Brutal
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Written by: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, Gary Whitta
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Ben Mendelsohn
Swift shot: As the first true standalone film to take place within canonical Star Wars, Rogue One does not disappoint and sets the bar bloody high! If Disney can make a war film this gritty and raw, then I like our odds of being highly entertained in the future. I felt like a kid again, and that is what I want from every Star Wars film, to be young again, if only for a short while. Minor quips aside, I found Rogue One: A Star Wars Story to be a flawless film!
With no opening crawl and no dramatic introduction music, the film just kind of starts and the transitions were a bit sloppy, but overall this was a perfect story about how the Death Star plans, that Leia safely tucks away into R2-D2 to give the galaxy a new hope, are obtained. Or, to be more precise . . . here’s the film’s entire synopsis:
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.
Sound familiar?
The film opens up on a farm where a family shares a familiar beverage. We meet tiny Jyn Erso as her father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) confronts a sin from his past. Imperial Intelligence Director Krennic (Mendelsohn) has been scouring the systems looking for Galen and his family, to coerce Galen to finish working on a terrible weapon, the Death Star. Galen is a brilliant scientist, but he is no match for the Death Troopers under Krennic’s authority. Ultimately, Galen ends up leaving with Krennic and leaving behind a wife and child. Galen and his wife did plan for Jyn to be looked after by a friend, Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) if the Empire ever found them.
[Swift aside: apparently Saw is the first character out of an animated series to appear in a live-action Star Wars film, and he comes from the Clone Wars series, but I wasn’t familiar with him.] Saw does swoop in and snatch young Jyn before the Death Troopers discover her hiding place. That was a bit hard to swallow as the Death Troopers didn’t have any scanning devices, but you could always assume Galen (being a brilliant scientist) managed to create an anti-scanning hideout. Sometimes in these films, you just have to let the plot move forward and don’t over analyze every damned thing, or you will go mad. But, there are bound to be nerds like me that will lose sleep over these things.
After that brief prologue, we are introduced to Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Luna) and his reprogrammed Imperial security guard droid, K-2SO (Tudyk). And credit to Tudyk who actually acted in the scenes and wasn’t just a voice over to a CGI cartoon. As you’d expect from a Star Wars film, the droid steals every scene. K-2so has a lethal frame with a child’s unfiltered mind. He says whatever comes to his mind, despite tact or common sense. While he is arguably only in the film for the sake of comedy relief, he provides a real human quality to an otherwise ruthless story.
Cassian, on the other hand is devoid of humor! Cassian is a flawed hero, and that makes him more compelling. He’s got plenty of sins to atone for. When we first meet him, Cassian does something that shows you exactly what kind of film you are watching. If you’ve ever seen Army of Shadows (1969) about the French resistance in Nazi occupied France, you’ll recognize the allusion. Clearly, Disney is giving their standalone directors freedom to step outside their Mickey Mouse mold. This scene reminds parents this isn’t a film for the kids, even if it is marketed to them . . . and the larger kids, of course.
Fate intervenes and Jyn (Jones) and Cassian are forced to work together to reach the same goal, finding Galen Erso. Cassian, unbeknownst to Jyn, has been given orders to kill Galen, not rescue him. The Alliance isn’t swayed by the speculation that he’s being forced to work for the Empire. Also a running theme in Army of Shadows, I might add.
In a rebellion, you don’t have the luxury of convenience. Either you are an asset or a threat to the Alliance, or you fall somewhere in between and can be exploited. I absolutely loved that they showed how gloves-off the Alliance could truly be when necessary. Remember, they are trying to topple an Emperor and his Sith Lord that are Masters of the Force and have countless troops. It’s not something for the weak to tackle.
Meanwhile, Grand Moff Tarkin (Guy Henry) has pressured Krennic to do a live-fire test of the Death Star, which is now complete . . . thanks to Galen Erso. Once the Death Star blasts an entire ancient city to stardust, the Alliance decides to surrender. They are no match for a weapon of that magnitude.
Luckily for the galaxy, Jyn is not ready to give up on her father, and she manages to find him with the help of Cassian and some stragglers from Saw’s band of rebels, Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and Baze (Jiang Wen). Chirrut is a true believer in the force, he’s convinced his faith will keep him on the path of righteousness and his loyal buddy, Baze will follow him to the ends of the galaxy.
They wouldn’t get very far without a pilot though, and Bodhi (Riz Ahmed) is a defecting Imperial cargo pilot that ends up in a pivotal role. He’s described as the every-man that we can all relate to, just a normal guy who isn’t sure where his loyalties should fall. No one treats him particularly well, but that doesn’t stop him from doing what he can to keep the galaxy safe.
And then there’s an old friend we haven’t truly seen in 33 years, if you ask me! Darth Vader (James Earl Jones) is back, and he is the bad-ass we all loved to love and wonder why we so idolized a complete psychopath when we were kids. If you are worried they didn’t do Vader any justice in this film, worry not, younglings. Worry not.
Once all the pieces are in place for the final showdown, just hold onto your butts!
Rogue One is every bit the war film you are hoping it would be, with Gareth Edwards at the helm to give it that real-world quality. They managed to seamlessly bring back some folks that are a part of the Star Wars Skywalker saga in ways that just gave me nerdgasms!
With violence aplenty, and the raw, dirty reality of the rebellion facing insurmountable odds, this resistance war flick disguised as a sci-fi film is just fantastic! Space battles, skirmishes, sabotage, infiltration, espionage and good old fashioned force-chokes are sure to delight any true Star Wars fan. And if you didn’t like Rogue One, May the Force Be With You, because I seriously pity you.
