In a flurry of lasers and explosions, the long awaited Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hit theaters on December 16. Star Wars fans flocked the theaters and left feeling electrified but not completely satisfied.
After an arduous exam week, there was no better way to enjoy our newfound freedom than to experience Star Wars with new characters and enhanced special effects. Although this dynamic duo pleased the eyes and ears, there was a lot missing from Rogue One and the more you think about it, the less appealing the film becomes.
First of all, there was a significant lack of character quality. Disney was focused a little too much on getting to the action that they forgot to design intriguing characters. Watching Jyn Erso battle storm troopers on the planet Jedha with two clubs was awesome, but Disney never brought back that type of fighting from her. We all love Jyn and Cassian, but the supporting characters could have really made impact if they had more time to develop. In most cases, the best part of the really cool supporting characters was their dramatic battle scenes, but giving them more time to develop would have made those moments so much better.
Speaking of character quality, one wasn’t an actor. High up in the Imperial ranks is Grand Moff Tarkin, who has appeared in every film of the saga, but this character didn’t work well one last time in Rogue One. The use of CGI to make Tarkin come to life is very is impressive, but he really doesn’t fit in with the other paid actors in the movie. Compared to the other spectacular special effects in the movie, the CGI was really just distracting, people in the movie theater would point at the screen with cocked heads, saying things like, “wait a minute, is that guy a robot?”
Rogue One fits into the Star Wars storyline between the third and fourth movies, so the plot revolves around finding and exploiting the weakness of the Death Star. This makes Rogue One Disney’s second Death Star plot in a row. The killer effects and the quality storyline made it a genuinely good movie, but the recycled plot decreases the creativity and quality of the film. The reason the Death Star was such an awesome idea in 1977 was that it was a huge menacing threat that no one had seen before. It’s malevolence on such a large scale made it the ultimate threat, which is the reason that none of the emotion and fear it once elicited could be replicated twice in a row. Overall, Rogue One was a good movie with cool characters and amazing special effects, but it missed some key elements. Although some of these flaws didn’t perturb many while watching the film, it is a little disappointing that Disney didn’t explore the endless possibilities of that galaxy far far away.
