★★★★
If Rogue One is an indication, this idea has promise. The film is tightly linked to the Star Wars
universe. Its story is background to the
beginning of Star Wars: Episode IV, which opens with Darth Vader’s attack on
Princess Leia’s ship in search of the plans for the Death Star. Rogue One tells us how the Rebels got the
plans and ends at this attack; we see the moment that Leia is handed the Death
Star plans which we know she’ll soon be hiding in R2D2. And along the way to this ending, Rogue One nods
to the world of Star Wars in ways too numerous to list. In an early example, we see that Jyn, like
Luke, is raised on a technology-assisted farm, though it’s a wet planet in her
case rather than a dry one. Jyn’s mother
even prepares the same blue milk that we watch Luke’s mother prepare. Throughout Rogue One, we see characters and
technology that we know from the main series.
Most conspicuously, a digital version of Peter Cushing appears as
Tarkin, and a digital Carrie Fischer plays as Leia briefly, but the weapons,
aircraft and settings all call back to the original series. Some shots even look familiar, like those of
the Rebel pilots in their cockpits and the sentries stationed at the Rebels’
tropical base. For fans, all this seems
wonderfully familiar yet new as we see the familiar in new settings.
Gareth Edwards also brings strong cinematic competency to
Rogue One. Although we change locations
often, it’s not hard to know where we are at each point and why we’re
there. Likewise, we know who everyone is
and why they’re involved in each scene despite the large cast of characters. And the final sequence, the battle of Scarif,
is a tour de force from Edwards. The
portrayal of this battle fractures into several lines, and Edwards edits them
together so each one maintains its suspense independently while contributing to
an effective collective suspense for the battle at large. Edwards fuses this suspense with marvelous
CGI work in the air war above the planet, too.
Rogue One works well cinematically.
The film isn’t without its flaws, though, and the
shallowness of its characters undercuts a couple of its important aspects. For
one, the Rogue One aims to address the legitimacy of doing bad things for a
good cause. We see this moral dilemma
highlighted in some of Cassian’s lines and actions, but Galen, Saw, Bodhi and
even Jyn confront the question also.
Unfortunately, none of these characters has the depth or psychological
presence to make their questioning resonate with the audience. We don’t know their likes, dislikes, doubts
or vulnerabilities s to any real degree, and we have only the most rudimentary
understanding of their past. When such underdeveloped
characters try to cope with a complex moral problem like this one, it feels
more like posturing than a moral struggle.
It’s laudable that Edwards tries to use the Star Wars universe to deal
with such a question, but the effort is undermined by a script that doesn’t
provide more psychological complexity.
When Disney bought Lucasfilm, they talked about doing some
movies that were sidelines to the main Star Wars story, portraying events and
characters that weren’t part of the core storyline. They also said that these extra films would
be open to more experimentation than the main Star Wars films would.
There is also a bleakness to Rogue One that could have given this film
more heft that most of its predecessors.
We flinch as we see main characters perish, culminating in effective freeze-frame
ending. And while we regret the loss of
characters that we’d come to like, the demise of each of them would have been
even more affective if they’d had more complexity. The more we understand about cinematic
characters, the more invested we are and the more we respond to them. So although the end of Rogue One is a strong
one, but would have been devastating if we’d had more connection to the
characters.
Rogue One is a worthy addition to the Star Wars corpus. It’s not perfect, but it’s a fun experience
of that universe, and Edwards’ efforts to go where Star Wars hasn’t gone before
inaugurates this group of films with promise.
