Rogue One (2016)
With the Star Wars prequels - particularly The Phantom
Menace - George Lucas ran on the mistaken premise that his opus was mostly for kids. Because of this (and some other bad decisions), the prequels ended up veering so far off course that they alienated a
whole generation of fans who grew up loving his original films. With Rogue
One Gareth Edwards and team have made a fairly successful attempt to remedy
this, crafting a prequel better suited for those veteran fans.
Still, for all their flaws the prequels were never lacking
in originality or a desire to explore new territory and, although Rogue One has
a great deal in its arsenal, you can't quite shake the feeling that had it
strayed a little further from safe ground it could have been something much greater.
The plot we know already: “It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory
against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to
steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored
space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet…” These words lit up the screen at the beginning of Star Wars almost 40 years ago,
and this is the story told in Rogue One.
However, it’s not as simple as it sounds, and Edwards has managed to put together a film with no shortage of twists. Nor is it quite so black and white this time round, this is a 20th century war film - gone are the idealised rebels of the
original trilogy, replaced by various shades of grey. Continuing the theme set
up in last years Force Awakens, one of the motley crew of rebels is a traumatised defector,
while another is an out and out terrorist. Most are somewhere in the middle.
The cast and their characters are mostly excellent, with
particular praise going to Alan Tudyk as K2S0, a repurposed Imperial robot with
a good line in sass. Donnie Yen does fine work as a blind pseudo Jedi assassin while Felicity Jones lends the film a strong core as Jyn Erso, a torn loner with a tragic past. Meanwhile, Ben Mendelsohn chews scenery and is generally excellent as the crazed Empire-man struggling to maintain grasp
on his Death Star. The film is at its strongest when focusing on these new
characters, their individual quirks and their blossoming relationships.
After a brooding opening in which we are treated to some important back story, the rest of the first act betrays the evidence of extensive retooling that took place earlier this year under the supervision of
Tony Gilroy (The early Bourne films). The
film spends the first twenty minutes hopping from location to location so quickly and incoherently that it can only be the result of some frantic chopping down in the editing suite. Mercifully the story settles down and kicks into a smoother rhythm – with plenty of zippy action, and welcome twists
and turns along the way. However, come the second half, it’s again difficult to shake the
feeling that they can't quite decide what they want this film to be.
The gripping core plot – the rebels steal the death star
plans – begins to feel secondary to fan service as the film doesn’t so much as
dovetail gently into A New Hope, than slam into it at lightspeed. It's
no huge spoiler that Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) is in the film – but the sheer
volume of other throwbacks and cameos ultimately proves to be the films biggest
weakness. This can admittedly be quite thrilling at times - it would be remiss
of me not to admit that I did have a big smile on my face at one or two points
– but it is far too often at the expense of narrative coherence.
Similarly, whereas last years The Force Awakens worked well
as an entry point into Star Wars lore for newcomers, Rogue One proves quite the
opposite - anyone who hasn’t seen a Star
Wars film before (particularly Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope) will be more
than a little lost.
Still, Gareth Edwards delivers some truly spectacular imagery - from utilising the death star itself in some inventive ways to the hand held camerawork, this is easily one of the prettiest entries in the cannon. So too the visual effects
are, for the most part, spot on. With traditional model work and puppetry
sharing screen time with some very impressive digital wizardry – it’s hard not
to be impressed. The script is mostly fine - some vaguely clunky exposition
aside - this film retains the lightness of touch that The Force Awakens managed
to capture so well, even if the material itself is a little dark at times.
So in the end we wind up with a film that can’t quite decide
what it wants to be. On the one hand it strives to separate itself from the
main pack and do something different, while on the other it wants to delve into
the original film and roll around in it. It’s great fun for the
most part, it looks great and there are plenty of thrills to be had - but it's hard to shake the feeling that it could have been something
so much more interesting and vital if the film makers had just taken a few
more risks and dared to rebel.
4/5
