Star Wars films are odd. With their imperfect charm, it’s possible to become immersed in a galaxy far, far away even at their worst. So when they’re good, you get some of the most exciting cinema you can find.
The main requirements of Star Wars films are actually pretty simple, with an important one being us wanting to cheer the good guys and boo the bad guys. Rogue One, the first ‘Star Wars Story’, does a fantastic job of this whilst adding some interesting wrinkles.
For the first time we’re shown the Empire being more than just a terrifying presence. They’re arrogance and proclivity for heinous acts is astounding, putting their status as a blight on the galaxy front and center. That doesn’t mean to say that our heroes are a bunch of goody two-shoes. Rogue One is brave in avoiding them being holier than thou. It’s an odd feeling cheering on the good guys when they’re performing acts that in real life we’d classify as terrorism. But it’s a warranted wrinkle that adds some meat to proceedings.
Much like in a Western, our heroes aren’t given deep backstories. It’s their interactions with their world and each other that draws us in and makes us care about them. In this respect Rogue One is a triumph. Backing this up are scenes that cover political machinations within the Empire. Director Krennic is such an enjoyable character; the epitome of middle management. Above many, but crashing into a ceiling of Moff Tarkin and Lord Vader, he huffs and puffs his way through proceedings, constantly exasperated at the situation he’s in. It’s no surprise that he’s the most quotable character in the film.
The action, especially on the ground, feels like a war. Despite the perfectly placed grit it’s always very clear what’s going on as battles impact one another. Above ground we get a couple of cool new designs, but most importantly we get to see the coolest designs of the entire franchise duke it out.
Rogue One gets so many things right that I can forgive it’s jarring need to cram fan-service in. I see why they did it, but all it does for me is make a huge galaxy feel a lot smaller. Still, you can’t help but smile a lot of the time.
Building to a thrilling and surprisingly emotional crescendo, Rogue One gives me things I’ve longed to see, with every opportunity for a money shot taken. Director Gareth Edwards is a massive Star Wars fan and it shows. ’77 design with ’16 tech? You got it.
It was a big risk moving outside of the Skywalker saga. Rogue One proves it was a risk worth taking.
Note – I’ve now read Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, and thoroughly recommend it as an enriching experience for this film. You can read a little more about it here.
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I agree with you regarding making the “heroes” not as bright-shiny goodie-two-shoes, but flawed, capable of being bad people in their own right. That’s a great assessment, dude. Overall, this film kicked ass despite having some problematic characterisation and development, but when Vader kicks on his sabre in that finale, holy hell does this film take a quantum leap up the rankings of Star Wars films.
Thanks man. Very hard review to write without spoiling things.
They just seemed like real people that could have walked past Luke etc in the main films and not been noticed.
Middle management lol… that did make dynamics enjoyable