Rogue One Review

The final hour is one of the best hours in any Star Wars movie, period.  But it takes a really long and meandering time to get there.  Full review and spoilers below the cut




Saying Rogue One is the best prequel is a bit unfair, because, really, how could it not be, and also, now that we can walk out of a prequel like we wished we could've walked out of The Phantom Menace almost twenty years ago, it seems like we're skipping past some of the flaws in the movie mainly since it's nice to have another Star Wars movie that isn't total garbage.

The central conceit is solid enough.  Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the Rebellion because her father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) is the big brain behind a new Imperial super weapon.  Rumors are flying that he leaked the existence of said weapon through defector Imperial pilot Bodhi (Riz Ahmed) to an old Rebellion extremist named Saw Gerra (Forest Whitaker).  Jyn has a history with Gerra, so the Rebellion needs her to pop off to his planet with their spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) to find out what the hell is going on and find any possible way to stop it.

Things also start well enough, too.  We get Jyn's childhood flashback to the day the Empire destroyed her family in the form of Ben Mendelson's Krennic, then we jump to her in an Imperial prison before she gets busted out by Andor for the plot to take off.  Or, at least it would, if wasn't marred by the opening act's horrible pacing.  Instead of just following Jyn and picking up people along the way, the first bit of the movie is constantly cutting between her, Andor's discovery of Bodhi being in Gerra's custody, then over to Bodhi's actual capture and interrogation by Gerra, back to Jyn when the cycle starts all over again.  The movie doesn't really introduce characters as much as it flings them at you and hopes they make an impression before it's off to other things.

This leads to a lot of things that could've honestly made a nice home on the cutting room floor.  Gerra's scenes especially feel like they're included not so much because they're actually relevant to the story, but because if the movie got Forest Whitaker to be in it, they needed to have him for longer than five minutes.  Mendelson is also a rather disappointing antagonist; he never really feels like a threat, rather, he feels like one of those broad, petty incompetents Vader spends so much time murdering in Empire.

But, there's also a lot to like here.  Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen's natural camaraderie elevates the movie the moment they enter it; and Alan Tudyk steals practically every scene he's in as the reprogrammed Imperial murder-bot.  This is also the first Star Wars that has legit, morally ambiguous characters front and center.  Andor murders his contact to avoid compromising himself, Galen leaves a fatal flaw in his super-weapon, but that weapon will still be used to kill untold amounts of people before that flaw is exploited.

There's also Andor's speech before the final assault about he and other spie, saboteurs, and assassins have all done horrific things for the Rebellion, it's a fantastic moment of men holding on to any reason they can that let's them look at themselves in the mirror.  Instead of the grand Good vs. Evil battle that has made up the entire series, Rogue  One focuses on people just trying to live as best they can for as long as they can.  It's a pretty refreshing change of pace, actually.

And then, there's that final assault on Scarif.  You can really tell that this is where the bulk of attention and focus was put and it pays off so, so well.  The movie takes every Dirty Dozen and heist film trope it can and jacks them up until they fit into their new mythic home and holy shit is it exhilarating.  Even though we all know the outcome of the whole affair, actually watching it happen is as awesome and glorious a sight as we all hoped it'd be.

And yet, it's still not quite enough.  The rest of the movie is still there, and if the lead up had been as focused or as thought out, who knows? But, for what is essentially the first serving in a cinematic Extended Universe, Rogue One does prove that there's a lot of stories still worth telling in the Star Wars universe.

Grade: B