12/20/2016 - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) – 5-/10

I didn’t detest Rogue One, just like I didn’t hate Force Awakens. Unfortunately, the former was just like the latter in which I was disappointed by the final product. So much fertile land to seed with new, interesting storytelling (in character, plot, and filmmaking), but planted was the same stodgy undying apple trees. They were beautiful and tasty at first, but now that you have lived with them a while they have become a bitter bounty, raining down tired muck and yielding you serviceable but boring. The love has gone, only to be replaced by “meh… it’s fine”.

***** Mild Spoilers*****

The 1st 3rd to half is slow, cumbersome, expository in the dullest way without saying much at all. By the time we meet and greet characters, most are flat and/or have little actual motivation (what is Donnie Yen's purpose? "Following the Force"? Does it "move in mysterious ways"? Or how about Forrest Whitaker's character? The uber hard, nigh unkillable, “too radical for the fighting rebels” leader who decides to just die b/c...reasons?). There is supposed to be some arching "apathy/disdain for politics/resistance to truly rebellious leader" for Felicity's character. I felt nothing for her or her journey. Flimsy at best, phony at worst. Right before the final act, some real pathos is laid bare for the assassin pilot, but I had mostly checked out by then.

The mission picks up the pace and it is much easier to get into, but then it becomes cacophonous with the 5-6 distinct action pieces all moving at once. Too much and it is another ramped up regurgitation of previous SW films.

Unerring and unadulterated fan service throughout. So much that they just throw up there "for the fans". They don't add anything other than a nudge in the ribs. I don’t need R-2, or Greedo, or the “he doesn’t like you” guys from ANH. Do we have to have the Yavin Rebel Base lookout shot…again? Or how about the same Star Destroyer into Star Destroyer? And, what does Darth Vader being in this film provide other than, “Wow! It’s Vader again. Cool!”. Yeah, he chokes a guy (again) and they jazz him up to enliven the chase for the plans... Sigh. Why should I care? I have just gotten too tired of the same beats. You knew how Yen's final act would go (and there sure is a lot of Force in this film for being in the same time frame as Jedis being “ancient religion” and “hokey superstition”). The "bad feeling" schtick. Just over it, actually. It’s all feeling more like shoving Stan Lee in every Marvel movie. Just because it’s Star Wars doesn’t mean you have to stuff in so much f’n Star Wars!

Were they damned insufferable? No, but the CGI "A New Hope" characters were not needed. Every time they were onscreen acting against flesh and blood, they were an eyesore that detracted from the scene. They recast Mon Mothma, do the same for others. It's a movie. Suspension of disbelief. We get it.

The allegories to Nazi fascism, Vietnam, and the atomic bomb were fine but a tad thick. Yes, it is a war movie, but that sacrificed story for bangs, booms, and recognition. I appreciated the grit and the fatalism, but all of that means more if you make it about the characters and not the fight.

Again, I didn’t hate it. There were things I did enjoy. I liked the "lived in"-ness and grounded quality of some of the film. There was a realism that permeated, from the guerilla war set-pieces to the caked on mud on the beat up equipment. Scumminess and scratches provide color and history. I liked much of the cast and thought they did well with the provided material. Though there were too many winks and nods, they did forge some new history and show us interesting parts of the old (planet Jedha for one was nice to see.. I also didn’t hate Vader’s home base, though I found his inclusion unnecessary). I did like the thru line to ANH and the gravitas the story behind the Death Star plans capture contributed. All the death gave more meaning to the struggle and its import, while the birthing of hope played well into the larger SW narrative after.

This is not a Jar Jar Binks of a film, but more a lackluster Boba Fett death. Enjoyable to a point, but too much wasted potential.