Four stars. Rated PG-13, for intense sci-fi action and violence
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.16.16
The Force is strong with this
one.
Rogue One is a crackling entry in the Star Wars canon, perhaps most accurately
subtitled Episode 3.95. It takes place immediately preceding 1977’s original Star Wars, and in fact can be viewed as
the events abridged in that film’s opening text crawl.
 |
| Once Jyn (Felicity Jones) agrees to join Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) on a mission to find and rescue her father from the evil Empire, she's startled to discover that her new partner's companion droid, K-2SO, is a former Imperial Enforcer Droid ... with a distinct inferiority complex. |
The fast-paced script — credited
to John Knoll, Gary Whitta, Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy — is equal parts heist
thriller and down ’n’ dirty war film: a fairly grim escapade, by this series’
usual standards, taking place at a time that finds the severely overmatched
rebel Alliance without much of the “new hope” promised by the eventual arrival
of Luke, Han and the many others destined to enter the fray.
This film’s essential place in
series continuity notwithstanding, director Gareth Edwards and his scripters
manage the neat trick of making it a solid stand-alone adventure, for the
benefit of any first-time Star Wars
viewers (assuming such individuals still exist). This adventure builds to a
terrific climax, while also delivering an unexpected degree of emotional
gravitas.
The prologue and first act are a
bit top-heavy with exposition and the need to introduce a lot of new
characters, but — once beyond the information dump — it’s smooth sailing.
Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), once
a respected scientist with the evil Empire, became appalled by the weapons of
mass destruction he’d been fabricating for his masters; he fled to an outworld
planet with his wife Lyra (Valene Kane) and their young daughter Jyn, hoping to
remain beneath the Imperial radar. As the film opens, they’ve just been found
by Imperial Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), a former colleague, and
now an implacable enemy determined to put Galen back to work on a massive new
project.
From the moment we meet him,
Mendelsohn oozes the “foul stench” that has characterized the best of the Star Wars middle-management villains.
His curled-lip sneer and quietly condescending tone make him the pluperfect
martinet.
Krennic succeeds in his task, but
little Jyn manages to escape and hide in a bolt-hole, where she’s eventually
rescued by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a rebel guerrilla fighter given
considerable exposure in TV’s animated Clone
Wars series. (It’s nice to put a live-action face to this character.)
