+ Worst Movie of the Year
+ Most Undeserved Hit of the Year
 |
| A packed main poster for Gareth Edwards' multi-racial Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Note the storm troopers in the bottom, walking on water (...), which they also, very strangely, do on the other poster featured in this review |
The daughter of a brilliant scientist, who was kidnapped by the evil Empire when she was a child, as a young woman faces the fact that he has been used to create the powerful weapon the Death Star, and she decides to team up with the Rebel Alliance to fight the Empire's domination.
Rogue One marks the first of the announced 3 spin-off Star Wars movies in the new Disney-owned part of the franchise's lifetime, whereof the following two are supposed to focus on Han Solo and Boba Fett's backstories.
Rogue One starts well with the exciting division of father and daughter by evil Ben Mendelsohn (The New World (2005)). Mads Mikkelsen (The Hunt/Jagten (2012)) is good as the reluctant scientist father. You might wonder why I don't care to use the names of these characters, but there is a clear reason, which is also the film's major problem: They're not that interesting.
The expectations for a Star Wars movie, - and especially one that follow J.J. Abrams' excellent Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015), - are very high indeed, and the characters have a lot to live up to. Rogue One builds up as a story about some of the rebels in the ragtag alliance army, but they just don't sweep me off my feet as they are supposed to. - I didn't feel much for them and thus their cause, which is the whole core of this dark war tale. - The film fails, although its technical merits are, as expected, above question.
Felicity Jones (A Monster Calls (2016)) plays our lead, who sulkily shares that she doesn't really feel like being a rebel but suddenly becomes the leader of the rebels anyway. She isn't too interesting, but she's a young woman who's leading the film and ergo 'progressive' as the most ridiculous critics have opined. Diego Luna (Milk (2008)) is a veteran rebel soldier, who also isn't too interesting, but together, they make up the Rogue One couple, SPOILER who only seems to lean towards a romance right at the end when they die. Donnie Yen (Ip Man 2 (2010)) is the only character who really talks about the Force, the center for all the previous Star Wars movies; but his blind faith-centered character doesn't elevate the soul as he seems engineered to do. The meticulously multi-racially gathered cast also includes Wen Jiang (Lotus Lantern (2005)), (who together with Yen must be cast in order to return a hefty dollar in the lucrative Asian markets), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler (2014)) and Forest Whitaker (The Butler (2013)), who is pretty much wasted in a part that demands that he looks ridiculous in a way that calls his turn in Battlefield Earth (2000) to mind. - Surely, no Star Wars movie should ever do that!
The film is almost without romance; the humanity and heart of, for instance, The Force Awakens has vanished, and for kicks we are given a new droid that's just a poor substitute for C3PO, R2D2 or even Jar Jar Binks. We don't get to see any new planets or creatures that are very amazing, (there are exciting new aliens, but we see each of them for about a second.) Instead Rogue One focuses on this overly serious war tone until it just plain bores and starts to depress with explosion and destruction followed by more explosions and destruction. SPOILER It might be symptomatic of its sickness that the film kills off just about every half-baked character it has conjured up. It feels like a bad joke and feels about as uplifting as a slush-ice poured down your back.
Rogue One is written by Tony Gilroy (The Great Wall (2016)) and Chris Weitz (About a Boy (2002)), with story by John Knoll (Deep Blue Sea, visual effects supervisor (1999) and Gary Whitta (After Earth (2013)), and directed by great English filmmaker Gareth Edwards (Godzilla (2014)), whose third theatrical feature it is. Last year at this time I couldn't wait to get to a cinema and watch The Force Awakens again. This year I have no problem waiting a decade to go back and re-watch Rogue One, without question the worst Star Wars movie to date, (which means basically the first one in the franchise that's actually a bad film.)
Related posts:
The Star Wars franchise: Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - Abrams scores big time, makes beautiful space opera blockbuster
Gareth Edwards: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Godzilla (2014) - Best Godzilla ever!!!
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Monsters (2010) - Edwards' fascinating, impressive guerilla filmmaking debut
Watch an official trailer for the film here
Cost: 200 mil. $
Box office: 305.8 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premiered December 10 (Hollywood) and runs 133 minutes. It is based on visual effects expert Knoll's 10 year-old idea. Filming took place in England, Jordan, Iceland and the Maldives from August 2015 - February 2016, with reshoots in June - July 2016. The film has opened #1 to a 155 mil. $ first weekend in North America, huge but far below The Force Awakens' 247.9 mil. $ first weekend. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is certified fresh at 84 % with a 7.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story?
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