel messy.
This film
underwent extensive reshoots, this was very well publicized, a lot of people
were concerned about that, and it does show. There's an intriguing friendship
set up between Donnie Yen's character and Jiang Wen’s character. But there's
never a reason given for why they're friends. We actually learn nothing about
either of those characters. They're just funny and the script has some good
lines for them and they felt unfortunately safe. There just wasn't anything
there beyond the ‘let's make some funny jokes’, and I liked Donnie Yen, because
he's the badass side character, he can be that cool character who comes in and
kicks ass, and you're like ‘yeah you're cool’, and K2-SO can be that cool droid
character who comes in and tells jokes you're like ‘yeah you're funny’, but
there isn't much else to them.
The characters
that really needed focus like Diego Luna, except for one real outburst that he
has, we learn nothing about him either. Instead of more characterization being given
to these characters, and more reasons for us to care about them. We get strange,
out-of-place scenes, like a mind-reading tentacle monster, I don't really know
why that was in the movie. Forrest Whitaker is an actor that I really like. His
character in the film is based off of a character who appears in the Clone Wars
animated show. His voice in this film I can tell you is probably going to
polarize a lot of people. My best way to describe it would be if someone
stepped on my throat right now, I’m just talking like this yeah it’s like that,
I'm not exaggerating that's really what he talks like. After a while, I was kind
of like ‘I don't know about that either’.
There's a
character in this film that is full CG, it’s a motion-capture face, it is something
that had to be in this film. I expected it, I figured it would be involved in
some way, I just didn't think it would get as much screen time as it did, and
it was very distracting. Which leads me to Darth Vader. Now Darth Vader is one
of my favourite characters of all time, in fact I think if you went out in
public, and pulled say a thousand people, and asked them who the greatest movie
villain of all time was, I bet you Darth Vader would be at least number two and
probably number one, he's amazing, Darth Vader's like the greatest person ever
I love Darth Vader, what I'm trying to say is the fact that Darth Vader's in
this movie, I went to the theatre like ‘oh my gosh, I'm about to hear James Earl Jones talking as
Darth Vader. And he’s in the movie for about four minutes maybe…
Look, I enjoyed
the newest Godzilla film which was also directed by Gareth Edwards, but I think
the majority of people wanted more of Godzilla when they left that film,
because Gareth Edwards, for whatever reason was like ‘hey I'm making a movie
with Godzilla, let’s just not show him’, and for whatever reason again, we have
a film that has Darth Vader, like he literally has the opportunity to show
Darth Vader for this entire film, he chooses to show him like a couple times… Why?
And I know what you're thinking ‘well you're just being a fanboy for Star Wars,
and you want everything to be old, like the way it was, you don't want anything
new’.
I loved the
Force Awakens, and I went into the Force Awakens, expecting Luke Skywalker to
be in the film, and if you've seen Force Awakens, you know it's not really the
case. He's in there, but not really and I loved it. Why? Because I loved the
characters Rey, Finn, Poe, Han solo, great characters kept me invested. Kylo
Ren, I love Kylo Ren, these characters can be invested in this story, there
isn't a character in Rogue One that I like more than Darth Vader, especially Krennic,
portrayed by Ben Mendelsohn, who is suitably over-the-top, and I enjoyed his work
in this film, but as a character and as a villain, he just does not stand up to
Darth Vader so I constantly like ‘Where's Vader let's get some more of that’,
because the other characters in the film aren't as cool or interesting. And, there's
nothing really to them to make me more invested in them, like I was invested in
the characters in Force Awakens, because when I left, Force Awakens, I was like
‘actually I don't mind that Luke wasn't in that movie’ because there are other
characters that are great.
I don't have
that feeling with Rogue One, which is why I wanted more Darth Vader, which
brings me to that CG character, the majority of his scenes I was like ‘you
could just have Darth Vader be in those scenes like I don't need this motion capture
guy, just have Darth Vader do this stuff’. I understand that you need this specific
character to be in the film because he's integral to this whole story. Haven't him
be in like one scene, I figured he'd be like in one scene, but he was it like
five or six, and for whatever reason, Vader was in literally two, and I'm like ‘I
need more of that please’
To be completely
honest, if you told me that the reshoots that were done for Rogue One were to
add the character of Darth Vader to this film, I'd say that makes perfect
sense, that's how little he's actually in the movie.
Full disclosure:
my biggest issue with Rogue One is that nothing surprised me. Now I did not
read a single internet article about speculation theories or spoilers, I stay
away from all of that because I'm not really a fan of that, because it's like ‘oh
this could happen, it’s gonna happen, okay maybe Kylo Ren's Luke Skywalker what
if that was true, wow that would be weird…seriously. But still having read none
of that information, nothing in Rogue One took me off guard, nothing surprised
me there, wasn't a single moment where I was like ‘wow I didn't expect. Say for
that one thing that I told you, addressed a flaw with the Star Wars universe,
that people have complained about for years, that was the one thing I was like ‘that's
awesome, I love that’ other than that, everything basically played out the way I
expected it to. Except for the fact that I thought there’d be a lot more Vader.
I know what
you're thinking, you're thinking ‘man he really hates Rogue One’, actually no,
I enjoyed watching this movie, I think it's good. It's just that when you are a
giant Star Wars fan, when Star Wars is special to you, when it means something
to you, when it has impacted your life in an emotional way positively, the
things that aren't great about the Star Wars films, are going to stick out to
you, and they're going to hit you on a deeper level than I think most. And so
that's one of the reasons why you get such rage over the prequels, and the fact
that people flipped out the Force Awakens was similar to a New Hope, because we
expect so much out of these movies, and that's not wrong, but at the same time
I must reiterate, that I did enjoy Rogue One, and I want to see it again. I
thought it was a terrifically exciting and fun action movie.
But as a Star
Wars film, I expected more out of one very specific thing the thing that makes
me want to watch Star Wars over and over and over and the thing, that's going
to make me show Star Wars to anyone I've ever met, or future children if I do
have them: the characters. The characters of Star Wars are what keep us all watching
it, and the characters in Rogue One let me down. There wasn't a sense of
urgency or intensity with them, they were just funny and likeable. Jyn Erso did
have a background, and there were reasons to care, but I wanted more from
characters, because as a huge Star Wars fan, that's what keeps me coming back,
and not the space battles, not AT-AT’s, not Darth Vader's lightsaber.
It's the
characters, it's the fact that I would like to go to the cantina and have a
drink with Han Solo, that's what makes me want to watch Star Wars. The action sequences
are amazing, and roll one and it is definitely worth seeing, and I will buy the
Blu-Ray, it is a very fun exciting Star Wars movie, but the characters for me we're
lacking.
Grade - B
I must
reiterate, I enjoyed the film, but it's not a perfect movie and I wasn't going
to sit here and act like it was just because I love Star Wars
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