As I’m more than sure you’re aware, a new Star Wars film has been released. After a veritable onslaught of ads, we viewers can now see how well Disney has handled the franchise, and without the input of – wait… Huh – If I didn’t know better I’d swear this was last year’s holiday season, with how this new Star Wars film is being released just about the same time as last year’s was.
Interestingly enough, there are some key similarities, the most obvious one being that our heroine is a hard-as-nails teen that is used to doing things her own way, tasked with bringing down the dark side’s planet-destroying super-weapon (which I feel had already been brought up enough times in Episodes 4 and 6) with the help of a quirky droid, and opposing her is the enemy commander who is determined to earn the favor of Darth Vader.
However, one significant difference is that unlike Rey, this new heroine has no Force powers – in fact, outside of the one blind person talking about “the will of the Force” and the brief glimpse of Darth Vader, there’s almost no mention or display of the Force in the film (or at the very least its promotional material) at all. I found this to be the most interesting aspect of the film when I first heard about it, as the Force plays an element in a significant portion of stories that take place in that franchise.
In a way, I always found the regular, non-Force sensitive characters to be more compelling, if only because they had to rely on their skills and smarts more, and even then most likely getting blown out of the water by the people who were Force-sensitive. This is even more the case in all those gigantic battle scenes that the Star Wars saga is known for, as the majority of combatants on both sides are expendable [droids/clones/troopers/fighter pilots]. I suppose part of it is that if I were a character in that universe, there’s a far greater likelihood that I’d be part of this anonymous, non-Force sensitive majority, and it’s always good to have role models to look up to.
Or, y’know, just be your own.
However, just because you’re faceless doesn’t mean you still can’t be unique. By this I’m referring to the new type of Imperial trooper introduced, the death trooper. Looking like Darth Vader’s fan club (especially their helmets and belts), these soldiers are the personal guard of the film’s main bad guy. The other reason is that it wouldn’t be the release of a new Star Wars film without a gaggle of new merchandise.
The other big merchandisable addition is the aforementioned quirky droid, K2SO. Unlike R2-D2 and BB-8, this droid is actually humanoid in appearance and can vocally communicate with humans, giving him more in common with C-3PO. However, much unlike 3PO, this bot couldn’t care less about protocol, etiquette, and certainly not your feelings. If I had to pick one character in this film, K2SO (or K2 as he’s known on the streets) would definitely be the comic relief; fortunately, it’s in a way that doesn’t detract from the pacing/tone of the story.
For contrast (i.e., what NOT to do).
Furthermore, K2SO was definitely more capable in combat than I expected, given that the majority of other person-sized droids in the series were either completely useless (*cough*3PO*cough*) and/or walking target practice boards (the battle droids and super battle droids of the prequels). The two best examples of this effectiveness would be in the firefight in Jedha, where K2’s throwing Stormtroopers around like ragdolls and catching grenades like they were softballs, and at the end where he’s able to take down a wave of guards with a single shot for each. The only way K2 could have been made deadlier is if when he died he activated some kind of self-destruct mechanism (which, now that I’m thinking about, would have actually been really smart on the Rebellion’s part considering that the droid probably had access to information that the Empire would find quite salient).
And while he might not have amazed this killer construct, I’d wager K2 would’ve at least earned the droid equivalent of “Great kid, don’t get cocky!”
With that digression out of the way, time get into the meat and potatoes of the film, its plot. I definitely liked the way it addressed why the Death Star had its iconic weak point, as before it was a matter of heavy speculation among fans (one common thought, which I also shared, was that the exhaust port was necessary to vent out the heat from all the energy being used in the core, especially after a laser-strike, lest the crew be cooked alive) or just waved off as the writers being unconcerned with details like that. If nothing else it did make for some solid comedy material.
The fact that it was intentional sabotage on the part of chief engineer Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) also underscored how one of the greatest weaknesses of the Empire was its overconfidence in its power, specifically how throughout the saga key weaknesses went unnoticed (or more likely, disregarded) until it was too late. Besides the first Death Star’s exhaust port, others include how the AT-AT walkers could be tripped up with a simple harpoon gun, or that Darth Vader was still had a desire for love.
Even the strongest armor can’t protect you from your regrets.
On two side notes: dying when he did was probably the best Erso could hope for, as if he were still alive when the first Death Star was destroyed I have a feeling the Emperor would have definitely devised some horrifying way to punish him (doubly so if he discovered Erso’s sabotage), to say nothing of living with the fact that he helped wipe Alderaan and its people off the galactic map; the second is that it was refreshingly different seeing Mikkelsen play a character that wasn’t a dangerous psychopath (a la Hannibal or Casino Royale).
And whatever the hell is going on in this new thing he’s doing.
Moving on now to our story’s heroine and Erso’s daughter Jyn (Felicity Jones), I felt she did a good job conveying that hers was a life of constant struggle, never being able to feel that where she was was safe, let alone could be where she could rebuild her life. As opposed to Luke Skywalker or Rey, Jyn’s spent her life roaming the galaxy, meaning that where the other two experienced wonder travelling this galaxy beyond their simple desert homes, she treats travelling it in the same way we would treat taking, say, a Greyhound bus from Boston to Washington, D.C. for a yearly week-long business conference.
That is to say, annoyed and not particularly wanting to interact with any of the other people there.
One thing I wish the film spent a little more time on was Jyn’s combat/survival training with mentor Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker, who I thought was playing “Saul Guerrera”) – not only just to make it seem more organic how she acquired her skills and lost her ability to rely on others, but also so that his character could have been better established. The only things that is shown about him, as opposed to being told to us (i.e., that he’s apparently too extreme for the Rebellion), was that he lost a leg and has breathing problems. I think such a training scene would’ve been better to show these “extreme methods,” as the only thing that I thought could be considered extreme was using the tentacle monster to read the mind of Imperial defector (and occasional bank-robbing adrenaline junkie) Bodhi (Riz Ahmed), and even then I personally felt that was more basic counterintelligence than anything else.
The only other possible example I could conceive, and this one to me would be even flimsier, was how he and his fellow fighters were hiding in abandoned buildings and/or pretending to be civilians in Jedha before attacking the Imperials. Again, to me this is more Guerilla Warfare 101, as that’s the only way that they have any reasonable chance of doing any meaningful damage to the Imperials; more importantly, unlike real-life guerilla forces, these guys weren’t aiming for soft targets like hospitals, or using non-combatants as shields.
Adult Swim
Although, considering how the Empire’s supposed to be evil and all, I doubt that even taking it to this extreme would’ve deterred them.
While on the subject of those guerilla fighters, I was definitely surprised when I saw that for the blind Chirrut Imwe they cast Donnie Yen, star of the Ip Man series of martial arts films (which you should totally watch ASAP if you haven’t already (which, yes, would mean leaving this article – don’t worry, it’s okay – the films are just that good that I don’t mind you doing so). Imwe is probably the closest this film gets to any Jedi, and even then it’s mostly just repeating the mantra “I am with the Force, the Force is with me.”
Marvel
So, pretty much a Taoist Daredevil (Tao-Devil?) then?
And while I’m sure for a lot of viewers the Jedha scene could be viewed as an allusion to [insert current military occupation here (which, at the risk of starting a flame war, I’ll admit I’d be interested to hear if any particular one came to your mind, dear reader)], I found myself being reminded of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the late 1970s. I suppose it’s because when the original trilogy debuted there was a fairly widespread view of the USSR as a real life “evil empire,” given its massive military infrastructure and totalitarian government. The other reasons would be the giant statue that Gerrera used as his base, evoking the gigantic Buddha monuments that were destroyed, and the similarity between Jedha’s valuable deposits of kaiburr crystals and Afghanistan’s Khyber Pass being of vital importance to the occupying militaries.
The final thing I wanted to say about Saw Gerrera was that, even if it’s never explicitly shown, it addresses that 1) the Rebellion was far less organized/united than they appeared in the original trilogy and 2) that just because you were fighting the Empire did not exempt you from needing to do bad things to advance your goals. If you need another example, just look at male lead Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who in his introductory scene kills his informant so as to ensure the information isn’t compromised and later admits to Jyn as much about himself and the other warriors joining them for the climactic battle on the sands of Scarif.
Switching over to the other side of this interstellar strife, I think this film did a good job of conveying how formidable a foe the Empire was to fight, at least in terms of fire- and man-power (which could also be seen as comparable to the USSR, the first part being during the Cold War and the second during World War 2). This is especially relevant when you consider that one of the running jokes among Star Wars fans is just how whenever the Stormtroopers are facing the heroes they can never seem to land more than a shot or two out of hundreds (to say nothing of how easily they could be tricked or be overwhelmed by an army of teddy bears).
An aim so poor it transcends franchises.
I also found it interesting seeing a glimpse of the power struggles that occur at the higher Imperial echelons, in the sense that it made it feel more realistic and gave the feeling that the Empire’s deficiencies were attributable just as much to internal politicking at the top as incompetence on the bottom. Another way that I found those scenes to make the Imperial brass seem like actual people was during the scene where all the Imperial officers were gathering around the video monitor to watch the test-firing of the Death Star’s laser on the city of Jedha – I couldn’t help but find myself being reminded of a group of schoolboys gathering around to watch as one of them used his brand-new magnifying glass he waited all year to get for his birthday to roast ants leaving their hill, bearing an expression that implied feelings of omnipotence.
Except this magnifying glass also takes the anthill with them.
Going back to the power struggles, I’m referring of course to the attempt by Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) to not lose control of the Death Star to Grand Moff Wilhuff “Alderaan Annihilator” Tarkin (the late Peter Cushing). In a way, this makes Krennic an iota more relatable, as I think more people than not could relate to having any/all credit and praise for something valuable that they did, which would finally – finally – elevate them to the position that they believe they deserved, go to someone else at the last minute (especially someone that contributed almost nothing to that thing getting done). Likewise with the scene where he went to Mustafar for an audience with Darth Vader in his tower ̶o̶f̶ ̶B̶a̶r̶a̶d̶-̶d̶û̶r̶ (which I’ll admit I found an interesting place to pick considering that’s where he lost his humanity, but whatever floats his space-boat I guess), in that he was trying whatever he could to make sure his position was secure and that he had someone’s support.
And also experienced an attempt at wordplay that hurt almost as much as the Force-choke he got.
As far as Vader’s and Tarkin’s appearances, I must admit I found myself lukewarm to the use of CGI for their portrayal. I’d say this more the case with Tarkin than Vader, as at least with Vader it’s always been more about the deep voice and imposing outline than realistically moving. For example, I thought the scene where Vader boarded the Rebel cruiser and began effortlessly slaughtering all the soldiers trying to keep him from accessing the data disk with the schematics was alright because it was more quick shots switching back and forth between the Sith lord and his victims than anything else, not allowing the audience as much time to notice the CGI.
Although it does draw attention again to how the prequels could do so much more in terms of action scenes than the original trilogy, which I often find to be awkward.
If anything, I almost wish that Tarkin appeared a little less in the film, if only because the CG figure that Krennic talked to definitely broke the feeling of immersion. Another reason I felt iffy about it is that I’m still feeling hesitant about digitally recreating celebrities to perform for us (for other examples, see the recent holographic Tupac and Michael Jackson concerts). While it certainly is an impressive display of how advanced our entertainment technologies have become and the skill of the people operating the computers that put it all together, I also feel like it makes the actual performers themselves obsolete. To put it a different way: if actors’ voices and likenesses can be digitally recreated, a process which will only become cheaper and easier to do as time goes by, do you still really need those actual actors that need food, their egos navigated, or (most importantly) your company’s money?
Another thing that crosses my mind with that technology is the concern that by having all these works of entertainment available to us forever means that people will just want to keep going back to them over and over again, instead of trying to move forward with new story ideas and new people to tell them. As an example (and I’m quite aware that this can be seen as being too soon), with the passing of Carrie Fisher last month (may her and her mother rest in peace) I am genuinely intrigued as to how J.J. Abrams and his team will move forward with the story of the new trilogy, as I definitely think that Leia still had a part to play, whether it was to be related to some kind of redemption of her son Kylo Ren, as leading the fight against Supreme Leader Snoke and his First Order, or something else entirely. I’m of the opinion that they should not use a CG stand-in, as that would only remind us of the person we lost more than anything else; if nothing else, perhaps give her a send-off appropriate for such an iconic character.
Like with Chewbacca (before the announcement of the new trilogy), where an entire moon needed to be brought down to kill him.
Other than that relatively minor issue, I was definitely pleased with how the special effects were handled, especially in terms of balancing the CGI with physical objects and special effects. I think the fact that the majority of the film’s palette was overall more muted than the other prequel films also helped, in the sense that it’s easier to make the CGI parts blend in with the shading of the real elements of the scene (i.e., having K2SO being a dark grey and slower-moving as opposed to the various lighter colored droids that were much more agile). Similarly, I think a solid job was done with the choreography of the fighting scenes, especially the parts with Imwe (in avoiding that cliché of the goons going at the guy one at a time by having them stand close enough to him that he could quickly disable them).
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is definitely worth the price of admission. Even though I’m not particularly keen on the idea of going back in time with the series (foregone conclusions, re-using plot points, introducing elements that will never show up again, blatant fan service/foreshadowing, etc.), I was content with what the film did. I will also give props to the filmmakers for killing off all the main characters, as I could have easily seen them surviving to show up in more future material. I’m also not crazy about the possibility that a new Star Wars film will be released every year, as I learned from video game series like Guitar Hero and Assassin’s Creed that not only does that reduce the sense of uniqueness for each entry, but can also increase the chance that corners will be cut and that the overall product will be rushed and/or incomplete; however, I’m going to have faith that the respective filmmakers know what they are doing. Three and a half attempts at wordplay by Darth Vader out of five.
And if you’re interested in the rank-and-file’s perspective of the Death Star, check out this book!
Previews included: Despicable Me 3, featuring Trey Parker as the new bad guy (with the power of 1980s nostalgia!); Power Rangers, but as a gritty re-imagining of the original (i.e., the teens have personal issues that they will need to address by the end of the film); The Mummy, this time starring Tom Cruise in the modern day instead of Brendan Frasier in the 1920s (when the heck was the last time that guy got work, anyway?); Spider-Man: Homecoming, where it looks like The Vulture will be one of the bad guys, if not THE bad guy; The Boss Baby, which I will admit I did chuckle at the end for the reference to Alec Baldwin’s speech from Glen Gary Glen Ross; War for the Planet of the Apes, which has Woody Harrelson leading humanity’s last stand against the titular apes (one guess as to who comes out on top); Dunkirk by Christopher Nolan, where it seems the majority of the drama will be from waiting for the boats to arrive and ; Cars 3, which seems to be taking a darker turn if the trailer’s anything to go by; and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which looks like it will have plenty of humor and action as the original, but with Mini-Groot instead of regular Groot.
Random Doesnt Even Begin To Describe It 
