Rogue One

[lizbee]

I saw this last night, and -- without spoilers -- liked it very much, and also cried a whole lot.



As much as the claim by Vox that this is "the first Star Wars movie about war" is ridiculous (cue all the graphics pointing up the second word in the franchise's title), I can see how they reached that conclusion. A lot of the major battle scenes here take place, not in space, but in urban or military landscapes, and are relatively light on droids. So there was a visual language that's familiar from more realistic war movies.

I guessed a day or so before I saw it that Jyn Erso would die. Something about the certainty with which Felicity Jones was saying she definitely wasn't Rey's mother, and we'd understand when we saw the movie, it just clicked. And I figured that, if Jyn died, probably everyone else would as well.

Now, I do not enjoy media that ends with rocks fall, everyone dies. I mean, character death can often be done very well, but I resent it when it happens in canon, but it's just as often chucked in because an actor is leaving, or a writer is sick of that character. It's all too often clumsy and manipulative. So I try not to bond with characters I know are doomed. (See also: Jadzia Dax.)

(I've also stopped watching Joss Whedon properties. It helped.)

To be honest, had I not already bought at ticket by then, I might have decided to skip Rogue One. But I'm glad I didn't. While I tried very, very hard not to bond with the characters, I liked them a lot, and their deaths were not as meaningless or gratuitous as I had feared. Most of the characters had done terrible things, and walked with their eyes open into deaths that advanced a greater cause. (It helps that we know that cause wins, of course, at least for thirty years or so.)

HAVING SAID THAT, I'm kind of a bit eyerolly at the most diverse Star Wars movie being the one where everyone dies.

And the death that doesn't advance a greater cause, except indirectly, is that of Jyn's mother -- although she at least goes out with agency, as a former Imperial agent (soldier? scientist?) who walks into danger and tries to kill them.

(Characters who deserve spin-off fiction: Jyn's mum.)

(I would also like to know how Saw Gerrera got from Point A in Clone Wars to Point B here, but I have a feeling Disney is already on that one. I mean, they should be.)

I do wonder if Chirrut Imwe, Donnie Yen's blind Force sensitive warrior, is an ethnic stereotype. Well, I'm pretty sure of it. But this is a franchise that has been nicking character types and designs from kung fu movies since its inception, and casting white people in those roles, so perhaps it's less of a stereotype than a reclamation. I'm gonna lurk around and see what Asian fans have to say.

In a just world, Imwe/Malbus would be the dynamite slash pairing of the entire movie, and fandom would react accordingly. But, um, two non-white characters, one disabled? I'm not getting my hopes up.

The other thing I'm heavily side-eyeing is the lack of women here -- Jyn is literally the only woman on her whole team, not a single female Rebel volunteers for the final mission, there are very few women at all in background scenes. It's very, very strange, and quite disappointing. Even Galen's engineers were all men! Although one of the few exceptions is a middle-aged X-wing pilot, who doesn't look all that slim. More portly lady pilots, please!

Maybe not more CGI Cushings, though. I couldn't figure out if Tarkin's face was actually fake looking, or if it was just that I knew it was CGI -- and then Ben Mendlesohn also started looking fake, so maybe there was a deliberate lighting choice to highlight the unreality of Tarkin's scenes.

(On the other hand, an actual actress played Leia in her one scene. Although I strongly suspect Carrie Fisher voiced her, or maybe her lines came from audio archives, because Fisher's voice has changed over the years.)

ANYWAY, these issues aside, I thought it was a good movie, an interesting, self-contained spin-off. I'm probably not going to see it at the cinema again, because I really did cry an awful lot, and then I had to walk home from the station with a headache. But I liked all the worldbuilding, the shades of grey within the Rebel Alliance, the internal power struggles of the Empire, and Vader's extremely enthusiastic approach to both Force choking and Force chucking. I'm looking forward to watching the fandom spot and explain the canon Easter eggs.

Oh, ALSO, and maybe best of all, we got to see Darth Vader's house, and it's goth af. Anakin was all, "Well, I fell into lava and nearly died and wound up horribly mutilated and disabled. You know what? I'm gonna build a CASTLE with a MOAT OF LAVA, that'll show it!"

Comments

[purple_smurf]

I had the same recoiling with Chirrut, but also a similar conclusion: the character would have existed with the same stereotypes, and at least they didn't cast the standard White Guy. But I'm also going to listen and etc because White Girl.

I think they animators have had a lot of practice getting Cushing's face right (with Clone Wars and Rebels), and since it at least looked more realistic than that I was mostly okay.

I don't mind "rocks fall, everyone dies" stories, and much like I went into TFA assuming Han Solo would die, I went into this one with the same thought -- just because of how the original film starts. I do want to see it more in the cinema, just to pick up on the cameos and characters from the original film. Also, I really loved the views of the Death Star from the ground of a planet and imagining Alderaan's last moments (I may go and reread some of that on AO3). I also want to see it in 3D.

Now going back to purchasing the original trilogy on iTunes because apparently I've been too spoiled by streaming TV to bother with DVDs any more. (This will make it the 5th time I've purchased these films in any given format. I hope you like that corner of your ranch I've paid for, George!)

[purple_smurf]

Oh also! Forgot to ask your opinion on the mind rape squid!

[lizbee]

IT'S NOT A MIND RAPE SQUID, THAT WOULD IMPLY THAT IT'S CONSCIOUSLY PREDATORY AND CRUEL

IT CAN'T HELP BEING A TELEPATHIC CEPHALOPOD THAT DOESN'T HAVE THE NECESSARY LEVELS OF SENTIENCE TO UNDERSTAND CONSENT OR NOT BREAKING STUFF IE BRAINS I assume, I guess the ancillary materials will tell us more about it.

[tree_and_leaf]

Poor squid. It doesn't look like it gets much fun out of life, either.

[lizbee]

IT JUST WANTS TO HANG OUT AND BE LEFT IN PEACE TO PURSUE ITS OWN PSYCHIC OCTOPUS GOALS

[jesuswasbatman]

I didn't see anything in that scene to make clear that it wasn't sentient. I thought it was Saw's professional telepathic interrogator.

[lizbee]

I think they animators have had a lot of practice getting Cushing's face right (with Clone Wars and Rebels), and since it at least looked more realistic than that I was mostly okay.

That was my conclusion, too. But I'm still not sure Hollywood can be trusted with this technology! ("Coming soon! All the movies Carole Lombard died before she could make them!")

...just because of how the original film starts.

I LOVED the sequence at the very end, of the Rebel soldiers fighting Vader and passing the message along, right up until it started to match up with what we had already seen.

[purple_smurf]

I may be wanting to see it lots more times because of that sequence, if nothing else.

[sqbr]

Cam has just started the Rogue One prequel Catalyst by James Luceno and says so far it is pretty good and has a moderate amount of Jyn's mother in it. So that spinoff does actually kind of exist :)

[lizbee]

Oh good! I might give it a look, I've been really impressed with the calibre of current Star Wars novels.

[tree_and_leaf]

Imwe/Malbus

Well, I ship it.

Darth Vader's house struck me as a strange mashup of the Dark Tower and Isengard, but it seems totally believable that that's what Anakin would do...

[lizbee]

I saw an excerpt from an early draft of The Empire Strikes Back on Twitter, describing "Vader's Castle", and it was basically the same, except he had pet gargoyles.

[tree_and_leaf]

Pet. Gargoyles. *dies and iz ded*

[drakyndra]

TBH, as soon as we had the plot description of the film I assumed most of the leads would end up dead; the only real surprise was that it was all of them rather than leave one or two standing.

Chirrut was my fave, but I can see where there could be issue there. On the other hand, I swear I recall reading somewhere that Donnie Yen was the one who suggested making him blind, so yeah.

I've seen lots of people talking about Chirrut/Baze as a ship so far! But then lots of people talked about Finn/Poe (to the point it got mainstream media attention) and yet that ship faded massively after a few months. Fandom can be surprising sometimes.

But yeah, I get you on the female supporting characters. I was pleased to see female pilots, but still none of the team with Jyn and co?

If you want to make yourself feel less sad about the movie, try imagining Kylo Ren's reaction to the Vader scenes. It's certainly amusing me.

[lizbee]

TBH, as soon as we had the plot description of the film I assumed most of the leads would end up dead; the only real surprise was that it was all of them rather than leave one or two standing.

Yeah, I expected that most of the cast would die, but that Jyn would survive. (And I had already been planning to point out how problematic it was that the only white cast member lived!)

(I am a parody of myself!)

What I keep imagining is Kylo Ren moving into the ruins of Vader's place and just ... kicking back.

[tellitslant]

YES NOT ENOUGH LADIES. I could not believe my eyes when I looked at the engineers and went, did they LITERALLY just cast old white men in this role. And I was getting my angry on about the pilots until the women (I think there were two - one x-wing pilot and one bigger-ship pilot? maybe?) spoke, but I also think they were the only ones who didn't get callsigns! It was just so glaringly obvious. How do filmmakers not notice or care about that. How. HOW. No female volunteers also really, really got to me. ARGH. ARGH!

Ahem.

Aside from that... I enjoyed it? Not NEARLY as much as I loved TFA, but that's a pretty high bar. I teared up a few times for sure, but I also felt like there were some plot fails. I was not sold on Cassian flipping to a point where he trusted Jyn - I just didn't get the emotion of that. I WAS SO HAPPY THEY DIDN'T KISS THOUGH.

I had not guessed it would be a Rocks Fall movie, although it makes total sense now that I think about it. I think it only worked for me because we know so well what happens next and are so deeply invested in that cause. i felt much more for the Rebellion than I think I did for the actual characters, but the characters exemplify so much of what I love about the drama of the rebellion, and the script did a great job of tying in the familiar with the sacrifices that were made.

*uses ironic icon*

Also, are you trying to tell me Imwe/Malbus wasn't canon? ;)

[rj_anderson]

I'd been spoiled for Jyn's death by a Star Wars tumblr (which seemed to think saying we could now put to rest the idea that Jyn is Rey's mother did not constitute a spoiler) but fortunately I was unspoiled for EVERYBODY DYING so that was new (though not exactly a shock). Still, I was delighted when Cassian revived long enough to be with Jyn in the end because that hug on the beach made everything sort-of all right, in the same way as all the other characters fulfilling their missions or coming to their respective epiphanies also made it all right.

(Although, having said that, I am also currently in the middle of reading two fix-it fics of the "Gosh, we're still alive after that giant explosion for some reason!" variety, because apparently I am just that much of a sap.)

I don't feel any particular desire to see it again, though. There were too many characters and too much action!going!on! for me to feel a deep emotional connection to anybody, and liking / mild concern is not enough fannish investment for me.

And because I am a ridiculous person, the one point of the movie at which I got really excited and squeaked out loud was also the same thing that made me squeak in TFA, which was "LOOK A CAMEO FROM SOMEONE I HAVE SEEN ON A BBC MYSTERY SERIES!!!" In TFA it was Harriet Walters as Dr. Kalonia, of course (and I don't think anything can top my level of excitement for that one), while this time it was the guy who played Anderson on SHERLOCK.

[jesuswasbatman]

The female pilot was Geraldine James, who I've seen a lot on British TV and failed to recognise, but felt happy when seeing her name in the credits.