REVIEW: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

You would've thought I ran track in high school seeing how fast I jumped on the "Star Wars" bandwagon when I found out that The Force Awakens was coming out near Christmas of 2015. The prequels, especially Revenge of the Sith, were popular with my nerdy friends as I was growing up, but I truly didn't get the appeal until I started getting into the Academy Awards, and found something bizarre to me: A New Hope was nominated for Best Picture? I popped it in my tiny foot-wide VHS television when I was 14 and watched tiny Han and tiny Chewie on the Millennium Falcon on a snow day. I'll probably take lashings for that in the afterworld where movie critics go, but after re-watching the original trilogy and the prequels last year on much better means of visual projection. After my college exams I saw Episode VII last year on the official opening day, December 18. I repeated that with seeing the new stand-alone film, Rogue One, last night, with a year's worth a hype and two viewings of Force Awakens in my brain.

If you haven't seen the movie yet, please stop here. One of the greatest things about seeing The Force Awakens was going in blind and not hearing ANY reviews, no Rotten Tomatoes score. I promise I won't be offended if you click away; just bookmark this site (you should do it anyway) and click "read more" below whenever you've seen it! *ALSO SPOILERS AHEAD FOR FORCE AWAKENS*

 So despite being a fan of the film franchise, I'm certainly not a fanboy (of "Star Wars," anyway). That's why I think I can offer a valid critical voice to this film, because I'm not blinded by the hype of this movie, because all of us are a tiny bit let down that we don't get to see what happens after Rey extends the lightsaber to Luke. Rogue One is an in-between story, coming after Revenge of the Sith and just before A New Hope gave us a galaxy, far, far away. Since everyone who's seen the original trilogy knows, the Rebels are able to secure the the one flaw in the Death Star system, so it begs the question: is Rogue One completely needed?

For the moment, I want to say yes. Before the praise gets heaped on, I definitely did have a problem with it. For casual moviegoers wanting to be hip and go see the film because "it's all anyone's talking about," I'd advise against it. Though this movie places itself outside of the chronological "Episode..." storyline, it is in the galaxy you know and love, but with an all new set of characters, with familiar faces peppered in. Rogue One can't wait to show you it's final chapter, where everyone comes together and fights the Imperial Forces...and sometimes it feels like it. The dialogue leading up to the soon to be legendary climax of the film can at times feel a little lifeless. Don't be afraid to have fun with "Star Wars" dialogue, after all! K2-SO (Alan Tudyk), the robot companion for this film, was absolutely hilarious. We all love Threepio, but he's a bit of a whiner. K is all sass and an expert heavy.

While the original trilogy focused on Luke, and the prequels focused on Anakin, there was still so much going on in the plots that I feel at least "Star Wars" has never had a true "lead" character, so I appreciated the attempt to realize a full arc and backstory with Jyn Erso, played fearlessly by Felicity Jones, who's been in about 200 projects since Theory of Everything displayed her talents. Her tunnel vision lends a determination to Jyn, trying to find her father, the designer of the Death Star, played by a wasted Mads Mikkelsen. In a year where he's been in both a Marvel and a "Star Wars" movie, it's strange to say the best performance I've seen from Mikkelsen all year was in Anders Thomas Jensen's surreal comedy Men and Chicken, where he truly got to play against type.

Tackling special effects is difficult: if you talk about how brilliant they are, that seems obvious, but not to comment on them at all disregards the hard work of thousands who contributed to them. Another Oscar-worthy showcase of visuals that seemed to have taken a page out of Abrams's manual of balancing CGI with practical. I saw it in 3D, which wasn't necessary, since no lightsabers hovered dangerously near my face through the course of the film at all.

Director Gareth Edwards helmed the impressively boring Godzilla remake, and while Rogue One is a much better film, the most favorable comparison I can bring between the two of them is that their final acts are astonishing. If there are sluggish bits in the film, the war-movie action caliber intensity its third act brings can redeem it. With "Star Wars" being the megabrand that is, it's hard for a director to put their stamp on a franchise like this and call it "their" movie. Rogue One is just what its subtitle suggests: "A Star Wars Story," for all those dummies who saw good-looking people wearing raggedy, dark muted color clothes in space on the poster and weren't sure which film they were getting into. The producers have called this an "experiment" in the franchise, meaning that if you don't like it it's your fault, because hey, they're trying something new. But consider your experiment a rousing success, 800 Disney executives. You'll still have my money this time next year.

Rating: 3/4 stars