Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Movie Review

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Written by: Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy (screenplay), John Knoll and Gary Whitta (story by), George Lucas (based on characters created by)
Directed by: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jian, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikelsen, Jimmy Smits
Rated: PG-13

My rating is simple, Watch It, It Depends, Skip it. Read my previous movie reviews!

Plot
Rebellion soldier Jyn Erso is tasked with stealing the Death Star plans.
This film immediately precedes Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).

Verdict
This has a great opening and a great third acting, but the beginning and middle are a muddled mess. This shoehorns in too many characters, providing them with too little characterization to make us really care about them. The movie tries to make them cool, instead of giving them depth.
The final act is better because it has what the the first two acts lack, focus.
Star Wars relies on it's villains and it completely mishandles the villain in this. It was a chance to give us a corporate villain played by a phenomenal actor (Ben Mendelsohn), but the movie goofs on both accounts. The final act is worth watching, but it doesn't quite make up for the rest of the movie.
It depends.

Review
It doesn't open with the traditional text crawl and music since it's not an "episode." That makes it feel less like Star Wars, and I miss the swelling music of the orchestra.

With the initial trailer, I wondered if this was going to be a sci-fi heist movie like Oceans Eleven (2001). It isn't, which isn't bad in of itself. The main plot reveals how the Rebel Alliance stole the Imperial Death Star plans. These are the same Death Star plans possessed by Princess Leia at the beginning Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso

A great opening scene sets the stage for the main character Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). We're introduced to her father Galen (Mads Mikelssn) and Imperial director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn).
The movie then flashes forward a few years, where it then became muddled. It just doesn't have a focus and introduces too many characters. While it provides a mini-arc for Erso, Star Wars always feels the need to explore father figures, and in this it certainly feels a bit contrived. I couldn't help but wonder when we'd get to the actual Death Star plans heist.

We're introduced to many named characters like Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), and Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) but they aren't that memorable because they don't get any scenes to make them more than cardboard cut outs and the movie doesn't have time for it anyway.

Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe

Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jian) are a formidable pair of brawlers that could have their own spin off movie. They are a brains and tank fighter, but why was Chirrut blind? He didn't have to be. It had no impact other than a look how cool this bow staff warrior is. He can dispatch ten men at a time, and he's blind to boot.

My favorite character might be robot K-2SO (a motion captured performance by Alan Tudyk). He's a reprogrammed former Imperial robot that is always blunt with words. This leads to quite a bit of comedic relief. K-2SO is quick to point out what their percentage of failure is and lets Jyn know he won't kill her because his captain told him not to.

I can't help but feel like this shoved a lot of characters in just to sell toys. You could have cut down half of the characters. While each of them had a good send off, so many of them were shallow. Jyn Erso had the most complete arc but even that felt half baked. In the first scene I thought her father Galen might even be a Jedi, but it turns out he's just an imperial scientist. The fault likes in casting a well known actor in what should be a more submissive role.

The last third of the movie is when the plot begins to focus on stealing the plans, and the last third is a good movie. It's the big finale, but we have to wade through a bit of muck to get to that point.
Director Gareth Edwards does big well, he did Godzilla (2014) after all. This movie takes every opportunity to show how big the world is from the ships to the structures with wide panoramic shots. The battles on land and space are great. They have impact, scale, and consequences.  The rebels battling the Star Destroyers is particularly impressive. It might be that the focus on big is why we don't have small moments.

Ben Mendelsohn is a great actor, but he's given very little room to act. None of the actors are. This movie is at a mile a minute pace, and it needs those small moments to build characters. We get too little of that, though with so many characters this movie would be way too long to do that with all of them.
Krinnic could have been a sympathetic character, in context, but we just don't see enough about him. He should have been a corporate villain, but he's largely ineffective. Tarkin gets to take a bit of the villainous role that Krinnic should have been. Again, it's a case of too many characters, and in this case showing off with a CGI Peter Cushing.
Krinnic could have been a different kind of villain, but he gets pushed around too easily. Star Wars relies on it's villains. Darth Vader is the premier villain, and in The Force Awakens we got Kylo Ren.

The impact this movie's plot has is best seen in a A New Hope. This movie is a novel idea. Ret-con an event from the original movie and provide an explanation. his movie makes me want to see A New Hope. I don't know if that's a praise for this movie or for A New Hope. Then again, is this Disney's plan? Do they want to make us buy the older movies? Is a re-release of the original on the horizon?

The plot of this movie isn't to destroy the Death Star, the greatest weapon these characters have ever seen, it's only to get the plans. If you've seen the Star Wars movies, and if you're watching this you have, you know they'll succeed no matter how dire this movie makes it seem. While movies often have a happy ending, you never know if you'll get a twist. The ending is telegraphed, it's just a matter of how we get there, though I really like how this ends.

Being outside of the saga gives this movie a certain amount of narrative freedom, you'll understand that if or when you see it. The saga has always been concerned about the force. This mentions the force, but it doesn't play a central role. There are no light sabers in this, at least not from any good guys. The conclusion to this story and to each character is strong, which helps the final act end on a high note.

I haven't compared this to Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) during the review, and that's because there isn't much to compare. They don't share characters or much narrative.

This was their trial run of a non-saga movie, while it's clear the budget was huge, any movie comes down to the script. Disney has made it clear they want to make many Star Wars movies. The hype for Rogue One wasn't as intense as for The Force Awakens. Part of that is this isn't part of the saga and we just got a franchise entry a year ago. When they come every year, there isn't as much hype.