As the first movie of the wider Star Wars franchise outside of the main saga, Rogue One naturally attracted a lot of suspicion. Were Disney just going to mine original trilogy nostalgia for a quick buck, or would they put any effort in? In some ways, the final product plays it safe in a similar vein to Force Awakens, with everyone involved doing their best to not offend anyone — even without knowledge of the extensive reshoots, you can see studio hands shaping the entire movie from beginning to end. It’s allowed to have a far grittier tone than the regular SW flicks, being less of a space opera and more of an actual war movie, but there’s also bland, underdeveloped characters and incredibly scattershot pacing. But in the end, the intense, fantastically-shot action scenes are what stick in my mind the most, being — honest to god — likely the most well-made combat of the entire saga so far.
Following a ragtag group of Rebels who steal the Death Star plans (leading directly into A New Hope), we begin with a flashback to lead character Jyn Erso’s childhood as Imperial baddie Director Krennic forces her father to come back and finish his work on the planet-killer. She grows up an ill-behaved rapscallion who is eventually sought out by Rebel forces and becomes part of the team leading the charge. Jyn herself is a decent protagonist, if played somewhat flatly by Felicity Jones — she’s the first truly apolitical lead character the saga has given us since Han Solo, and especially towards the beginning has a bunch of good lines. Unfortunately, the character is given a lot less to do in the second act, aside from a monologue Jones really fails to sell, and as the film goes on has some agency taken away from her in really disappointing ways.
The other characters are a mixed bag, with very few being both well-performed and well-written. Krennic himself is a supremely fun villain, with Ben Meldelsohn bringing just the right amount of ham for the Star Wars universe while still projecting an air of menace. The amount of time he spends slapfighting with other villains is really fun. Unfortunately, most of the male protagonists have almost no personality, male lead Cassian being incredibly poorly-drawn — you never really get a sense of who he is. Defected Imperial pilot Bodhi is only given life by Riz Ahmad’s droll delivery, while Rebel extremist Saw Gerrera is the most immediately arresting character in the beginning but is given precious little screentime. The issue is so bad that comic relief droid K-2SO has bags more personality than almost every human character — although Alan Tudyk’s beautiful voice acting job doesn’t hurt either. The film just doesn’t seem to care about the characters except as a way to tell the story, so when people eventually start dropping it has no impact whatsoever.
Technically, many parts of the film are marvellous. Michael Giacchino’s music is gorgeous and moving despite sometimes being a little loud in the mix — he truly is the heir apparent to John Williams — while Greig Fraser’s cinematography is raw and effective, aping the Star Wars style with a unique spin and without ripping anything off. The designs, especially for aliens and droids, are as lively as ever, still giving you the sense of a full universe beyond what we can see. The script doesn’t often rise above “functional”, with only occasional glimpses of strong dialogue beneath the cliches, but there is a decent amount of suspense despite most of us knowing largely how it all turns out, and the humour is mixed in naturally much like TFA.. The pacing, however, is by far the biggest technical issue — there are about five location headers in the first 10–15 minutes, while most scenes in the first couple acts don’t flow together well or inspire much excitement. References to the larger saga are used sparingly to begin with, so that they feel earned when they do show up — I got genuinely excited when we see our first X-Wing — but in the second half they get way too blatant and cue. We don’t need a reference to “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”, guys. Some old character appearances aren’t too awkward, despite some weird uncanny valley effects work, but others feel really lame and shoehorned-in. The one main retcon of earlier events, though, is an actively great choice, giving strong context to one of New Hope’s biggest plotholes.
There are a few decent concepts in here. The idea of there being ‘extremist’ Rebel groups is intriguing, while the movie presents a much less black-and-white view of the entire conflict — rather than everyone in the Rebellion being a typical golden boy, it is actively noted that many of them have committed evil acts as part of the war effort, which fits with the tone of the movie, giving a more “ground-level” feel to the entire conflict. And one character, a blind combatant who attempts to use the power of the force while everyone around him scoffs at the idea, is a solid way of showing the attitude and tone of a pre-New Hope world. But other than these small moments, the first two-thirds of the movie feel very much like a camel — there are so many cooks trying to figure out how to make sure nothing is too off-putting that it all ends up too smoothed-over to have any presence. Yet they still ended up making Darth Vader a pun-making comic character? Like, how?
But then we get to the third act. And holy goddamn hell. Director Gareth Edwards, as evidenced by this and the 2014 Godzilla flick, may not be able to direct character moments for shit, but he’s absolutely one of the most talented people in Hollywood at directing big-budget AAA action. So many of the earlier issues melt away — the editing is top-notch, switching between all the various elements of the climactic battles well and in a way where it’s clear what is happening at any given time and why, while almost every character gets at least one solid moment; even characters that didn’t have any development were given a trait that suited their role in the end. Despite being more gritty, with heavy losses, the action still has that classic Star Wars epic sweep, while the cinematography during the battles is very likely the most impressive of any Star Wars film ever — especially the dogfights in space. While it doesn’t really make up for the earlier mediocrity, I seriously can’t fully describe just how good the action is — so many moments, from seeing AT-ATs from ground level to the completely awe-inspiring, destructive climax, were thrilling, and had me clenching my fists due to the tension. Only a couple of super rushed moments got in the way of one of the most exciting Hollywood third act I’ve seen all year.
In the end, Rogue One largely accomplishes what it set out to — it’s a war movie that slots naturally into the Star Wars universe, with grim moments that feel completely fitting, and it’s hard to imagine many fans taking major umbrage with them. It doesn’t have the solid character work or legitimate emotion of The Force Awakens, but almost makes up for it with the most effective battles the saga has ever seen. Unfortunately, it’s too bland in the end to be more than simply ‘good’, and it largely fails movie rule number one of having characters that feel like real people and are worth caring about. It’s decent enough, but it likely won’t have much of a shelf life for all but the biggest fanboys.
