Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Tags

2016, Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Rogue One, Star Wars

Call me Rey again, I dare you…

Alternate title – Star Wars: Get Used To It

Yes, another Star Wars movie.  To some, like me, that is a happy thing.  To others, it’s some other kind of thing.  But even to someone like me, if there’s going to be a whole bunch of Star Wars movies, they need to be good.  Otherwise, I will grow weary of them as well (see: Marvel movies).

Was this one good?  Yes.  Was it great?  Not in my opinion.

A few issues I have with it venture too far into spoiler territory, but I will say that some of the characters they included (some very briefly) were not entirely necessary and served more as super-fan pandering than anything else.  I find those moments to be distracting often, and I get mentally pulled out of the story.  I’m not thinking, “wow, what an exciting space battle!” I’m thinking, “wait…isn’t that the guy that was also just barely in A New Hope?”

So that’s nitpicking, but on a broader scope, I felt the first half was kind of slow and not compelling.  At least, not as compelling as it could be.  We hop around from place to place so much that there’s no time to build momentum with the characters or story.  It took me until the third act to really get into it.  That’s when the emotional content of the movie picked up and I really started to enjoy it.  And then there’s one scene near the end that’s one of the best in any Star Wars movie, so that helped me leave the theater with a good taste in my mouth.

But I’m still trying to put my finger on why the first half didn’t grab me as much as The Force Awakens did when I first saw it.  Maybe it just comes down to the characters.  I never really got on board with Jyn Erso’s motivation.  Heck, the teaser trailer had more backstory on her, most of which was apparently cut before it made it to the final print. Perhaps there will be a director’s cut on blu-ray that includes all of those lost scenes. After hearing about all the re-shoots/rewrites to give it more ‘levity’, the thought of a director’s cut is very inviting.

To wrap up, if you’re a fan, you’ll like it.  Maybe not love it, but definitely like it. Especially K-2SO, he’s funny.