(Note: This review involves SPOILERS)
It could be argued that when George Lucas first started creating Star Wars, he was the indie filmmaker (Rebel Alliance) going up against the big film studios of the day (the Empire). As "Star Wars" became a global franchise, there was a transference of power, with George Lucas eventually becoming that which he despised - the Emperor.
The creation outgrew the creator.
We first saw this with the transitions of the directors of the Original Trilogy. This was further solidified with the prequels, when Lucas himself was out of ideas. This has been firmly established and cemented since the Disney purchase in 2012 and the subsequent releases of both The Force Awakens and now Rogue One.
Some might argue that Star Wars ended in 1983, with everything since being a bastardization of the franchise, losing the heart and soul of the auteur origins which combined serialized space adventures with Japanese aesthetics and operatic themes, replaced slowly by consumerism, nerddom, nostalgia and self-indulgence. It has become its own cult and religion, yet lacks a central creative force to drive home what the brand and big picture are.
Case in point, let's look at the most recent entry in the franchise: Rogue One.
There are many great ideas and a few good moments in Rogue One, but the heart and soul are lacking. It's a dead, hollow movie, The resurrected carcass of Darth Vader is an apt metaphor for what Disney did with Rogue One - a glorious magic act playing off the "oohs" and "aahs" of nostalgia on one hand, meanwhile distracting from the other hand which is an empty frame for an emotionally moving story that's not there.
But I tend to be critical, so let's get some positives out of the way...
The Good
The cinematography may be the best thing the movie has going for it. Each planet had a great look, particularly the last one - Scarif. The action was largely clean and a number of shots were on point.
Donnie Yet as Chirrut Îmwe and Wen Jiang as Baze Malbus. Easily the two best new characters in the film, as they had a wonderful rapport, with a fully implied history and fleshed out characters (actual motivation!). That non-Force users were so trusting in the Force did wonders to re-establish the spiritual element of the Force, that it's not simply about Midi-chlorians....
Going in a different saga/story direction - It was great to see a non-Force, non-Skywalker entry into the franchise. This fleshes out the universe in a powerful way, regardless of the execution
The final act on Scarif - It wasn't perfect, but this is the movie we should have had
The OK
Michael Giacchino's score was simply OK. Listening as a standalone, it riffs reasonably well off John Williams' classic takes, but actually used in the movie is random. There's also a relative lack of memorable themes. This is his second take on Williams' style and while much better than Jurassic World, still falls short of confidence for potentially taking over the main series. There's promise, but he's not there yet; and I'm sadly not sure if he'll get to it. Part of it may be input from director Gareth Edwards, so hard to fully say.
K-2SO - The design of the converted Imperial Droid is nice, but the character is a ripoff of Star Wars: Knight's of the Old Republic's HK-47, among other tropes. Several of the jokes hit, but a good half of them were misses, with the eventual death of the droid also missing any deserved gravitas. It's a fun character, but the obsession by fans is lost on me.
The CGI of certain characters - Tarkin went back and forth between good and bad, but on the whole was surprisingly decent. We're getting closer to surpassing the Uncanny Valley. I didn't mind Leia at all, if only because she was so brief.
James Earl Jones as Vader - While it was nice to hear his voice again, something felt off. I don't believe it was so much Jones' age, so much as the audio engineering on his voice.
The Bad
Honestly, I could be quick and dismiss most of the movie in the "Bad" section, as the first two-thirds could have been significantly recut and shrunk before getting to the main thrust of the film - the final act on Scarif. The film was reminiscent of Man of Steel (easily the worst movie I've seen in theaters in the past decade, if not ever), with it's many conveniences and contrivances, but not yet nearly as bad; it's more like a bad Transformers sequel.
For the sake of time, let's try and fire off some quick ones...
The cold opening - Please don't do this again. It didn't work and wasn't good (particularly the musical cue that was almost Star Wars, but wasn't). Also, no more time jumping within a single movie - stick with moments unless you're REALLY going to follow a character and do a better job of establishing growth, motivation and an arc. Unless you want to go hard into James Bond territory, complete with big new villains and everything, then yes, I'd support that (on the condition of being a good movie).
Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) - She's a weak character with no motivation. Her cold demeanor wasn't cool, it was boring. She had a great look, but stiff dialogue for her drab persona, which only broke when she saw the holographic message from her father (which is bad character direction because she expressed no emotion prior and the relationship wasn't built properly to merit a reaction). That she suddenly tries to become a leader of the rebellion and ambassador for hope came out of left field, or at least a poorly developed relationship (of any variety) with Cassian. She was also robbed of her story arc by not defeating Krennic.
The father-daughter story - This also didn't work. We never saw the bond between them, just that Galen was pulled away. Mads also either didn't have great material or just didn't care, because his acting was stiff. This served no purpose in the movie.
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) - Also a poorly developed character. There were interesting ideas, but the backstory was poorly developed, along with also having no motivation. Your role as an assassin could have been better fleshed out. Even his "fake death" saving Jyn moment was bad. He robbed her of her story arc.
Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) - A fun idea for a villain - a middle-manager wanting more power - but ultimately a weak character. Take's a lesson from MoS' General Zod - yell when in lieu of an actual character. He's nothing more now than another example of Star Wars amazing ability to create great looking, well-cast villains that end up trash/wasted: Boba Fett, Darth Maul, Dooku, Grievous, Phasma, to name a few.
Tarkin - Could have been removed from the movie and not skipped a beat. Completely unnecessary.
Saw Gerrera - Dear god was this character and Forest Whitaker's acting terrible. Absolutely awful and added nothing to the story, besides another bad father figure for Jyn. The idea of him was better than the execution. More on that below...
The dialogue - So much of the dialogue was rough, to say the least (which is sadly a Star Wars tradition). Most of the Rebel Alliance scenes were flat, Jyn and Cassian's chemistry was flat, the aforementioned Vader and Krennic scene was flat, Krennic and Tarkin was flat (and, again, unnecessary). Mads was bads.
The Egregious Errors
Darth Vader - I'll be direct: Darth Vader is a broken character. Absolutely broken. His arc was perfect in the Original Trilogy - from brute enforcer, to big bad, to redeemed father. The prequels were an unnecessary exploration of a whiny child-killer. Rogue One offered nothing worthwhile other than to further highlight how broken Vader is - his scene with Krennic offered nothing but boring dialogue and awkward visuals (the cinematography with the fog and red lighting did not look good, with the devilish "meanings" being cheesy and on-the-nose). Also, Darth Vader should NEVER have said a pun; providing crass, sass and sarcasm, yes, but a pun? Especially over such an iconic action of his? Terrible creative choice only meant to service fans. As for the final end sequence of the film - Darth Vader is a villain, he is not a badass. The sequence was fascinating from a Force and choreography perspective, but when a crowd roots for a child-killing villain because it's "cool" signifies to me there's something wrong with the storytelling (and audience). Basically, Vader's inclusion throughout the film felt like bad video game fan-service and fanfilm territory.
The excess - Sure, budgets and technology and everything are better today than any time prior, but there's such a lack of proper scale with the films now. Just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. I loved the "less is more" approach of the Original Trilogy, if partly because of budget and technology restraints for the time. However, it gives the world and stories more life and a better sense of scope. With Rogue One and Disney's coffers, pretty much anything was possible, including the resurrection of the dead.
The lack of "big feel" moments, aka heart and soul - For the first two-thirds of the film, things just happened with the film just on auto-pilot. It wasn't until the arrival on Scarif when the actual story started happening. There were a couple genuinely sad moments (particularly the death of Churrit), but director Gareth Edwards proved his amateur skills by not featuring any "big" moments. For an example of a "big feel" moment, see the lightsaber duel on Bespin in Empire between Vader and Luke. That entire sequence is a master class of direction, choreography, music and writing. Another? The climax of A New Hope when Luke is doing his Death Star trench run - the tension and music were superb. One more? The drama and emotion of the final duel between Vader and Luke on the Death Star bridge. Even the Sarlacc pit has its moments.
Rogue One had zero big moments (the two Death Star attacks were nice visual effects, but lacked dramatic oomph, with the first one being corny/stupid thanks to Saw and second being excessive with no emotional impact. They also take away from the destruction of Alderaan.
The Missed Opportunities
The trailers set up wonderfully setup Rogue One to be a dark, mysterious spy/thief film a la Ocean's Eleven in the world of Star Wars. Watching a scrappy band of Rebels take on the monolithic and all-encompassing Empire. Were Jyn and others going to go deep undercover to infiltrate the Empire? Was one already a spy? Would have been significantly more interesting than the crappy father-daughter story we had.
The option of the war/conflict highlighting the similarities between the Empire and the Rebellion were lacking, despite being entirely on the table; it was barely hinted. Same with the disparate nature of the Rebel Alliance, where Saw and his guerrillas are opposite sides of the same coin with regards to their tactics (tactics which were barely explored). Saw's design is actually a very intriguing riff on Vader's, complete with the breathing apparatus, but nothing was present in the movie.
Hell, we didn't even get the big, epic, Saving Private Ryan space war film this could have been. Had the final third been stretched out over the course of the film, that would have been something.
Conclusion
So little of the film emotionally resonated. Things just moved and fell flat. Which makes Rogue One an incredible disappointment, though not without a few merits. Sad thing is, I can tell there's a legitimately good movie hidden within the depths of Rogue One.
As someone who grew up after the Original Trilogy was released, I've had the luxury of not having to wait for future installments, with the privilege of being able to see everything at once. It's hard to predict where the Star Wars franchise is going, but if the two most recent entries are any indication, they're derivative and hollow. Or to ape a different franchise, Star Wars is going where every man has already gone before, which means I'm losing reasons to continue watching.
I grew up loving the franchise, so I hold it to high standards, not simply as a "Star Wars" entry, but as a potentially magical movie experience. The worlds, the music, the visuals, the action, the characters, the sweeping drama, the tense action, the magic and spirituality - that's what Star Wars is to me. TFA had elements of it, but nothing that wasn't already in the Original Trilogy; one could say TFA is a condensed rehash, for which I'm guessing is a "holdover"/"setup" movie until Episode 8 kicks things into actual gear. However, I'm not sure I have the patience to give Disney much more of a chance.
It's hard to give Rogue One a recommendation, even as a spectacle film (the derivative and contrived Avatar was a better example of an event movie). Sadly, Disney's Star Wars is currently sitting at two strikes. I sincerely hope Rian Johnson can deliver a hit, otherwise I'm contempt with the idea that Star Wars did truly die back in 1983.
4/10
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