The Force has shifted in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
REVIEW: Fans can expect a great deal from the first stand-alone instalment in the epic saga — just don’t hold out for a conventional Star Wars storyline.
Leigh Paatsch
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (M)
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen and the voice of Alan Tudyk.
Rating: ***1/2
This time last year, the Force awakened.
Now, with today’s much-anticipated release of the first ever stand-aloneStar Wars adventure Rogue One, the Force has shifted.
It is a little harder to find — and indeed, feel — than before.
Nevertheless, it is there, and pulsing with a strength and intensity that should have Star Wars fans looking forward to further random additions to the canon in years to come.
Just don’t attend Rogue One expecting a conventional Star Wars movie in any recognisable way.
The major talking point sure to be debated in the wake of Rogue One is the unabashed ferocity of the extended battle scenes that fill its final act.
Though impressive and often highly impacting, these unrelenting sequences all but attack the audience in ways previous Star Wars films have not.
REVEALED: The surprising place that Rogue One was filmed
Parents considering letting their children (particularly those yet to reach high school age) see Rogue One in coming weeks might be advised to take pause before giving their blessing to attend.
Though the events depicted here pave the way to the 1977 classic that started it all, Episode IV: A New Hope is a street parade compared to this often sombre procession.
To be frank, the only traditional Star Wars DNA in Rogue One’s makeup stems from the darker, bleaker cinematic climes of The Empire Strikes Back.
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So don’t hold your breath hoping for many Jedi mind tricks, phantom choke holds or perhaps even a good long look at a lightsaber. When push comes to shove, Rogue One has its own business to conduct.
And because that business involves the newly-constructed Death Star — with the dastardly Orson Krennic (Australia’s Ben Mendelsohn) at the helm — it will be anything but pleasant.
A surprisingly basic storyline traces the journey of a fearless young rebel named Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), who is combing the galaxy in search of her long-lost father.
Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) had a key role in the building of the Death Star, and may have deliberately included a design flaw that could ultimately undermine the total dominance threatened by the Galactic Empire.
If Jyn can somehow get her hands on the blueprints to the Death Star — which Krennic uses to nuke an entire planet at one point — then all hope for a Rebel comeback is not as lost as it seems.
As the marquee heroine of Rogue One, Jyn is more studied and less instinctive a freedom fighter than The Force Awakens’ Rey.
Early on, the prospect of spending an entire movie in such dour company is not so appealing.
Thankfully, once Jyn begins a planet-hopping odyssey to round up a chequered collection of ragtag space warriors, the film strikes a more accessible chord.
This is due in no small part to the welcome light relief offered by Jyn’s sidekick K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), a dry-witted droid best described as a cleverer, sarcastic second cousin of C3PO.
Another standout in the supporting ranks is Chinese superstar Donnie Yen as the dazzlingly lethal (and totally blind) nomadic fighter Chirrut Imwe.
Without the stellar contributions of Tudyk and Yen, Rogue One could well have turned out to be a dull one.
Particularly once you experience the drab stylings of the principal male actor in the film, Diego Luna. He plays Rebel spy Cassian Andor as a bland sounding board for whatever impulsive heroics Jyn has in mind for her squad.
Though Luna fares better in Rogue One than equally prominent (and just as unremarkable) co-star Riz Ahmed as the shifty Rebel fighter pilot Bodhi Rook, it is only because he gets more scenes.
Trust me, you won’t remember anything about these two in a few months’ time.
Ben Mendelsohn works hard as Rogue One’s principal villain, Krennic. He eventually leaves the most vivid lasting impression of any character with the exception of Jyn, but not without having to fight for it.
In several scenes of high drama and extreme evil, Mendo has to share the screen with the great Peter Cushing, miraculously reprising his role as Grand Moff Tarkin, the Imperial leader first seen in Star Wars: Episode IV.
Cushing has been dead since 1994. Nevertheless, some radical new screen technology has sampled his likeness, and then manipulated it to integrate him into proceedings throughout Rogue One.
This posthumous casting gimmick gets creepier and more distracting with each passing scene.
It certainly cuts Mendo’s lunch repeatedly, as he’s the one stuck with emoting at this CGI ghost whenever he appears.
Factor in Felicity Jones’ passable (but never remotely powerful) lead performance as Jyn, and it must be said this is the most actor-unfriendly film ever made under the Star Wars banner.
The blame can only be attributed to the screenplay, which is overloaded with literally scores of characters spouting on-the-spot explanations of what just happened … or what will happen once they clear all their explaining commitments.
This echo chamber of running commentary is still going off during all the crashing, burning, shooting and dying going on in the final act.
For some viewers, the incessant chatter will undo much of the strong and subtle work director Garth Edwards and his team have been able to slip into the mix here.
Above all else, it is on a technical level that Rogue One truly excels, allowing Edwards to conjure a sizeable number of intergalactic spectacles that are as stirring as they are stylish.
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