Begosnisa

Yesterday, on 18 december 2016, I watched the latest Star Wars movie: Rogue One and… oh my God, what a crap! I don’t even know where to start. I really tried to like this movie so badly, but I just couldn’t. I’m quite a big Star Wars fan. Except the movies, I’m also following the so-called Star Wars Expanded Universe, which includes games (I’m playing the MMORPG SWTOR), novels (I liked the Darth Bane and Revan novels by Drew Karpyshyn as well as The Old Republic: Deceived by Paul S. Kemp), comics (I enjoyed the Star Wars – Knights of the Old Republic comics series by John Jackson Miller), series and more.

As I was going to watch The Force Awakens a year ago, I remember how the words “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…”, raised goose bumps and made my heartrate race. Although Rogue One still uses these words, it lacks the indispensable opening and rousing musical fanfare at the beginning that characterizes not only every Star Wars movie, but also the games, the series and even the audio-books. This is one of the reasons Rogue One didn’t transport me into the milieu created by George Lucas almost 40 years ago.

After The Force Awakens I was hoping the next movie would continue about the adventures of Rey, Finn, Poe and Luke Skywalker, however the events of Rogue One transpire before Episode IV: A New Hope. While Rogue One provides the answer to the unresolved question of how Princess Leia obtained the plans to the Death Star and presents a reasonable explanation for why the Empire’s ultimate weapon had such an easy-to-exploit flaw (something that has bothered Star Wars fans for years) it raises other, similar annoying questions like: Why did Galen Erso risk so much by sending a holo-message with his plan, but didn’t care to add the so crucial blue-print of his great design?

The cast of Rogue One was a disaster. Felicity Jones, the actress who played the main character Jyn Erso, was totally annoying. It seemed like she had the same expression on her face during the whole movie. The role of Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything, suited her much better. But let’s not blame the cast, because the movie lacks of intriguing characters and doesn’t give us anyone to care about. The characters are one-dimensional and I didn’t feel any emotional connection with any of them. Sadly enough the only amusing one was the droid K-2SO. Previous droids such as R2-D2 and BB-8 were funny in a sweet way, however K2-SO is funny because he is an asshole. The rest of the gang is an assortment of clichés and in no character is that more obvious than in Jyn Erso. She is a hollow vessel and at no point does she make a choice. All this is at odds with how she is introduced as a tough survivor of the Imperial terror.

The story suffers from worthless dialogue. The script was boring. Especially in the beginning the movie jumps all over the place hastily, leaving no room for actual scenes. Personally I would have liked less dull action battles and better written characters. There were numerous mentions of the Force, but with no heart to them. There were only a few enjoyable moments. Rogue One is predictable from beginning to end. The finale is better, when Darth Vader shows up, but until that point you still don’t care about any of the characters or the plot. The planets and moons could have been developed with much more imagination!

Rogue One is entirely different than all the movies that have come before, but I don’t think this is a good thing. I went into this movie with an open mind. I only watched the trailer which kinda told me not to expect too much, yet I left feeling disappointed and angry realizing the fact that this was nothing but a cash-in film with no soul and no originality and that I was foolish enough to go and see it. At the end I was glad the 2,5 hours were finaly over and that I could go home and rest. This is not a worthy addition to the Star Wars universe and I wished they never made it!