I’m sitting here processing my own feelings after watching this film recently. I’m pretty much a lifelong Star Wars fan and sci-fi fan in general. Sometimes I go for just the spectacle of space battles, others I go in for character development while folks on the big screen face fantastic concepts. Occasionally, though… there’s a really good balance between these elements, which is why The Empire Strikes Back has remained in critics’ and fans’ favorite lists for so many years. In the times to come, I suspect this shall be the case for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Rogue One jumps right into its story with very little fanfare. Like you may have heard before elsewhere, there’s no grand scroll recapping recent events similar to prior Star Wars films. We just see a small farming colony where Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) is playing with his wife and daughter. However, this respite is short-lived as a group of Imperial Stormtroopers, led by Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) comes to retrieve Galen. Work on the Empire’s armored space station has crawled to a standstill and Galen’s expertise is needed to jumpstart production again. Krennic is successful in his quest, but misses the presence of Galen’s daughter Jyn.
Cut to 15 years later and we find the now adult Jyn (Felicity Jones) in an Imperial prison after an apparently rough life. Meanwhile, elsewhere, Rebel Intelligence agent Cassian Candor (Diego Luna) is learning the Empire has a new superweapon that has been completed by someone named Erso. After some research, he breaks Jyn out of prison and takes her to Rebel Headquarters, where the leaders including Mon Mothma and Senator Bail Organa (reprised by Jimmy Smits) all attempt to convince her to get to her father via information in the possession of enigmatic extremist Saw Gererra (Forest Whitaker). Weighing her options of the mission or a return to prison, Jyn agrees.
By now, many Star Wars fans know this film leads in the events of Episode IV. However, the thrill is not the destination but the journey there. The characters who comprise the Rogue One group make this film a joy to watch. As Jyn and Cassian proceed on their perilous mission we get to meet some rather interesting people along the way. Cassian’s droid E2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) is a former Imperial War droid who is a total smartass and steals just about every scene he’s in. We are also introduced to a pair of guys who may have interesting pasts of their own. Donnie Yen (of Ip Man fame) portrays Chirrut Îmwe, a blind swordsman and former Jedi temple worker who takes down groups of stormtroopers with a large stick and a hell of a lot of skill. His friend Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) carries a ton of firepower and looks out for those he cares about. He struck me as someone with clone trooper experience but I’m not entirely certain on this. We only get so much time to spend with these people so it gets to be fun speculating about their prior exploits.
Fun, though… hmmm… that would be a relative term here. Most of the Star Wars films are far for kids and adults alike. Rogue One…. Is definitely not. This is a dark-minded film about survival, heroism, and the horrors of war. There was a proof of concept teaser at one of the Star Wars Celebrations that gave an idea what this movie would be like when they announced Gareth Edwards as the director (who thankfully took over for perennial screw-up Josh Trank of Fantastic Four infamy).
In a couple of articles on-line, it was said that Lucasfilm wanted to create the “Black Hawk Down of the Star Wars Universe.” For my money they’ve succeeded as the script by writers Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, and Gary Whitta combines elements of that film with ones from The Dirty Dozen, or maybe The Magnificent Seven or similar fare. In depicting the tyranny and tactics of the Galactic Empire as well as the ambition of officers such as the ambitious and uncompromising Krannic, the writers give us a hard-hitting tale that manages to capture the best elements of Star Wars lore for the kind of prequel I honestly hadn’t realized I’d wanted until this film was actually realized.
I want to give special props to the visual effects team here for reasons that will become clear when you see the film. Much like last year’s The Force Awakens, there’s a delicate balance between practical and CG styled special effects, though it’s tipped a bit toward computers this go around. Still with these are edited together effectively under Director Edwards. Also, this movie has the best space battle out of all the Star Wars films, or at the very lest rivals the climactic one from the first film. The only issue is some of the pacing moves a bit fast at times when a little time to let the moment breathe would help things, but this is a small matter as the film is effective overall. The score by Michael Giacchino is very much its own animal combining (spare) use of the familiar John Williams cues with entirely new orchestral pieces which dominate the film.
In the end I have to say this is a perfect Star Wars film for the adult fan who saw the original as a kid and truly wanted to return to that universe with an adult mindset to learn about legends of what came before and possibly guide their own children on what makes this franchise an endless world of expanded potential. Gareth Edwards may just be forgiven by folks who weren’t into his 2014 Godzilla movie (which I personally enjoyed but maybe that’s just me) and I’m hoping he’ll be given a chance to direct another in these new series of Star Wars side stories that Disney and Lucasfilm have planned. As far as I’m concerned this is the best movie since The Empire Strikes Back and you should definitely see the story of Jyn Erso and the crew of Rogue One at your earliest opportunity.
Grade: A
