Review: ROGUE ONE

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY
(ACTION-ADVENTURE/FANTASY) 
★★★
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Alistair Petrie, Genevieve O'Reilly, Ben Daniels
Rated PG-13 for extended sequences of sci-fi violence and action.
133 minutes
Verdict: The first one-off of the Star Wars franchise is a mostly good mixed bag, but its final scenes are a treasure trove of pure "HOLY S-H-*-T" awesomeness.
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY IF YOU ENJOYED:
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS  (2015)
STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH  (2005)
STAR WARS  (1977)
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK  (1980)
RETURN OF THE JEDI  (1983)

Something miraculous happened during the last 10 or 15 minutes of ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY before the end credits.  You know how when you were a kid, there were some things that could make you unreasonably excited, pulsating uncontrollable energy, whether it was Christmas morning, a birthday or maybe going to the latest installment of your favorite movie series opening in theaters?  But now, as an adult, even at your happiest, you can almost never reattain that super-charge of shallow but intense excitement about things?  I got a taste of that exhilaration during the last 10 to 15 minutes of ROGUE ONE.  I mean, we're talking orgasmic, heart-racing, brain-blanking, pure unadulterated joy.  The rest of the movie is kind of a mixed bag.  Mostly on the positive side of things, but a few more misses than you really want.

ROGUE ONE is the first in what Lucasfilm was originally calling the Star Wars Anthology series, and which are now called Star Wars Stories, differentiated from the main thread of the saga that has chronicled the adventures of the Skywalker family, usually labeled as "Episodes" in their titles.  ROGUE ONE is a one-off, and doesn't begin with the iconic fanfare and equally iconic opening crawl.  The original STAR WARS, released in 1977 and alternately titled STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE (the best installment in the series by far, and don't let any self-serious fanboy/fangirl tell you differently), centered around stolen blueprint plans for the planet-destroying super-weapon the Death Star which Princess Leia hid inside R2-D2 to protect them from the sinister agents of the Empire in pursuit.  ROGUE ONE is about the characters who stole those plans to give to Leia and takes place just prior to the events of the original film.

Without getting into specifics (because everyone throws a big hissy fit about that), ROGUE ONE takes place about 18 years after the fall of the Republic in REVENGE OF THE SITH, with the fledgling Rebel Alliance struggling to attain a foothold in resisting the Galactic Empire, which has consolidated power.  A young woman named Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the Rebellion in order to help them find her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), the brilliant engineer who helped design the Death Star, which is nearing the completion of its construction under the grasping ambitions of Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), and who may have sent a transmission to anti-Empire insurgents about a potential weakness in the weapon.  Among the team that comes together to help Jyn is the morally conflicted spy Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), the blind monk-like warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and his assassin comrade Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), a reprogrammed former Imperial droid called K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), and an Imperial defector named Bohdi Rook (Riz Ahmed).

Written by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, the story is a bit loosely strung together at times, and while the mirroring of events in previously existing Star Wars films (something THE FORCE AWAKENS took to an extreme by practically remaking A NEW HOPE) is fine, there are a number of less than subtle, groan-worthy callbacks for fans to squeal at with joyful recognition.  I'm sure it's different for everyone, but as I noted with THE FORCE AWAKENS a year ago, Star Wars movies are tricky because of the unique familiarity that I feel with the movies I grew up with, even the divisive prequel trilogy.  THE FORCE AWAKENS initially felt unfamiliar and it took me a couple of viewing to warm up to it, to where it's flaws are still there and they bug me, but not as much.  It's entirely watchable in a way that few movies are.  But a tremendous weakness of THE FORCE AWAKENS is how safely it plays things, while ROGUE ONE risks instability at times by trying new things.  Rather than sticking to the pure, idealistic Rebellion of the original trilogy, the movie wades into slightly murkier waters of wartime espionage, radical insurgent factions and the darker activities of a cause.  There are also stylistic choices in the designs that may or may not eventually feel expected but are a little jarring at at first, and I occasionally had difficulty keeping up with the names of places and people, which usually isn't a problem for me.  But another thing about Star Wars is that for anyone with an already existing emotional investment in the series, each new movie can be like watching an adaptation of a familiar book and the changes to your mental image of things (certain deleted concepts from previous installments visually realized in this film) may be off-putting, at least at first.
Directed by Gareth Edwards, who got the job after directing the 2014 reboot of GODZILLA, there's a good sense of scale and scope to action, especially when foot soldiers are caught in a battle with the famous Imperial AT-AT "walkers".  The context of rumored production troubles resulting in re-shoots are unclear, although the movie does have some occasionally wonky pacing and character motivations, particularly with Forest Whitaker's Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera, who has ties to Jyn and her father, and the first half of the film.  These could be related or for other reasons entirely, and more importantly, the movie as a whole holds together.  Some of the characters are more fun or interesting than others, and unfortunately, neither of the two leads in Jyn or Cassian meet the potential they're set up for, as if certain details were set up with their corresponding payoffs removed.  Tudyk's K-2SO is funny, sort of a mix between C-3PO, Chewbacca and Drax from GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, with a habit of speaking without a filter, and I really liked Donnie Yen as the Force-sensitive mystic.  As someone who appreciates the prequels, it's also nice to see some connective tissue in bringing back Jimmy Smits as Senator Bail Organa and Genevieve O'Reilly as Senator Mon Mothma, both Rebellion figureheads.  At least a few human characters appear as CGI creations to no doubt expensive but varied effect, although it's hard to tell with such things whether the visual effect is noticeable because you're looking for it, but there are a couple of very impressive shots using the technology.
But it's at the end, full of stuff that I can't tell you about, that suddenly won the whole movie for me.  I mean, I guess its all stuff that would be expected, and it's fan service, sure, but holy freaking crap, I had forgotten what it was like for a movie to hit me with so much adrenaline.

                                                                                                                                                                    Images via Lucasfilm