Rogue One Will Steal The Plans To Your Rebel Heart

Let’s get this clear at the outset: Rogue One is the best written, best acted, and with apologies to Irvin Kershner and J.J. Abrams, best directed Star Wars movie ever made. In fact, it is so good that its occasional failures — while very rare — seem all the worse by comparison.

So below you will find my spoiler-free review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, with some explanation of why it is so good, while revealing nothing more than you can see in the trailers or commercials.

First up, the writing. The story was written by two people with experience in writing in the Star Wars universe, John Knoll (much better known as a visual effects person) and Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli and a couple of Star Wars Rebels episodes). The screenplay came from Chris Weitz (the movie and series About a Boy and The Golden Compass) and the excellent Tony Gilroy (The Devil’s Advocate and all the new Bourne movies).

The first pair explains why the movie is swimming in accurate references and call outs to events we’ve seen in previous movies. The second pair explains why the dialogue is so good. Granted, that bar isn’t very high, but Rogue One clears that bar like Halfthor Bjornssson setting a new world record in the keg toss. There are just a couple of moments when the dialogue seems a bit nerd-movie stilted, and one really out of place bit of humor. Otherwise it is good dialogue delivered by excellent actors.

Funny, it is
Oh, and that humor. The movie is absolutely stolen by Alan Tudyk as the voice of the droid K-2SO. He has very funny lines to deliver (unlike poor Anthony Daniels as C-3PO in previous movies) and delivers them with the earnest style of Wash and the humor (and occasionally, menace) of King Candy. And it is a tough theft — Mads Mikkelsen makes you feel for his character Galen Erso the second he appears on screen and doesn’t let up. As Jyn Erso, Felicity Jones makes what could be a cookie-cutter “rebel without a cause” character into a fully realized person. Diego Luna brings his hurt puppy sensitivity to a complex character as Rebel intelligence agent Cassian Andor. Even Ben Mendelsohn’s Director Krennic is more than a cardboard villain — even if he does channel Ian McKellan a bit too much at times.

The biggest surprise has to be the excellent work of director Gareth Edwards. His directing credits include a moderately well received indie sci-fi flick, Monsters, and the disappointing mess that was the 2014 Godzilla reboot. The fact that Godzilla also had a solid cast means that the excellent cast of Rogue One isn’t solely responsible for the good directing work in the film. Edwards either had a product he could really get behind, or has grown a lot as a director or both.

The use of mostly practical special effects is particularly smart, since Rogue One is a great combat movie that puts the “war” in Star Wars like no film since Return of the Jedi. (No, I don’t count Attack of The Clones — faceless clone armies fighting faceless droid armies does not make a good war film.) In fact, we finally get to see some real bad-asses in a Star Wars film. Forest Whitaker, Boston’s own Donnie Yen and even Felicity Jones kick all kinds of ass, but not in a mystical anime sci-fi samurai way, as jedis usually have been portrayed. These are the ground troop and special operations versions of rebel pilots like Wedge Antilles and Poe Dameron.

Hardcore Star Wars fans will likely get a kick out of the Easter Eggs and guest appearances in the movie — I say likely, because this is where Rogue One has its biggest problems. The reliance on some of these call back characters and elements is too heavy handed at times, and on occasion rings surprisingly false to the original portrayal. To be fair, none of them seem like fan service wedged in to pander to the fans, and Rogue One uses them in ways that work for advancing the story.

I could go on with superlatives for Rogue One — it is the most science fiction-like movie in the franchise, it has the best art direction, it makes the Star Wars universe look believable like nothing since the original, Star Wars Episode IV — A New Hope. So let me just say this: Go see it. Then go see it again, just to watch K-2SO deliver the sass once more, if nothing else.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  (Lucasfilm, PG-13) 5 out of 5.

(Note: edited to correct the names Attack of the Clones and K-2SO)