Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Written by: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk
I loved 2014's Godzilla far more than most, and other than my sheer love for Godzilla as a concept, my biggest reason for this was the directorial efforts of Gareth Edwards. The man has a defined sense of scale and knows how to present it clearly on-screen; in Godzilla he knew how to make the titular monster seem massive and threatening, and this skill is clearly shown in Rogue One as he moves to reveal threats like the Death Star or Darth Vader. Edwards' skill here gives the massively CGI moments we view real weight and power; without giving anything away, Edwards knows how to show sheer CGI destruction in a way that feels credible.
*Warning: Potential Spoilers Ahead*
Rogue One follows Jyn Erso (Jones), daughter of one of the creators of the Death Star Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen). Jyn is recruited by the Rebel Alliance to help find her estranged father, who has used an Imperial Pilot defector (Riz Ahmed) to get a message out about the Death Star and the weakness he secretly built in to it, the same weakness that Luke abuses in A New Hope. Along the way, Jyn ultimately groups together with a band of colourful misfits, each with various quirks or chips on their shoulders, including my personal favourite Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), a blind priest of The Force who offers the usual amount of ass-kicking you can expect from Yen.
The plot is a little meandering at first, drawing a couple of threads and characters together before it really gets going. Once it does, however, the film takes off and works wonderfully. The constant threat of the Death Star is set early on and is positively palpable, and it spurns the characters ever-forward. It was nice to have a blockbuster this year that, for the most part, didn't have pacing issues and maintained focus on its end goal. The film also has excellent tone, consistently darker than other Star Wars entries, and with humour that is a little more dry than silly.
That said, what the film did right in terms of plot, it fell a little short in terms of character. Each of the group of misfits is very cool or interesting in their own way, but they're also underdeveloped, so none of their emotional peaks have as much weight as seem to want to have. This is most true for the two leads in Jyn and Cassian Andor (Luna), who have several moments that were very significant to their characters, but I found it difficult to really empathise with them in those moments because the plot has been moving this whole time, and the moments are gone before they can really leave a mark. It isn't completely damaging to the movie, but it makes the significant pressure of their mission impersonal.
The Verdict: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a satisfying entry in the series. It tells an interesting and engaging story with genuinely well-done tension and suspense despite the foregone conclusion, but the film is held back a little by lack of definition in its characters. This isn't enough to put a damper on the experience as a whole, however, and I highly recommend the film, as it can appeal to both long-time fans of Star Wars and to general moviegoers.
Rating: 7.5/10
Published December 18th, 2016
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