Rogue a ‘bridge’ too far
On to the big question: is this film as terrific as last December’s contribution, The Force Awakens ?Ina word: no.
It should be great. Director Gareth Edwards’ break-out Monsters demonstrated his talent with welldrawn and well-executed character stories. He followed up with the much bigger and flashier (albeit less successful) Godzilla remake, so it’s impressive his third outing is a Star Wars picture. He chose a potentially top-notch cast, which tantalisingly stars three of my favourite actors, but while Mads Mikkelsen is OK as Jyn’s long-lost father, perennial evil-doer Ben Mendelsohn (still the best thing about Animal Kingdom) and rising British star Riz Ahmed disappoint – probably thanks to the thankless script. Despite the eclectic international casting (bravo!), usuallyfine actors like Forest Whitaker come off as OTT and under-affecting.
It’s a terrible indictment that the film’s most outstanding performance is delivered by the reconstituted, entirely-CGI rendition of the first Star Wars’ Peter Cushing (whose voice shoots fear into the Empire’s own baddies). Thankfully, C3PO predecessor K2SO provides the comic relief in an otherwise dull script, and the only time my heart leapt with excitement was a 12-second fight scene showcasing the talents of a blind martial artist (Donnie Yen). The rest of the film was all mission-this and explanatory-that, and not even the solid Felicity Jones (so brilliant as Stephen Hawking’s wife in The Theory of Everything) could keep me caring about the Rebellion’s success.
All the usual tropes are present: a meeting with Darth Vader in a room with poorly designed floor-space; a multi-cultural senate of head-shaking extras; cameos by familiar faces.
But as endearing as these throwbacks are, the Force is not strong in this lacklustre movie. - Sarah Watt