- Location: Cinemark Century Point Ruston
- Hey, remember in the original Star Wars when the rebels were organizing their attack on the Death Star and somebody asked where those plans came from and the rebel leaders paused for over two hours to tell the full story? No, of course you don't -- there's a reason that minutia like that get shuffled into backstories rather than becoming part of the stories themselves. However interesting the theft of the Death Star plans may have been, it was ultimately a set of secondary details better suited to extended Star Wars universe novellas and comic books than the big screen. But apparently I'm the only person who feels that way, so here we are talking about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a movie that I would have subtitled Revenge of the Unnecessary Prequel.
- The good news is, that's my main beef with the movie. If you're determined to hear a story about the Death Star plans, then you could do a lot worse than director Gareth Edwards and his collection of acting talent. The story follows an assemblage of misfits you might describe as the Dirty Half-Dozen, given their obvious cinematic inspiration. Leading the pack is the defiant Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), whose well-meaning father (Mads Mikkelsen) was forcibly conscripted into designing the dastardly Death Star. At her side is the reliable rebel Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), whose allegiance to the rebellion threatens to veer into fanaticism. Cassian brings with him an amusingly surly droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), and the group quickly accretes Force acolyte Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), all-around toughguy Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang), and flighty pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed).
- Although motivations and allegiances bounce back and forth a bit as the tale progresses, you don't need the Force to predict that this motley crew will steal the Death Star plans and deliver them to Princess Leia by the end of the movie. Standing in their way are the damaged rebel extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), the ambitious Imperial General Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), several legions of stormtroopers, and even a fan-service cameo or two by Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones). Oh, and Grand Moff Tarkin, who you may recall was portrayed by the late Peter Cushing in the original film. He shows up a little too often as a slightly uncanny CGI talking head, which is an unfortunate filmmaking choice (but not nearly as unfortunate as seeing a CGI-generated Princess Leia the same week of Carrie Fisher's tragic death). Anyway, the subtitle tells us that this is a Star Wars story, so naturally the rebels face insurmountable odds and then find a way to surmount them.
- Well, maybe "surmount" isn't quite the right word. Sure, the Death Star plans get stolen and all the pieces get put into place for Episode IV, but every new character created for this movie ends up dead by the end. For better or worse, that is one detail that sets this movie apart from any other Star Wars film, although it feels like more of a continuity requirement than a thoughtful artistic choice. A more impressive distinguishing detail perhaps is the diversity of the cast, which contains Mexican, Asian, and Indian actors in support of a female lead. (Sure, one of the Asian actors plays a monk who practices martial arts, but we're counting it as a step in the right direction.) That said, I still just can't get past how completely unnecessary this particular Star Wars story was. In Return of the Jedi, Mon Mothma explains how they got the new plans by casually mentioning that "many Bothans died to bring us this information." My imagination constructed some exciting stories around that throwaway line, but nothing worth making an entire movie about.
- Also recycled was stock footage of various pilots from the original Star Wars. Creative?
