So Rogue One is Star Wars with the Saving Private Ryan filter turned up. And it works.
This is a very different feeling Star Wars film and justifies the “A Star Wars Story” tag that sets it apart. Yes, the tone is darker than the other films as expected and don’t be fooled by stories of re-shoots done to lighten things. If anything the lighter material went into the trailers but not the final cut of the film. But it’s other things that set it apart.
The combat sequences are much more intense; dynamic, gritty and in a first for a Star Wars film actually quite harrowing in places. For example in an earlier sequence we witness an Imperial patrol attacked in a city street with innocent civilians very much caught in the cross fire. There are echoes of the likes of Black Hawk Down.
This is maximised in the final third as hopelessly outmatched Rebel forces on a beach sacrifice themselves to create a distraction whilst in orbit above them their colleagues mount a frantic assault to make sure it’s not in vain.
Astonishing is the best word I can think of to describe the climatic space battle, with cinematography that really places you right in the middle of the action as fighters swoop and dive around fleets of ships. It’s the best execution of this kind of action I’ve seen and is peppered with imaginative flourishes.
The strength of the action is backed up by the rest of the writing in deepening the experience. Whilst the basic story is a fairly straightforward men on a mission tale it’s the characterisation of those on the mission that make it work.
Here we get shades of grey as we see Rebels in conflict with each other over the lengths they’re prepared to go to. We’re told Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera is an extremist who’s gone too far but this is after we’ve seen Diego Luna’s Cassian shoot down an unarmed colleague without pause to ensure he won’t talk upon capture.
Meanwhile Mendelsohn’s Krennic brings something different to the table as the villain. He starts with a naked ambition to rise up the Imperial rank but slowly switches to desperately fighting for his position and survival after an encounter with Darth Vader.
Felicity Jones’ Jyn is also very different to any of the heroes we’ve see in the series before. At one point when asked if she’s ok with seeing Imperial flags flying over every planet she replies “It doesn’t matter if you never look up”. She’s not in it for the cause at the start and whilst later she joins the Rebellion her main motivation is a fight for absolution for her father.
A sequence roughly half way through featuring Jyn brings all that works so well in the film together at once. We watch as Jyn witnesses a final message from her father, Jones wordlessly showing the heartbreak and new resolve in her face as at the same time the Empire demonstrate the terrifying power of their new weapon. (Something which now is probably now more impactful as it’s lower setting resembles something sill devastating but with real world familiarity).
A haunting beautiful sequence and for me the moment the film really comes together after a slightly choppy opening.
It’s true that some of the other characters in our team are sketched with out as much detail but even then it’s a different vibe to what we’ve seen before. Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang are two believers in the Force trying to hold onto their faith and Riz Ahmed’s defecting Imperial pilot is man finding himself suddenly out of his depth.
Many are comparing it to Empire Strikes Back and they are both sombre pieces but I’d argue that Rogue One is the more complex in terms of it’s characters and generally depiction of the central conflict and probably a darker film overall seeing as during a couple of parts it even effectively comes across as a horror film.
Without giving too much away the biggest issue I had with it were some moments of ‘uncanny valley’where CGI has been used to reintroduce some characters into the story. It’s striking but does have that sense of unreality to it.
I also admit I’m not sure how well it would work for people who aren’t a fan of Star Wars to start with. I believe it would still stand by itself if you approached it as a Vietnam or World War II film, I’ll be interest to see if I gauge some people’s thoughts on that.
Having watched this again recently (and remembering that my copy has the scribbles of Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost on it) I thought it was time to post up some thoughts.
First of I think it's fair to mention that The Phantom Menace was never going to live up to all expectations. Expectations which after sixteen years and one mightily impressive trailer (see below) had been built up to sky high levels and I still believe that a lot of the negative reaction the film gets is connected to the fact that it could never been the film of everyone's dreams.
Now certainly the film is far from perfect on it's own terms but it's not as terrible as many would have you believe. I would in fact suggest that it is a perfectly entertaining piece of escapist science fiction (of fantasy if you're one of those Star Wars is fantasy types)
Often the film is criticised for it's story and plotting with many accusing it of being too dry and overly complicated. I really don't think this is the case, ok the opening text scroll isn't the most interesting but overall I feel the story works on the two levels required of it; to set up the following arc and as a self contained adventure.
In terms of the arc story we have the Trade Federation being manipulated in order to generate a crisis situation allowing Palpatine to take the reigns of government (along with Anakin's first steps on his path) and the smaller scale we have the story of two Jedi Knights fighting to protect a Queen and save a planet from a hostile invasion force (and their encounters along the way).
How anyone sees this as on overly complex tale I don't know, maybe they get themselves too bogged down in the small details, but this is hardly 'Chinatown' here, after the whole franchise is inspired by the '30s adventure serials (hardly known for their intricate plotting)
Another thing people seem to gripe about is connected to the plot, often I see people say the film has no clear protagonists despite the fact that Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) spend ninety percent of the film on screen. Not sure how else you'd identify you're heroes.
What I suspect many people mean is that they feel there isn't a character which they can clearly identify with as the audience. In this I'd say there is more of an argument. In A New Hope Luke clearly fills this role as he is the outsider to the situation and this has to have a lot of stuff explained to him (and thus to the audience) added to this is the fact that he starts out as very much the 'boy next door' with nothing special to mark him out.
In contrast Qui-Con and Obi-Wan are already established players in their world, with special skills and little need to stop and have the world around them explained to them. They are indeed hardly to relate to as characters initially but that doesn't mean they aren't the film's main protagonists. In fact I'd even suggest Qui-Con is the main man and that Obi-Wan is amongst the second tier of characters alongside Padme, Anakin and Jar-Jar.
If you look at A New Hope it's the same kind of setup with Luke front and center with Obi-Wan, Han, Leia on the second rung then 'Droids and Chewie on the third. It's the characterisation that differs rather than the way the players are structured at this point.
It is true that film suffers from some dodgy acting, Jake Lloyd as little Anakin is terrible, but it's not all terrible. Liam Neeson in fact is very good throughout I feel, doing an excellent job of conveying a mentor figure to Obi-Wan and a very capable seasoned adventurer. He looks practiced in his sword fighting and even remains dignified when Jar-Jar is on screen.
Ewan McGregor is a little less steady as Obi-Wan but to be fair on this outing he isn't really given a lot to work with as at this stage his part remains largely functional rather than dramatic. The accent is a bit odd too.
Natalie Portman is decent as Padme (although the surprise reveal of who she was never did surprise me, but then that's because I can recognise actors) though her interactions with Jake Lloyd's Anakin are fairly poor, but I suspect that's largely not her fault.
Ian McDiarmid is charmingly suspicious, which is great because that's exactly what he's meant to be. And everyone else veers from a bit dodgy to blink and you'll miss them (keep you eyes and ears peeled for Keira Knightly, Soffia Coppola, Dominic "McNulty" West, Greg Proops, Celia Imrie and Terence Stamp) But then the original trilogy is hardly an acting masterclass but is largely carried along by the charm of Harrison Ford a lot of the time with the odd bit of help from various RSC members.
The digital characters are very well realised (eleven years before Jim Cameron 'changed the game') weather you like them or not you can't deny the technical achievement of integrating them so well into the film. As annoying as Jar-Jar is (and to be honest I can live with him) he does mark a leap forward. As do the likes of Watto and Sebulba. Added to the fact that their performance are better than some of the 'normal' actors.
For the last word on the performances I'd say take a look at the background and production footage and see just what a weird environment they were working in. It's not surprising they performances are little flat when being asked to act in front so much blue and green screen, then having to redo things many time so calibration shots can be done for the CGI work and characters. (And it's fair to say George isn't really an actor's director)
Production design the wise I think the film is a big success. Every location, alien, prop, costume is lovingly crafter and many of the sights are really quite impressive but this often seems to be taken for granted.
Each location is distinct and varied from the underwater locales of Naboo to the massive Senate chamber to (And if you're going to question the reality of an all desert planet then I'm afraid you'll probably want to be avoiding space operas all together). Whatever Lucas lacks in terms of using his actors and refining his scripts he retains his eye for a stunning shot set-up and creating an evocative universe.
Even the Battle Droids look cool although they are pretty much lame in all other respects. There is much more imaginationion going on here than there was in Avatar and yet one of them is accused of being too cartoony and the other is apparently the best thing since the invention of the moving image. People even complained that CG Yoda didn't look right. Well that's probably because he still a puppet in this one people.
Plus of course the design teams here gave us Darth Maul one of the coolest things in the entire Star Wars cannon and a character that provides one of the best moments in all of the films if you ask me as he enters that hanger and sparks up his sabre.
It is shame he was dispensed with at this stage though as I feel it wouldn't take to much or a rewrite for him to stick around and take over parts of Count Dooku's place in events. (In fact I would have Maul largely play Dooku's role with the Count replacing Grievous in the narrative)
The duel between Maul and the two Jedi in the third reel is in my mind the second best lightsabre duel in the two trilogies and the best within the prequel set. And with the final Vader versus Luke confrontation taking the prize out of the sheer drama it's the Maul brawl that leads the way in terms of the physicality on display. Some may make fun of the force fields involved (and to be fair they are rather inexplicable) but they do allow for a great little character moment as Maul prowls, Qui-Con meditates and Obi-Wan looks on frantically.
It just as well that this fight is the business though as the films other action set pieces are a little disappointing. The space battle is easily the weakest in the series (and I've always wondered why the Droid ship's reactor is in the hanger bay) and the big ground battle is spoilt by being a too heavy on the slapstick.
Of course the Pod race is the other big set piece. This one is initially thrilling and quite breathtaking but then it just goes on for too long. Had the race been half the length it would have been much more intense and thrilling but has it is you do find your attention wondering a little as the third lap begins and Anakin once again overtakes everyone from the rear of the field. (Still it did give rise to the Pod Racer game which I used to love as it was ridiculously fast).
The race does do it's job of offering up some action at the halfway point and the classic Star Wars third reel action fest does end up working quite well despite he baggage of two underwhelming segments.
In general I think The Phantom Menace offers up a good solid Star Wars experience, ok there a few bumps along the road but then that's true of a lot of things. It is true that the continuity isn't what I thought it would be all those years ago but now I've had time to love with it, you know, I'm ok with it.
Sure a bunch of things don't quite make sense but then I'm willing to let a few things go in a universe with magic and laser guns! In the end I think, mainly because of Qui-Gon, I prefer this entry in the series over Attack Of The Clones (which I've also watched recently and will get to next) but behind Revenge Of The Sith in terms of the prequel trilogy.
I'm sure people will disagree but I think by and large it seems to be the done thing to have a go at Phantom Menace but in a series that already gave us fighting teddy bears there's nothing here in my view that 'breaks' Star Wars and as a film on it's own merits it's fine (miles better than Temple Of Doom for example) and in my view quite enjoyable.
