Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Shayan S — 18 May 2018

I said a long time ago when watching Rogue One (Disney and Lucasfilm's first in a long series of anthology films) that it was a "...fun World War 2 adventure film that uses the SW films and mythos not only to expand the Original Trilogy well but also be it's own thing", and while I can certainly see what drove me to feel that way before, I can't really say that after re-watching it, and in interest and curious anticipation for the upcoming Han Solo film I decided to watch again and see where my thoughts where. And it just, didn't work for me; In fact, I dare say the film is arguably on par with the prequels as far as quality goes, but thankfully not going as far as to be that and not NEARLY as offensive. And what makes it really hurtful to say this is that just on its own the issues that plague this film would be the same if I hadn't heard about the reshoots DISNEY (not Lucasfilm) ordered after being dissatisfied with the cut Gareth Edwards gave; and whether the execution of what we had before was better we'll never know, but compared to the final product I really wish we could've just gotten whatever character driven heist film that was proposed before than a really rushed and dragging prequel to A New Hope.

Now not without to say the film does have its strengths as the camerawork and especially visual direction both in establishing shots and action sequences are fantastically executed (no surprise as Gareth Edwards in my eyes is a fantastic visual director that just unfortunately needs much better scripts given to him to make use of his genuine passionate talent), small character moments that when the film is allowed to explore are genuinely interesting and engaging, the story while could've been so much better told as a heist film is when being a prequel to A New Hope at least not muddled with plot issues, Michael Giachinno's score being a massive saving grace and proving some really nice character motifs and some MUCH needed positive feel for the film, the overall concept and characters we're given where almost practically gift wrapped to personally work so well as its own film and when they have their chance to show this (Chirrut, Baze, Jyn, K2SO, and Cassidan are the best the film gets to that) it really helps the film, the world building is genuinely interesting and unique, and the films third act while emotionally disengaging is still well handled and for being a prequel to A New Hope does a decent job just doing that (especially Vaders final scene), the rest of the film just utterly plagued with major problems.

The main characters while seem interesting and have a good cast on paper to support it they're so severely underwritten and aren't given a good chance to play an emotional core to the story or care about, the visuals im surprised to say at least when the reshoots are present break the flow of the film and are shockingly poorly made, the first act being so SEVERELY rushed and abysmally paced (and no surprise was what got reshot the most) and taking the reshoots out of the way don't help it doesn't properly establish anything and the characters enough to care, the minor fan service with Leia and ESPECIALLY C3PO and R2 just felt forced and didn't help aid the story, and shockingly the unhealthy emphasis of drama for tone and cinematography feeling so inconsistent to where it often feels like a high budget fan film.

Overall I hate to say this, but if it weren't for Disney medling with the film (or Lucasfilm and especially Gareth Edwards choosing BETTER screenwriters, seriously who thought GARY WHITTA was a good choice to help create the first draft?) then the idea that ILM's John Knoll pitched would've been something really special. It's still an alright film and certainly not the worst Star Wars film we've had, but I personally was really trying to find reasons to fully enjoy the film, and other than world building and its score the film just unfortunately suffers from so much messy pacing and severly underwriten characters that it's impossible to care what's going on. Even as someone who (even still) enjoys Disney's Star Wars so far and the sequel trilogy for the most part this really was strike one for me, and I hope moving forward (despite the drama with Phil Lord and Chris Miller on Solo) that for their other anthology films they can improve and really make what honestly is a limited universe for Star Wars actually expansive.