Less Flash Gordon more R2-Daesh

Rating: 8/10 (16 December 2016)

Ignore today's nit-picking newspaper reviews, Rogue One: A Star Wars' Story exceeds expectations and delivers fans everything The Revenge of the Sith and The Force Awakens wasn't. The movie wrenches the Star Wars franchise away for its fairy tale past and relocates it on the contemporary battlefield that audiences will be familiar with from TV news. Gone, for the most part, is the landscape of Disneyland princesses and evil emperors to be replaced with a conflict between an all too recognizable alliance of resistance fighters, rebels and assorted na'er-do-wells. The result is less Flash Gordon and more R2-Daesh.
In effect an elaborate example of fan retconning, filling in new past continuity from the point of view of the present, Rogue One takes no prisoners when it comes to the fine detail of the Star Wars universe. A lot of the significance of the locations and plot elements all but sailed over my head. I struggled to recall that, as Wookepedia tells me, Jedha is the spiritual home moon of the Jedi knights or that it is also the source of Kyber crystals that power light sabers and the Death Star alike. Desperately trying to recall dim and distant continuity, my mind jumped a track, merged Samuri Jack and the first season of the Clone Wars and left me imagining that I had already seen Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) in cartoon form. But don't despair. Even fans get it wrong. So, Wookepedia also tells me Jedha is a frozen desert world. It certainly didn't look like that.
Nevertheless, you will need a basic familiarity with the plot of Star Wars: A New Hope. Rogue One deftly takes all the cards in the Star Wars game and adds a booster pack of its own. There's enough nods to scenes and dialogue from Episode IV to bring a smile to the those familiar with that film, but Rogue One adds characters and space craft that are totally new but feel that they belong.
British audiences of a certain age will not similarities between Rogue One and Blake's 7 in which a small group of assorted outcasts are, through force of circumstance united against an totalitarian 'Federation'. And a climactic scene of heroes climbing a radio transmitter tower reminded me of Blake's 7 creator Terry Nation's script for Genesis of the Daleks. But the Blake's 7 was itself created in the wake of Star Wars and drew on the legend of Robin Hood so it's all pretty generic stuff. But Rogue One also has a similarly doom laden - no-one-gets out of- here-alive vibe that resonates more with British dystopian taste. From the outset you know that most people you are seeing on screen never made it to Episode IV. It is remarkable that the film makes you care for a fictional cast who we follow, in the case of Jyn Erso (felicity Jones) from childhood to her untimely end.
Although sandwiched among the other Star Wars movies, Rogue One plows its own course. The music, for instance, cleverly recalls various established themes but veers off in unexpected directions while remaining true to Lucas's vision of a World War Two movie in Space. As the Rebels attack a portal to the world of Scarif, where the Death Star plans are stored, Michael Giacchino's score pays homage to the theme from 'The Dam Busters' (1955).
Some resurrections aren't so happy. Peter Cushing is dug up as the Grand Moff Tarkin thanks to CGI but the effect for me was just creepy- and not in a good way. As was the surprise appearance of Carrie Fisher before the drugs. It won't be long before an entire movie is made of departed Hollywood stars brought to life by photo realistic animation. I am still not ready for it.
But a greater sense of unease was caused by the all too plausible desert city under occupation scenes, particularly where a young girl is caught in the cross fire. The original Star Wars trilogy stood at the threshold of celebratory recollections of World War II heroism and the nightmarish threat of nuclear Armageddon. As such, its breezy representation of warfare was all too easily assimilated into the ghastly fantasy of Reagan's so-called 'Star Wars' defense program. Today, with the Syrian refugee crisis and the evacuation of Aleppo still front line news, I felt reluctant to fully engage with a film that is still a glorified war as entertainment story. At least Rogue One doesn't end with medals all round.