I saw Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and I wasn’t that impressed. Some people are telling me that it means I’m not a “hardcore” Star Wars fan, but I’m more inclined to think it just means, I won’t be taken with a movie simply because you slap “Star Wars” in the title.
Sure, it had some good parts and it wasn’t a bad film, but it was not one of those movies that I was as energized with as the end credits rolled, as I was when the opening fanfare began.
You don’t really have to keep something like this spoiler free. It’s a story which has an end anyone who has watched Star Wars: A New Hope is aware of. It does everything it is supposed to do, but I’m afraid that doing just what you’re supposed to do isn’t enough to be celebrated. .
Don’t get me wrong, I will buy it when it comes out to own for my collection, I’m a collector, but until I view it again, it just didn’t move me, which is want I want in a movie, any movie, not just a Star Wars one.
Now, as I stated earlier, it’s not all bad. It was enjoyable, but it wasn’t the best I’ve seen, though good isn’t what I go to the theatre to see. The characters are solid and there are a few stand outs like Jyn Erso, played by Felicity Jones, and Chirrut Îmwe portrayed by Donnie Yen, but that’s about it. K-2SO is the only comic relief, and all of the other appearances and nods to the two trilogies it links seem somewhat forced.
In my opinion, this is not a film that seems to work well on it’s own, my knowledge of the before and after seemed to cloud what I was seeing, because of the references within the film. Sure it has it’s own story, they have to get the plans for the Death Star, but with all those nods to the rest of the Star Wars movies, that would be lost on some, to me they feel, shoehorned in as an attempt to appease fans like me.
I wonder if they were hoping that all the visual cues, castings, and story nods to other trilogies would be enough to make me love this movie, but they were not..
I’ll admit, it was fun to see Bail Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2, but it wasn’t necessary to the story, regardless of my knowledge of how they fit into the rest of the series. I wasn’t watching the whole series, I was watching a portion of it, a minor subsection, that may have been important to A New Hope, but only insofar as a a few lines of dialogue. Maybe it’s just hard to watch a film, where you know how it ends, or at least, exactly how the story fits into the space between the prequels and the original trilogy.
The argument here is that yes, I knew how Titanic ends, but they worked on character, that whole movie is a fanfare of CGI and character development, because they didn’t have to work with something before and then get to the ship sinking. But the point is, with Rogue One they really had a rough time with story and character, because they were working in between two existing things that are on a common story line. Yes, it’s not easy, but I’m still not giving them a pass just because Star Wars was in the title. I don’t really feel a connection to any of the new characters they’ve introduced.
And as for their “cause?” I was expecting more on the Rebels and their cause than was written into the script. Unlike the other movies there isn’t much about the Rebellion other than they are against the Empire, which I already knew. I wanted them to go deeper, but in truth Rogue One is equally about what the Empire is up to, maybe more so, and those damn Rebels seem like nothing more than the Scooby Doo equivalent of those “meddling kids.”
Maybe, I’m not the target audience, but after some thought, I can’t tell you who that target is supposed to be!
Star Wars isn’t the franchise it used to be. The Prequels, were hit and miss among many hardcore fans, and it seems that this may be another one, that we’ll be arguing about for years to come. At least that’s something positive. We’ll be able to add the discussion on if you liked Rogue One, to the conversation on if you liked the Prequels, or which ones, so at least there’s that.
If you’re interested, then go see it, but please remove the hype. I think that’s partly why the film seems like a letdown. Because, although I didn’t completely buy into all the hype, it’s not something that I can completely erase from my sphere of influence, after all, what’s said among friends, isn’t as easily ignored as what’s scrolled past on social medias.
Official Rogue One A Star Wars Story Poster
In truth, they did the best they could with what they had to work with. I’m just hoping for a lot more when it comes to the rest of the Anthologies.
To borrow from my friends at The Wicked Theory Podcast, I would probably give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 2.5 out of 5 American Tacos.
Still, I urge all Star Wars fans to go see it, if for no other reason, than maybe it will keep you more grounded as the rest of the Anthologies get released.
May the force be with you all…
Read the Secret File of technical information and quotes from Togue One: A Star Wars Story.