Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Blogger’s Note: I’ll apologize ahead of time for the fact that while I’ve seen this movie a few times, it’s not old enough to have gained my refined eye… With the other movies, I’ve fit them into my Episode narrative and every time I watch them, it’s with more attention on a different aspect. Rogue One is not even a year old yet- so I’m not as familiar but here goes! To borrow a phrase from my favorite show on TV now, “Let’s Rock!”

What They Did Right:
This is the first anthology film. This has never been done before in Star Wars. If this movie sucked then it’s unlikely more anthology movies would follow. I think it’s pretty well done, especially the end half. It’s nostalgic and exciting, and heart wrenching at the same time. I think it’s funny that there’s a meme out there that said, “Pictures released from Rogue One’s sequel” with pictures from A New Hope. There are many layers to the hilarity because A New Hope was the FIRST Star Wars film, and this comes directly before it. Another thing is that people were like, “Don’t spoil the ending.” And I’m like, “If you’ve seen A New Hope, you already know how it ends. Were you shocked when you watched TITANIC and the ship sank?” now, granted- you wouldn’t know what became of the characters, but that’s its own thing. Moving on…

They introduce you to the heroic team that got the Death Star plans to Princess Leia. You see all they went through to get the plans, and what people went through in the Rebellion- how there was hesitation and disagreement between the members of the Council. (I also think it’s interesting that they call it the Council which has a Jedi-like feel).

Baze and Chirrut! I loved them.

K-2SO was like a talking version of R2-D2 mixed with Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory with Han Solo’s snarky-ness.

While we know we’re watching something that takes place A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away; this movie had a real-world depiction of war so you get why it’s important to destroy the Death Star and the Empire a little more than just by watching the Episodes.

Seeing Bail Organa and Mon Mothma in this movie- just before Bail Organa goes home only to be blown up when the Death Star is used… It has a twinge of irony…

While it’s not the typical Star Wars film- it’s not an episode of the Skywalker Family Drama; it still feels like it belongs in the same universe.

Even though I have to say I didn’t care for the music as much in this one- I still liked it a lot. I liked the nods to the Force theme or the Imperial March that were put in there in the right scenes.

Seeing Darth Vader. He is just awesome and it gives me chills seeing him.

That scene where the Rebels on board the ship are desperately passing the hard-drive/ disk from person to person to get it to Princess Leia on the Tantive 4. Vader is just chopping them down- and it shows him as this angry person driven by hatred and purpose.
Once Jyn started to change her opinion towards the Rebels, I was with her.
We got to see Vader’s awesome lava planet castle. Even though it didn’t have subtitles for this one planet- we know it to be Mustafar which I’ve talked about in several of my theory posts. We see him chilling in a bacta tank- and even though its hard to see, we get a shot of his scarred head sort of like in The Empire Strikes Back when he’s in his meditation chamber. We see him Force Choke Krennic for a while until Krennic falls on the floor. We can see that he’s still feeling the effects of it later on.
It’s good that they used Vader sparingly since Anakin/Vader has been in every movie either in body or in spirit (I’m talking about Kylo Ren having Vader’s helmet and the lightsaber Rey brings to Luke was Anakin’s lightsaber which Obi-Wan gave to Luke which Luke lost when Vader cut off his arm in Empire.) He’s so iconic that having him in it seemed natural.
That whole last half of the film gave me chills and I remember that I watched it with my friends, Hannah and David- I was totally geeking out in my chair, hands impulsively clapping excitedly on my leg, and we’d share looks of delight.
The ending was so sad, and tragic- but sort of joyous in a way. It definitely made me appreciate A New Hope a little more- that’s for sure.
We see Tarkin. I don’t know why but recognizing his foul stench made me happy…
When I read the novel and the novel that’s meant as a prequel to the movie Catalyst, it helped the movie make a little more sense and I was actually more invested in the characters.
I thought it was funny that the team and the movie are named Rogue One- and in Empire, we see a pilot rescue Han and Luke- his call sign, he says- is Rogue Two… (that was a second-time- watching revelation).
There was something fresh about this film, and it was very interesting to watch.
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What They Did Wrong
A lot of these are probably ones you’ve heard before, but I happen to agree with the complaints or comments that others have made regarding this film.
The first act is a little slow.
While I think the scene on Eadu provides Jyn much needed emotional closure, it is sort of anticlimactic from a dramatic point of view.
Jyn is a passive protagonist until the last part of the movie, and sometimes her reactions aren’t those of what would happen logically in that circumstance.
We’re sort of dropped into her life as an adult after seeing her as a kid. She’s in prison and we don’t exactly find out why until later. She is really angry with The Rebels but we can tell she doesn’t agree with the Empire either. We however don’t really know what she DOES believe in. We’re never told or shown.
A lot of the end is really depressing. (But I expected that honestly)
Bor Gullet and the whole thing surrounding him. Bodhi defects and brings the message- Saw doesn’t believe him and then after exposing him to Bor Gullet, he still doesn’t believe Bodhi- so all we really know is that Saw Gerrara doesn’t trust people… not that I blame him…

Krennic’s callousness towards Galen and his family. I know he’s an Imperial officer, but Galen was one of his friends back in the day and Krennic used him, and took credit for a lot of the things Galen did… then he has Galen’s wife, Lyra shot… I don’t know- something about that bothered me for more than one reason.
The whole trip to Jedha seemed a little pointless or anticlimactic and it feels like they botched the mission. First, they got captured by the Imperials and then by Saw’s people.
When the actual message is lost and Jyn tells the team what it said, Cassian doesn’t believe her.
The whole mission to kill Galen Erso seemed a little (for lack of a better word), mean. Sure, he helped develop the Death Star and its weapon, but he didn’t commission it, and he didn’t use it on anyone… and killing him seems a little harsh… I know Cassian didn’t end up killing him, but still- he died, and it seemed extremely unfeeling and callous to kill Jyn’s father with her in their group. And then it’s like he’s mad at her for being upset with him…
Everyone is so against Jyn when she gives them the fatal flaw in the Death Star’s design. They don’t believe her and they chicken out… funny enough- it DOES sort of line up to many characters’ arcs-especially in Star Wars- so I guess I can live with it, and I get why they’d be skeptical. Most of the time, the hero ignores or pushes away their call to action. When Obi-Wan tried to get Luke to go with him in Episode 4, Luke initially refused and then changed his mind when his aunt and uncle died at the hands of the Empire. Rey wouldn’t take the lightsaber when Maz offered it to her…
Over all, I think it’s main flaw is just that it’s long and the first half is long and almost uneventful when you consider the last half of the movie is jam-packed with action, adventure, emotion, and resolution to the main plot.
All this being said, I appreciate Episode 4 more now, and I am excited for this new set of anthology films coming out. I think we will learn so much more about our favorite saga!