BurtonReviews Rogue One A Star Wars Story: The Prequel We Deserve?

(Image sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlN2U6zaztY)

Star Wars prequels. That term can muster a great response of hatred, pain and an unbelievably potent aversion to sand from people across the globe. The trek into the history of Star Wars’ past has been a rocky, and mostly turbulent course of action that has broken many fans hearts, and turned the rest firmly to the dark side. But now with Star Wars in the hallowed hands of our supreme overlords at Disney; will the pairing of the words ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Prequel’ finally not lead to fear, anger, hate and suffering; or are we destined to be trapped in this insidious loop of prequel torment.

(vIDEO SOURCED FROM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY)

The Star Wars Story of Rogue One takes place before the events of Star Wars: A New Hope, (the fourth or first Star Wars movie depending on how you stand in this war on continuity), and shows just how the rebels got their hands on the plans to the biggest, baddest and scariest orb in all of cinema, the Death Star.

Let’s start off with the obvious positives of this movie. With Star Wars’ long standing captivating and aesthetically awesome visual style, and Disney’s prowess in ensuring each one of their films looks perfect, as they have done again and again with their Marvel properties, it’s safe to assume that this movie would look visually astounding. And it does.  

The Immense and flawless CGI that is used to create these fantastical worlds engulfed in fire and to bring the iconic vehicles of the Star Wars mythos once again, breath-takingly, to life as they careen the upper atmosphere of a warring planet to a back drop of utter destruction is, as always, mind-blowingly good. Any freeze frame taken from a battle scene would easily look as if it had come from one of your coolest and wildest dreams making you instantly feel like your seven-years-old again and crashing together your favourite Star Wars toys.

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But it is not only the CGI that is phenomenal in this movies visual style, the cinematography employed by Greig Fraser to capture heart stopping shots of the Death Star eerily hovering just above the horizon of its next planet sized victim brings a whole new life to the, at this point, over used symbol of the Death Star, allowing it to feel just as scary and powerful as it did in its first appearance back in 1977.

What also breathed new life into this Star Wars film was the tonal style and where this story put you in the Star Wars galaxy. While Phantom Menace took you to the lofty and pretentious height of Coruscant, Rogue One lets you experience the down-and-dirty roots of the galaxy far far away. Every location, every character thoughtfully peppered into the background of every shot not only gave this galaxy even more depth and rough, but charming character, but it makes you feel like your down in the grass-roots of Star Wars too, like you could be anyone of those strangely wonderful alien races that are bobbing through the background not just as a piece of scenery, but as a beings with their own worries, needs and purpose in this deep and well thought out universe.

And while the strikingly gritty tone of the movie captured me from the very first shot of the film, what never got me invested was the story, and I think the biggest problem with it is that we know what happens. We know that the rebels get the Death Star plans and we know that Luke is able to blow it up and save the day in A New Hope; so throughout this movie I felt no sense of suspense or intrigue in what was unfolding on-screen, instead I was just waiting for the expected to finally happen so we could maybe get onto something more interesting or surprising.

(Image sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oec_YR_fJtM)

However there are definitely merits to this story, with a good bit of expansion of the Star Wars lore taking place here and plugging up one of the biggest plot holes that the franchise has had to battle with since day one, not much of what was added really grabbed me. How the plans got into the rebels hands wasn’t interestingly done at all and the politics surrounding it felt weirdly glossed over so I didn’t have much idea of where the rebellion or empire were at at this point in the timeline, which just served to add to my disconnection with the events on screen.

Another aspect of the film that felt oddly disconnected was the score of the film. With Michael Giacchino taking the helm instead of John Williams, who has done it for every single Star Wars movie up to this point, it was obviously going to be slightly different, but this score just seemed to miss the mark completely. Not only did the score not seem to match up with the tone or moments of the film it was supposed to highlight and heighten to new emotional peaks, but it never gave Rogue One it’s iconic audio feel, leaving me not only underwhelmed by the score, but disappointed by a franchise that has given so many iconic and truly awe inspiring pieces.

But there were some truly shining stars in this movie that rose above the underwhelming plot and score. Three stars in particular actually. Donnie Yen, the blind, badass and all around great guy Chirrut Imwe, his best friend and fellow badass who never leaves his home without his devastating heavy repeater cannon, Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and Alan Tudyk as the hilariously honest K-2SO. These three characters stole my heart from the moment they entered the story and were a true treat to watch as I actively looked forward for whenever they would return to the screen as they added the most heart, but also fun, to this otherwise dark and hopeless situation.

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But outside of those three I didn’t really care much for anyone else. Riz Ahmend’s imperial pilot turned rebel and Mads Mikkelsen as Garlen Erso, the Death Star’s reluctant creator, both had great potential to be interesting characters, but both were so under used that they simply became well-acted plot points more than actual characters.

And the three main characters of the film, rebel fighters Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), and Imperial official Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), just weren’t that interest or compelling, to no fault of the actors playing them. Maybe another side effect of knowing how all this works out, but for the rebels Erso and Andor, whenever they were faced with struggle or strife within how they should complete the mission, I didn’t care and was waiting for them to come to the predictable agreement on how to defeat the Empire. And for the main baddie of the film Krennic, while he put a very strong and charismatic foot forward in the opening sequence of the film, from then on his character quickly goes downhill to the point where he seems insignificant to anything that is going on and any time focused on him just seems like a waste compared to the other menacing figures in the film.

Menacing figures such as the much talked about and anticipated return of the one and only Darth Vader. And while his inclusion in the film gives us THE best scene in the entire piece, and one that will certainly go down in Star Wars history of epic moments, his, and other character’s inclusions, brings me to another problem I had with the film, The overbearing and off putting fan service in the film. While Episode 7 handled the call backs to the original trilogy with controlled precision and subtlety, such as Finn’s discovery of an useless looking white ball that we all know helped Luke become the saber wielding master he is today, this film crams so many character appearances into it that it just feels like a kid throwing his old Star Wars toys into a box and shaking it about to see what happens. Most felt completely un-needed and forced, while the ones that worked, quickly over stayed their welcome and hindered the movie’s quality rather than elevated it through smart and measured call backs to the beloved original.

(Image sourced from http://worldandword.com/2016/10/13/rogue-one-star-wars-story/)

Overall I was disappointed by this movie. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get into the films story or most of its characters. Outside of three truly likeable and entertaing characters and Star Wars’ inherently awe inspiring visual style and depth of universe that makes this fictional landscape feel tangible but still magical at the same time, nothing grabbed me to show me why Rogue one was a necessary or needed movie.

Rogue One A Star Wars Story = 6/10

Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews, where I upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbUfnyezvQsVsDgN3TGRh1Q

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed.