A real let down

Rating: 5/10 (30 December 2016)

Usually I wouldn't give a moments thought to watching a 'Star Wars' spin-off movie, but I had heard great things about 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' and that, coupled with the death of Carrie Fisher, was enough to get me along to pay my $20 to see it. In hindsight, I probably wish I hadn't bothered. As a kid I loved 'Star Wars'. I watched all the films and had all the toys and costumes. It fascinated me. Then I went off it altogether (mostly because I went off sci-fi as a genre completely) for the next 20 years, until recently I saw 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' and it had more of an impact on me than I expected it to. I started thinking about it again and running through all the story arcs and characters. I wouldn't say it had me hooked again, but it certainly had me interested. Now, I fear 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' may have done enough to quash that interest again.
It just didn't do anything for me. I kept hoping a character I knew and was familiar with would pop up, but it just took so long to happen, and even then the cameos were brief and fairly forgettable. The characters didn't have much going for them at all. Felicity Jones in the lead role completely lost me. In contrast to Daisy Ridley who blew me away in 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', Jones did nothing more than bore me. They were quite different characters in a number of ways, but at the heart of things they were meant to be someone you could root for. One achieved this, the other did not.
The humour in this film also did not work. A lot of jokes were attempted, mostly by the character of 'K-2SO', but almost all of them fell flat. This was quite the opposite to 'The Force Awakens' where a large majority of the jokes were landing. The character of 'K-2SO' was clearly based, at least in part, on 'Sheldon' from 'The Big Bang Theory', however it seemed they didn't quite know exactly how to right for that kind of character. The idea was a decent one, the execution just wasn't there.
I think the thing that's making a lot of 'Star Wars' fans enjoy this is the nostalgia factor. Getting to see 'Darth Vadar' again, all the intertwining stories relating to 'Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope' and a rather timely and sad cameo right near the end are making people think they like this more than they actually do. It's a harmless film, but it certainly has no place in the IMDb Top 250 movies list.