Review: "Rogue One" a stupid but satisfying flick through memory lane

With a Star Wars movie commissioned every year for the next five years, Gareth Edwardss Rogue One tries to appropriately expand the Star Wars mythos, while expanding general audiences notion of what a Star Wars film can be.

Rogue One is a war movie set in the Star Wars universe. The film centers around Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), daughter of Death Star architect Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson). The creation of this super weapon has ripped the Erso household into shreds, giving motivation to both characters, which drives the plot of the movie forward. Along the way, we are introduced to other characters, such as Jedi-wannabe Chirrut mwe (Donnie Yen), a blind man with a connection with the force.

The first third of the movie is extremely choppy. The movie darts from character to character, never developing them enough to ground the viewer, which can be disorienting. If anywhere, the first third is where Rogue Ones re-shoots become the most prevalent, even distracting, as key moments necessary to the film feel missing. The movie relies off of Jyns relationship with her dad, but that relationship is never seen on screen enough for it to be believable. Its akin to an establishing sequence seen in a Schwarzenegger film, here is a family figure so the main character has motivation to beat the bad guys.

However, upon further inspection, this scant backstory might be appropriate. This is a different kind of Star Wars story; Jyn Erso is not like Luke or Anakin Skywalker. Her family is gone, she has no home, she doesnt understand a lot about the circumstances that changed her life, and shes used to living in squalor, in constant fear of the empire.

The problem with this approach, though, is that at times the film feels drab and uninspired. This is with purpose, as were seeing this story play out from the perspectives of the ordinary soldiers, the spies, the cutthroats; the people whose lives have been grounded into dust by war, very different than the almost whimsical-by comparison tale of an ordinary boy stuck on Tatooine wishing for something more.

For those looking for a standard Star Wars flick, they wont find it. This is a different flavor of Star Wars, one a general audience might not like, save for the last third, which is essentially a special effects orgy, and is easily the best part of the film. It is clear that Gareth Edwardss love for the franchise and its mythos culminated into this last third, which is a full-on space and land battle the likes that has rarely been seen in Star Wars on the big screen.

Every characters beat matches up and sees fruition, one after the other, as AT-ATs and ATSTs can be seen fighting on the beach, along with specialized units Edwards created himself that flesh out George Lucass empire in ways he didnt have time nor budget to do in the 70s or 80s.

However, the space battle is where this film really shines, which easily blows any previous attempt in the series out of the water. In the modern age of cinema, where every effect looks good and is often thrown at the audience gratuitously, its easy to feel numb to special effects, but this is not the case for Rogue One. Maybe thats because the film is a little ahead of its time as far as effects goes. Maybe its because Im a huge Star Wars fan. Or maybe its because the effects were used appropriately.

Is this a better film than The Force Awakens? No, not even close, but it is incredibly satisfying to watch, whether you are a Star Wars fan or not, though there are extensive nods to fans (i.e. Darth Vaders scenes, Bail Organa being in the film, lines referencing other films in the series).

Rogue One is a very stupid movie whose themes dont go beyond get the thing and work as a team, but it works. The character set-ups arent great, some of the film only caters to Star Wars fans, but the special effects and action are superb. It is debatable whether or not Rogue One can stand on its own as a standalone film, but as a prequel to Episode IV: A New Hope, its everything one can hope for.

Keem em coming. B