Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Well, Rogue One has had its first major opening weekend, which means some of you lovely people who weren't passionate/stupid enough to go to the midnight screening as I did, have had a chance to see it, so I can do a spoiler heavy post. Still, please be aware, if you've not seen it yet that there are massive spoilers from the very beginning. Also, this is going to be less of a review, and more a collection of ramblings from an overexcited fan.

On that note, as I've not really discussed it before, I am a huge Star Wars fan. Like, huge. I don't talk about it much, not the way I do about my Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett obsessions, nor do I geek out on it the way I do with superheroes or Middle-Earth. I don't really consume much spin-off media, nor do I even really watch the films that much, no more than once or twice a year, if that. However, it is my home fandom. My first fandom. Star Wars A New Hope was the first live-action movie I was ever conscious of watching, aged 5 and I have been a fan from that time, to the point that the combination of music and opening scroll of The Force Awakens had me weeping openly (even if the subsequent film left me underwhelmed). So yeah, Star Wars is important to me.

With that said…

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, dir. Gareth Edwards – 2016

 

I loved it!

Going into the cinema I knew exactly what I wanted from the film: originality and risk-taking, both of which had been so lacking in The Force Awakens. And while some people, even the usually excellent Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian seem to imply that because there are lightsabres and space battles the film is largely derivative (as if the presence of guns and horses made High Noon and Unforgiven near identical) Rogue One was, to me, near revolutionary as a Star Wars Movie. This is not to say that there aren't familiar elements, there is once again a parental relationship that is central to the plot, but it astonishes me that, in the reviews that I have read, critics do not seem to be acknowledging the huge risks taken in this film. Tonally, the film is closest to The Empire Strikes Back, but Rogue One is the first film to fully embrace the word 'Wars' over 'Star' and the upshot of this is that, in this Christmas blockbuster – one that parents will be taking their children to in droves – they kill characters. And not just the villains, or wise old mentors like Obi Wan, or Yoda, or even Han in The Force Awakens, or even all the background Jedi in the prequels-that-must-never-be-named. Main characters. All the main characters. I'll admit that when I first heard the synopsis for Rogue One I'd thought it would be so effective if those who stole the Death Star plans died doing so, but I assumed that Disney would never allow that to happen, neither wanting to jeopardise the market of Star Wars films as child-friendly, nor kill off further franchising along with the characters. The fact that they did so, and that the final act of the film is essentially a suicide mission, brings a weight and power, not only to the weak-sounding platitudes spoken throughout the film about rebellion and hope, but to the cinematic Star Wars universe as a whole. Ultimately, any action-related movie contains the basic question of 'are all/any of the protagonists going to make it?' and by answering 'No' Rogue One completely changes the game for the Star War's universe.

This is not to say there aren't problems. Despite boasting an impressively diverse cast (and making an excellent point in that every Imperial officer we see is played by an older, white actor…) it's a shame this only seems to apply to the men; the only two female characters with any substantial dialogue or narrative importance are played by well-spoken white women… And yes, there are only two… I have also heard criticism of the characters themselves, that they are too thin or the actors are wasted in their roles. While it's certainly true that actors of Forest Whitaker or Mads Mikkelsen's calibre are underutilised (poor Mads Mikklesen's not doing too well, is he?), it must also be acknowledged that this is not a rompy space-opera, nor even a character-driven action movie like the Avengers; it is a war movie, and part of what gives their deaths such power is how little we know these characters, the things we never get to see or learn about them. Another unfortunate aspect of the film lies in the CGI presence of a young Carrie Fisher and the late, great Peter Cushing, reprising their roles as Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin. Leaving aside the considerable issue of taste, though the CGI is certainly impressive, it's nowhere near good enough yet for this to be anything other than distracting and it's hard not to think that shots of silhouettes, profiles and the backs of heads would not have been better.

However, one other character returns, whose presence alone helps us to forgive all the film's faults. Although Darth Vader has less than ten minutes screen time, every moment counts as Edwards perfectly utilises the greatest bad-guy of cinema, succeeding not only in making him cool as all hell, but also genuinely menacing, as the last few minutes of the film attest. It helps that James Earl Jones is still booming out the iconic voice, and that the script allows Vader to be intimidating, while also keeping the level of acerbity consistent with lines such as Return of the Jedi's 'The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am'.

Overall, the film is uneven, but the problems are entirely overridden by the excellent acting, breathtaking visuals and a plot that dares to take risks never normally seen in a blockbuster. It is one thing for a PG/12a film to assert that there are things worth dying for; quite another for it to back these words up by killing every one of its central characters. This fan adored it, and is already planning on seeing it again, so….



May the Force be with you.