[Spoilers] Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [Analysis]

Hello! This is my last post of the year.

I went to see Rogue One for the second time yesterday.

This time there are spoilers, and I’m just going to list the things I personally loved about it.

Contents

The final scene, part 1

That shot of the two of them holding each other as the light swallows them and they die — it has the same sacred, beautiful, decadent quality as Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible, and it’s a real favourite of mine. And I wonder what Director Krennic was thinking when he looked up and saw the Death Star. He made plenty of missteps, but finishing the Death Star project that began back in Episode II is no small thing. Perhaps if he’d been a little more careful he wouldn’t have had to die.

Sodom and Gomorrah — Wikipedia

Jyn’s “do you think anyone’s up there, listening?” and Captain Andor telling her that her father would be proud — both lovely lines. Leia receives the hope, passes it to Luke, and peace follows. This is a film where you can really see that baton being handed on.

The final scene, part 2

Darth Vader. Magnificent. Right up until that moment your heart is with the Rebellion — and the second Vader appears, you find yourself rooting for him lol Strange, isn’t it lol

There’s no lightsaber and no Force in the whole film, and then at the very last moment, there they are. That’s the point where the audience realises: ah, I’ve seen this scene. What comes next is Episode IV! And you carry that feeling forward through Vader tearing through the corridor!!!!!!! And Leia appears!!!!! And then the jump to hyperspace and that music!!!!!!!!!!!!

The visuals

Wonderful visual work. Take the destruction of Jedha. The planet is rotating, so the debris thrown up is warped along that rotation. Extremely convincing. A beautiful sequence too.

And the dogfight over Scarif — I could live on those cockpit shots alone.

Did you know that Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia are almost entirely CG? Nothing about them felt off to me at all.

Vader’s entrance was excellent as well. Emerging out of the light seems to hint that he stood on the side of the light right up to Episode III before falling to the dark side — there’s something religious about it. And that silhouette is perfect.

The combat

I love close-quarters fighting. The troopers usually just get carved up by lightsabers, but this time they move like marines working as a unit, and it electrified me. The landing on Scarif, the black troopers coming in by transport, is unbeatable. Taking futuristic warfare and grounding it in modern tactics — that was the highlight for me.

And the blind Chirrut and his companion move so sharply they may as well be Jedi. At the high-volume screening in Tachikawa you could feel the blaster impacts through the seat — enormous!!

The Scarif dogfight, with capital ships going down, felt like the best in the series to me. Ramming a Star Destroyer at speed lol That genuinely startled me the first time!

The characters

With a cast this large, every single one gets a moment, and not one of them could be removed. Above all the father, and Director Krennic. The father is played by Mads Mikkelsen, a man usually known for villains!! Casino Royale, Hannibal, and more recently Doctor Strange. To get a performance from Mikkelsen that sad and that human… I cried.

The hologram scene, where he says the plans are on Scarif, nearly had me in tears too. This film cleared up the nagging question of why the Death Star had such a flaw in the first place. And at the same time I can’t stop respecting Galen for pulling it off. He is the real hero here. I rented Episode IV again afterwards, and remembering Galen and the others gave it real depth. I do love Episodes IV, V and VI.

The costumes all landed too! Vader from behind, and that entrance — the best!! My favourite outfit is Krennic’s.

One aside: Jyn has an accent in the way she speaks (“behind” comes out as be-hind), and when I looked it up, sure enough, the actress is British lol Quietly pleased with myself for catching it.

Small details

• Those two aliens from Episode IV, the ones who get an arm cut off, turn up lol
• There’s a huge Jedi statue on Jedha. I suspect that in Episode VIII, Luke visits it again while searching for the origins of the Jedi and says something like “this was destroyed by the Death Star as well.”
• Yavin 4 is Episode IV to the letter.
• “I have a bad feeling about this” — the line never quite lands in full, but I’m glad the tradition of putting it in every episode is properly honoured.
• C-3PO, R2-D2 and Obi-Wan all appear for a moment. I imagine plenty of people grinned at that lol

As a standalone film I think this is the best in the series. I’m looking forward to what comes next. Wonder how many more times I’ll see it.

“May the Force be with us.”