Surprisingly, the third act of this film is when it finally becomes truly fun and entertaining.
The paradoxical irony of this film is that its success is also its failure. The struggle of Rogue One becomes the struggle of Rogue One. Its characters knows they have to succumb to the larger battle at stake, leaving no opportunity for believable character development or personality. Once the conflict is established, Rogue One becomes a progression of plot contrivances and awkward motivations. It’s perhaps the reason why the characters finally turn out to be so thin and flat, and that the only character with any redeeming human qualities turns out to be the Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO a droid. What’s also interesting is that we know these characters won’t appear in the films that Rogue One leads to, so they’ll either die or be given a plot reason why they didn’t continue to fight in the upcoming rebellion. The story does try to make a notable attempt at personalizing a story with such large-scale ambitions that affect every film in the original and new trilogies. We’re introduced to Jyn Erso as a child, hidden away and discovered later in a secret cave after an Empire authority forces her father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson), to help construct the Death Star due to his background as a research scientist. Unfortunately, for the film, the story it tells before finally climaxing in a big “Star Wars” fest of space battles and gunfire, isn’t very worthy. When the film reveals itself to essentially be the causal catalyst for the original trilogy, it abandons the opportunity to express something new. There are also no Jedis in sight, which provides unique direction for a Star Wars story that doesn’t have to focus on Light and Dark sides, lightsabers, the Force, or large robes. A cast which provides a great sense of diversity, including actors such as Diego Luna, Ben Mendehlson, Mads Mikkelson, Donnie Yen, and Alan Tudyk to name a few. It struggles to balance any sense of original storytelling with fan service of familiarized Star Wars elements.
Perhaps the biggest flaw of Rogue One lies in its plot description. This one is about Rogue One, a group of flawed resistance fighters led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), on a mission to steal back schematics integral to the development and construction of the all-too-well-known Death Star for the rebel alliance. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, directed by Gareth Edwards, is the first motion picture entry of the franchise’s new line of spin-offs, which have the opportunity to tell their own unique, self-contained stories. There’s so much potential in the expanded universe of “Star Wars” for original, thought-provoking movies that aren’t tethered to the over-arching Skywalker saga or numbered episode entries.
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