Wick's Review

Summary - Good 3.0

The Force is with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, albeit weakly and episodically. Thus, this one-off Star Wars movie registers as a mildly tasty surprise while we endure the two year wait between major episodes.

Rogue One tells the backstory of the Death Star, that ultimate weapon of mass destruction from the original Star Wars. While R1 isn’t a great movie, it is superior to the prequel trilogy that began with The Phantom Menace. That’s a low bar to be sure, but it’s reassuring that LucasFilm isn’t regressing very much.

Then again, Rogue One is nowhere near the quality of last year’s The Force Awakens. That terrific episode employed the fundamental Star Wars touchstones of homicidal father-son issues, swashbuckling opportunists drawn into virtuous rebellion, young love, old wisdom and the Force. In contrast, R1 features minimal parental tension, no significant opportunists, and no romance or wisdom. Worse, it makes minimal use of the iconic Star Wars musical theme. Combined with episodic plotting, this makes R1 as much a forced march as a thrilling adventure.

In spite of those missed opportunities, Rogue One is a pretty good time at the movies and a legit holiday blockbuster. The cast is strong, including ghostly cameos from Star Wars past. Now we just have to wait 12 more months until the Force returns to full cinematic strength with the premiere of Episode VIII.

Acting - Great 4.0

Felicity Jones makes an appealing Star Wars star, albeit not a legendary one. Her lips are a thing of wonder, provocatively upturned and yet suggestive of determination more than sex appeal.

Notables from the rest of the huge and generally strong cast:

• Diego Luna underwhelms as a Rebel Alliance Intelligence officer, just as he underwhelmed in Blood Father earlier this year.
• Ben Mendelsohn, OTOH, is terrifically hissable as the executive in charge of the Death Star.
• Mads Mikkelsen is never less than great, here a conflicted father forced to work for the Empire.
• Forest Whitaker is hauntingly good as a Rebel leader who allies with Mikkelsen’s character.
• Donnie Yen employs the understated charm he demonstrated as Ip Man, here as a blind warrior.
• Jiang Wen buddies up well with him as a Rebel warrior and mercenary.
• Alan Tudyk voices a charmingly insouciant droid, in C3PO fashion.
• Riz Ahmed disappoints as a former Imperial pilot who defects to the Rebels.
• James Earl Jones voices Darth Vader, inimitably.
• Peter Cushing comes to ghostly life some two decades after he died, courtesy of some eery FX.
• Carrie Fisher does the same, achieving the Hollywood grail of looking much younger than her age.

Film - Good 3.0

“A long time ago, in a galaxy far far way…” opens the film, but then no title crawl follows, with the Star Wars theme also not appearing as hoped, the first of many disappointments in Rogue One.

Edge - Risqué 1.7

Lots of killing, but no blood or gore, hence safe for little kids.

Reality - Supernatural 3.9

SciFi fantasy aside, perhaps the most interesting reality fakery in Rogue One is the ghost of Peter Cushing appearing on screen. That is, FX-trickery makes him appear as a live action actor some two decades after he left this mortal coil.

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