Rogues gallery head to war
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12A) No opening space crawl, Jedis or lightsabers; this first in a series of planned spin-offs is Star Wars – but not as we know it.
Set between Episodes III and IV, Rogue One follows criminal Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and her ragtag crew as they lead the Rebel Alliance’s risky move to steal plans for the Empire’s super weapon, the Death Star.
Warwickshire-born Gareth Edwards is the latest director to hop on board the sci-fi saga – on the back of just two previous feature films, Monsters and Godzilla – and he and his team of four writers do a fine job of filling in the blanks between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, while keeping things unpredictable.
Jyn and her fellow protagonists are flawed – but no less engaging for it – and though Jyn suffers from her own daddy issues, they’re of a different nature to Luke, Leia and Kylo Ren’s.
Jones shines in her finest blockbuster role to date as a soft-spoken, battle-hardened heroine; although admittedly she isn’t gifted a truly fistpumping heroic moment.
The largely ominous tone is sprinkled with levity supplied by Alan Tudyk’s straight-talking, sarcastic droid K-2SO and Donnie Yen’s (Chirrut Îmwe) Force-obsessed blind warrior.
Edwards uses mud, sand and rain-covered earthy colours and landscapes and practical effects to follow The Force Awakens’ J.J. Abrams’ lead in delivering a Stars Wars universe that feels real and lived-in.
That is in stark contrast, though, to the dodgy, jarring CGI used in a commendable attempt to connect some of A New Hope’s familiar faces to Rogue One.
Thankfully this doesn’t include iconic baddie Darth Vader; he may not been in the flick much, but with his familiar wheeze and James Earl Jones’ dulcet tones making a comeback, Vader makes his presence felt.
And while there are no lightsabres in action, the design team furnish Jyn and company with lots of other cool weaponry – which is put to good use in a story brimming with strifeinfused battles.
Much of the pre-release hype positioned Rogue One as a war movie and there’s a potent mix between contemporary – “don’t confuse peace with terror” – and historical – assembled soldiers descending on a beach, Normandy landings-style – conflicts.
The half-hour-plus final mission is actionpacked with bombs, blasters, bazookas and the returning AT-AT’s featuring in a collective effort on the ground and in the skies filmed using the saga’s familiar parallel editing – and with plenty of casualties.
There are a good number of connections to A New Hope, but Rogue One still works as its own wounded animal.
In many ways it’s fresher than The Force Awakens, but lacking that entry’s sense of wonder and memorable villainy.
Now it’s over to Alden Ehrenreich to show what he can do as a young Han Solo in the next spin-off – after the small matter of next year’s Episode VIII.