Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Rogue One: A Superior Star Wars Story (Collaboration with MovieMan Madness)



The Awakening may have been monumental, but was it quite as good as the Rebellion built on hope?


As of the writing of this post, “Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi” is a mere 24 hours or so away from worldwide release and while I have my general criticisms of Disney's handling of the “Star Wars” franchise as a whole, I nonetheless remain generally optimistic.

Not only because the producers seem to be so ecstatic for the film that they’ve ostensibly handed the admittedly talented Rian Johnson the keys to the kingdom for the upcoming future but from what the trailers have thus far revealed, the movie also appears to be building on the best aspect of “The Force Awakens,” i.e. the introduction of a lively new cast of characters in a world of creative potential built upon the mythology of the larger than life fiction preceding it.


At least, before that film unfortunately devolved into the sort of narrative rehash punctuated by a nonsensical cop out of a climax setting up future films that is typically reserved for mediocre fanfiction.



That isn't to say that the flaws of “The Force Awakens” sink it by any means. Despite the unfortunate shafting of its newcomers development and foregoing the opportunity of taking a proper progressive foot forward in the name of celebrating what worked, the film ultimately knows exactly what kind of big budgeted yet passionately crafted comfort food that it strives to be, relaunching “Star Wars” for a new generation while reminding existing fans of what they love about the property after a polarizing era helmed by the prequels.

Once the hooks of nostalgia infused marketing sink into it however, it’s shift in focus away from its fresh contributions to the Star Wars mythology, only serves to cement to me that as good as the film undeniably was, it would take an extra year for me to get the outside of the box cinematic experience that I hoped to receive from this series after a 10-year absence from the Silver Screen in the form of the franchise’s kickoff to the anthology films, “Rogue One.”

The common perception of “Rogue One” is that it is essentially a hold over film until the sequel to the movie that everybody actually cared about hit theaters and on some level it's not hard to believe that may have even been the thought process behind marketing within circles of the Disney offices.

Whatever the temporary place the film was intended to hold within the pantheon of the series’ merchandising plan, I honestly found the final product to be far more cathartic as a veteran “Star Wars” fan than I ever actually found “The Force Awakens” to be.

Freed from the burdens of franchise building and sequel establishment for a product to be heralded by an entire generation, the film instead is allowed the creative freedom to boldly tell a fresh story of its choosing to the benefit of the mythology that it is set within, marketing be damned

The result is a movie that exalts the spirit of the original Star Wars for more than any other entry of the series has done while moving forward with an unparalleled level of dramatic heft for the franchise, barring “Empire Strikes Back” because, of course, nothing will ever top one of the greatest sequels ever made.

Without the overhang of merchandising to children that the series has succumbed to ever since “Return of the Jedi,” the film is allowed to be truer to itself than any entry of the saga has ever been since “Empire Strikes Back,” creating a true Star Wars movie of the 21st Century.



In this case that trueness manifests itself in the form of a grittiness that no other film of the franchise has managed. While still being vaguely appropriate for all ages, "Rogue One" is without a doubt the most adult film of the series, with the footprint of the Galactic Empire firmly pressing upon the citizens of the galaxy by displaying to the audience ground level oppression that “Star Wars” has barely if ever really explored on film.

Family is torn apart over political gain, religion and faith is tested by the intervention of a government that sees the aid that it can provide for the opposing Galactic Rebellion and in a rare case of humanizing the antagonizing force, the structure and social mores of the Empire hint at a proud glory seeking society that may not be as blindly dedicated to the maliciously dominating tactics of their authoritarian regime as iconography suggests.

The deconstruction of said iconography feeding back into a reconstructive affirmation of its mythological weight not only provides for a more complexly villainous Empire but goes into the portrayal of a three dimensional Rebel Alliance that serves as a metatextual origin story for the franchise’s inaugural entry.

The Rebel Alliance that we see isn’t the noble finely tuned ideological spear led by freedom fighters making the ultimate sacrifice for a better tomorrow for Imperial victims across the galaxy but rather a group of well meaning but ultimately opportunistic politicians too timid over what they risk in order to dedicate to the cause and work together with the resources that they definitely have to pull the job off. The political squabbling amongst the heads of the Alliance are not unlike governmentally divided houses of countries operating today, which makes the threat of the Death Star and the devastation that it can wreak all the more heavy when you see them granted with a moment of truth provided by the team’s motivation to arms action of infiltrating Scarif to steal its blueprints.

Faced with the chance to hide and disband once and for all or declare open war, the rebellion gambles on the impossible and sets the stage for a saga that has come to be a defining story for generations of science fiction/fantasy fans.

And Gareth Edwards and his production crew did this not with an amped up cartoonish Star Killer Base taking out several planets at once but by simply focusing on the planet destroying weapon that the audience knows and depicting its genocidal action in a capacity both scary and heart wrenching that was consistent with its original concept. This is the movie’s true ace in the hole.

“Rogue One” takes the established “Star Wars” universe and the context behind many of its concepts and tells a story that works well within the cannon but ultimately updates the purpose that they serve for the modern day, making it a definitively harder brand of science fiction than what much of the franchise has been for decades.

Remember that previously mentioned infighting between political powers? Recall if you will that this fighting is further compounded by the fact that Rebel operations are practically stumbling over one another as demonstrated by Cassian Andor, whose interests could easily conflict with his orders and allies, introduced by his betrayal and murder of his Death Star informant while bolstered by his attempt to spare and rescue Galen Erso in defiance of his orders and mission parameters.

Aspects like these black operations, political strife, and the boldly depicted battle on Jeddha, in which radical rebels with little regard for collateral damage and loss of civilian life wage war in a chaotic skirmish that is gloriously and uncomfortably similar to military altercations in the Middle East, all present the vision of a “Star Wars” utilizing the classic material and iconography of the franchise in a manner informed by modern perceptions of conflict, something that the series has never explored, preferring to remain within the realms of conflict characterized by the World War II era pulp serials that inspired the original movie.

Rather than use this shift in tone as an indictment of some sort against the franchise however, what “Rogue One” does is utilize advances in technology, filmmaking technique, and even political perceptions to flesh out the “Star Wars” galaxy with the addition of a legend that both celebrates the mythology that it pulls from while adding weight to that mythology with a cinematic epic that comes across as an in-universe historical drama documenting the catalyst behind a major turning point in galactic history that informs the story of the series that we all know and love.

In doing so, it further provides a perfect picture of what serialized cinematic storytelling is supposed to do; enhance and be enhanced by the existence of other entries while functioning as a story on its own.

The nature of the film as a cinematic epic is further reflected in the treatment of its characters.

“Rogue One” is often criticized as having a cast of more passive and debatably bland characters than those of the primary Saga and its intensely character-centric narratives regarding themes of family, allegiance, destiny, morality and legacy.

The film is unapologetically thematic and plot focused and while that may not be everybody’s cup of tea, I do take umbrage with the notion of its characters being “bland.”

K2SO and Donnie Yen’s Chirrut are often cited as break outs and the film’s MVPs with good reason but while I would acquiesce that Chirrut’s friend and partner Baze is an unfortunate victim of having too little to work with, I often find that the others are taken a bit too far out of context.

The cast is ultimately composed of the types of background soldiers and specialists that serve as minor players in the grander narrative of the “Star Wars” Saga if they were to receive any attention at all and thusly they become rather unfairly compared to the prophesized chosen Jedi such as Luke and Rey or the troubled loners motivated to arms by being in the wrong place in the wrong time like Finn or Han Solo rather than the smaller scale and grounded scope operators present in those very movies like Wedge Antilles.

These are characters meant to be swept up by their circumstances rather than the overhead shakers and movers that break the chains of destiny that bind them and undergo personal journeys to do so.

Even by those standards however, I would nevertheless argue that they still function well enough on an objective level.

While much of Felicity Jones’ material was clearly left on the cutting room floor, she still manages to capture the ferocity of someone capable of being a great soldier with the right motivation; a motivation that she clearly lacked given her disillusionment with everything she held sacred (her father’s work for the Empire and Saw Gerrera’s abandonment) but would later gain when presented with the resources to make a difference along with the emotional revelation that those that betrayed her in fact did so to assist and protect her for years to come.

Her wishy-washy convictions serve as a compliment toward Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, whose unwavering conviction provides her with a solid direction to move towards while her perceptiveness grants him the perspective that he lacked in his short sighted aims to further the rebellion at any cost born from a childhood raised in the chaos of Imperial reign.

Furthermore, Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook is one of the most underrated characters of the entire Disney era of the series as far as I’m concerned. He does unfortunately suffer from screentime prioritization that keeps his fascinatingly hinted turn of conscience from being explored in more satisfying detail but the utter conviction of his performance made him one of the hardest losses to watch in the movie. His admiration of Jyn and dialogue with her lavishing worship of her father and dejection that his motivation to do the right thing may have been for naught alone convinced me of the harsh realness of the Star Wars galaxy in a way I haven’t been convinced of in over a decade.

“Rogue One’s” cast has plenty of colorful details that could probably fill up pages of their own novels if an attempt were made but their existence was subservient to the narrative of the film, aiming for that of a cinematic epic that demonstrates how a few people taking a stand for what’s right can turn sway the tides of conflict while simultaneously focusing on an anti-war sentiment that should be fundamental to stories about armed conflict; war can become a force of nature and when it gets underway, it has little regard for who loses life in the grand scheme of things.

“The Force Awakens” made major strides in slowly building a vision of “Star Wars” that can reconcile its fractured fan base and while I criticize its decision to adhere to “A New Hope’s” template rather than build upon it in the end, its introduction of a trio of slightly unbalanced but interesting new leads and an ultimate positioning of them as the future shakers and movers of the franchise gives much to hope for and reminds me of what it was like to look upon this franchise cinematically with a sense of excitement again.

Where that movie merely made me think back on that feeling fondly however, “Rogue One” is the feeling that instilled it within me as an adult by being the “Star Wars” movie that I had always hoped to grow up with, pulling itself together from a new vision inspired by its predecessors rather than seeking to copy, succeed, or recreate them.

By virtue of its design, it was meant to be a mere one shot. However, if there were some sort of alternate reality in which the crew of Rogue One survived their fates, I would read, watch, or play the adventures of this team of Rebel specialists in a heartbeat were I asked to choose between such further adventures and watching the main Saga play out as of the writing of this post.

(This post is a companion/counter piece MovieMan Madness. Follow him here for his reviews, Cinema Spotlight series, and counter argument on what makes "The Force Awakens" the superior entry of "Star Wars'" Disney era before "The Last Jedi" hits theaters, this December 14.)

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