A disturbance in the Force

'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' is strictly for fans who love everything to do with the Star Wars universe

Before J J Abram’s The Force Awakens was released, the Star Wars franchise used to have two separate camps — one that swore by the original trilogy and the other that liked all six films. But now, another camp is on the rise — one that cheers everything and anything to do with Star Wars. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the latest entry to this unending franchise and while the newest camp is sure to shout in glee, there won’t be any shift in loyalties for the “original trilogy” camp. 

A standalone film, Rogue One, somewhat connects Episode III: Revenge of the Sith with Episode IV: A New Hope. Directed by Gareth Edwards, of the Godzilla and Monster fame, the film has Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen and Forest Whitaker in lead roles. 

The film revolves around Jyn Erso who as a child witnesses her father Galen (Mikkelsen), a weapons designer, being captured by the Empire to work on the infamous Death Star. Fifteen years later, Jyn, now an adult (played by Jones), is helped by the Rebel Alliance to track her father down. Unbeknown to her, the Alliance plans to kill him and prevent the Death Star from being completed. She is joined by Cassian Andor (Luna) and his reprogrammed droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). Jyn reunites with Saw Gerrera (Whitaker), a character from the animated Clone Wars series, who informs her, by way of a hologram, that Galen had intentionally built the Death Star with a major flaw. The rest of the film follows her journey to get her hands on the schematic, with other rebels joining her cause.  

The film’s cinematography will keep you glued to the seat, something that Abrams had overlooked in The Force Awakens. Though the worlds of Tatooine, Hoth, Dagobah and Endor seemed formidable, landscapes in Rogue One take it a step further. 

But the theme of the film is familiarity, that might make those new to the franchise feel a bit left out. The eponymous Death Star, Yavin 4 (the Rebels’s base), Grand Moff Tarkin and, of course, the most famous character associated with the franchise, Darth Vader, all feature in Rogue One, invoking a sense of nostalgia. Since the film serves as a prequel to A New Hope, Tarkin’s character is portrayed by none other than the late Peter Cushing, albeit through CGI.

Rogue One is fast paced and tries to keep the momentum going, but it fails miserably in the acting department. For instance, Mikkelsen is highly underutilised and though Jones does a brilliant job of portraying Jyn Erso, the myriad of characters are more of an overkill. The film also presents you with a generic villain in the form of Directer Krennic (Mendelsohn) who actively pursues Jyn and the others. Krennic comes nowhere close to Vader and fails to leave a lasting impression. 

But the most disappointing character is Darth Vader. Yes, it is still backed by the impressive baritone of James Earl Jones but the actor in the suit has clearly not seen previous Star Wars films. It seems that Edwards didn’t put much research into Vader’s character. The intimidating gait is replaced by a casual walk that feels out of place. 

On the whole, Rogue One falters on several levels. The script is weak and the tropes are the same as they were in the original trilogy. In fact, one can say the CGI Tarkin has more character depth than the others. Add to it the fact that most newcomers to the franchise won’t be able to enjoy the film and feel left out due to references that seem obscure, and you have a cocktail of another film franchise being so overstretched that it’s about to burst at its seams. 

For the fans of the franchise, it's another reason to cheer or sigh, depending upon the camp you belong to. But after watching Rogue One, I feel a great disturbance in the Force.