4 Stars (out of four)
As good as The Force Awakens was, Rogue One is really the Star Wars we have all been waiting for. Despite the bad press regarding major reshoots because Disney executives thought the tone of the film was too dark, to everybody's irrational fear that Disney would ruin Star Wars, to just the plain old naysayers who said that Rogue One was a redundant and unnecessary film because, as we all know, we already know the end. Boy, were all those people wrong and their fears totally groundless. This was a make or break film for Disney with their new franchise, and unlike The Force Awakens, Rogue One does something extraordinary. It takes us in new directions and unlocks the vast potential this franchise of franchises possese to tell amazing stories.
"It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."
With those 55 words, myself and countless other excited moviegoers were glued to our theater seats in 1977 for the film that would ultimately change most of our lives, and definitely the summer blockbuster, forever. These are the first words in the opening crawl of Star Wars, and yes, at that time it was simply Star Wars, not this Episode IV: A New Hope nonsense. It also describes exactly what we will see in this new movie. But to get a little more specific without spoilers, Rogue One is a movie about Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the now-outlaw daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the man who ultimately designed the power system for the Death Star. Jyn is freed from prison by a rebel, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his reprogrammed imperial robot K-2SO (Alan Tudyk, who, like his character Wash in Firefly/Serenity, provides some much-needed, but not out-of-place sarcastic humor). They are given a mission by the fledgling and divided Rebellion to reach out to Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whittaker), a dangerous extremist who received an urgent message from Jyn's father regarding a new weapon being built by the Galactic Empire. This sets into motion the events that are described in the opening crawl quoted above.
So, why is this movie so great and not just a redundant and cynical cash-grab from Disney? Despite the fact we know the story, we don't know the context behind that first battle. To be fair, this is NOT required viewing for a new Star Wars fan, but it is a rewarding and satisfying chapter that explores the context behind what is to come in Episode IV. This is truly the first Star Wars movie with adults in mind first and foremost. It is long on action AND story, a key failure of the prequels, and is not simply a retread of Episode IV, a key weakness of The Force Awakens. Rather, it is a new story entirely based on an outcome we already know. This does not detract from the plot, but rather enriches what comes after the events of the movie. It establishes the stakes even more by giving crucial context to the events of A New Hope.
Chief among those elements of context are the natures of both the Rebellion and the Empire. For those of you who do not read the books, the Rebellion is far from a united organization based on a common goal and the Empire is not a monolithic entity all steering in the same direction, either. We see the Rebellion, far from being united or totally good for that matter, is fractured and divided. The events of Rogue One are a key component that forces the Rebellion to come together and act for the first time in a unified manner to defeat an existential threat to them and the universe. The Empire as well is not a hive-mind of evil devoted to one goal, but rather a collection of competing interests and ambitions which the Emperor uses to keep everyone in check under him. This makes the universe immediately more complex, diverse, and yes, "real" than the simplistic archetypes of the rest of the Star Wars series. Star Wars, at its core, is made for children. Rogue One, for the first time, dares to try to move that bar into more mature territory. It works just fine on a simple level for kids with its great action pieces. But it also works on a much deeper level, as a more nuanced, larger story, with complex characters who actually feel.
In the final analysis, this complexity is what makes Rogue One superior to every other movie in the series. It is why The Empire Strikes Back is the only other movie that actually matters. There is complex emotion and evolution in the characters and story. We see Jyn evolve from a loner criminal to determined rebel. We see Cassian change from rebel drone to free-thinking individual. Each character in this cast (and there are many), all have their evolutionary journeys that are completely realized, a not-easy feat to do in our jump-cut, action-oriented thought processes of today. This movie actually has some real meat to it in the characters and organizations that may cause you to look at each a little different when you leave. Rogue One adds real nuance to everything in the Star Wars universe, and thus changes our perception of it. For me, this was a game-changer and restored my faith in the power of moviemaking. The movie is just familiar enough to ground us in the reality, but different enough to change our perception about it in a positive and meaningful way. Screenwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy may not win an Oscar for this, but they should.
Finally, I can't leave this review without a little criticism. As much as I love it, it's not perfect. It's as close as you can get, but still falls a little short of the mark. We are given just enough information to put us in the action, but there is a lot of unmined territory that could maybe be produced in books. The territory is primarily the backstories of all the characters. Each one of them is interesting. Part of Jyn's backstory is in Catalyst, but each of the supporting characters are fascinating in their own right, particularly Saw Gerrera. There is enough to tantalize, but I would like to know more. Other than that, this movie is superb in both story and acting, and deserves a place as one of, if not the best Star Wars movie of them all.
No comments:
Post a Comment