Yes, there are spoilers. MAJOR SPOILERS.
First, since this movie is technically a prequel to the original Star Wars (or as the nerds have termed it, Episode IV: A New Hope) I will give a preamble of sorts, detailing the lead-up to our viewing of the latest installment in this epic saga.
We went to Target last night, where I spent a gift certificate in JR's name on some early Christmas presents for him. He just started Winter Break and he has been a really good boy, and also I know he will get bored quickly; add to that the inclement weather as of late, and you've got two immature males walking the LEGO aisle looking for toys.
I was a little surprised that JR chose LEGO sets related to the series, because he has never really shown much interest in anything Lucas-related. Even The Force Awakens, while it did excite him, fell away from his radar pretty quickly. Perhaps the kids at school were jawing it up; maybe the fact that I mentioned taking him the next day piqued his interest. At any rate, he made modest choices (two smaller sets and one mid-size set) and we took them home and assembled them... or to be accurate, I did most of the work and he played with them until very late into the evening.
Then we set up a nest in the living room so we could watch a movie before bedtime. I suggested one of the Star Wars movies but JR opted for Spaceballs. Neither of us had seen it in a while, and he was always more partial to Mel Brooks' parody than the films it was parodying. So to prep for Rogue One, we watched a movie that was probably better than the first three episode/prequels combined.
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The terrible effect of this winter weather on traffic conditions meant that the theater where we went to see Rogue One was virtually empty. I shelled out close to $45 on tickets to the 3D version plus snacks and drinks. We missed all the previews that weren't in 3D, but I never cared for previews anyway; the trailer for the new Guardians Of The Galaxy was, of course, delightful. The credits for the new Pirates Of The Caribbean movie went by so fast, however, that I didn't get to see if Johnny Depp is actually going to be in it. (I checked later-- yes, he is... and so is Javier Bardem!)
The movie begins. Once again, the lack of a 20th Century Fox fanfare is jarring, but not as much as the absence of the main Star Wars theme and the iconic scroll-through-the-stars. This instantly (and more than anything else in relation to the promotion for this "one-off" experience) placed Rogue One outside of the accepted canon and into anything-goes territory... which is odd, considering how many references to the main saga this film makes.
As usual, JR's running-out-loud commentary is right on. He notices that the movie feels like a video game. His seeming disinterest in The Force Awakens turns out to be a ruse; he is able to recall entire events from that movie as we're watching. He marvels at both the special effects and the 3D format, although he does complain later that the glasses hurt his eyes. "Last time I take this kid to a 3D movie," I think to myself.
My first thoughts as we watch the movie are that it should've been titled The Rogue Warrior. The first half of the movie owes more to the style of the Mad Max movies than anything in the Star Wars universe. Forrest Whitaker ends up reminding me of Tracy Morgan's SNL character Woodrow. The actors and characters are cool and engaging but not too charismatic-- wouldn't want a repeat of what happened with the parent movies, where minor or supporting characters upstaged the leads and wound up with sub-sects of their own. Thematically, though, the comparison to The Road Warrior is mostly in the mythic plot: a mercenary with the skills to pay the bills is practically forced into taking on a suicide mission and ends up willfully sacrificing themselves for the greater good. It's like the Han Solo story arc, except Han ends up dying, as he was supposed to in Return Of The Jedi.
Knowing how the story ends kills none of the suspense; we still want to see how it was pulled off and what kind of significance it has to the saga as a whole, otherwise it would be useless to even make the movie in the first place. In this regard I think Rogue One is a stellar entry and makes the case for more one-off installments, if only to retroactively fix the gaping plot holes in the series that fans have noticed over the decades. I must say that the final ten minutes of Rogue One had me totally rapt. JR was kind of on-again off-again throughout the whole movie (which is nothing new-- even during the Marvel movies there comes a point where his attention temporarily wanes) but the third act had him so enthralled that he immediately began playing with his LEGO sets as soon as we got home. He was able to follow it almost all the way through but the one thing he always has trouble with is the timeline of these movies. Just like with the Terminator series, which deliberately messes with time in the story itself, the notion that Rogue One takes place before The Force Awakens was beguiling. I explained it as best as I could, and then it clicked with him, and he said, "Oh, it's like a flashback!"
I'm not even going to comment on Peter Cushing rising from the dead, because that is one of the few treats that every Star Wars movie has delivered on: something astonishing that reminds the audience of just how breathtaking these movies can be. For all of the wonders of the first Star Wars, there is always the sense that the creatures are men in costumes; only the space battle scenes had the sort of one-of-a-kind novelty that helped the original movie transcend its limitations and convince us that we'd never seen anything like this before. I'm not concerned with the repercussions or the predictions being made, because back when I was in high school (over two decades ago) John Wayne was doing Coke commercials from the grave, and that seemed either blasphemous or sacrilegious. That it was neither is irrelevant to those who want to naysay what is ultimately a rather impressive effect brought to us by the same people who made us (as kids) believe that Jabba the Hutt and Yoda were real.
Finally, I think a sci-fi epic is only as good as its villain, but here I'm not talking about Darth Vader. We already know that Vader is a bad-ass, and even though he's not on screen for a long time his presence is definitely felt like a Jedi throat choke. (It bears noting that JR's boredom was done away with the minute Vader's breathing could be heard) But I really liked Ben Mendelsohn as Krennic, because he looks like a cross between Tom Bergeron and the late great Paul Gleason, both the type of actors who look like total A-holes and play it to the hilt. No scenery-chewing was needed; Krennic's line about the destruction of an entire city being "beautiful" was all it took for me to love hating him. And they gave him plenty of opportunities to project the managerial type of prick that audiences get off on despising in these types of films.
When the movie ended, JR and I walked out and drove home, talking about all this Star Wars stuff. For the first time in his short life, he really seemed interested in it. I've never been one to push it on him, because I knew that it would have to grow on him in its own way for him to care about it, but he's going to be 8 in a month and I remember that I was his age when I really started to dig these flicks. In fact, when I was 8 I was immersed in The Empire Strikes Back. I think Rogue One is probably the best Star Wars movie since Empire, because it is a little darker and has less cute moments and the humor is more subtle and less broad. I think that if George Lucas had never made his deal-with-the-devil with Jim Henson then maybe the entire series would have been a tad edgier, more of a hard PG-13 (which is Rogue One's rating) rather than a soft PG. I don't think the intention to incorporate Muppets ruined the Star Wars franchise (it was mostly done in order to realize more complex creatures that didn't look like "men in costumes") but it did make Lucas think twice about decisions like, oh, I don't know, saving Han Solo at the end of Jedi or having Greedo shoot first or using Ewoks or Jar Jar Binks... the list is as long as those scrolls in the beginning of each of the major movies.
That residual darkness is a good thing in terms of storytelling, and even JR noticed it. He pointed out the sadness and pathos of scenes such as Jyn Erso as a child watching her parents being accosted by the Empire, or when she speaks with her father after 15 years of separation only to be separated once more, or the bittersweet final image of Jyn and Cassian embracing in the face of destruction. Those moments were not lost on the little boy upon whom this grand spectacle makes an indelible impression. In fact, it makes him care just a little more than he did before. If he becomes a full-on Star Wars maniac after this, it's because this movie came at the right time, for him and for the series. It's ultimately not a great work on its own merits, but as an auxiliary to the world that Lucas created, it shows so much promise, potential... and hope.
Because rebellions are not the only things that are built on hope. There's dreams too.
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