Everyone you meet nowadays knows that the Star Wars saga is a modern achievement of media creation: from movies, to comic books, to the ever growing fanbase of character cosplayers, Star Wars has defined American culture throughout many generations. The original trilogy established an awesome universe with memorable characters and moments, and the prequels (however you view them), expanded on the original trilogy’s lore and answered some questions fans had previously raised, but ultimately rebelled away from the terrific aspects that made the original trilogy so charming. The release of The Force Awakens was heavily anticipated, and many fans and critics wondered if J.J. Abrams could return the franchise to its roots and still deliver on a story that nobody knew where it was being taken. And while some argue that Abrams stayed too close to the “formula” that spawned the original trilogy’s success, he created new characters and experiences that people loved and delivered on a the hype of a “real Star Wars movie”. So, when it was announced that Gareth Edwards (director of 2014’s Godzilla) would direct a Star Wars movie, many fans began to question how effective Edwards would be when creating a spin off tale that contained entirely new characters and a new story. And, on paper, that’s an exciting opportunity that any Star Wars fan turned director would drool at.

So, Edwards mimicked Abrams in his pre productions. He casted a group of characters played by relatively little known actors and hired a team of producers and writers that had no experience with working with Star Wars movies, only having seen them. How did he deliver? Rogue One is a film that attempts to be two different genres at the same time: a war story and a Star Wars film. While Rogue One does excel in breathtaking visuals and incredible action scenes that are marvelous in scale, Rogue One struggles to connect its audience with its unfortunately dull characters and inconsistent pacing.

My main issue with Rogue One is that Edwards fails to give a deep and evaluated focus to almost all components of his film. The audience is given the first twenty minutes to become familiar with the film’s protagonist, Jyn Erso. The next forty minutes or so is where the first red flag popped up on screen. All of sudden, after twenty minutes or so of exposition, Jyn is thrown into the film’s conflict with a group of characters that have some likeable and charismatic traits and dialogue, but have zero depth in regards to who they actually are and why they should even be included in a Star Wars tale. By the time the crew, titularly named Rogue One, begins their quest to extract the data for the design of the menacing Death Star, I felt no connection between all the cast members. Only a few characters are given an actual and logical reason to be participating in a large scale galactic war, and the others are left as extra weight to the story. To be honest, I couldn’t even name half of the crew by the time the second act started; that’s how detached I was from the characters. On top of a lack of characterization, the pacing in the movie is inconsistent. It’s not even an issue of the pacing within the scenes themselves; it’s how one scene moves into another. There were many moments in Rogue One where Edwards tries to add a layer of emotional depth to his scenes by slowing down the rate of dialogue and demonstrating longer shots, but then all of a sudden, an action scene is jammed in right after and the whole sentimence of what happened a minute earlier is lost. The story, as a result, loses its thematic purpose and the audience feels as though they are spectators to the events being shown rather than feeling like they’re a member of this crew.

Gareth Edwards is absolutely no stranger to creating admirable visuals and letting the audience take a moment to acknowledge its scale and effect. In 2014’s Godzilla, Edwards grabbed the viewer’s attention by effectively creating tension before his “big reveals”, and the results were electrifying. The same aspect of his filmmaking carries over in Rogue One. Every Star Destroyer, TIE Fighter, and Death Star reveal was, for lack of a better word, awesome. It helps that Rogue One’s budget enabled the graphic design team to create some stunning and breathtaking visuals to accompany Edward’s vision of a Star Wars movie. That’s where this movie finds its strength. The set design, costuming, practical and special effects, and even the new music all captured the components of what makes a Star Wars movie great. As a long time fan of the series, I appreciate Edwards for truly trying to immerse the fans into a globally beloved science fiction universe, and I’d say he did great. The final action scene is definitely going down in Star Wars history as one of the best to ever grace the silver screen.

Overall, I had gigantic expectations for the film, as any Star Wars fan would, and I can say I was thoroughly entertained with Rogue One. Seeing space ships crash into each other and exploring worlds that we haven’t seen before is worth the price of admission alone. The only difference between Rogue One and every other Star Wars film is simple: you’re more than likely not going to remember this film for its characters and purpose, but it sure is great eye candy.
6/10