Good but Not Really Star Wars Is It

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2016)

I sat sunken in my chair, anxiously awaiting as the lights began to dim. I had my Milkduds in one hand, popcorn in the other and a drink snugged neatly in its perch. The theater was stuffed to the brim, not only with the clamoring bodies of generations of fans but with an uncommon excitement. This was an event! A jovial celebration of all things Star Wars (1977-Present). The trailers passed, the crowd grew silent, and the opening crawl started.
This is not the experience I had watching Rogue One but rather the experience watching Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999). I was eleven; and as with everything I watched when I was that young, I was positively over the moon about that darn film. Now, seventeen years later, watching Rogue One feels like a pale imitation of what came before. Which is a shame because objectively speaking it's a pretty riveting film.
Rogue One tells a story stuck in between the margins of Star Wars lore. Jyn Erso (Jones) a rebel turned feckless criminal, is tasked by the rebel alliance to track down plans for the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. She's arguably best suited for the dangerous job, her father Galen Erso (Mikkelsen), is the weapon's unwilling architect and, along with a pilot defector (Ahmed) is the alliance's only real lead.
If Rogue One is guilty of anything it's covering the spread. Jyn and her rainbow coalition of hard-bitten allies are not the stoic, big-picture, ethereal-types that quickly learn the ways of the force and take down the empire. These small cogs are the pessimistic, doleful yet dutiful foot soldiers that churn the larger rebel machinery. Their internal conflicts are smaller, their skirmishes with the Empire, more devastating and their victory isn't a comfortable spiritual afterlife hanging out at Ewok parties; it's survival.
Thus what we get is less of a Star Wars movie than a rough-and-tumble war movie that parades familiar artifacts like blasters, droids and Tie Fighters. To many this is a welcome surprise; especially for those who felt The Force Awakens (2015) was nothing more than a calculated revamp of A New Hope (1977). Director Gareth Edwards, appropriately adds new and interesting worlds (at least new for Star Wars) into the larger extended universe and amplifies scale. The hand-held camera usage, creative implementation of elements such as rain, dust and dirt, the showcasing of tactical warfare are all layered on to properly mimic top-shelf war movies of the last decade.
Yet the characters, united by a sense of purpose, and a nebulous understanding of the Force can't help but feel rudimentary here. Without spoiling too much; the climax of the film involves our beleaguered heroes placing all their chips on a risky mission to destabilize the Empire's grip on the galaxy. Up until this point, the group has remained distrusting of each other and prudent towards their problems. Why shouldn't that? After all, they're rebel fighters, what's going to happen to them if they refuse to rebel, they're tried for treason? While Jyn's motivations are all but clear at this stage in the film, those of the others remain but a chrysalis of what is required for audiences to care. Sadly, it takes a lot more than constant reminders of riskiness and a mock John Williams score to get audiences to identify with the stakes.
This along with constant, slap-dash callbacks to other Star Wars films (which have little to do with the plot), cut through the hull of Rogue One like a photon torpedo. Add to the fact that the film includes some creepy CGI, this spin-off/sequel to an original/prequel feels like it's trying desperately to recapture the cultural event cashe the film series had when I was eleven. Well, I'm not eleven anymore.