War – here's what it's good for

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2016)

Forget "I am your father" - Rogue One features the greatest surprise in the entire Star Wars franchise, one that had our entire cinema gasping aloud in shock and disgruntlement. This long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away begins without a title crawl. Yes. For this is a 'Star Wars Story,' not a Star Wars Film, and director Gareth Edwards takes advantage of the distinction. It's unmistakably part of the same intergalactic umbrella, with familiar names, faces, sound effects, and all manner of exhilarating adventure mayhem that is the quintessence of Star Wars. But this prequel soars - a grim, gritty tale, without a scrap of kid- friendly pandering, and the stakes have never been higher. It's also, functionally, the only film in the series that could feasibly stand on its own, and is all the more eminently compelling entertainment for it.
Intriguingly, what helps Rogue One stand out is how transparently it puts the War back into Star Wars. With the main plot line anchored on a Dirty Dozen, WWII-style espionage caper, and side setpieces very much geared on the casualties of war – try explaining how the bit with the former Jedi temple occupied by the Imperial militia is an overt intertext to the U.S. army's incursion into Afghanistan to your kids – Edwards accomplishes what Lucas never quite could, and extracts genuine tension and threat from the brewing space fascists and their looming superweapon. The Star Wars franchise has always flirted with political subtext, but never at the behest of adventure or fun (until under the claws of Episodes I-III and Lucas' hours of Senate debates). Here, politics are at the forefront, as the Rebel Alliance is crippled from the inside by bureaucratic infighting, and sects of extremist offshoots (Forrest Whitaker shines in a too brief role as a guerrilla fanatic whose motives are almost as questionable as the Empire's). It's a surprisingly nuanced parable of political dissonance, and characters visibly struggle with questionable actions in the name of a righteous cause.
Nonetheless, this is still Star Wars, not the latest Oliver Stone manifesto, and Edwards remembers to find moments of flinty humour throughout to keep proceedings from becoming too bleak (the always wonderful Alan Tudyk's sour comic relief droid goes a long way). Look for the usual glut of fan-friendly cameos, integrated more tastefully than The Force Awakens, including some de-aged (heLLO Carrie Fisher!), or even reanimated (welcome back, Peter Cushing...? Eep...) through CGI which would be seamlessly convincing were it not so eerily unsettling. The return of Lord Vader, of course, is staggeringly awesome, though thankfully Edwards doesn't milk it, and he's around long enough for audiences to gasp and cheer, without overstaying his welcome. The absence of John Williams is, of course, sorely felt, but Michael Giacchino fills the void with chirpy aplomb, teasingly dancing around the core Star Wars themes while concocting thrilling new leitmotifs of his own.
Still, Rogue One is a War film, and Edwards (perhaps still reeling from the lambasting over his Godzilla's lack of cathartic action payoffs) orchestrates some of the franchise's most stunning mass battles. The first act blowout at the Jedi temple is breathlessly thrilling (where Donnie Yen's dazzlingly choreographed, charmingly cheerful blind swordsman, and Wen Jiang's wryly sardonic human armoury steal the show). But it's the final jaw-dropping blitzkrieg of a beach-storming battle that throws out all the stops: x-wing and tie-fighter dogfights, blasters on the beach, and (squee!) Imperial Walkers unleashed in all their glory. Disney's Marvel superhero films have drawn considerable (and justified) flack for their CGI-bloated finale battles of late, but here Edwards reclaims the trope with one of the most genuinely stunning action set pieces in recent memory.
There's also the welcome infusion of something sorely lacking from far too many action blockbusters: consequence. By slotting Rogue One within pre-existing Star Wars canon, we're tacitly aware that all of these characters have dubious chances of survival - why else wouldn't they pop up in A New Hope? So, when they plunge into action, the threat is real that they could be unceremoniously dispatched at any moment, making the action sequences bristle with very rare, tangible tension. Naturally, Edwards pulls out all the stops to get us as invested as possible in this scraggly Star Wars Suicide Squad before dashing our Hopes (ha) as they're eradicated one by one. This is war, after all, and casualties are inevitable.
If there's a fleeting criticism, it's that the glut of supporting characters are often given too short shrift to be properly memorable, but they still make for a formidable ensemble. Felicity Jones does a capable job as the battle-hardened Imperial refugee who gradually learns to hope, but she's a bit too bland and placidly stoic to make a proper splash as lead. Diego Luna, conversely, is superbly convincing, practically simmering with charismatic passion and bitterness. Ben Mendelsohn sneers, spits and preens with perfect sinister campiness as the Death Star's overlord, while Riz Ahmed's defecting Imperial pilot flirts with the quirky charisma of a Poe Dameron, but is too underutilized to fully excel. Sadly, the normally excellent Mads Mikkelsen is on sleepy autopilot mode as Jones' 'exposition repository' estranged father, too emotionally absent to sell his Robert Oppenheimer 'reluctant weapon of mass destruction creator' archetype. Between his and Jones' fizzling flatness, the film's emotional core suffers for it.
Rogue One may not be quite as euphorically fun or jauntily memorable as its canonical predecessors, but its taut, robust, rich storytelling and grimly spellbinding action make it an eminently compelling watch, as Star Wars flick or standalone action romp. If nothing else, the takeaway is this: Disney's announcement of a new Star Wars film roughly every year left many audiences reeling with worry of blatant cash grabs, and creative stagnation through supersaturation. But, if the care and thought invested into Rogue One are any indication, we may yet still have... Hope.
-8.5/10