Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2016.
Directed by Gareth Edwards.
Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Jimmy Smits, Mads Mikkelsen, and James Earl Jones.
SYNOPSIS:
The Rebel Alliance makes a risky move to steal the plans for the Death Star, setting up the epic saga to follow.
The first in the new Star Wars anthology films, Rogue One is a breath of fresh air in this franchise. In a world where actions have consequences, this is the first Star Wars film that feels like a real war is taking place and that everything won’t end neatly.
Gone is the usual scrolling text summary and the film opens with the evil Krennic (Mendelsohn) coming to take Galen Erso (Mikkelsen) away from his home to help him build the iconic Death Star. Her mother now dead and her father gone, Jyn Erso (Jones) is raised by rebel fighter Saw Gerrera (Whitaker) until he leaves her to fend for herself. As an adult Jyn has no hope, she simply drifts from one place to the next. It’s only when the Alliance find her and she learns of her Father’s role in the creation of the Death Star that she leads her team of rebels on a mission to steal the plans for the weapon.
The rebels are mentioned briefly in the opening text of New Hope and to build a film based around this is a testament to the talents of Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. The first hour of the film is a little slow but as the team are introduced and their characters built upon the final act is simply sublime. It is action packed, heart-warming and stunning.
In the tradition of Star Wars, Jyn is a powerful female force and it’s refreshing to see a woman take centre stage in the male dominated rebellion. Jones’ performance is on point and initial fears I had from the trailer where she seemed a bit too focused on speech giving was thankfully wrong. The supporting cast are phenomenal. Working as a double act, blind force believer Chirrut Imwe (Yen) and his ally Baze Malbus (Jiang) are fantastic to watch. They have great chemistry throughout and they add a lot of comic relief and also take credit for some of the best action sequences. As with all Star Wars films you need a quippy droid to complete the set and Alan Tudyk excels as the blunt robot K-2SO. His performance is perfect and he cuts through a lot of the tension whilst still being useful.
As the film takes place just before the events of A New Hope, there are plenty of familiar faces littered throughout. The resurrection of Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin isn’t entirely successful. The actor who passed away in the early 90s has been painstakingly recreated using the latest CGI techniques and the vocal performance is great. The only issue is that he is quite clearly CGI and this does take you out of the narrative slightly. All of this is forgiven when you see Darth Vader. The memories of his shambolic treatment in the prequels has been rectified as he is given two scenes which will delight fans everywhere and hopefully introduce a new audience to one of, if not the best screen villain of all time.
Having high expectations can put a lot of pressure on a film to deliver, but Rogue One does deliver on action, a great script, and beautiful direction. I was hoping for more from Ben Mendelsohn as the snivelling Krennic as he does appear quite one dimensional, but still this is only a minor quibble.
Rogue One is a great piece of filmmaking and ushers in a new style to this franchise. After stumbling with Godzilla, Gareth Edwards’ effort feels more like his debut Monsters. It’s intimate in its character building and relationships but it is big on ambition and his action set pieces are the best I’ve seen so far in any Star Wars film.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Helen Murdoch
Originally published December 20, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
