Rogue One

CONTAINS ENORMOUS SPOILERS

Here’s a picture of Alan Tudyk and his character in Rogue One.

He used to be Wash in Firefly.

His Rogue One droid K2SO is cool, more grown up than C3PO and R2D2. K2SO is a liberated droid with a mind of his own.

In this movie the leading lady’s love interest      

Cassian Andor

takes a long time to notice her. I was beginning to think this might be a decision in the interest of PC, like the very noticeable racial diversity casting. After a bit I imagined her wondering if she smelled or something. Eventually, after she gives him a lovey dovey look, he starts acting like a love interest.

All this may be explained by the rewrites…

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/01/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-reshoots-disney

…perhaps originally there was no romance.

Peter Cushing is brought back to life as Grand Moff Tarkin. He's still very good.

Not everyone was happy with the resurrection.

My feeling is that as an actor he would have liked the chance to be seen again and would only have cared whether his reviews were good. The trouble is we can’t be sure. I understand Robin Williams made provision to prevent anyone doing this to him. I hope a fat fee was paid to Cushing’s descendants and that they had a say in how he was used.

The story provides a plausible explanation for the heroes’ success against the Death Star in Star Wars. It’s a retcon but in a good way.

133 minutes is at least ten minutes too many and the lengthy, if inventive, action scenes as usual lost me after a while. But that’s probably just me being bored by action scenes, however good, if they go on for more than five minutes.

Although it is established that she can fight well and defend herself, Jyn’s main role is as an inspirational leader; I didn’t find Felicity Jones’s performance very convincing. She is supposed to have sufficient charisma to make everyone in the room listen to her. I don’t think I would have listened to her. Strong women need to be strong.

Basically, I can’t imagine her selling me insurance much less leading me into battle.

There was also an older woman X wing pilot in a tiny role who sounded terribly lame. Did she even know what part she was playing? Pity, as older women were not, apart from this tiny and poorly acted role, included in the otherwise diverse mix.

There were some less than elegant lines in the script, which the actors succeeded in polishing up to sound OK. ‘I have heard word of rumours…’ ‘ We will find out how to find it.’

Most of the script was competent but lacking in sparkle. When blind Chirrut Imwe has a bag put over his head he says ‘You’re kidding! I’m blind!’ Now I can’t help thinking that would have been funnier if he’d just said ‘Really?’ or ‘You’re kidding’. However the argument in favour of this flatfootedness might be that some of the audience is 5.

A number of planets were introduced very briefly. God knows I couldn’t remember their names and most of them hardly seemed necessary. If these were fan nods, and I realise there have to be fan nods in this movie, they shouldn’t be distracting for comparatively casual viewers like myself. Also very confusing for the 5 year olds.

We watched this in 2D and I don’t think it suffered too much as a creation from the lack of a third dimension. I find 2D versions of 3D movies muddy and discoloured and blurry though. Couldn’t a separate 2D version be made that looks brighter and colourful? I’ve been thinking of watching an old technicolor movie or two to see what I’ve been missing. Rogue One did avoid the camera pans that look so awful and blurred when watching a 3D in 2D.

Come to think of it the decline in colour and clarity seemed to start just before 3D came along, so some of this effect may be due to the switch to digital from film. But I digress.

I liked the characters of Bodhi Rook and Chirrut Imwe.

Bodhi Rook

Riz Khan as Bodhi stood out for me and seemed to really believe in his part in a way that, say, Felicity Jones did not. I also appreciate seeing someone of his name and ethnicity being cast as a hero.

Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus

Chirrut Imwe is on the left. On the Right is Baze Malbus, Chirrut's best friend and comrade. Some folk think they are a same sex couple. I can't say it occurred to me but I'll be looking for any signs if I rewatch.

I haven’t mentioned a villain. Well, the one we have here is a minion of Darth Vader’s, Orson Krennic. He strides about a lot in a white cloak and uniform giving himself airs but really is just a minion with ideas above his station.

Jyn and her antagonist Orson Krennic

I haven’t mentioned Darth Vader. He is in this movie just enough. Not too much, not too little. He has a nice entrance scene where we see the only light saber in the movie.

Now the biggest spoiler. Though I feel sorry for anyone trying to avoid it.

There’s a reason this story has been touted as ‘standalone’. Every major character who appears, excepting Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin obviously, ends up dead. If this is a history we don’t know who told the tale…though some of the small ships escaped the final battle.

This ending is not unsatisfying. Everyone has died for a great cause which has succeeded. The lovers get to embrace and die together. I did not feel invested enough in these characters to feel very sad for them and would be happy not to see them again. That pilot though – could he have survived somehow? Maybe he has a clone somewhere. In the last scene a familiar character appears with a CGI'd in face that, contrary to that of Moff Tarkin, looks very 'off'. We see this only for a second or two but it still needed to be done better. The face shape and the way the features sit on the face look wrong to me. Sorry I can't explain more technically. You will understand when you see this brief scene.

Rogue One is generally a good film and I’d give it 8.5 out of 10 for achieving what it set out to do. More energised acting and direction could have added pizazz to its characters’ interactions and a wittier script would have been a great enhancement.