Hello dear reader, quite a while back and in a galaxy that is many many miles away (Note to self: that strap line has potential but needs work, come back to it later), there was a story about a bunch of trouble making space rebels and their plans to stop a ‘rather large’ space station thingy from destroying like everything and stuff. This story was called Star Wars and it ended up making quite a lot of money. So much so that the man behind it, a Mr George ‘Jar Jar’ Lucas decided that he’d like to make some more films. And so began one of the most popular and influential sagas in film history. Directors came, went and came back again, as did the ability to write anything resembling a good screenplay. Actors got older, waistlines fought the eternal good fight against costumes, CGI was added, tweaked and then added some more and then Disney came along and bought up the entire franchise for just over four billion dollars and change. Now, you don’t part with that sort of money and not expect a return on your investment unless your last name is Trump or you happen to be clinically insane, possibly both. So, shortly after the ink had dried on the Lucas Film contract Kathleen Kennedy announced that there would be a Star Wars episode VII, VIII & IV. After this and once the internet had been fixed there was also an announcement that there would be three standalone films, that would also be set in the Star Wars universe. The first of these being the back story about how the Death Star plans were ‘half-inched’ and then passed onto those pesky space rebels I alluded to earlier. So there you have it. Episode VII has been and gone and as sure as night follows day, for the foreseeable future at least, we will be having regular visits and lots of space, Jedi, lightsaber, kill the baddies, my spaceship is cooler than yours, live long a prosper malarkey all set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away….
(I knew I’d nail that strap line if I gave it enough time)
So where to start with Rogue One. Well to begin with I will say it’s a great film but it’s by no means perfect. It does have its problems, some of which I will bring up later but before I get into the whole who, what, why when and where shenanigans I should warn you that there is absolutely no way on this earth, or on Tatooine for that matter, that I can say what needs to be said without drifting heavily into spoiler territory. In fact, I would go so far as to say that not only is it deeply in spoiler territory, it’s in flared wheel arches, twin bore exhausts and blanket on the parcel shelf territory too. So I’m going to assume that if you’re reading this then you’ve already seen Rogue One and you are fully aware of what happens, who it happens to and why they had to pluck a chicken to do it. If you haven’t seen it yet consider yourself warned and enter at your own peril…
So the first ten to fifteen minutes of the film are spent ‘world building’. We the audience get shown a series of different planets, which have all been conveniently labeled with title cards in the bottom corner. Just think Google Maps but on a much bigger scale. We’re introduced to new people and different characters. New good guys and new bad guys.
Whilst we are planet hoping we are introduced to Lyra and Galen Erso, played by Valene Kane and Mads Mikkelsen respectively. They are the parents of Jyn Erso, a young girl who eventually becomes the hero of our film and who sets her stall out quite firmly under the good guy banner.
Galen is visited by the Empire, in the form of Director Krennic. Krennic, who is played by one of Australia’s best ‘rent a bad guy’ actors Ben Mendelsohn and basically insists that Galen jumps on board ‘Project: Killer Death Beach Ball’ and during the course of his complex and convoluted negotiations Lyra decides to stop living and Jyn dips her toes in the world of competitive hide and seek. Krennic then leaves with Galen and before you can say ‘secretly working for the bad guys but making sure that I put a HUGE design flaw into the plans I submit’ Galen is working for the bad guys etc etc. Now, one of the reasons I think Rogue One doesn’t have an opening crawl is because this is all basically shown as flashback. Well to be honest it’s all flashback, given that it's set a long time ago but this first section is more flashback than the rest. But because this film has a time jump in it, the start gives you all the back story you really need to be going on with and it probably doesn’t need one.
When we do jump forward we see Jyn Erso played, very convincingly, by Felicity Jones. We find her stuck in prison for doing something we never get told about but I suspect is very naughty. As she is being transferred, along with other prisoners, a small rebel group attack and set her free and this then sets in motion a very long chain of events that ultimately lead Jyn back to her father and the recovery of the Death Star plans.
So what do I like about Rogue one? Well to start with it actually feels like a good old fashioned Star Wars film. It is full of great characters including a fantastic droid voiced by Alan Tudyk and an interesting performance from Forrest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera, and if you don’t like that character name Limpy McLimperson or Breathy McBreatherson would also work just as well. Ben Mendelsohn is a great bad buy and without wishing to be too harsh makes Hayden Christensen performances look about as scary as a Jawa armed with ice cream. It’s obvious from the start that a lot of time and effort has gone into trying to make this as good as they could but this now leads me into the ‘don’t like’ portion of my blog. Some of you may see a few of these complaints as completely wrong or just plain old nit picking but they did detract from my enjoyment of watching Rogue One.
So in no particular order here goes…
There aren’t any swipe edits.
For an expanded universe all the planets seem to be remarkably close to each other. For example, when the X-Wing fighters are dispatched to take out the Imperial base that Galen and Krennic are on they take about thirty five seconds to arrive.
The Death Star targeting seems to be as erratic and inconsistent as your average Strom Trooper. They manage to wipe out a city on Jedha without any problem at all but when the weapon is fired at the end of the film to stop the plans being uploaded, it misses by about 10 miles. That said I do like the fact that the Death Star seems to have an Eco or Green weapon setting and can be fired at low power.
Governor Tarkin doesn’t work. It isn’t far off from being convincing but the CGI still isn’t good enough for me. And as for the other computer generated character at the end, well that looked even less realistic, in my humble opinion.
I miss the 20th Century fanfare at the start.
No Star Wars fanfare at the start either.
Darth Vader seems to be wearing rose tinted sunglasses, every time he’s on screen.
Everyone dies.
Rogue One is basically one third chase movie, one third war movie and two thirds bad maths. It’s a solid four star film and I know it comes already burdened with expectation but there is definite room for improvement. The Emperor is mentioned but doesn’t get any screen time. The score from Michael Giacchino is good but it didn’t leave any lasting impression on me and overall I just got the impression that they were trying too hard to keep everyone happy. This is a good start for the standalone series and next we have the Han Solo origin chronicle, arriving at some point 2018. If it’s as good as Rogue One I’ll be happy. As long as he shoots first of course…
Twitter Review:
Strong female lead, a great character ensemble & a very strong effort.
#DoOrDoNotThereIsNoTry
Useful Links:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/?ref_=nv_sr_2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/rogue-one-star-wars-story/review/
