A complete negation of Star Wars in a boring and empty movie (almost nothing happens during the first 90 minutes), where characters are never constructed, have no story arcs, with terrible actors who deliver dialogues that are laughable (“save the rebellion… save the dream”… “rebellions are built on hope”… “I hate sand, it’s…” no, not this one, for a second I thought so…). It even beats Lucas on his own field of destroying continuity (rebels will become dumb and forget how to destroy Star Destroyer… so Leia is just above the planet where the shit happens ?.. oh, the death star is already operational then… so Tarkin is no longer arrogant at the end of SW, he’s plain stupid when we consider the efficiency of the rebel fleet: man, you really should evacuate you know !), but that’s not the worst, I can live with minor inconsistencies, as long as they are put in a decent movie. Rogue One is not. Not even close. Not only a terrible SW: it’s a terrible movie on its own. You want a true war movie, with emotion and war scenes with an insane creativity achievement, with layered characters and powerful themes ? Go watch Hacksaw Ridge. Rogue one is a dry piece of shit. In comparaison the awful episode 7 looks good (movie that I quite enjoyed at my first screening). I don’t blame Gareth: he never had the choice to make the good war movie he had in mind, the gap in quality with his interesting Godzilla is huge. I won’t even mention the lame fanservice (“blue milk… blue milk everywhere !”) and the ethical issue of recreating dead performances (great cgi, not perfect yet but this technology is amazing… pointless but amazing). I wanted so badly to like it, at least a few sequences, at least a few shots.
The special edition was the first stroke, but it still was Star Wars. The PT was a disappointment partially saved by the unique qualities of its third act in spite of key sequences completely failed, and it was for me the end of Star Wars, the second stroke, but it still was Star Wars, bad but unique and fascinating. The Disney Era is no longer Star Wars: the “Star Wars body snatcher” era. An insult to the saga and, by extension, to the Cinema. I’m really sad, but now it’s time for me to let it go.
0/10