Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review

<p>Being the first film in a series not to be related to the Skywalker storyline leaves a lot for this two hour film to do&period; Like the first film of any series&comma; it needs to establish characters&comma; create an emotional connection between those characters and the audience&period; These are the first things that need to be done to create something everlasting&period; Unfortunately&comma; director Gareth Edwards and writers Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be bothered to introduce a complete set of compelling characters&comma; instead relying on the mythos of the Star Wars universe for the audience to latch on to&period; <em>Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story <&sol;em>is a mostly disappointing affair&comma; but one that happens to almost redeem itself by the very end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Jyn Erso &lpar;Felicity Jones&rpar; has been raised by Saw Gerrera &lpar;Forest Whitaker&rpar; ever since the death of her mother and kidnapping of her father &lpar;Mads Mikkelsen&rpar; by Imperial officer Orson Krennic &lpar;Ben Mendelsohn&rpar;&period; Jyn&&num;8217&semi;s Father&comma; Galen Erso is a research scientist responsible for the creation of the Death Star and he was kidnapped to complete the project&period; Jyn has since been captured by the Empire before being rescued by Cassian Andor &lpar;Diego Luna&rpar; and the Rebellion for the sole purpose of reaching out to her father&period; Before they are able to rescue her father&comma; they run into people that join their little squad before embarking on the main adventure&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116241" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116241" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116241 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;17162417&sol;MV5BNjEyOTA5NzMzMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNTE0NTEzMDI&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SX1777&lowbar;CR001777744&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-e1482009873520&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story&comma; Lucasfilm&comma; Ltd&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"402" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116241" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story<&sol;em>&comma; Lucasfilm Ltd&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>All of this information is sloppily doled out over the opening thirty minutes of the film&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re treated to infrequent action sequences &lpar;including one that manages to make Donnie Yen look boring&rpar; that don&&num;8217&semi;t add any stakes or thrills to the tired exposition&period; Many cinephiles may namedrop <em>The Battle of Algiers <&sol;em>for some form of quality check&comma; but that would be a major disservice to that film&period; The initial action sequences all take place in slummy areas of another place that looks a little too similar to Tatooine &lpar;a planet seen in many of the prior films&rpar;&period; Edwards tries to imbue <em>Rogue One <&sol;em>with a guerrilla warfare feel to the action and it never entirely works due to the way it&&num;8217&semi;s shot&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t want to take shots at cinematographer Greig Fraser&comma; but between the poor editing of the first two thirds of the film and the faraway shot distance from the action&comma; the film feels disconnected from the characters we should feel close to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s weird to write down all these criticisms that I seemingly forgave by the time the credits rolled&period; The last forty-five minutes of this film feel so different from the first two thirds that I almost forgave it for the completely dull portions of the film&period; Of course&comma; there are stand-outs in the performances from Alan Tudyk as K-2S0 and the buddy combo of Donnie Yen playing Chirrut Îmwe&comma; a blind man connected to the force&comma; and famed Chinese actor &amp&semi; director Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus&comma; Îmwe&&num;8217&semi;s friend and rebel warrior&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s incredibly refreshing to see two actors of color be the highlights of the film&period; In fact&comma; I hardly noticed that the heroes were mostly people of color and I&&num;8217&semi;d like to have more of the diversity we should be getting that we see in this film&period; It doesn&&num;8217&semi;t distract&comma; it just feels like that&&num;8217&semi;s how it is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;116243" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-116243" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-116243 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;12&sol;17162557&sol;MV5BMTg1MzAyODUyOF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjE0NTEzMDI&percnt;40&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SX1777&lowbar;CR001777744&lowbar;AL&lowbar;-e1482009998311&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;&lt&semi;em&gt&semi;Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story&lt&semi;&sol;em&gt&semi;&comma; Lucasfilm Ltd&period;&rpar;" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"402" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-116243" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story<&sol;em>&comma; Lucasfilm Ltd&period;&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Speaking on more of the last third of the film&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m still kind of shocked at how well <em>Rogue One <&sol;em>turned itself around&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s been said that co-writer Tony Gilroy had a very big hand in the <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;hollywoodreporter&period;com&sol;heat-vision&sol;rogue-one-drama-writer-tony-916695">extensive reshoots<&sol;a> to rework the ending and I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but feel that here&period; An energy that was missing all throughout the film shows up within the extensive battle sequence&period; Emotion came from characters I didn&&num;8217&semi;t seem to recall having any emotional attachment to and the stakes of the film started to feel real&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t help but sense the artistic collaboration with Gilroy must have steered the remainder of the film in this direction&period; Between the loving archival inserts from <em>A New Hope <&sol;em>that were occasionally misguided to the insanity of the final setpieces&comma; it felt like the movie was finally taking some much needed risks&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Rogue One&colon; A Star Wars Story <&sol;em>is a flawed action&sol;adventure film that&comma; in the end&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m happy to have seen&period; By the time the credits rolled&comma; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t help but have a smile on my face despite how much I despised the film up to the third act&period; <em>Rogue One <&sol;em>felt too safe to ever feel like it was set in the reality of <em>Star Wars<&sol;em>&period; The characters only quipped when it&&num;8217&semi;d been too long between jokes&period; Moments of action only came when the movie started to get slow&period; As much as I hate using the word&comma; this movie was quite boring&period; But this film might be a big justification for reshoots&period; <em>Rogue One <&sol;em>had many issues before Tony Gilroy stepped in&comma; but it ended up being released with one of the most satisfying endings of the year&period; All it takes is a great ending for everyone to feel like they had a good experience&period; Even for me&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;