Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: A Worthy Inclusion to the Saga, Part 1

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story premiered last year, December 18, 2016 in theaters nationwide. It was the latest offering in the Star Wars franchise by the Disney-owned Lucasfilm entertainment group, and promised to give us a critical insight into how the events that preceded Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope unfolded. Specifically, it explored how the first Death Star's plans were smuggled to the Rebel Alliance by a band of undercover agents who gave their all to help bring liberty to the galaxy.

In this meditation on Rogue One, I will pen a review and analysis of the story that incorporates links to the YouTube videos I created which detail my thoughts on the movie. After seeing it twice, I will and can assuredly say with high confidence that I very much enjoyed this story, and enjoyed it with far more enthusiasm than I did Episode VII, The Force Awakens. That said, let's begin. As always I warn you that if you have not seen the movie and don't wish to continue, this review will have...

!MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you are ready to proceed anyway, then we drive onward, fellow Star Wars fans!

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Let's start with an overview of the plot of Rogue One. And to do that I'll provide my first video on the story.

The Death Star

So, the Imperial Galactic Empire's greatest secret, the Death Star, is nearly complete and set to come online, and the Rebel Alliance must stop it. To achieve this, they recruit Jyn Erso, criminal renegade and former protege of terrorist Saw Gerrera. Erso is sent to find her father, Galen Erso, scientist and developer of the Death Star, to enlist his aid in stopping the colossal city in space/battlestation by stealing the plans that will allow the Rebel Alliance to ultimately destroy it. To accomplish her mission, Jyn brings along a band of Rebel spies, assassins, Imperial defectors, and monks who are Guardians of the ways of the Force. These are: Cassian Andor, K-2SO, Bodhi Rook, Chirrut Imwe, and Baze Malbus. Along the way, this hearty band of heroes encounters a very staunch resistance to their goals. That resistance comes in the form of the Imperial officer and Death Star project manager Orson Krennic and the charismatic but megalomaniacal Grand Moff Tarkin.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a prequel movie set between Episode 3, Revenge of the Sith and Episode 4, A New Hope. What it will be called as an in-between movie I'm not sure, but there it is.

The Characters in Relation to the Story

I'll start off by listing my chief complaint about this movie. While Rogue One is without doubt one of the better Star Wars films made in awhile, it is not a perfect specimen. It is not even a great one. It is, in my opinion, however, a very good movie ranking near the top of the recent films, and definitely scoring above the abysmal release, The Force Awakens (circa 2015).  

Jyn Erso & Cassian Andor

Rogue One's primary issue is its lack of character development that leaves its audience unable to deeply connect with them. In the first 30 minutes or so of the story the audience is rushed through a list of worlds to quickly establish the foundation from whence we will spring forward into the galaxy and tell the rest of the narrative. But the establishment of the characters' backgrounds, motivations, and emotional attachment to each other is in a perpetual state of arrested development for the sake of "moving things along, quickly." They are hardly relatable to one another, save for a few like Cassian Andor's relationship to the snarky robot K-2SO and Guardian of the Whills monks Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus in their dedication to the will of the Force and one another. Of course, Jyn Erso's relationship to her father is given screen-time, but it, in this viewer's estimation, is so short that when they finally are reunited after more than sixteen years apart, he lives all of two minutes more after suffering a fatal injury, long enough to see that she is his daughter all grown up and has taken up his mission to destroy the Death Star.

The droid K-2SO

Galen Erso's death precipitates a conflict between Jyn and Cassian Andor in which his secret, undisclosed mission to assassinate her father comes to light. But this conflict is quickly resolved (as in less than one minute) and never spoken of again. This is one of the types of character development - in this case through conflict - that receives short shrift and never rises above a few lines in the movie. Of all the characters most significantly fleshed out among the protagonists, the droid K-2SO is the most revealed. His sardonic attitude combined with a quick and sharp wit easily make him the most enjoyable of the beings that populate this film. And of all the protagonists left behind in the story, Bodhi Rook is the least crafted in terms of his background and reasons for deciding to assume the dangers of the mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. While it is understandable from an intellectual point of view to realize why it is not possible in the short framework of Rogue One (2 hours, 13 minutes) to go into complete depth about every character, it is also disappointing because, since we cannot really connect with them at a base level, once these people all bite the bullet at the end of the story, do we really care? The answer, for me at least, is no.

And this was after actually trying to feel sad once each of them dies in turn at the end!

Death Star special weapons director, Orson Krennic

On the other hand, the main antagonist of the story, Director Orson Krennic, does offer us some intriguing insights into Imperial society and the hierarchy of social rank. Krennic is a long-time acquaintance of Galen Erso and has known his family for some time. He enlists a highly resistant Galen to help him complete the Death Star but in the process murders Galen's wife, Lyra. As a consequence, Galen is forcibly conscripted into the Empire's service and Jyn is left orphaned until Saw Gerrera rescues her. For the next 16-20 years, Krennic presses Galen Erso to complete the project and make him a very famous and respected man in the Imperial social structure. However, Krennic suffers from a gloomy arrogance that causes him to miss some critical matters, and, as a result, he is slapped down by the military commander, Grand Moff Tarkin.  Ultimately, Krennic meets his end at the hands of the very family - or a member of it - that he separated and murdered all those years before. But Krennic's motivations are clear: he wants to be recognized as one of the Empire's elite, and he's continually failing to gain his aspiration in its fullest. He even meets with Darth Vader himself in an effort to gain an audience with the Emperor in order to try and explain why he's so important to the Death Star project. But Vader slaps him down. Krennic goes away brooding, but not before a powerful Force choke reminds him to "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director." :)))

And speaking of Darth Vader, let's take another part and draw out his appearances in this movie.

The dark lord of the Sith, and some other thoughts on Rogue One, in our next installment.




Until then...



To the upward reach of man.