Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

the fact that the so much of the climax focuses on retrieving physical media and getting in its correct video player, with a subplot of plugging in the right cord. Yes, I know info was recorded on tape in the 1970s and I’m sure someone offhandedly referred to tapes or something in the original Star Wars but I still found it oddly distracting, maybe because Star Wars fandom is more antique media-centric than others because of everyone’s VHS memories (or actual VHS tapes saved so you can still watch non-Special Editions).

Galen constantly reassures young Jyn about her security, Krennic sees terror as a means to an end, and there’s sort of a mirror image of that with Saw. Also loved Saw’s warning about keeping your head down—nicely timed with the appearance of the Death Star. Good move, Rogue One. In short in the background of Rogue One is a really fascinating movie, while in the foreground is some boring shoehorned slogan about hope.

But we never really get that sense from Jyn and Cassian. Jyn came across as pretty generic to me, and Cassian has his moments—his variation on “what we will do with the screaming baby” in the beginning and shooting Krennic in the back—someone is a real spy in the end, but he’s kind of bland too. And there’s not much in terms of stakes for either of them—the film’s set up so they have nothing to lose by the time of the final mission—Jyn’s family and surrogate father figure are dead, she doesn’t particularly care about what the other Rebels think, and I didn’t really feel any chemistry between Jyn and Cassian, either, despite their nice little mushroom cloud moment at the end.

I think this all goes back to ComradePig’s remark about how the film needed more room to breathe. Much of the film was spent getting from one place to another, so we never really got to know anyone outside of their role in moving the story forward. That’s probably why I felt strangely detached. I didn’t have trouble keeping the various planets in check, but only Jedha really felt like a place. Again, hard to really get invested, despite all the obvious craft and care involved.

Anyway liked the final space battle and Admiral Raddus—and I thought Trek bridges were unreasonably vulnerable! I was seriously expecting that to result in some kind of Chekov’s gun-type scenario beyond cool views of the planet below (I know Star Wars isn’t the type of franchise where this is important, but that was seriously more of a “commercial airliner heading in for a landing” level view). Also surprised we didn’t get some kind of final scene with Raddus after his ship was boarded.

In terms of references I’m not enough of a Star Wars fan to even notice most of the little nods and didn’t feel like I was missing anything, so I’d call that a success. I’d been spoiled about cutscene Tarkin, but while he didn’t look as out-of-place as I’d anticipated it was still too obvious, when interacting with Mendelssohn, that this wasn’t a real actor with access to real emotions for a real performance. I mean, Wayne Pygram is right there (or easily found in Australia)! Maybe it’s bad timing but CGI Leia came off worse to me. I think a lot could have been solved if they didn’t make it literally just before—A New Hope.