Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I've now gone through most of the main films, many of which I have already seen many times. Now I'm going to look at the spin-offs, both of which I have only seen once each in theaters.  Rogue One was particularly awkward after watching it, as we saw it in a large group then went out for drinks to discuss after (remember when we could go to movie theaters and then go to the pub? In groups??)  It seemed that I was the only one who didn't like the film so I remained silent.  My friends have told me many times since then to give it another chance.  So here I am.

- The basic premise works pretty well.  The main character's father designed the Death Star but purposefully made a flaw.  A team is sent to retrieve the information.  It works well enough to hang the movie on.

 

- There are lots of great visuals.  I particularly like seeing the Death Star actually be built.  I also think that the final space battle looks amazing. It would have been better had we actually known any of the characters in that battle, but oh well. I really liked seeing the two Star Destroyers collide.   

- The idea of a tropical island planet was a great addition.  It looked amazing, and seeing Stormtroopers march on beaches and AT-ATs stomp through the palm trees was a feast for the eyes.

- K2S0 was a fun new droid character who provided some much needed personality.

- I thought Ben Mendelson crafted a great villain in Director Krennig.  He was menacing enough while clearly having his own motivations and not being exactly like other stiff Imperial officers. 

- It was cool to see Vader again, even though James Earl Jones' voice sure ain't what it used to be.  It was also fun to actually see him on Mustafar. 

- Perhaps my biggest strike against the film is that its just sort of dull.  I found myself bored through most of the middle section in particular.  The basic story makes sense, but there's not really an sparks of interest throughout.  This problem may be because...

- The characters were bland.  As much as I like Felicity Jones, Jin Urso didn't seem to have much personality.  Neither did most of the crew they put together, other than the droid mentioned above.  The closest was the former imperial pilot, but they don't really take his arc where they could have.  Another problem here is that I didn't there was much of a relationship built between the characters themselves, which was a huge strength of Force Awakens.  They were just sharing the same space.

- I especially want to point out the blind character, who the filmmakers clearly wanted to be a Jedi, but didn't want to break canon.  So they made him some sort of half-Jedi, Force cultist.  I didn't like this; it felt very much like fan fiction.  I especially cringed with that maxim he would constantly chant: "I am with the force, the force is with me". May the Force Be With You is one of the most popular adages in film.  Stay in your lane.

- Saw Gerrera was a completely ridiculous character.

- I like the decision to keep John William's as composer only for the main series of films.  But that means that this movie's music does suffer as a result, being a definite step down.  No offense to Gianchinno, as he's made some great stuff, but William's he ain't.

- The decision to give us a CG Tarkin really bothers me.  I know that the likeness of the character is owned by Lucasfilm, and legally they cold do it, blah blah blah.  But I find it really disrespectful to Peter Cushing and I don't like the door it has opened.  I also found the effect really jarring.

- Lets talk about the Vader scene at the end, shall we?  Nerds went berserk when they saw this.  Nerds still go berserk about it now.  But personally I think it was thrown in there to end the film on a crescendo to make people forget how boring the first half of the film was.  I also think its incongruous with Vader's character.  We've never seen him go full out like this before, even when fighting Luke.  Is he really going to turn into mega-fighter for a few rebels who are already trapped in a room?  No, he's just gonna send his storm troopers in to do the job.  This felt like pandering to fans taken to the highest degree.

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. Return of the Jedi
3. The Last Jedi
4. The Force Awakens
5. Revenge of the Sith
6. The Phantom Menace

7. Rogue One

8. Attack of the Clones
9. The Rise of Skywalker