Let’s start this review with a discussion of how movies are subjective, and not everyone likes the same things (that may give a hint to my feelings towards the film). One person has certain preferences that may cause them to love a movie, while someone else different isn’t as big a fan. I consider myself a casual Star Wars fan. I’ve very much enjoyed the original trilogy and the Force Awakens. I don’t know the names of all the planets and every minor character. In general I find myself most interested in movies with strong characters that I can relate to, followed by films that pose interesting moral questions, and a really interesting (or surprising) plot.
In the case of Rogue One, there is a definite group (probably large group) of people who will think it’s great. Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. And while I generally try to keep my reviews spoiler free, there will be some spoilers here because I don’t know any other way to talk about this one. I’ll give plenty of warning.
I could be wrong but I think hardcore Star Wars fans will probably enjoy it. As a casual fan I didn’t, and here’s my personal reasons why. If you want to read a really solid review that’s better written than my random thoughts which I agree with pretty much 100%, check out what the New York Times had to say about it.
The first 30 minutes of the film was a flurry of character introductions, visits to a number of different planets, and other technical references. I couldn’t keep track of who was who or where we were. It was bad when an hour and a half into the movie I had to ask Jason to remind me who exactly one of the major characters were. *slight spoilers* – Another thing is that I kept myself entirely spoiler free for Rogue One – including the plot. I did not know that it takes place right before A New Hope. I had no idea when this was supposed to be happening, which added to my confusion and took me awhile to figure that out as well. They did not have an opening crawl to set things up. I think they were trying to distance themselves from the other Star Wars films, but a brief little summary of where I was and when I was probably would have helped immensely.
And probably the thing that was the worst for me was the fact that the characters really lacked personality, for the most part. You didn’t really get to know any of them at all. It not only made it harder for me to keep track of them, it also made me not really care about the movie. I’m someone who needs strong characters.
At least they look (and are) totally badass. Even if I don’t really know anything about them.
The movie really turned out to be more of a gritty action/war movie. Which is totally not my thing at all. I enjoy sci-fi and I even like campy sci-fi like some of the original. The Force Awakens had a good balance of action, character development, and humor (despite its flaws). It could have been a really gripping spy movie, but it wasn’t that either. It was not the type of movie I was expecting and so I did not care for it. There isn’t even a lot of plot to explain, which tells you most of the film is fighting and things blowing up. Here’s what I’ve got:
**MAJOR SPOILERS COMING UP**
Jyn’s father helped design the death star, but he wasn’t totally into the imperial side of things – so he created a flaw that would allow the death star to be destroyed. Jyn and a ragtag group of rebels go after the death star plans so that they can have the key to its destruction.
“I’m the bad guy. Be jealous of my epic billowing cape.”
About halfway through you realize that basically everyone in the film has to die (Well, most people probably realized it earlier – I’ve heard references to a line from New Hope which establishes that, but again as someone who isn’t a diehard fan I don’t have those quotes in my back pocket. And don’t forget it also took me awhile to place where and what this movie was). And, well, they do. Pretty much every character dies at the end. Which is fine from a plot standpoint. And maybe you might be glad you didn’t get to know the characters well since they all died anyway. But for me, I’d rather feel something when they died. I’d rather cry than be like “oh look, they just blew up.”
That being said, there was one character I really enjoyed – an imperial droid named K2-SO, who had been reprogrammed to be on the side of the rebellion. He brought some much needed comic relief to the movie, in a really fun, snarky sort of way. I also enjoyed the blind monk, who believed strongly in the Force – he was one of the only characters who showed some sort of emotion that resonated with me.
*insert snarky comment here*
Also, the acting was pretty solid – I thought everyone did the best they could with what they were given, more or less. Felicity Jones plays a strong female heroine. Alan Tudyk stole the show as the droid K2-SO, and Forest Whitaker was good as Saw Gerrera (though I’m still not really sure what the point of his character even was).
All in all I know that many people will love Rogue One, but I’m just not one of them – the main reason being that it’s just not my genre of movie. I do think if I were to watch it a second time I would probably get a little more enjoyment out of it because I would have a better understanding of what was happening and where it fits in the timeline. My understanding is that there were a lot of references or easter egg type things for Star Wars fans, but most of those were lost on me. I’m glad that the Star Wars fans are so happy with it, but disappointed that it wasn’t a movie for me.
Have you seen Rogue One? What’s your opinion on it?
I didn’t read most of it to save myself from spoilers, but it sounds you had the same feelings to the film that Rachel Wagner had.
I just read hers yesterday and it does look like we had a lot of similar thoughts. Which I’m relieved to see because so many other people totally disagreed with me and loved it.
There’s more of us who agree with you than you think and I think a lot of the fanboys will come around that it really isnt very good
Totally agree that the beginning of the movie was super choppy and hard to follow. I also thought the dialogue was not great, and while bad dialogue is kind of a Star Wars trademark, the Force Awakens had great dialogue so I expected it to be better in Rogue One. All that being said, I really liked Rogue One. I loved the idea that just because you’re on the “right” side, you shouldn’t blindly go along with whatever is being asked. I thought the last half of the film was worth the price of admission (I enjoyed the battle scene) and even though I knew they were going to die, I still cared about Jyn and Cassian and I totally cried when they died. Also, the Leia bit at the end was awesome
I do really like that concept – I think they could have expanded even more on the moral questions that the film brought up instead of leaving so much to audience interpretation.
I haven’t seen it yet – mostly kind of lukewarm on the whole Star Wars franchise anymore. I’m still puzzled how Rogue One fits into everything else in the story line. I might just call it good at reading your review. 🙂
Haha I wouldn’t blame you! I enjoy some Star Wars stuff but I’m not a diehard. I would have been fine without ever seeing this.
Haven’t seen it yet, and didn’t know where it was supposed to fit in the sequence – thanks for the explanation and review!
Of course! I kind of wish I’d had a better understanding of where it fit in before I saw it!
I fall somewhere between hardcore and casual Star Wars fan. It would be hard to ever compete with the actual hardcore fans, haha! I had stayed away from any kind of background info about the movie at all beforehand, but I’m very familiar with number 4, and I was pretty delighted as it dawned on me during the movie how this was fitting in and the particular statement from movie 4 that this whole movie seems to have been based on.
That said–I absolutely hate it when literally everyone dies in a movie. What’s the point of getting to know new people if they all die? My own review of the movie was something like: “It’s the 1960s Magnificent Seven with space ships and Death Stars.” I liked the tie in to the classic–I kept imagining I might suddenly see a young Han Solo or Chewy or Luke in the background of the rebel base scenes, because it all looked strangely familiar.
I liked Chirrut and Baze the best of all the characters and thought they had some pretty good scenes together. Also, the new droid was awesome, as all star wars droids are, pretty much. There was definitely not a lot of character development for most of them…but if they’re all gonna die…I guess I can’t complain too much about that, because if a character dies who I’ve truly, truly grown to love (*cough* Downton Abbey *cough*) then I’ll be sad for weeks. ha!
I totally get that! Honestly it’s been years since I’ve seen Star Wars 4 and I’m one of those people who forgets a lot of details easily. So a lot of the things that made is exciting for other fans, like the connections to that movie and how well it fit in with what was already established, where lost on me. I can get totally emotional about fictional characters too – but I’d rather have that strong connection to a character and be sad for awhile than not care about any of them at all. I suppose that not developing the characters because you’re going to kill them all off could work for me in some situations, but there would have to be another major strength to the movie which I just didn’t get with this one.
As a hard core fan I’m with you on this film. I found the characters underdeveloped and the story boring. I like the idea of a gritty war movie in Star Wars but the execution was poor