'Rogue One': A review of sorts/attempt to gather my thoughts and opinions coherently

Sometimes film's title can reflect one's personal response in strange ways. I came out of The Big Short, thinking 'gosh, that fell well short of expectations' (or something along those lines), came out of watching It's a Wonderful Life the first time out of many thinking 'life might not always be wonderful, but this film always will'. As for Rogue One...out of all the Star Wars films , I've come out of this one with the most curious, back-and-forth response. I've always loved all the original trilogy films, hated Attack of the Clones, always felt general apathy veering towards negativity with The Phantom Menace, and always liked Revenge of the Sith despite it being awful in parts. The Force Awakens was always fun and enjoyable but in a derivative way that was slightly disappointing, although also fun in its own way.

A 'rogue one', so to speak, then. I think the best comparison with my initial response to this is to compare it with my opinion of The Revenant last year; guess it comes from such strongly 'hyped' films I had preconceptions of. I'd expected a John Hillcoat-esque revenge thriller with a relentless pace, and instead got a contemplative piece of Malick-esque cinema where DiCaprio's tussle with a bear is but a spark to a more brooding trip through the wilderness. Though I still don't know entirely what to think about the film, and still have issues with it, I certainly liked it the more I thought about it. I still consider it a 'disappointment' in some regards; but 'disappointment' is a funny word. You'd like if it could express an objective truth, but more often than not it's a subjective construction.

And by subjective, could be subjective in any number of ways. I was initially more positive on Suicide Squad because it was more 'fun' than I expected; but the more I thought about it, I realized that the criticism I'd read of it and defended it against was indeed warranted, and it was only because I'd 'thought' it would be worse than it was what twisted my view a bit. In the case of The Revenant, and extending to many other films I've re-evaluated positively over the years, I've had to distance myself from preconceptions, and view them as a film on its own. It's difficult to not have preconceptions in the first place though, with trailers and an overactive imagination , and yes sometimes films work best with little to no advance ideas about it (see: my two favourite films from last year, Carol and The Hateful Eight which I went into with little-to-no idea of what to expect).

Anyway, ramble subsided (but not over). Point I'm trying to make is, in the words of Lisa from The Room, people 'change their minds all the time'. I don't like to appear to be too capricious or sway spinelessly from opinions, which is what I kind of worried about my swaying opinion about The Revenant last year. So this time I'll try to make a full detailed explanation about my opinion before I read too much/hear too much from others. What I'm trying to say is most films outside of my most loved/hated films, there is a middle ground between these two areas, falling into niches on the positive and negative sides of the spectrum, and right now Rogue One veers between them and I'm trying valiantly to place it in one. 

Walng out of the cinema with my friend Alexei, who was entertained but disappointed with the film, I too felt 'disappointment' and 'entertainment', but in continually varying measures. It's always interesting to look back at first impressions of a film immediately after re-watch, which is why I always like immediately discussing a film after watching it with a friend, and afterwards thinking about what I just said. It's odd because I did genuinely mean everything I stated initially about Rogue One and I don't want to feel like I've gone back on my word after reading the responses of others. Because everyone I've talked to so far has had completely different opinions on it. Some extremely positive/loved it, and completely dismissed whatever reservations I had as 'wrong'; some were completely or largely bored by it. So I've decided to take a look at the first initial impressions I wrote on Facebook and see how I feel about them with a good night's sleep.

(1) Definitely not a crowd-pleaser in the same way TFA is but again, need to ruminate about whether it's lack or intent.

I still stand by this point, that I did not 'enjoy' Rogue One as much as The Force Awakens in terms of finding it as 'fun'. But is it REALLY a flaw of Rogue One that I didn't find it as 'crowd-pleasing' as that A New Hope remake (essentially with a few daring bits thrown in)? Where that film was more of a throwback to the good old Star Wars formula, Rogue One actually veers closer to the prequels in trying to do something rather different. In that it opts for a much grittier, rough approach to its characters and story, fitting for what is essentially a full-on war movie in space in the SW universe. There's still a great deal of 'wow' and humour, of course, and I'll duly note those attributes in a bit, but I feel the more hard-boiled aspects are fitting to a film that does try to differentiate itself as the 'rogue' one. More later on whether it actually pulls it off.

(2) Starts far stronger than it ends, most certainly.

I'm in two minds about this. The first half certainly did contain a lot of stuff I really liked, the sequences in Jedha I almost thoroughly adored even with all its flaws. There's that midsection which I felt was also largely strong, but also dropped the ball so to speak in some regards (in terms of establishing character's realtionships with one another and the stakes of the mission). Some of the characters get lost in the mix, notably Krennic and Baze Malbus, but I still appreciated the overall mounting tension. Then in the final act I thought the momentum surged impeccably when the mission to steal the Death Star plans properly went underway, with standout moments for pretty much every cast member and plenty of juciy action scenes. Then towards the end a bit of focus and tension was lost and I wasn't sure what to think.

Well after thinking about it, I feel the same about the first act (liked it even though lots could be trimmed down), second act (problematic but with enough good stuff to keep it going), and with the third act I actually think it works perfectly for the film. In that the battle and conflict between the rogue rebels and the Empire, and the space conflict between the Rebellion and the Imperial ships, is a visually powerful experience. The human element of the conflict I was a bit unsure about while watching, when thinking about how the deaths of characters are handled in a somewhat dispassionate, non-melodramatic, and yet oddly affecting fashion, does make sense in context of Rogue One being a portrayal of an uglier, yet ultimately hopeful side to the world our characters inhabit. In particular, the reiteration of Chirrut's prayer 'the Force is with me. I am at one with the Force' worked extremely well for one particular scene.

And as for the 'ending' itself, after a good night's sleep I like it a lot. The very last few seconds could have perhaps been slightly better edited (I was taken aback by how directly they tied it into A New Hope), but I do like the unique viewpoint beyond our protagonists as we watch the passing of hands of the Death Star plans, and the pursuit of it by the Empire courtesy of one breathtaking, terrifying if brief section.

(3) Visually impeccable (but you all knew that) in the action sequences, and Gareth Evans can certainly carry both huge and small action scenes (though I actually prefer his work in the latter)

Still think it all looks brilliant. There's stuff in the film you don't see much of in the trailers like the space battles, which despite being removed from the central core of the mission, still remained compelling through Evans' direction. Evans is really good at both the smaller action scenes on Jedha, where he excellently makes use of a contained environment and his characters' abilities (K-2SO's wisecracking, easygoing battle style, Cassian Andor's sneaky but effective gunplay, and of course Donnie fricking' Yen), and when we get to the two Imperial bases where the Rogue ones strut their stuff, we get two diametrically opposed environments where Evans and cinematographer Greig Fraser create a dark, atmospheric environment and a brightly-lit, vividly realized Scarif.

(4) One big issue in the film is underwriting of characters. Now this is problematic for some, less so for others (if you've seen Doctor Strange you'll probably be able to guess one of them). One principal character seems to have loads of potential behind him but is undercut by editing. Right now I'd say the acting standouts were Donnie Yen and Alan Tudyk.

Right, I still think most of the characters were very briefly sketched with, in some regards, minimal detail, but maybe that's the point. In a harsh sort of way, they're all disposable; their role within the Star Wars universe is to deliver the Death Star plans to our future heroes of the original trilogy. Thus, though I'd still have liked a bit more meat on some of the characters, I can see why I didn't find quite as many Kylo Rens, Finns and Reys around here.

My favourite characters and performances would go to Donnie Yen's Chirrut Îmwe, and Alan Tudyk's K-2SO/'Kaytoo'. Neither character is given all that much depth or history, so to speak, but they play their roles within Rogue One terrifically as part-comedic interests, but with something a bit more to offer as well. Tudyk's vocal work is excellent at managing to find that biting sardonic wit within the droid's deadpan discontent, but also in the final act a certain weight and emotional core despite him being a reprogrammed Imperial droid. Yen's Chirrut is technically speaking a bit of a generic character, but brought to life beautifully by his implied backstory with the Force. He really steals quite a lot of the action scenes away, brings a nicely unforced sense of humour to the proceedings, and works very well with his onscreen companion, Jiang Wen's Baze Malbus, who's a character I feel we could've learnt a lot more about and it would've definitely enhanced the storyline, particularly what his life on Jedha was like. Still, Baze was an engaging enough character, and I thought Jiang's final scene was rather terrific as he expressed a whole history within several reaction shots.

I was right about Riz Ahmed in the end, he gets far more to do than expected. Nothing great, and I'm sure fans of his will consider The Night Of to be the highlight of his year, but Bodhi Rook and his Imperial-turned-Rebeal background is surprisingly affecting in the margins of the film and he adds a lot of enthusiasm and energy to his work here. Same goes for Mads Mikkelsen to a greater extent. Again he gets a completely thankless role, with the least screentime of all the cast members, but his performance and chaacter provide quite the interesting counterpoint to Ahmed's as another man striving to do good despite being forced into evil. Even though I feel like the film drops the ball somewhat in too swiftly disposing of Galen Erso, Mikkelsen brings the right sort of innate kindness and poignancy to his dead man walking.

Then there's the cast members who were good, but which I felt something was missing. Diego Luna was fine in terms of being the straightforward male hero, but I felt something was missing from his portrayal of the darker side of his character; it might've been the writing, but I never quite got the sense of redemption his character was trying to go for even though he manages to make his final scene with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) quite affecting. As for Orson Krennic, played by the great Ben Mendelsohn, I was disappointed. The film seemed to cut away from him whenever I felt he was about to do something interesting for the character, and as it stands I found him a suitably unpleasant Imperial director who you wanted to see get his comeuppance, but nothing more. Then you have Forest Whitaker, in a performance I'll admit I'm kind of finding a bit 'off' in retrospect. He's good in delivering to emotional breakdown of his character from years of fighting, but I also feel he overplayed the mannerisms a tad.

Oh yeah, and Jyn Erso, of course. Jyn gets, as is to be expected, the most backstory, the biggest stakes, and the fullest arc. Now I still don't think it's an amazingly written character, but she works well as an emotional anchor to the film. Jones is really good at expressing her character's determination to make her father's efforts to dismantle the Death Star not be in vain, and even if I thought she might've brought a bit more

(5) There is a certain bluntness to the approach here that works in some regards really well, but not so much in others.

This bluntness, in retrospect, entirely works for the most part. I did like the swift and precise manner with which characters were introduced and sometimes disposed of, raising the stakes of war, and in a different way how the 'bluntness' of the film extended to the humour of K-2SO's wry asides and Chirrut Baze's manner of making quite clear and earnest statements somewhat hilarious. It works well in the battle scenes alongside the beautiful style, cinematography and editing, and really allows you to feel the blunt impact of every blaster shot, every collision, every death. When Rogue One comes into their own you practiclaly see them revel in this sort of atmosphere. Then of course there's Vader's scenes which are as Vader himself would like them, brief, to-the-point and memorable (and some added choking for the benefit of the audience).

There is a weakness to this approach though. Scenes focusing on the Empire are somewhat hindered by this; for a film that  promised to explore aspects of the SW universe in an atypical fashion, I'd kind of hoped they'd have given a somewhat more insightful look into Krennic and his obsession with the Death Star, but instead those scenes play out like typical villain/expositionary scenes. Not bad, but could've been more. Also, relationships between certain character are too rushed by the blunt, swift editing style. I really liked the scene where the various rebels pledging to fight for Jyn converged together, but it felt too rushed. I thought it was depersonalized while watching it, but in the end I think, despite weakening the 'deapth' of the film so to speak, it works as showing how the harsh realities of war shape people into hollow shells of their former selves. Not really seeing the relationships between characters onscreen makes sense in this environment, and most of the performances (especially Yen's and Jiang's, and Mikkelsen) suggest enough about their characters' histories to make their chemsitry palatable.

(6) The cameos are largely a welcome batch save for one at the end which feels rather jarring.

Stand by this. The cameo at the end just didn't feel right even though it was the right way to end, definitely, but I'm nitpicking. Anyway, besides that, Vader was great (and it's fantastic to hear James Earl Jones' voice again), the CGI Peter Cushing was surprisingly believable, and I did quite take to two other funny little cameos.

Conclusion: Still not a perfect film, but I like it the more I think about it. I wrote about not being as enthused by it as with The Force Awakens, but already I'm starting to think that while The Force Awakens hit the sweet spots in a bit more of a predictable fashion, Rogue One actually does try for a rather daring approach to a lot of its elements that does it very well for me. I'm thinking if I went in without preconceptions from the trailer's I'd have appreciated it more from the outset. As it stands I'll give it a 4.5/5, and ranking of something like #8 of the year so far (see below: my revised list of films I've seen this year). It's not a masterpiece but the more I think about it, it did almost everything it had to do right.

1. Hunt for the Wilderpeople (5/5)
2. Moonlight (5/5)
3. Captain America: Civil War (5/5)
4. Arrival (5/5)
5. Eye in the Sky (5/5)
6. Swiss Army Man (4.5/5)
7. Hell or High Water (4.5/5)
8. Rogue One (4.5/5)
9. Green Room (4.5/5)
10. Sing Street (4.5/5)
11. Paterson (4.5/5)
12. The Neon Demon (4.5/5)
13. Hail, Caesar! (4.5/5)
14. Loving (4.5/5)
15. Everybody Wants Some!! (4.5/5)
16. Doctor Strange (4.5/5)
17. Deadpool (4.5/5)
18. Keanu (4/5)
19. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (4/5)
20. Sully (4/5)
21. Love & Friendship (4/5)
22. Midnight Special (4/5)
23. American Honey (4/5)
24. Our Kind of Traitor (4/5)
25. The Nice Guys (4/5)
26. The BFG (4/5)
27. The Jungle Book (4/5)
28. Eddie the Eagle (4/5)
29. Elvis & Nixon (3.5/5)
30. 10 Cloverfield Lane (3.5/5)
31. Star Trek Beyond (3.5/5)
32. The Witch (3.5/5)
33. The Magnificent Seven (3.5/5)
34. Deepwater Horizon (3.5/5)
35. Allied (3.5/5)
36. The Legend of Tarzan (3.5/5)
37. Bridget Jones's Baby (3.5/5)
38. Miles Ahead (3.5/5)
39. Florence Foster Jenkins (3/5)
40. Jason Bourne (3/5)
41. Bleed for This (3/5)
42. War Dogs (3/5)
43. Money Monster (3/5)
44. High Rise (3/5)
45. Ghostbusters (3/5)
46. Grimsby (3/5)
47. Nocturnal Animals (3/5)
48. Genius (3/5)
49. Bastille Day (2.5/5)
50. X-Men: Apocalypse (2.5/5)
51. Demolition (2.5/5)
52. A Bigger Splash (2.5/5)
53. The Finest Hours (2.5/5)
54. Me Before You (2.5/5)
55. Warcraft (2.5/5)
56. Suicide Squad (2/5)
57. Batman v.s. Superman (2/5)
58. Independence Day: Resurgence (1.5/5)
59. London Has Fallen (1.5/5)
60. Triple 9 (1.5/5)
61. Jane Got a Gun (1.5/5)
62. I Saw the Light (1.5/5)