Saw this for the first time last night, so here’s some mind vomit:
Rogue One happened to elevate my appreciation towards the original trilogy and The Force Awakens. The directors behind those films are WAY better at knowing how to pace their scenes from start to finish. Like seriously, Rogue One has really awful pacing aside from the last act. There was simply little cohesion and felt way too rocky when we transitioned from one location to another.
(This video explains how ANH’s editing does wonders for a film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NAhAEQUk8M)
This film in essence had little sense of guided direction and therefore its foundation is extremely weak. JJ Abrams, I felt, did his homework and utilized these techniques in TFA. Gareth Edwards? Hardly. He’s supremely brilliant at framing action scenes, no question about that, but very immature when it came to stringing together a narrative and development of characters.
It almost amazes me that so many high ratings are given to this film simply because of the last act, when so little was built up to give everything that emotional impact preceding the events.
Now, I won’t lie, I myself genuinely did enjoy the last spectacle, but not as much as I had hoped. I do applaud that there was least an attempt to cleverly weave in references that helped contribute to the story. Such things like using the original Squadron of X-Wing/Y-Wing pilots from the Trench Run and incorporate them into this battle was a very nice tie-in. Also, being a KOTOR fan, I REALLY did not expect to see a Hammerhead Corvette.
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Though I realize it’s not the exact ship since the Hammerhead ship in that film is featuring the variant shown in the Rebels cartoon. Still, it was equally humorous and epic to see that ship being used as a little battle ram!
Vader… hm. I was rather disappointed the way he was handled. When I picture pre-ANH Vader, I picture him, at least at this point in the Star Wars timeline, to be in close proximity to Tarkin.
Leia: “Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader’s leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.”
Instead, Vader is seemingly uninvolved with the Empire, chilling at his secluded castle on… Mustafar… what? Felt out of character. I expected Vader to be more watchful and observing from a distance within the Empire. Totally would had been better if Vader acted like a dog for Tarkin, standing by his side. Because now, it does not connect Rogue One’s Vader to A New Hope’s Vader where Tarkin somehow, out of the blue, has that kind of authority to tell Vader a command like, “Vader, release him!” Too jarring.
Oh my, I haven’t talked about the main cast! Well… they’re there? I guess? I actually thought Jyn’s little emotional moment with her father’s message to be somewhat impacting, as I could see the wall of hardened pain and tension within her, suddenly break down. Yet, that’s pretty much the only emotional performance we get, and so little chemistry was ever established between her and the other characters. I wanted to feel the despair from seeing all these characters dying, but I couldn’t. It just felt like forced check boxes the writers were after simply because they had to die.
And dear lord, what a WASTE of Forest Whitaker! The trailers made it seem like he would offer a compelling dynamic between him and Jyn in their fight against the tyranny of the Empire. But NOPE! He could had been easily cut from the story because he essentially served little to no purpose. His presence in the film was so full of cringe and extremely over the top with little depth to justify it. His death was more comical than tragic.
Overall, I actually appreciate seeing some gritty Rebel vs Empire stuff. I kinda felt the contrast of losing hope so that A New Hope could be the story about gaining hope. But damn does it lack conviction.