Rogue One

As the iron fist of the Empire tightens its grasp, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a dangerous mission to steal the Death Star plans, the ultimate power in the universe.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the famous opening crawl of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope says, “Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.”

This is that story.

Star Wars Day is May 4th.

Get it? May the Fourth? May the Force be with you? See what they did there? Star Wars Day. It’s a whole thing. I hope the marketing person responsible for realizing this promotional coincidence got a really big raise.

So, this year for Star Wars Day, I watched Rogue One.

To me, whenever people are talking about their favorite Star Wars movies, or which ones are the best ones, you can’t rank any of the new Star Wars films above the films in the Original Trilogy (otherwise known as the OT). You just can’t. I’m sure there’s some folks out there who may disagree with me on that, but…

They’re wrong.

So, with all that in mind, for me at least, Rogue One, this unexpectedly ballsy riff on such classic war films as The Dirty Dozen and the Guns of the Naverone, this tale of sacrifice for a deserving cause, is the one that occupies the number four spot. This is basically like saying that it’s the best Star Wars film, in both look and feel, just with the asterisk being “besides the Original Trilogy, of course.”

Rogue One is the most Star Wars-y of all the new Star Wars films.

So while, yes, there’s plenty of fan service and nods to famous moments, from the references to the cartoons, especially Rebels—including the Hammerhead Corvettes that they had stolen—to a perfect recreation of the Rebel Alliance leaders from The New Hope, to the death of Red Five, to the weirdly ‘70s retro-futuristic re-envisioning of ‘50s pulp sci-fi aesthetic that is the key to the entire franchise, Rogue One not only manages to balance between nostalgia and innovation, providing a bridge between the prequels and the OT, it somehow manages to makes an exciting story out of what may be the smallest narrative box possible.

Because we all know what happens, right? Everyone does. The Rebels steal the Death Star plans. They pull it off. We know this. There’s no story more spoiled in pop culture than this one. And yet, it works. Through great characters and a well-told story, Rogue One is maybe one of the only prequels out there that features an actually good story.

BTW… Spoilers for Andor.

Crossing the width and breadth of that galaxy far, far away, from the desolate black sands of Lah'mu, to the dangerous back alleys of the Ring of Kafrene, to Jedha, where massive statues of once great Jedi lie cast down and half buried in the sand, to Yavin 4, the secret base of the rebel alliance, the small moon orbiting a red gas giant where the Death Star would one day be destroyed, to the Imperial base on the tropical planet of Scarif, Rogue One’s story begins when an Imperial pilot defects, bringing with him news of the Empire’s secret new weapon, a weapon capable of killing a planet.

The pilot was sent by the Empire’s chief weapon designer, a man named Galen Erso, long a hostage and forced to work for the Empire. Galen sent this pilot to the only rebel contact he had, the leader of an extremist Rebel cell named Saw Gerrera. Saw is a man who has given his legs, his body, his very soul, everything, all of it burned away in his efforts to destroy the Empire.

So, at this point, Saw Gerrera has split with the Rebellion, due to their ideological differences, sneering at their unwillingness to be ruthless, to do whatever necessary, to attack the Empire with any means available. Cassian Andor, a spy and a captain in Rebel Intelligence, decides to try to use Galen’s long-lost daughter, Jyn Erso, to make contact with Saw. Jyn has long been on the run from the Empire, as they want to use her as leverage against her hostage father, but back in the day, she and Saw worked together, killing Imperials in the name of freedom.

The Rebel Alliance hopes that a friendly face may be able to arrange a meet with Saw, so that they can talk to this Imperial pilot and find out what he knows, because Saw is paranoid and dangerous, seeing spies in every corner.

But Jyn is just a common criminal now, currently languishing in Imperial prison under a false name. She’s the white girl who claims to have “never had the privilege of political opinions” when it comes to choosing between fascism and the oppressed, all while everyone else lives with the choice every day. But once the Empire murders her father, and the cowardice of the Rebellion’s old guard leaves the young revolutionaries with no other choice but to act, she decides to finally join the fight in earnest.

And with that, a small band of heroes set out to change the very course of the galaxy…

I love it. They look so awesome.

In the end, the Battle of Scariff invigorates the rebellion, not only giving them their first real victory, but also the key to finally striking a blow against the Empire from which they will never truly recover from.

I really love how the film ends mere moments before A New Hope starts. I also love how it feels… real is the wrong word, obviously, because it’s Star Wars, but… I love how it feels like authentic unrest and conflict in a fracturing society, even while it’s taking place in an obvious fantasy one. I especially love how it actually feels like Star Wars in every way that it should too, like it actually belongs with the original three films. Best of all, it’s fun and exciting, just a good time at the movies, with a final space battle that is at least as good as anything in the original trilogy.

It’s fantastic.

On top of all that good stuff, Rogue One also has Donnie Yen in it. Donnie Yen is famous for recently playing Daredevil in John Wick 4: The Adventures of the Punisher Continues, as well as a few other roles here and there.

Plus, I love the design of K-2SO.

A reprogrammed Imperial security droid, K-2SO is sassy and rude, and considers itself very put-upon throughout the film, while also being very casually bad ass, not to mention loyal to the Rebel cause, or at least to Cassian Andor. Alan Tudyk is the voice of K-2SO, and he really creates the character, but their appearance in the Mandalorian and Andor goes a long way toward explaining why they look the way they do.

The KX-series security droids, also known as enforcer droids, were a new design for this movie, but they look so good. Tall and gangly, their arms and legs too long, with small heads and beady eyes, they look like the child of a Terminator and Slenderman. It’s a really great look.

Not that the film is perfect, of course.

I have some issues…

Like how, for instance, while the diversity of the main characters is cool, including some of the first POC and female rebel fighter pilots, as well as what is presumably the first gay couple in Star Wars in Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, it also continues the franchise’s sadly typical Western Civilization sci-fi/fantasy tradition of relying on the appropriation of foreign cultures in order to define their alien species as “exotic.”

Sure, it does look cool at times, especially in this film, but just like in the Avatar series, the roots of this idea is pretty fucking shitty. And perhaps even worse, the one time this kind of appropriation could be used to make a definitive political statement, to really define who the rebellion is supposed to be, and who the empire is supposed to be, it completely misses the opportunity, in two ways.

1. The look of the small band of Rebels that go to Scariff relies too much on a Vietnam war era look, when instead, it should have pulled more from the look of WW2 soldiers. In an admittedly over-simplified nutshell, the Vietnam War was all about American Imperialism, so dressing Rebel soldiers in a similar vein as American soldiers in that war sends a muddled message as to who the Rebels are in this struggle. Especially in light of how George Lucas is on record with saying that the Rebels were more supposed to represent the Viet Cong, while the Empire was meant to represent America. Whereas, if they had used WW2 as more of a visual touchstone instead… it’s clear then that the Empire is Nazi Germany.
2. Also, and this is true about Andor too, Rogue One generally needed a few more aliens in the mix, especially as the non-human species are the ones who first felt the boot of the Empire on their neck, so they should just naturally have a bigger presence in the Rebellion. I mean, this is Star Wars, so “more aliens and droids” should be written in big letters atop the White Board in the Star Wars Production Offices. Plus, and maybe Disney has backed off on this particular idea a bit these days, probably because when you play out the metaphor, it’s unavoidable to see that the aliens are clearly stand-ins for POC and fringe communities, but it’s long been a part of Star Wars lore that the Empire is pro-human and anti-alien, which is why you almost never see any aliens in Imperial uniforms. But the specific way the issue rears its ugly head here in this film is how Saw Gerrera’s rebel cell (who are portrayed more like criminal terrorists than they are freedom fighters) have way more aliens on their team, meanwhile the Rebel Alliance (the noble ones) basically all look like this…

Whether intentional or not, there’s a message implied in this that I believe the kids today would refer to as “pretty sus.” These two things aren’t dealbreakers, of course, they’re just things I think about while watching the film.

Otherwise, I’m pretty good with this film.

Yes, a lot of people complain about the appearance of the CGI Leia and Tarkin. But honestly, they really aren’t that bad. Sure, they aren’t great, but they really aren’t that bad either. Like age-smoothing, the digital technology just isn’t quite there yet, which is probably a good thing, what with the way Hollywood is salivating at the chance to use AI actors, but still, I feel like if you’re willing to accept the alien makeup and the digital enchantments to the droids in these films, then you can accept these brief CGI characters.

Just don’t look directly at their eyes.

Also, we finally get to see Vader’s house in this film, which was unexpected, and mostly makes me wonder… Is it hot there? Is he hot in that suit? Does Darth Vader have air conditioning? Does Darth Vader have a tv room? Come to think of it, does he have a couch? What does Darth Vader’s personal bathroom look like? Hopefully there will be a Star Wars tv show that will answer these questions for me.

And speaking of everyone’s favorite Dark Lord of the Sith…

Rogue One ends with one of the most important sequences in the entire franchise, and it’s when Darth Vader boards the damaged Rebel Armada flagship in an attempt to retrieve the stolen Death Star plans. While doing so, he easily slaughters multiple rebel troopers, but in the end, he can only watch helplessly as the Tantive IV, the ship Leia is aboard in the beginning of the original Star Wars film, jumps to lightspeed.

And again, much like Rogue One being the best of the new Star Wars films, there’s probably a lot of folks out there who might disagree with me on this being one of the most important sequences in the entire franchise, but…

They’re wrong about that too.

Here’s why…

A lot of the older fans still think about Star Wars in terms of chronological release, but that’s outdated and out-of-touch. You have to think about them in narrative order now, because once you do, you’ll realize that between the Prequels and the multiple seasons of the Clone Wars cartoon, newer fans (which basically means everyone who was born after the 90s) have spent more time with Anakin Skywalker as a character than they have with Darth Vader. This is important to understand, because it means that Darth Vader is now no longer seen as an evil and dangerous monster, but as more of a tragic fallen hero, someone to be pitied, someone who could be redeemed…

In a nutshell, he’s super sad, not super bad.

That’s the problem with thinking about Star Wars in terms of narrative order, right? Darth Vader loses his power as a true villain.

But while, yes, it’s true that we will never get back the amazing reveal in Empire Strikes Back that Vader is Luke’s father, the impact of that scene is irrevocably lost, the danger that Vader brings with him in the opening of New Hope, the original Star Wars film, that can still be preserved.

This is what the last big sequence in Rogue One is about.

This hallway scene is a birth canal for the monster that is Darth Vader.

At one end of the hallway stands Anakin Skywalker, a tragic fallen hero, a child of slavery and abuse who lost his mother, a young man betrayed and horribly mutilated by someone he believed to be his mentor and friend, a person who was manipulated and broken, used as a tool by a system of oppression that he barely understood.

But after wading through that pile of dead, at the other end of the hallway stands Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith, the mailed fist of the Emperor, the monster, the murderous force of nature that when he appears… you should run.

Now, after watching that sequence, when Vader appears on Leia’s ship in the beginning of New Hope, you’re worried. When that door opens on Cloud City and you see Vader sitting at the table, waiting for Han, Leia, and Chewie, you’re like… oh, shit, and when Luke decides to leave his Jedi training incomplete and face Vader, you know he’s fucked long before he even gets to that Carbon-freezing chamber. Now, in Return of the Jedi, when Luke decides he’s going to try to redeem Vader, it still seems like a fool’s errand. Best of all, this hallway sequence puts the truth to Obi Wan telling Luke that Darth Vader murdered his father…

At least, from a certain point of view.

So, not only is Rogue One a good time and a good story, despite the fact that its ending is never in any doubt, not only is it the best of the new Star Wars films, it is also absolutely essential to the entire franchise. On top of all that, much like Andor, Rogue One is a story of heroes giving their lives for the cause, all while reminding us that when it comes to the threat of fascism, the only good fascist is a dead fascist.

That’s a message I can get behind.