Rouge One (2016)

Rouge One, sometimes subtitled A Star Wars Story, is certainly a different type of Star Wars movie. Billed as a stand alone and not part of the three currently existing or in progress trilogies, Rouge One is a sort of prequel to the first Star Wars movie A New Hope, and in fact takes events up until just a matter of hours before the start of that movies narrative. The story here is about how the Rebel Alliance got the plans to The Death Star that Luke would exploit to great success at the end of Episode IV. The plot is in effect much like that of a World War II secret mission film, and in fact near the ending their is even the storming of a beach. Felicity Jones is pretty but disappointingly bland as the main protagonist of the story Jyn Erso, Alan Tudyk is the comic relief droid K-2SO. There are a goodly number of other characters of various degrees of interest, but what will probably always stick with me most is the almost photo real recreation of the late actor Peter Cushing, reprising as it were his role as Grand Moff Tarkin, super imposed over the actor Guy Henry.


The film does what it sets out to do, which is to tell a Star Wars story in a very different way then we've seen on a big screen before. Technically it is very competent, and I love the way the film invokes the 1970's look and production design of the original film, even down to imperial offices sporting 70's style mustaches and sideburns. While there are good action sequences here and the last third of the film is very well handled, this movie sure plays it safe, though not as much as The Force Awakens. This outing further drives home that the new Star Wars films are more focused on recapturing what made Episode IV work, then on taking risks, for good or for ill. ***