Kathleen Kennedy announced the Rogue One franchise at D23 as a spin-off from the core saga that would examine the parts in between the original and newer films. This prequel would take place before Episode IV - A New Hope, telling the story of the rogue task force that captured the plans for the Death Star. It follows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), daughter of Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the research scientist and developer of the plans and construction of the Death Star. He is the one who constructed the controversial "fatal flaw" in the system of the Death Star. The Rebel Alliance believes he is a traitor and that Jyn is their only lead and they want to find him and assassinate him before the Death Star is functioning. Jyn seeks to find her father who abandoned her as a child and left her in the care of Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a veteran of the Clone Wars who mentored her. And that is just Jyn's plot. And this brings the biggest problem with the film; much like Suicide Squad this is an ensemble piece and the focus through the entire first act is cluttered and clumsy, it doesn't know its focus or how to maintain it. My personal theory is that Jyn, as the marketing shows, was originally the focus of the film. But due to the negative feedback on Jyn in the first trailers and the problems behind the scenes with production the film went through extensive re-shoots; Disney wanted changes made to the overall film, there is an entire subplot involving the Kyber crystal, the charge of the Death Star, that her mother gave her, probably to have her mother make some impact because, in Disney tradition, her mother dies rather swiftly in the opening.
This film also follows the Han Solo esque Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Yoda-esque Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), C3P0 rip-off K2SO (Disney favourite Alan Tudyik), Chewie-esque Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) and yet another Caucasian brunette in Jynn Erso (Jones). Luna and Jones are unwatchably one-note and dull in their performances, Jones' hard-faced demeanour and monotone "cool" tone gets a little grating, so much to the point that the filmmakers felt it necessary to jam in random moments of tenderness on her part. She does the "saves-child-from-peril" cliche, and a very forced call-back to the classic trilogy with her talking to her hologram dad a la Princess Leia in Episode 4. Luna's character Cassian starts out as a truly interesting character, in a call-back to the Episode 4 Greedo scene, Cassian murders an Imperial informant in cold blood, making the audience question his morality and wonder how they will address it. But, like the rest of the characters, this is dropped in lew of more action and comic-relief. Riz Ahmed, an actor I truly enjoy, plays Bodhi in such a confused and incongruous manner, jittery and highly energetic but with no real reason or rhyme to it and incredibly inconsistent. He does get rather aggravating after a while. Forest Whitaker is laughable with his wheezy, breathless, "I-need-my-asthma-pump" voice and his likewise one-note performance. Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen shine as a duo, Chirrut's mystery and quick wit is matched wonderfully with Baze's sardonic delivery. Alan Tudyik is enjoyable as the rogue robot, but they never deal with any real implications in regard to his actions and his backstory. The biggest flaw with these characters being so dull is that this is, at heart, a heist movie. And the high stakes and dramatic ending do not ring true when the audience is given nothing to care about.
The action, while impressive, also holds no dramatic tension when legions of side characters and stunt men storm the AT-ATs on an uncomfortably Vietnam looking beach. The appropriation of the Vietnam imagery isn't even poignant enough to feel manipulative or contrived, its capitalising but it does not matter. The effects and choreography are what truly sell it, Chirrut in his martial arts, Jones and her stunt team in her escrima fighting and ILM's incredibly photo-realistic effects help to sell the scenes when the characters are really not being sold. The set-pieces are gorgeous, grand landscapes, sweeping battles and a stunning spaceship battle amidst dozens upon dozens of shuttles and X-Wings, Darth Vader hurling people into the ceiling and slicing them in two in an almost horror film corridor fight. It's intense and it's brutal but it never feels earned. That's what I feel the entire film is in a nutshell, gritty, real, brutal and thrilling but unearned. The emotional points are almost glanced at, character development is sneezed at us and the basic plot is so jumbled and jam-packed you don't even know who to pay attention to at any one time. A valiant first run of a soon to be series, but a test drive that will hopefully lead to greater trips in the future.
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