“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the second major “Star Wars” blockbuster churned out by Disney in the last two years, opened this past weekend, and was a good (not great) addition to the canon; heavy on visuals and light on character development.
“Rogue One” ends minutes before the events of “A New Hope” (the first installment produced in the series in 1977), and centers around the rebel plot to steal the plans of the Death Star, the storyline that defines the original trilogy.
“Rogue One” features an all-star cast led by Felicity Jones (“Theory of Everything”) as Jyn Urso, a renegade turned reluctant rebel alliance fighter who leads a team of rebels to steal the plans for the Death Star. Jones is joined on screen by Diego Luna (“Elysium”) as Cassian, the disreputable head of rebel intelligence, Riz Ahmed (“Nightcrawler”) as Bodhi Rook, an imperial turned rebel pilot, and Mads Mikkelsen (“Casino Royale”), who also happens to be Jyn’s father and brings the Death Star plans to the rebels so they can discover the fatal flaw he installed in the super weapon.
First the positives.
The highlight of “Rogue One” was most definitely the visuals, featuring some of the best CGI technology in our age, and putting George Lucas’s prequel trilogy to shame. The highlights in visual effects included the Death Star precision bombing of Jeddah City and Scarif; the final space battle, reminiscent of the attack on the Imperial Fleet in “A New Hope”; and the rebel attack on Scarif, reminiscent of the battle in the forests of Endor, with far better special effects.
Another highlight was the pacing of the movie. The movie perfectly balanced and timed action sequences, with suspenseful and heartfelt scenes, and cameos.
Finally the acting, filmography and choreography in the movie, as expected, were phenomenal. Luna and Ridley’s chemistry was very strong and the emotional scenes between the two and Ridley and Mikkelsen were heartfelt and believable.
And the dark side…
The character development was underdone, especially for a “Star Wars” movie. The characters, with the exception of Jyn Urso, didn’t have any notable backstories especially considering their significance to the plot. Cassian only got about 5-10 minutes in the entire movie to explain himself and why he was fighting for the rebellion, but this wasn’t accompanied by any visuals, flashbacks or specifics to really stress what happened to him to join at such a young age. Other characters seemingly came out of nowhere, making them appear simply as colorful plot devices and marketable action figures. The awkward romance between Jyn and Cassian was out of place.
The graphics are so visually pleasing to the audience that they kind of show up Episodes 3-6. Since this is supposed to be in between Episodes 3 and 4, it makes it seem like those episodes are almost in a different time period even though we know how the story goes.
