Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

     Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and stars Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything), Diego Luna (Elysium), and Alan Tudyk (I, Robot). It tells the story of how the rebellion from Star Wars stole the plans to the Death Star.

     The visuals of Rogue One were incredible, from the sweeping shots of distant planets to close up gun fights and personal interactions. Seeing planets brought to life that had merely been mentioned in previous movies was fascinating. Whereas the world hopping was kept to a minimum in the original movies, a vast number of environments were shown helping to show the scope of a galaxy far, far away. Many of the shots of the landscape could easily be framed and hung on my wall at home.

     An issue I had with the movie was Disney having to censor the film to have it achieve a PG-13 rating. From a marketing and budgetary standpoint, I understand that the studios want to make as much money as possible, but for this movie it felt like it took away from the quality of the film. The best war films, which in essence is what Rogue One is, do not hold back from the violence inherent in war. As blasters hit storm troopers and rebel fighters alike, they fall to the ground without a scratch on their bodies. The camera would pan over characters who had just been shot and they would like as if they had simply been knocked to the ground. It was jarring and took me out of the movie as I wondered what had actually killed them.

     And the editing and pacing of the movie felt off. Reshoots may be part of the problem as Edwards may not have had complete control over the final product. But the beginning of the movie awkwardly jumped from scene to scene without much of a through line. Characters would be seen on the ground starring up at a large monument or city and suddenly be standing on top of it as if they had teleported there when in reality it should have taken much longer. Although it may sound like nitpicks, I found myself distracted wondering how they got their so quickly.

     But my main problem from the movie lie in the storytelling. The first act of the movie was spent setting up character after character. A little time was given to a lot of characters to help give them back stories but it ended up not establishing them very well at all. Much of the dialogue was awkwardly spouted back and forth between characters with a lot of it feeling unnatural, as if they were being forced to say it. Nearly every line was filled with exposition, even well into the third act, not letting the audience have a chance to figure it out themselves, but instead spoon feeding it to us piece by piece.

    But the action of the third act does make this a film worth checking out, when the rebels attack the Empire base at Scarif. The scenery was lush and beautifully clashed with the fighting that took place on it. As the action moves towards space, the best scene of the movie by far takes place (I won’t mention it here to avoid spoilers of any sort).

     Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was a very disappointing movie for me. The first spin off movie showing what life in the galaxy is like away from the Skywalker storyline, Rogue One had a lot to deal with it and a lot of it felt clunky and awkward. But the visuals and final space battle are enough to make this a movie worth seeing, albeit not right away.

When should you see it?

Dollar Theater