The paradox of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is that it’s somehow tonally and thematically separate from the original “Star Wars” films but pays even more homage to the original trilogy than even “The Force Awakens,” amazing, since that movie is essentially a remake of “A New Hope.”
Its hero is not a wistful young farm boy but a cynical girl named Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who has been in exile and shuttled around Galactic Empire prisons and work sites for years. The film’s first scene recalls the cruiser soaring overhead at the beginning of “A New Hope,” but “Rogue One” forgoes even the iconic opening crawl.
There are moments at which the film even diverts from George Lucas’s ideologies of good and evil and of the power of faith and religion. One of the film’s standouts is Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), an acrobatic yet blind protector who is not a Jedi but senses the Force in the world. When he chants relentlessly “I am one with the Force, the Force is with me,” it’s a noble yet bleak mantra as he marches into certain death and the unknown of the open battlefield.
Another scene takes the view of the Death Star not from overhead in a cathartic explosion but places us on the ground as an entire planet evaporates. We feel the blunt force of watching a tidal wave of earth overwhelm a civilization.
Director Gareth Edwards’s dreary outlook exposes the dark side of war, the stark reality within these traditionally invigorating space operas. And yet at every turn another force undermines that influence, whether it is reshoots Director Tony Gilroy or Disney and Lucasfilm. They’ve turned “Rogue One” into an endlessly self-referential spinoff, and at times it plays like impeccably made fan fiction.
Remember all those retro, ‘70s maps that adorned the rebel base, those swirling green neon circles and lines that added to the creative art direction of the original film? “Rogue One” brings those back and makes them feel unnecessary. Diego Luna’s character saying he’s “got a bad feeling about this” is innocuous enough, but these nods and winks become more irritating as the film goes on. It borders on uncanny valley creepy in its reliance on CGI revivals of old characters. And when Darth Vader himself makes an appearance, it acts as little more than a tease, a brief greatest hits reel of heavy respirator breathing and a fiendish force choke for good measure.
It’s this constant push and pull between new and old that makes “Rogue One” frustratingly mediocre. It’s filler product that hints at new universes and fresh-faced characters but rely too heavily on well-trod territory.
3 stars