The core logic behind Rogue One's concept is simple: It's a Lower-Deck Episode, centering on a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits completely unrelated to the main movies trying to do one smaller yet crucial act of heroism that will later enable "greater heroes" to finish off evil. It's an appealing concept, but does the movie do it well? Yes and no.
The primary aspect of the movie is that it is centered on the final action setpiece, in which the movie is truly phenomenal both regarding the action and dramatic moments ("I am one with the Force, the Force is with me"), hitting excellent notes of tragedy and beauty amidst the war.
The primary problem of the movie is that it has no idea how to get to that point, so the first 1/2 is aimless as Hell, with Jyn and co mostly going around the Galaxy buying time until the climax. Jyn herself keeps up the Star Wars Vanilla Protagonist tradition, so she isn't a interesting character at all, ergo the first half being mostly focused on her arc with her dad weakens the movie considerably. Her dad, "sympathetic collaborator of the Empire" aside, isn't very interesting either.
In the first half, Rogue One decides to play with the moral ambiguity and shadyness of the Rebel vs Empire conflict, with darker heroes and a grittier feel. But while there's some hits within that idea (like Andor's moral dilema, Jyn's dad collaborating with the Empire), there's also some misses (the villain remains just a one-note Hate Sink and Saw Gerrera the "dark" rebel isn't really dwelled upon, so he's a complete waste) so these attempts mostly fall flat.
But in the second half/the climax, the movie gives the team its chance to truly shine in the final battle, and we get the movie's most touching and epic moments, usually involving the characters's Heroic Sacrifice. The primary thing the movie excels at is not moral ambiguity, it is defiance in the face of overwhelmign tyranny, which is why the second half of triumphant rebellion in the face of overwhelming odds is a lot stronger.
Chirrut Imwe and Baze have the film's strongest arcs, suiting the film's strengths: the believer in dark times whose faith is eventually rewarded and the believer in a Crisis of Faith who eventually regains his faith. These two should have been the protagonists, not Jyn and Andor (who are fairly bland with fairly bland arcs).
So. in short: The film has a very unfocused first half and it'd have benefitted from some cleaning up and tightening on the script (like expanding on Saw's role and reworking the Ersos), but the second half is so pitch-perfect it ellevates the movie to a rarely-reached quality levels. So despite a rocky start, it picks up fantastically, as the Force wills it.
All is as the force wills it.
(spoilers ahoy)
The core logic behind Rogue One's concept is simple: It's a Lower-Deck Episode, centering on a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits completely unrelated to the main movies trying to do one smaller yet crucial act of heroism that will later enable "greater heroes" to finish off evil. It's an appealing concept, but does the movie do it well? Yes and no.
The primary aspect of the movie is that it is centered on the final action setpiece, in which the movie is truly phenomenal both regarding the action and dramatic moments ("I am one with the Force, the Force is with me"), hitting excellent notes of tragedy and beauty amidst the war.
The primary problem of the movie is that it has no idea how to get to that point, so the first 1/2 is aimless as Hell, with Jyn and co mostly going around the Galaxy buying time until the climax. Jyn herself keeps up the Star Wars Vanilla Protagonist tradition, so she isn't a interesting character at all, ergo the first half being mostly focused on her arc with her dad weakens the movie considerably. Her dad, "sympathetic collaborator of the Empire" aside, isn't very interesting either.
In the first half, Rogue One decides to play with the moral ambiguity and shadyness of the Rebel vs Empire conflict, with darker heroes and a grittier feel. But while there's some hits within that idea (like Andor's moral dilema, Jyn's dad collaborating with the Empire), there's also some misses (the villain remains just a one-note Hate Sink and Saw Gerrera the "dark" rebel isn't really dwelled upon, so he's a complete waste) so these attempts mostly fall flat.
But in the second half/the climax, the movie gives the team its chance to truly shine in the final battle, and we get the movie's most touching and epic moments, usually involving the characters's Heroic Sacrifice. The primary thing the movie excels at is not moral ambiguity, it is defiance in the face of overwhelmign tyranny, which is why the second half of triumphant rebellion in the face of overwhelming odds is a lot stronger.
Chirrut Imwe and Baze have the film's strongest arcs, suiting the film's strengths: the believer in dark times whose faith is eventually rewarded and the believer in a Crisis of Faith who eventually regains his faith. These two should have been the protagonists, not Jyn and Andor (who are fairly bland with fairly bland arcs).
So. in short: The film has a very unfocused first half and it'd have benefitted from some cleaning up and tightening on the script (like expanding on Saw's role and reworking the Ersos), but the second half is so pitch-perfect it ellevates the movie to a rarely-reached quality levels. So despite a rocky start, it picks up fantastically, as the Force wills it.
8/10.