Acting beyond the grave
and other assorted thoughts on Rogue One!
(Yes, I made it to a cinema for the second time this year! Exciting times!)
Spoiler-free version: I really liked it; it ties in perfectly with A New Hope, not only story-wise but also as far as the aesthetics and the tech level are concerned; it answers some open questions in the way the best fanfics do; fantastic visuals; sometimes, almost too plausible for comfort. Jörg's comment was that it's a war movie rather than a sci-fi movie, and it is that.
I do have to say though, I'm naturally aware that Male Suprematists are ridiculous whiners anyway (if you find it easier to identify with a male MonCal spaceship captain than with a female human, I dunno, maybe the problem is not with the woman?), but one label that certainly doesn't fit this film is "feminist propaganda". Good grief. Yes, it's got a female protagonist. OMG. But it's still a galaxy full of men doing manly things. Let me count the named female characters (for a given value of "named"): Jyn Erso, Lyra Erso, Mon Mothma, Senator Pamlo, Gold Nine, Blue Three, Leia Organa. Wow, I actually needed a second hand for that! THE GALAXY IS FULL OF WIMMENZ! DISNEY TOTALLY RUINED STAR WARS! FEMINIST PROPAGANDA! And I thought men were supposed to be good at maths. ;)
Right! Now that that's out of the system, let me proceed to the spoileriffic!
POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
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THE GOOD:
I was delighted to see so many familiar faces. Even if it was the rather unpleasant familiar faces of Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba! Or - like many people, when I saw the trailers, I thought that Ben Mendelssohn's character would be the young Moff Tarkin. I was quite disappointed when it transpired that he was someone else entirely, and there would be no Moff Tarkin. BUT THERE WAS MOFF TARKIN! LOOKING LIKE THE ORIGINAL MOFF TARKIN! Meeting Mon Mothma at this early stage was great. I didn't mind the "new" Leia at all. She obviously wasn't Carrie Fisher, but let's be honest, Carrie Fisher is no longer 20 years old. SHOCKING, I KNOW. Sure, since they managed to bring an actor who has, in fact, been dead for two decades back onto the Death Star, they could presumably have digitally turned a 60-year-old into a 20-year-old... but I'm not bothered that they didn't. And Bail Organa! *sniff*
As I said, I was thrilled how the story managed not only to answer the question how the Alliance managed to obtain the Death Star reactor plan, but also WHY ON EARTH THE DEATH STAR HAS THAT FATAL WEAKNESS IN THE FIRST PLACE. I'm sure that fanfolk - and more harshly, non-fans - must have been discussing that since 1977, and it was nice to see this film address it. And also solve the problem of why everyone on the Imperial side who might possibly know about it, would not be able to tip off anyone. Useful.
I liked the would-be Jedi/ Guardians of the Whills/whatever, particularly (of course) Chirrut Îmwe with his shout-out to every Martial Arts movie ever. I mean, there clearly had to be some Force-sensitive folk - or even ex-Jedi - out there. Obi-wan couldn't be the only one that got away, and it was fun to meet one of them.
Although I was not a fan of Saw Guerrera, it was good to see this film address the "dirty" side of rebellion; these aren't all knights with shining lightsabres, but, um, well, let's say insurgents, with all that entails.
The scene with the Imperial tank and the stormtroopers marching through the narrow streets of Jedha City recalled things like Black Hawk Down or Homeland; you knew immediately that stuff would blow up. It was uncomfortable, and that's as it should be.
Likewise, the inner conflict between different factions of the Rebel Alliance was interesting to observe; this is something that the Expanded Universe dealt with a lot, so having this addressed in the new canon was nice. And it makes sense; these people are brought together because they have a vague sense of the Empire not being Right, but they have very different agendas and very different ideas of what to do about it, ranging from the purely idealistic ("We'll tell the Senate about the Death Star and then all will be right!") to the cynical to, well, terrorists. And once they see what they're up against, once things become real dangerous, a lot of them threaten to break away. So that was quite believable, even if the sudden turn after "there was something going on on Scarif" was a bit too convenient for my taste.
Imperial "ethics" - well, this doesn't exactly belong in the "good" category, but they were certainly consistent within the universe. And ultimately bring about their own downfall. AS IT DAMN WELL SHOULD BE, GRRR.
The visuals! This film really managed to pull off the "aesthetics" of the original trilogy, and yet provide the eye fodder everyone expects from a movie these days. So many gorgeous visuals - the bustle in the streets of Jedha, the magnificent horrible blast from the Death Star, the flight through the pinnacle mountains, the battle above/ in the atmosphere of Scarif. And when Darth Vader made his way on the Hammerhead in the end... holy cow. What a Force (haha) of nature. And YOU IMMEDIATELY RECOGNISED THAT SHINY WHITE TILING AND KNEW THAT OMG, WE'RE EXACTLY ONE HYPERSPACE JUMP FROM A NEW HOPE.
K-2SO! I'm not entirely sure that I'm buying this level of AI (or that a Rebel reprogramming would provide a free snark feature), but he was so much fun that I couldn't bother to question that. Seriously, the snark! "The Captain says you are a friend. I will not kill you." - "Did you know that wasn't me?!" - "Do you want to know the odds that she's going to use it against you? (No.)... They're high. ........ Very high." - "Lots of explosions around you for someone trying to blend in. What do I know? I'm just a droid. I'm going back to the ship." Bless! He reminded me of Marvin the Paranoid Android, in a good way.
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THE BAD:
As usual, I wasn't blown away by the 3D effects (and I had a good seat this time!); I continue to think that it doesn't add the least bit to the movie, but rather takes away a lot because I can't decide what to focus on but have that decision taken away from me. I really hope the 3D hype is going to pass soon (or will be replaced by "better" effects, I guess that would be OK too), but at the moment, the limitations outweigh the advantages for me. I much prefer to do my own 3D calculations in my brain, thank you very much!
The pilot's character didn't really feel consistent. He was completely overwrought in the beginning, and completely calm and competent later on. The other way around would have made more sense (but have interrupted the story more, haha), what with his encounter with the tentacle mind-reader monster that could certainly have sent him over the edge, but as it was, it seemed like he was too different people. And don't tell me that it was only because he was scared about defecting and Saw. Like he had nothing to be scared about on Scarif.
I understand that they wanted to set this one apart from the Trilogies Proper, and thus left out the opening fanfare and scrawly text to clearly mark it as a spin-off... but I missed the opening fanfare and scrawly text. ;(
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THE UGLY:
I don't exactly think that Saw Guerrera was badly depicted, but without more backstory, his armour/life support was just clunky (haha) and kinda annoying. Especially the inhalor. That was just... wtf. I mean, he clearly didn't need it all the time, so how did it work at all? Is it, like, an anti-histamin or what? As it was, it just seemed to serve to vaguely recall Darth Vader without explaining why. (Was it supposed to show the massive difference between The Best Medicare The Empire Can Provide vs. Sorry, Your Insurance Won't Cover That? Was that it? IDK!) But hey! It's ridiculous to get hung up on that, I know. But it just kept bothering me.
Also, the tentacle mind-reader monster. I get that they were trying to show that here, these extreme rebels are actually just as nasty as the Empire, but I dunno, they could've used one of them nasty torture machines we see in Episode V and VII to get that point across. As it was, I found myself rather reminded of certain classified Japanese woodcuts. The tentacle monster only latched onto the pilot's temples, but you know, the association was pretty clear, and I found that rather unnecessary. Also, it recalled some of the weaker moments of the original trilogy and bad 70s sci-fi in general - which was probably the actual purpose - and I didn't particularly care for that.
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SPOILERS END
That's all I can think of for now! It would have been nice to see A New Hope immediately after - this movie works perfectly well on its own, but it also works perfectly well as a prequel - but it seems we'll have to wait for the DVD before we can do that. Oh well. In conclusion, what a wonderful addition to the Saga. A++, would watch again.