Rogue One is a Star Wars movie for the thinking fan

REVIEW: It’s the last twist anyone was expecting: the first Star Wars spinoff movie, Rogue One, is actually sharply written. Here’s the full verdict.

IT’S the last twist anyone was expecting in any galaxy: Rogue One is actually sharply written.

The script for Rogue One (credited to Chris Weitz, who got an Oscar nomination for co-writing About a Boy, and Tony Gilroy, an Oscar nominee himself for Michael Clayton, though he is best known for writing the first four Bourne movies) is the series’ best since The Empire Strikes Back — which is the only previous entry that had a particularly polished script. The rest got by (or tried to) on sci-fi spectacle, shootouts, mystical mumbo jumbo and the grandeur of the musical compositions.

Rogue One’s writers (who include Gary Whitta and John Knoll, who are given story credit) cleverly seal up perhaps the biggest plot hole in the entire Star Wars franchise, largely eschew meaningless sci-fi technobabble (like the infamous: “I was going to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters”) and deliver so much witty dialogue that the movie has a completely different, more sophisticated feel than most recent special effects-driven entries, including last year’s so-so The Force Awakens.

Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, right, in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

*Read no further if you don’t want some of the movie’s best lines given away, but early on, the tone is set when the Empire’s villains show a delightfully arch side: “You’re confusing peace with terror” is met by the riposte, “You have to start somewhere.”

The flip side of that is the soon-to-be iconic “Rebellions are built on hope.” A blind man who gets a sack put over his head cries out, “Are you kidding me? I’m blind!”

Most of the movie’s funniest lines, though, are reserved for the droid K-2SO, a former Imperial robot who has been reprogrammed to work for the Rebels. Combining the analytical ability of C-3PO with the size and fighting ability of Chewbacca, he can kill you with either a blaster or a blast of sarcasm.

L to R: Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) Picture: Lucasfilm Ltd.

When Rebel leader Cassian (Diego Luna) expresses doubts about allowing a new recruit, Jyn (Felicity Jones), to retain her blaster, K asks incredulously, “Would you like to know the probability of her using it against you?” Pause. “It’s high.” It’s an ingenious piece of misdirection because we’re expecting a C-3POism like, “the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to one.”

Writing funny dialogue for a fantasy movie is tricky: You don’t want to undercut the tension by treating space wars as if they’re all a big joke. If the characters are relaxed enough to bicker and crack wise (rather than using, say, gallows humour), then the stakes are diminished. For a comprehensive guide on how not to write dialogue, see Avengers: Age of Ultron.

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K is an ideal conduit for the movie’s wit, though: He’s programmed to speak honestly, and sometimes honesty is so inappropriate that it’s hilarious. At an especially dangerous moment, he tells Jyn, “I’ll be there for you,” adding after a moment the reason why: “Cassian said I had to.” When the Rebels muse darkly about how, should their mission fail, they’ll all be hurled into the merciless and lethal vacuum of space, K responds, “Not me. I can survive in space.”

Yet K has feelings, too. When Jyn impulsively shoots an identical droid sneaking up behind her in a battle, the audience holds its breath for a moment, uncertain exactly what just happened. Jyn looks confused and startled. Has the most delightful character in the movie just been eliminated? Then K’s voice pipes up. It turns out he is the unharmed droid just behind the one who was shot. “Did you know,” he asks indignantly, “that wasn’t me?”

Baze Malbus, played by Jiang Wen, in Rogue One.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will be relased in Aussie cinemas tomorrow (December 15)

This article was originally published on The New York Post

Originally published as Rogue One is a Star Wars movie for the thinking fan