A new year, a new Star Wars film to carry my hopes and dreams.
What’s It About? Rebel commando Jyn Erso and her ragtag group set out on a mission to steal the plans for the Empire’s galaxy-threatening super-weapon, the Death Star.
STRAIGHT UP: I really liked it. Sets some new high points for the franchise. 4/5
What I Liked
Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso – I like the intensity Jones brings to her role as Jyn, who I think is the best character in this movie despite the screenplay leaving her with some inconsistent motivations. This new generation of Star Wars is increasingly defined by its heroines, and Jyn is a solid addition to that group.
Gareth Edwards’ shot composition – In 2014, Edwards crafted some amazing visuals for an otherwise terrible Godzilla film, and now he gets to put those talents to use for something better. In the best parts of Rogue One, Edwards is successful at making Imperial AT-ATs seem just as huge and terrifying as Godzilla. He may have the best visual sense of any director to helm a Star Wars movie.
We got jokes – Although Rogue One is a darker take on Star Wars in some ways, it’s also got just as much humor as any of the other films, thanks in large part to the contributions of one K2-SO.
It gets real – An early review of this film was famously roasted for suggesting that Rogue One was “the first Star Wars film to acknowledge that the whole franchise is about war.” While the phrasing is clumsy, I think I understand the sentiment behind it. Star Wars films have never lacked for storylines about loss and sacrifice, but only rarely in the boots-on-the-ground setting that Rogue One occupies, and never for as long at a stretch. With this shift in perspective, the sacrifices of the Rebellion at large finally feel as dramatic and important as those of the Skywalker and Solo families.
Move over, Hoth – The final third of the film is dominated by an epic, multi-part Rebel commando operation that I consider to be the best extended action sequence in the whole franchise. Blending high-stakes action with impactful character moments and a rising sense of desperation, these scenes elevate the work as a whole.
Darth Vader is cool again – Vader’s appearance in the closing minutes of the film rates as one of 2016’s best movie moments, and restores him to his former status as a fearsome, unstoppable villain.
What I Disliked
Saw Gerrera – For all the build-up this character got within the story itself, his on-screen role didn’t amount to much. Saw is basically this movie’s version of Captain Phasma.
Say my name – It’s concerning to me that nobody seems to remember the names of the characters in this movie. I hear people say “the blind guy was awesome” or “I liked the girl” but not “Chirrut was awesome” or “I liked Jyn.” To me, this is a symptom of poor character development.
Too self-indulgent – Like The Force Awakens before it, Rogue One is all too pleased to cram dozens of references to the rest of the franchise into its run time. Once again, while this is cute at first, it quickly loses its charm.
Everything needs an origin – One of the impressions I had walking out of this movie was that it was the hardest anyone has ever worked to fill an old plot hole. I want to believe that wasn’t the spark for the rest of the screenplay, but…
CLOSING THOUGHT: I have so many stray thoughts about Rogue One and Star Wars in general that I couldn’t possibly fit them all here. Leave a comment if you want to know my feelings about something in particular.
RED COMET REVIEWS 
Good review! I’m curious which universe references you thought went too far, so as to seem self-indulgent. I suppose we want the references to be meaningful, subtle, and relevant. A newcomer shouldn’t perceive a line as being delivered in scare quotes and know they’re not in on a joke. A line should make sense on it’s own, even without outside universe context.
Good reference:
Red 5. In the final battle, one of the fallen rebels has this callsign. The battle dialogue works smoothly as they mention his number. So Luke fills this hole in the squadron a few days later. It answers a question nobody cared to ask, “Why did Luke get Red 5?” But I like this depth.
Weak reference:
The hammy way Mothma and Organa discuss Kenobi. Comes off as silly fan service. And it’s not at all clear what they think he contributes at this point that wouldn’t have been just as helpful any time in the past 15 years. Cassian and Jyn both have lines suggesting the rebels use child soldiers, so why keep
Luke on the bench until his age of majority?
“the first Star Wars film to acknowledge that the whole franchise is about war.”
You know, I couldn’t agree with this more with that reviewer.
This is the first SW film that I actually felt was a war film and not a disney-fantasy-in-space, and it’s not just the visuals. The bloody cost of victory, the hard — often competing — choices that a soldier in the field has to make, the courage it takes to reach for mission objectives KNOWING that you will die in the process. This is the first movie where those emotions were made clear to me by the main characters’ actions and emotions, and not just some expendable grunt on the blockade runner. Heck, even the nameless did better. Watching blue squadron get shot apart on the planet with no chance of escape was more gut-rwenching to me than the whole Hoth Battle in Empires Strikes Back.
And gosh the visuals of the battle. To give a basic crash course in what to look in authentic combat scenes, this is the first SW movie where all the squadrons deployed and maneuvered in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger-four"Finger-Four formation, where the ground infantry used scattered, single-line Marching Fire, etc… I cannot stress how much more professional if not ELITE it made the Rebel forces feel, which put a lot more severity into the battle as though screaming “yes, they REALLY care about this mission!”
Saw Gerrera is really, really disappointing. Especially when he decided to just suck it for… uh, why again? Well, I could say the same for most of the strike team. Characters like Chirrut was all cool and no substance.