Like every American, I saw Rogue One this week. And while I enjoyed it quite a lot, there were also some things I was mixed on.
First, let's talk about the good. Felicity Jones was very capable in her role as heroine. Jones, who by the way also starred in ITV's adaption of Northanger Abbey, plays Jyn Erso, a reluctant member of the rebellion. But over the course of the movie, her commitment grows and she comes to lead a ragtag group of rebels to steal the Death Star plans (spoilers, but come on, we already knew that's what happened in this movie). This group includes a rebel spy who has done "terrible thing" in the name of the rebellion, a sarcastic droid, an ex-Empire pilot, a blind Force monk (he's the coolest part of this movie), and his machine-gun toting sidekick. While we don't really get to know any of these characters as well as we want, that isn't really the point. One of the things I loved about Jyn's character is that she is a true feminist heroine; she doesn't need a man and is able to take charge of a combat mission. Like Rey from The Force Awakens, she is never objectified by the camera (or anyone else). Her clothes completely make sense for the combat mission she is leading – no metal bikinis here.
Second, as I already alluded to, the Rebellion is not portrayed as completely noble. Of course, the Empire is still portrayed as evil. But at the start of the movie, the Rebel Alliance is really more factions than alliance. There's Saw Guerrera and his militia, fighting a guerrilla war in Jedha, where the Empire is trying to harvest crystals for the main gun on the Death Star. They aren't afraid to use extreme tactics and it's clear that the other rebels see them as little more than terrorists. Then there's the Rebel Alliance, which is conflicted about whether the rebellion should take the form of open conflict with the Empire or continue the current strategy of sabotage, assassination, and espionage combined with resistance in the Senate. The discovery that the Death Star is being made, however, forces the Alliance to come together and fight.
Third, Rogue One did a great job of filling plot holes from A New Hope. I don't really want to get into this because I want you to go see it and have the joy of discovering these for yourself. But I'll give you a clue – there's a reason the Death Star could be destroyed by a single well aimed torpedo shot.
Now, I want to talk about what didn't work for me. This really comes down to one thing – Rogue One just didn't feel like Star Wars to me. Right from the start, the score set me off on the wrong foot; it sounded like those scores you hear on YouTube that are trying to remind you of Star Wars but carefully avoiding actually playing the music so that they don't get slapped with a copyright violation. So from the beginning, I already started to get the feeling that I was watching some extremely high-quality fan fiction. As the movie went on, I found myself being reminded more and more of the Star Wars novels, some of which were really good, but which, again, I always considered as officially licensed fan-fiction. After I got home, I tried putting my finger on what bothered me about this movie and I think it comes down to the genre. To me, Star Wars is really fantasy masquerading as science fiction. It's about a peasant boy who becomes a knight with a sword and magic powers on a quest to defeat the dark lord and save the world. There's none of that in Rogue One besides the monk who is trying to connect to the Force. But Rogue One is really an action spy thriller in a science fiction setting; the fantasy is nowhere to be found. This is partly where the new trilogy went wrong – they tried to take the magic out of the Force and replace it with science mumbo-jumbo about midichlorians living in the bloodstream. While Rogue One is back seeing the Force as religion, the movie is more about blasters and plans for giant space stations than it is about the Force.
Rating: 4 stars
I know it sounded at the end like I was hating on Rogue One, but I really wasn't. I would definitely recommend it. There's a twist at the ending that I didn't see coming but really liked. The film is really beautiful and I think it works as an action thriller. I completely agree with Christopher Orr from The Atlantic's summary: "Rogue One is neither as good as a good Star Wars movie nor as bad as a bad one."
Also, I spent most of the movie waiting for my favorite lines from the trailer, none of which ever showed up. This isn't really a negative because it turned out that those scenes weren't really needed. But still, what version did all those scenes in the trailer come from?
Caveat Spectator
I can't really think of anything. There's plenty of violence, but it's the kind found in superhero movies where wounds mysteriously don't really bleed.
Second, as I already alluded to, the Rebellion is not portrayed as completely noble. Of course, the Empire is still portrayed as evil. But at the start of the movie, the Rebel Alliance is really more factions than alliance. There's Saw Guerrera and his militia, fighting a guerrilla war in Jedha, where the Empire is trying to harvest crystals for the main gun on the Death Star. They aren't afraid to use extreme tactics and it's clear that the other rebels see them as little more than terrorists. Then there's the Rebel Alliance, which is conflicted about whether the rebellion should take the form of open conflict with the Empire or continue the current strategy of sabotage, assassination, and espionage combined with resistance in the Senate. The discovery that the Death Star is being made, however, forces the Alliance to come together and fight.
Third, Rogue One did a great job of filling plot holes from A New Hope. I don't really want to get into this because I want you to go see it and have the joy of discovering these for yourself. But I'll give you a clue – there's a reason the Death Star could be destroyed by a single well aimed torpedo shot.
Now, I want to talk about what didn't work for me. This really comes down to one thing – Rogue One just didn't feel like Star Wars to me. Right from the start, the score set me off on the wrong foot; it sounded like those scores you hear on YouTube that are trying to remind you of Star Wars but carefully avoiding actually playing the music so that they don't get slapped with a copyright violation. So from the beginning, I already started to get the feeling that I was watching some extremely high-quality fan fiction. As the movie went on, I found myself being reminded more and more of the Star Wars novels, some of which were really good, but which, again, I always considered as officially licensed fan-fiction. After I got home, I tried putting my finger on what bothered me about this movie and I think it comes down to the genre. To me, Star Wars is really fantasy masquerading as science fiction. It's about a peasant boy who becomes a knight with a sword and magic powers on a quest to defeat the dark lord and save the world. There's none of that in Rogue One besides the monk who is trying to connect to the Force. But Rogue One is really an action spy thriller in a science fiction setting; the fantasy is nowhere to be found. This is partly where the new trilogy went wrong – they tried to take the magic out of the Force and replace it with science mumbo-jumbo about midichlorians living in the bloodstream. While Rogue One is back seeing the Force as religion, the movie is more about blasters and plans for giant space stations than it is about the Force.
Rating: 4 stars
I know it sounded at the end like I was hating on Rogue One, but I really wasn't. I would definitely recommend it. There's a twist at the ending that I didn't see coming but really liked. The film is really beautiful and I think it works as an action thriller. I completely agree with Christopher Orr from The Atlantic's summary: "Rogue One is neither as good as a good Star Wars movie nor as bad as a bad one."
Also, I spent most of the movie waiting for my favorite lines from the trailer, none of which ever showed up. This isn't really a negative because it turned out that those scenes weren't really needed. But still, what version did all those scenes in the trailer come from?
Caveat Spectator
I can't really think of anything. There's plenty of violence, but it's the kind found in superhero movies where wounds mysteriously don't really bleed.
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