Okay so spoilers for all of Rogue One you
guys. The movie came out in 2016, but if you still haven't seen it for some
reason, I'm spoiling this entire movie. And as always I don't know shit about
shit, these are just my opinions, and the things I like about Star Wars.
I haven't read or watched much beyond the actual films I have not seen Rebels,
I have not read any X-Wing novels from the 80s. Please be chill kids. okay so people like Okay...So... [Star Wars theme] People like Star Wars yeah? I think that's a pretty safe statement to make. I mean in the wake of the absolutely BUGNUTS BATSHIT
reactions 'The Last Jedi' I think it's safe to say that people are pretty
passionate about Star Wars If Disney has their way we're gonna have
Star Wars until we die. Whether you want an edgy trilogy written by the dudes who
wrote this iconic scene: Or not. Now everybody has their own opinion on
what's the best Star Wars movie. A lot of die-hard fans from back in the day will
say it was 'Empire Strikes Back' while a lot of people my age discovered Star
Wars with the prequels and stan....I don't know 'Attack of the Clones,' which is A
Choice. [Anakin] "I don't like sand. Its course rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." "Not like here. Here everything is soft and
smooth." But whatever now a whole new generation
of kids are discovering Star Wars with the new movies and I bet a lot of kids
really love 'Force Awakens.' As for me? Well... Strap in kids, and get ready to get blown
up by a disco ball, because today we're talking about my favorite Star Wars
movie 'Rogue One.' So I did start the conversation by talking about the And now you might be asking I mean the best in terms of structure and storytelling is probably 'A
New Hope' or something. I don't know, but I do know that 'Rogue One' might be my favorite of the bunch. And I have a lot of reasons for that. A lot of them, extremely
personal. A lot of them are like... [Rogue One theme crescendos] [Rogue One theme crescendos]
[Lightsaber sounds] Yeah. So let's start with the basics: This movie
was directed by Gareth Edwards and was yet another Star War that the team
thew at a mildly inexperienced white guy with one beloved indie film, and one
mediocre big-budget film under his belt. The other obvious example being Colin
Trevorrow who was removed from episode 9, because well... [Of Monsters and Men's 'Thousand Eyes' plays]
[*This has not been confirmed its just a popular theory because this movie was very bad] And to a lesser degree, Rian
Johnson would also fall into this category. Although he had at least
directed three films of increasing budget prior to 'The Last Jedi.' I'm not
going to get into whatever the fuck Disney is doing with Star Wars these
days? Mostly because I don't know if Disney knows what the fuck they're doing
with Star Wars these days? I only bring it up because on top of Colin Trevorrow
being removed from episode 9, and Lord and Miller being removed from 'Solo'
midway through filming, Gareth Edwards was largely absent from this film's
reshoots because it would seem that either Disney or Kathleen Kennedy liked
the idea of hiring artistic indie directors for big-budget movies and then
got freaked out by their vision for the piece or their inexperience or maybe
both? [Miguel] "Both?"
[Tulio] "Both." [Miguel & Tulio] "Both."
[Miguel] "Both is good." We have no idea what episode 9 was looking like before Treverrow was removed
from the film, but pieces of Lord and Miller's work on 'Solo' remain in the
final film, alongside the work Ron Howard did after them, which makes for a
slightly bewildering film honestly? Now on 'Rogue One' Gareth Edwards directed a script written by Chris Weitz with story ideas from John Knoll and Gary Whitta. I can tell you I've seen good movies with
[*Children of Men had 6 screenwriting credits] even more screenwriters,
[*Toy story had 8] so it's unfair to call this a situation of too many cooks. But here's what we can say for
sure: Gareth Edwards directed the well-received indie film 'Monster' in 2010
[*Its Monsters. Plural. I called the movie Monster. Thats a different movie with Charlize Theron] and then the slightly bland 2014 Godzilla before he was hired on to
direct the first Star Wars spin-off movie in May of 2014. The movie went into
production sometime in 2015, and then in May 2016, reshoots were ordered by Disney
with Tony Gilroy coming in to oversee them. He's given a screenplay credit for
his efforts. And well? Reshoots are not automatically
[*Back to the Future went through reshoots when Marty McFly was recast as Michael J. Fox 4 weeks into production] a bad thing. Sometimes movies need
[*Spielburg reshot chunks of Jaws because the Shark animatronic looked bad and the shark was scarier the less audiences saw it.] reshoots. It's fine and normal.
[*A New Hope went through massive changes and reshoots after the initial cut of the film was poorly recieved] But it's fair to say this movie...
changed somewhat with those reshoots and nobody can seem to agree how much. Gareth Edwards called the process of making a Star Wars film: And Tony Gilroy described the state of the film when he was brought in for reshoots as: Consequently Tony Gilroy is largely absent from the behind the scenes
materials on the DVD, and the reshoots go mostly unmentioned. We do know that there
was a very um .... Pre-viz storyboarding process. Editor Colin Goudie said: In fairness it's not
totally unheard of to shoot without a script. Everybody's favorite movie 'Mad Max: Fury Road' was shot without one. Although it
does worry me that any director would use such a method for pre-viz, because I
can't imagine that it lends itself well to original visuals, or organic dialogue,
but that's neither here nor there. In the same interview with the editors they
said that there was always a plan to shoot pickups. Then in May it was
announced that Disney wanted reshoots... And apparently that
necessitated a lot of changes. We know that a lot of the third act changed in
those reshoots. Locations of certain scenes changed, characters were moved
around. The biggest indication of all those changes comes from...that first
teaser trailer. So I have to talk about this trailer for a minute because...well
first off, because it's a phenomenal trailer. Like oooh when those Klaxons start
going? [Klaxon alarms & Dramatic music] Mwah, chef's kiss, that shit is perfection. But also while I don't want to spend this entire video bemoaning what this
movie could have been, I do find it interesting to discuss the movie's
somewhat troubled production and the movie this might have been at one point.
I don't know that it would have been a better movie, but it would have been a
different one. So the trailer begins with this quiet voiceover introducing Jyn. In
earlier versions of the script Jyn was actually a sergeant in the Rebellion and
not a criminal, so there's this line: [Jyn] "This is a rebellion isn't it? I rebel." Then we get some dramatic music and the premise of the movie. [Mon Mothma] "A major weapons test is imminent.
[Draven] "Is that clear?" [Jyn] "Yes sir." Then we get to the klaxon alarms and a lot of really cool shots like this one, or this one And we hear Forest Whittaker asking: [Saw Garrera] "what will you do if they catch you?"
[Klaxon alarms] "What will you do if they break you?"
[Klaxon alarms] [Lasers firing & explosions]
[Klaxon alarms] "If you continue to fight..."
[Klaxon alarms] [Music crescendos and the alarms stop] "What will you become?" Also there's a really neat
little parallel with the first shot we see of Jyn, and this one? Damn that's a
fine trailer. I want to shake the hand of whoever made it. And so we know that in
one version of the movie we got bald Forest Whittaker, Jyn being part of the
rebellion, the whole gang running around on the beach in the final act, and then?
Reshoots happened. There are more rumors about what was and wasn't in it the first version of this movie, but that's when we start getting into And rumors and I'm trying not to get into tin hat territory here. also I'm shipper trash so I'll always be sad that they cut this line that was in
the theatrical trailer: [Jyn] "Are you with me?" [Dramatic music] [Music stops] [Cassian] "All the way." So now let's talk about...the actual movie. So 'Rogue One' takes place between 'Revenge of the Sith' and 'A New
Hope.' It follows anti-heroin Jyn Erso as she and a mismatched band of
compatriots steal the Death Star plans and...Die. But we'll get to that in a
minute. First let's meet the cast. At the top there's Jyn Erso played by Felicity
Jones she's a hardened criminal who's been
living by the skin of her teeth since she was a child. It takes this misfit
band, and a few long-held truths, to help her find a cause to fight for. Then we
have Cassian Andor played by Diego Luna he's a spy for The Rebellion and one
of my favorite characters because he's loyal to a cause that he thinks is just,
and that means he might shoot an innocent man in the back if that will
serve the greater good. But it doesn't mean he likes it. Cassian's getting his
own TV show soon, on the new Disney streaming service, and it's going to be
interesting to see what they do with it. I love Diego Luna in this role and I
love the complexity of this character. [Cassian] "I've been in this fight since I was 6 years old." We only got a few moments in the film that really brought it to the surface, but I hope the show explores more of the moral greys that Cassian has
been living in all of his life. Also I really love Diego Luna and his fetish
for Jabba the Hutt? [Diego Luna] "And the texture. I'm very curious to actually touch that texture." Let Diego Luna touch Jabba the Hutt please? Then we have Cassian's droid K-2SO played by Alan Tudyk I'm pretty sure K-2 is
everybody's favorite character? I sure do love this cranky droid. I don't have much else to add other than Alan Tudyk had to play him wearing a unitard and stilts so... [Diego] "Yeah, you were eye level with his...balls, basically."
[Audience laughter] Yeah. Then there's Bodhi Rook played by Riz Ahmed. We're gonna talk about Bodhi more
later, since I believe his character had a lot of underutilized potential, but I
still love him and Riz Ahmed is great. [Riz Ahmed] "'Does Riz Ahmed drink alcohol!?' That sounds like that's m--what my mum's been googling." "That's so depressing, why don't I have fans? Why's it just my family googling me to find out how religiously observant I am." there's Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus
played by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen respectively. They are the Guardians of the Whills Monks from this temple that gets blown
to hell along with the rest of Jedha They're badass, and probably married, [Chirrut] "I'm gonna follow Jyn!."
[Baze] "Alone? Good luck!." [Chirrut] "I don't need luck. I have you!" And I love them very much. Also Jiang Wen doesn't speak a lot of English, So please watch him trying to explain his character and not spoil anything about the film at this panel. [Jiang Wen] "Baze...has a...gun. He has a gun? He has a huge gun...Is that right?" [Audience laughter] Oh bless. There's Jyn's dad Galen Erso
played by Mads Mikkelsen. There's Saw Gerrera played by Forest
Whittaker and lastly we have Orson Krennic, the villain played by Ben
Mendelsohn. Apparently Ben Mendelsohn is exclusively playing lisping
middle-management villains these days, which is wild, but he's very good at it. I
mean we also have terrifying video game cutscene versions of Carrie Fisher and
Peter Cushing and they should have just let Guy Henry play Tarkin, but let's not
worry about them just yet. So the movie begins like this. [Abrupt opening musical note] This was the first Star Wars to be released independently of the main saga
and the film announces itself as such right away. Composer Michael Giacchino
was brought in when the reshoots forced composer Alexandre Desplat to drop out
of the film, and he had four weeks to compose a score, and I love Giacchino's
work on Star Trek and he's a super talented composer, who really loves punny
track titles like 'Enterprising Young Men' or Just go onto YouTuber Sideways' video on the score for 'Rogue One?' It's
cool...I'll wait So anyway the movie begins like this:
[Abrupt opening musical note] And were introduced to
this adorable little baby girl. This is Jyn Erso, and her life is about to get
torn to shreds. Her father Galen left the Empire and his
work behind, but the Empire comes looking for them in the form of Krennic and his
death troopers. They try to escape but in the end all they can do is hide Jyn and
face them. Her mother is killed and her father is
taken. But before she died, Jyn's mother Lyra sent a message to an old friend
named Saw Gerrera. He's the one who comes and rescues Jyn from their home planet
of Lahmu. Flash forward about 15 years and Jyn is in an imperial prison on Wobani. And I'm just going to say here and now that one of my issues with the
structure of this movie is just how many planets we hop between in the first like
30 minutes. Maybe a die-hard fan knows the importance of the Rings of Kefrene,
but I sure don't, and it feels a little dislocating and unnecessary? We jump from Lahmu to Wobani to the Rings of Kefrene to Jedha to Yavin IV. it's kind of a
lot. But anyway on Wobani, The Rebellion breaks Jyn Erso out of a labor camp. She's not really into that? But she's forced to come along. [K-2SO] "Congratulations, you are being rescued." On the Rings of Kefrene Cassian and or meets a man who has information about how the Empire is building a weapon and some pilot
defected to Jedha with more information. Cassian kills that guy so they both
don't get caught by storm troopers. On Jedha, Bodhi Rook tries to deliver a
message from Galen Erso. [Bodhi] "He told me to find you." It does not go well. On Yavin IV, Jyn agrees to help the Rebellion meet with Saw Gerrera and find her father in
exchange for her freedom. Unbeknownst to her, Cassian has been given orders to
shoot her father on sight. So Cassian, Jyn, and K-2SO go to Jedha. [K-2SO] "Why does she get a blaster and I don't?" [Jyn] "Trust goes both ways." [K-2SO] "Would you like to know the probability of her using it against you? It's very high. There they end up in the middle of a firefight between Gerrera's rebels and The Imperials occupying the city. The fight has a lot of cool moments, but our
big takeaways are that Jyn kicks ass and Cassian might be getting attached. [Cassian] "Get out of there!" Also this bit was improvised by Alan Tudyk. and Diego Luna nearly breaks during the
scene and it's hilarious. [K-2SO] "And there's a fresh one if you mouth off again." From there they meet these two. [K-2SO] "One hostile!'
[Jyn] "He's with us." [Chirrut] "They're alright." And then the four of them get taken to Saw's base. [Chirrut] "Are you kidding me I'm blind!" There they meet Bodhi who is in slightly bad shape. [Bodhi] "I'm the pilot." And Jyn finally receives her father's message she learns that he built the Empire's new weapon and there's a flaw built in. One that can destroy it. Then
the Death Star blows up Jedha, and Jyn Cassian, Bodhi, K-2, Chirrut, and Baze
all just barely escape with their lives. They head to Eadu, where her father
is. It goes bad. The Rebellion shows up and blows the place to hell, killing Jyn's father. They all fight. Go back Yavin IV and Jyn tries to convince the Rebellion to go along with her father's plot to get the Death Star plan so they
can blow it up. [Jyn] "The time to fight is now!" And...they say no. Behind their back, Cassian gets a ragtag band together to do the thing, because he knows it's the right thing to do. [Jyn] "I'm not used to people sticking around when things go bad." [Cassian] "Welcome home." And then they go get the plans from Scariff and... [Grenade clattering] Yeah let's save that part
for later. So 'Rogue One' introduces a lot of characters.
In fairness the original Star Wars introduces us to at least as many within
the first 40 minutes. My issue is mainly in the development of these characters
and the structure of the story. So let's take a minute to talk story structure. If you've taken a high school literature class you've probably heard something
about the narrative arc or seen some version of this little line guy right
here. Now not every story needs this structure, but your standard action movie
popcorn fare does work better using it. Most stories can be traced along this
line with the exception of some more experimental novels or films. I mean in
the case of Star Wars, we could get really in depth with the 'Hero's Journey'
and Joseph Campbell, but let's keep it simple and look at a basic narrative arc.
and for our example. let's look at 'A New Hope' So right here's our Exposition. The
scene setting of the movie that sets up the world and the characters. In 'A New Hope'a this comes after an in media res prologue with Princess Leia and some
bits with the droids. We don't get to the Exposition stuff until we meet our
protagonist Luke Skywalker at around the 17-minute mark. Then for our narrative
arc we have the Inciting Incident. That's the event that makes the story really
start. In 'A New Hope' that's meeting Obi-Wan Kenobi and the death of Uncle
Owen and Aunt Beru. From there, we get the Rising Action which is basically a
series of events or incidents of increasing difficulty and tension for
our hero. For Luke, that's all the stuff from the bar in Mos Eisley, to rescuing
Princess Leia, to the death of Obi-Wan and escaping the Death Star. All of that
leads us to the Climax, the final turning point of the story, i.e. Luke using the
Force to blow up the Death Star. From there, it's the Falling Action or Denouement which is the resolution of the story and, the medals ceremony, and so on. That's a
basic narrative structure. Or to put it in even simpler terms. Stories need a
beginning, middle, and end. And not only does a story need that arc? So do the
characters. You can develop characters with flashbacks, or dialogue, or whatever,
but it should be in service of a clear arc for that character. One with...a
beginning, middle, and end! The only character in 'Rogue One' with an arc
that's even close is Cassian Andor... Not Jyn Erso. So let's
talk about Jyn Erso. We're introduced to her as an adult in prison. She doesn't do
or say much, although she doesn't seem to be happy with her present circumstances.
Then she gets freed/captured by the Rebellion, and she expresses a similar antipathy towards them, and we learn she doesn't care for any cause. [Jyn] "I've never had the luxury of political opinions." And she only agrees to help them in exchange
for her freedom. That is her Inciting Incident. On Jedha, we see that she's resourceful and quick in a fight and also prone to sympathy. At least for kids.
But she is adamantly against fighting for a cause. [Saw] "You can stand to see the Imperial flag reign across the galaxy." [Jyn] "It's not a problem if you don't look up." Then she gets to view the message from her father and she goes directly from a survivalist apathy, to desperately wanting to carry
out his mission. [Jyn] "They call it the Death Star. But they have no idea. There's a way to defeat it." She also wants to rescue her dad and when that fails she goes even harder on
the heroics. To say the shift is abrupt would be a bit of an understatement. I think that rescuing her dad energy was supposed to be the middle point, but it
doesn't quite sell. In one scene we basically go from this: [Jyn] "It's not a problem if you don't look up." To this: [Jyn] "We need to send word to the Alliance. They have to know. There's a way to destroy this thing." 'They have to go to Scariff to get the plans." It's all part of the rising action, but this turn happens so suddenly, it feels like a climax for her character.
Which isn't great since we're not even halfway through the film. It evens out by
the end, because once she has that final goal? Carrying out her father's mission
it drives the whole end of the film... Which is...you know. Yeah. Meanwhile, Cassian Andor gets probably the clearest development of any of the characters? We get a really dynamic, layered introduction with this moment: [Cassian] "We'll be alright." [Laser blast] We see him at the Rebel Base questioning Jyn, and then getting the order to kill her
father. And also we can tell that K-2 is probably the closest thing he has to any kind of friend or companion. They bicker with the familiarity that speaks to a lot of years together. [K-2SO] "Well now there's a 35% chance."
[Cassian] "I don't want to know. Thank you." [K-2SO] "I understand." The three of them go off to Jedha, and he's mostly just in fix-it mode here, trying to keep Jyn from getting killed and getting them all out of danger. Although we already see flashes of his central conflict with him going against orders or endangering
his mission just to keep Jyn safe. That guy he shot there was one of Saw's men, and the reason they end up getting taken captive later. In Saw's base, his first thought once the place starts coming down is to get Jyn. It's easy to interpret some of this as protecting an asset for the mission, but clearly it's more than that. His big growth moment comes on Eadu, when he disobeys orders and let's Galen
live, and then even more so with this scene. [Cassian] "I've been in this fight since I
was six years old!" We learn a lot about Cassian in this scene. Just from the performance of Diego Luna, and a few sparse lines, but it's enough to give a real sense of character, as he tries to justify his actions, and the actions of his people. [Cassian] "I had orders. Orders that I disobeyed." Some of them are justifiable. And some aren't. And he knows that. [Cassian] "You're not the only one who lost everything. Some of us just decided to do something about it." And then back on the rebel base while Jyn preaches to a room about the rebellion she just joined, Cassian gathers a ragtag team together
to help carry out the mission. [Cassian] "I'd like to volunteer. We've all done terrible things on behalf of the Rebellion." "And every time I walked away from something I wanted to forget," "I told myself it was for a cause that I believed in." The difference between Jyn and Cassian's development is that there is a middle point. For Cassian, we get a beginning on the Rings of Kefrene that really establishes the
character and his devotion to his cause. Then across Jedha and Eadu, we see
stages of him disobeying orders and endangering their mission to protect Jyn,
or to ease his own conscience. Right up to the point where he tries to ignore or excuse the rebellion murdering Jyn's father. You could easily put his arc on
one of those storylines you see with little arrows pointing to the Rising
Action, Climax, and Resolution. His arc resolves when he chooses to rebel
against his own cause to do what's right. his whole arc has a clear beginning,
middle, and end. Jyn's Arc is that she's
apathetic about the world and then her dad died and she isn't. If there had been
one scene of her doubting herself, doubting her father, or something after
receiving her father's message, this could have been fixed. But now it's
abrupt in a way that feels rough and unfinished. Then we get to Bodhi Rook. So I don't know if you've noticed, but Star Wars does love a trio, and Bodhi is the final, major piece of what I think was intended to be this film's trio. He's also one of the biggest examples of potential and missed opportunity in the film. Because Bodhi's the reason this movie even happens. His defecting from the Empire with the message from Galen is what makes the whole movie go. So let's look at Bodhi's development then. Before the movie begins, he befriends Jyn's father Galen Erso, and defects from the Empire with a
message for Saw Gerrera. A cool start for the character, except we are shown none of this, and are only told it in a few lines midway through the film. [Bodhi] "Your father...he said I could get it right by myself." What we know at the start is that he defected, [Tivik] "An imperial pilot...He defected yesterday." And then he's taken by Saw Gerrera's men and subjected to I hate Bor Gullet you guys. It gives me traumatic hentai flashbacks. But if it was just weird that wouldn't be a
crime. No. The crime is that we are told this thing will drive a man mad. [Saw] "...The unfortunate side effect is that one tends to lose one's mind." But when we see Bodhi again he seems maybe a little off? [Bodhi] "I'm the pilot." By the end of this scene he's
fine. He stutters a lot, but like...he's fine. [Bodhi] "We have the plans! They found the Death Star plans, "they have to transmit them from their communications tower." And based on his behavior in this scene [Bodhi] "Uh-uh-uh...that's for you. G-Galen Erso? He told me to find you." I think Bodhi's just an anxious person so what did this do to him that like.... Regular torture wouldn't have achieved? I'm not advocating for showing graphic torture in a Star War, but if the idea was for them to find Bodhi roughed up and scared
in a cell...What does this scene add? Why couldn't we have just had this scene here: [Bodhi] "He told me to find you!" And then found him here. We could have extrapolated he'd been through something bad, and not been subjected to the worst scene ever that ends up not mattering. Often, when I've shown 'Rogue One' to a few friends, I just apologize for this scene. Because it's weird, and uncomfortable, and irrelevant. But after
we get the weird tentacle bullshit Bodhi's yanked from his cell by Cassian and the gang right as Jedha is being blown up. Did you know Jedha is Bodhi's home planet?
There's a blink and you miss it line establishing that. [Saw] "Bodhi...Rook..." We don't really get much of a moment to say how Bodhi feels about the destruction of his home planet, beyond this look right here, when Baze and Chirrut are talking about it: [Chirrut] "The whole city?"
[Baze] "All of it." These three share a home planet that just got destroyed and this movie kind of blows past that after these few lines. We know from the novelization that
he had a mother living on Jedha and maybe other family as well? We know from
the film, that it was an Imperial occupied planet and Bodhi ended up
working for the people that occupied his home and fills it with a volatile
soldiers, while siphoning its resources. The movie does nothing with any of that,
and after Jedha, Bodhi is mostly along for the ride. Joining the gang as they
head to the final confrontation on Scariff. He gets to drop the title of the movie: [Bodhi] "Rogue One." And then die apart from all the other characters who never noticed he died, in spite of the fact that everybody was communicating over those walkie talkies during the entire finale. And it would have been really easy to have Jyn and Cassian and try to check in, get radio silence, and exchange ominous sad looks. This is what I mean about missed potential. This movie is loaded with
these kinds of structural issues that were maybe addressed in the original
version of the film or maybe they were never thought of at all.
Certain characters changed so much, It's hard to say how much their growth is
just a victim of script changes that weren't thought out enough during the
rush of reshoots. And when I say structure? I mean like...We
spend so much of this movie racing from one set piece to the next and we didn't
need to. Saw Gerrera's character either needed more
screen time or less. I know the character's from one of the cartoons, but
his appearance in the film is so odd. It's given such a weight, with strange
allusions to Darth Vader for some reason. And then after two or three scenes? He dies.
We know he raised Jyn, but we never see any of that. We never see him abandoning her when she was around sixteen or so. We're told most of this in a few scattered lines. [Saw] "I was protecting you."
[Jyn] "You dumped me!" But that's it. And then he dies with these inspirational
words: [Saw] "Save the Rebellion! Save the dream." Which...again would have had more meaning if we knew the character better And then after seeing Galen's message on Jedha? Eadu mostly feels like a repeat of some of the same story beats for Jyn. She cries over her father and Cassian pulls her out of danger as the place they're in gets blown to shit. Run and reset. There's a lot of business on Eadu,
but it's so muddled it took me several viewings to realize...I think Bodhi and K-2
stole them all some kind of Imperial shuttle, off screen, while Jyn and her dad
were getting blown up. A lot of Cassian's development happens on Eadu, but this
section of the movie drags and it's so dark, it's honestly hard to see half of
it, and half the interesting bits happen off screen. Generally I would say Star
Wars movies often work on the strength of the relationships between the
characters, and while there is definitely chemistry with this cast, the movie never
has the time to let it breathe and blossom because it's so busy running to
the next big action moment. Bodhi Rook befriended Jyn's dad while working for the Empire and then he was tortured by her foster father. I think that merits more than a few lines of dialogue between these two. Can you imagine if an
actual brother-sister dynamic emerged, Just from Bodhi's time spent with Galen and
that Jyn never had? What about Chirrut and Baze? They've apparently been together
for quite some years, and they grow up in that monastery place that we never got a
look at, which had some religious value... At least for Chirrut, since Baze's faith seems to have lapsed. The most we get about all that is this line: [Chirrut] "Baze Malbus was the most devoted Guardian of us all." If the film had taken more time to build up these characters and their relationships, the tragedy of their inevitable demise
would have hit even harder beyond the shock value of characters dying in a
Star War. Honestly of the stuff we lost in the reshoots I mourn the team running and gunning across the beach together the most. Because it would have been a real moment to see them fighting together as a team. The finale does have them all working in sync for a common goal. But it separates them the moment they land on Scariff. We never get to see the gang on screen, physically working together. I wish Jyn and Cassian could have spent a
few more minutes here. And I don't know... Maybe lost a little of the business up
at the tower where Jyn spends 10 minutes getting shot at running to some other
console and pressing buttons to make a thing happen? Now all of that was me
really tearing this movie a new one. And I have a feeling some of you are
starting to wonder how or why I like this movie. So now let's talk about nostalgia. If you're wondering at this point whether or not I really like this movie? And if this video is some kind of elaborate prank? Well I do like this
movie. But there's some things I've got to address as fandoms continue to lap up
multi-million dollar corporations weaponizing nostalgia for profit.
The act of referencing something familiar for the cheap 'ah-ha' moment an
audience has when they recognize that thing is...well a fancy word for it is
intertextuality. And okay let's go for an easy example. [Jyn grunts] [Evazan] "Hey. You just watch yourself." [Cassian] "No, no. Sorry, sorry. We don't want any trouble. Sorry"
[Ponda Baba makes alien sounds] 'Hey look it's that guy!' All the audience says. A flash of recognition reminds you of a familiar thing that you hold dearly 'Oh wow cool! I remember this guy!' 'Obi-Wan chopped his arm off in 'A New
Hope!'' But don't think too hard about it kids, because what's he doing on Jedha? How does he get from here to Tatooine? I hope he's heading straight for his
shuttle now, otherwise I wonder how he didn't get blown up with the rest of
Jedha. There's nothing inherently wrong with having this guy here or having
C-3PO and R2D2 on Yavin IV. But it is just fanservice. One could argue this whole film is fanservice. Although I would disagree. I mean this
entire film was built to answer a silly question that fans of Star Wars have
been joking or complaining about for years. But it introduces new characters
and tells an entirely new story. One that slots in pretty neatly with what we
already knew, sure. But you could watch 'Rogue One' entirely on its own with no
knowledge of the other films and ostensibly you could still enjoy it. See
that's the difference. One type of intertextuality is basically going 'Hey
look a thing you recognize!' And the other is actually doing more by
taking some familiar bits and making something new. There's been a lot of people in fandom lately who like to argue I have had people try to tell me that 'Revenge of the Sith' is a good movie. It's not. It's a better movie than 'Attack of the Clones,' but that's a pretty low bar. and 'Revenge of the Sith' really only succeeds on the basis of this moment. [Air hissing] [High pitched air sucking sounds] [Darth Vader breathing] Because we've been waiting three movies to see Anakin become the familiar character we know,
and seeing it happen is satisfying. That doesn't make the rest of the movie good. [Darth Vader] "Nooooooooooooooo" In the age of remakes, reboots, prequels, midquels, and sequels, I find it amazing how often people are satisfied to have something they know regurgitated back at
them and call it a day. If you're going to make a sequel or a reboot why not do something different with the material? Something unexpected. Make Maleficent the hero of your story, or do a 'Ghostbusters' entirely about women. What's the point of
a new 'Beauty and the Beast' if it's not going to say something new? There were
minor changes of course. Some added backstory and apparently Le Fou is great
gay representation. But the story as a whole was still largely unchanged. The
central message of loving what's inside rather than the external is still the same, and the approach it takes to get there is largely the same. Compare that to, for instance, 2017's 'The Shape of Water.' A 'Beauty and the Beast' story that
goes to some different places to talk about not only loving what's inside a
person or a fish monster? But also the struggles of being an outcast. I'm not saying Disney needs to make a movie where Sally Hawkins fucks a fish
man. But I do think movie studios in general like to play it safe and that
often leads to tired, unoriginal cinema. In the case of 'Rogue One,' I feel that
many people like it simply because it answers an old question from the
original trilogy. Well it was an elaborate failsafe built in by its creators so the rebellion could destroy it. Cool. I feel that some people might like it
for all the Darth Vader and...this...I guess... I'm gonna be honest I don't think we
needed Tarkin in this movie. Or at least not this much. The uncanny valley is real,
and it's here, and I kind of wish he had one scene and then was gone. But I know
some fans were pleased to see him and pleased to see Vader making dad jokes
and kicking ass. Maybe they were happy to see 3PO and these guys. And that's nice. It's valid. But I would argue what makes 'Rogue One' great is the new stuff. This entirely new set of characters Who don't give a flying fuck about a
Skywalker, because they have their own completely new set of conflicts to work
through. While this movie does not change the status quo of Star Wars, it's still saying something new. It makes me think of a quote from Emily Wilson's 2018 translation of Homer's The Odyssey: That's what I want from Star Wars. An old story told for our modern
times. Now that I bagged on the movie for like
20 minutes and potentially swept aside your personal reasons for liking it, I'm
going to talk about the ending of this movie, and why I like it for my own, very
particular reasons. So, a ragtag band goes to Scariff to find the Death Star plans. Jyn gives this inspirational speech.
['Your Father Would Be Proud' by Michael Giacchino plays] [Jyn] "If we can make it to the ground, we'll take the next chance, and the next." "On and on, until we win? Or the chances are spent." And the plan goes into action. Jyn, Cassian, and K-2 infiltrate the base while the rest of their team
provides a distraction down below. Initially it all seems to be going well.
Until... [K-2SO] "They've locked down the base. They've closed the Shield Gate." [Jyn] "What does that mean? ..We're trapped?" Suddenly the mission goes from escaping with the plans? To just doing everything they can to transmit them. At this moment, these characters
know they may not survive. K-2 is the first to die. He's at a computer bay
getting Cassian and Jyn vital information, as they go into this tower
to find the drive with the plans in it. Jyn gave him a blaster before they split
up... [Jyn] "You wanted one right?" [K-2SO] "Your behavior Jyn Erso, is continually...unexpected." But it wasn't enough. Kay tells them, they'll need to climb to the top of the tower and then locks them in that room So the stormtroopers can't get to them. [Cassian] "Kay!" [K-2SO] "Goodbye."
[Cassian] "KAY!" [Metal clattering] [Electronic whirring slows than stops] And from there, characters we know and love start dropping one by one. They need to flip The Master Switch that's going to let them communicate with the ships outside
the Shield Gate and so Chirrut...Well... [Chirrut] "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me." "I am one with the Force and the Force is with me."
[Baze] "Chirrut! Come back!" [Explosion] After that Bodhi manages to reach the
fleet and tell them to take down the Shield Gate so they can receive the
plans when Jyn transmits them. [Admiral Raddus] "Stand by Rogue One. We're on it."
[Bodhi] "This is for you Galen." Moments later...A grenade gets thrown in there with him. [Grenade clattering & mechanism counting down] [Explosion] And Baze is still out there....Alone on the field with Chirrut This happens: [Baze] "The Force is with me. And I am one with the Force." And then this happens: [Baze] "The Force is with me. And I am one with the Force."
[Cocking his gun] [Blaster sounds] And Baze dies...Looking at Chirrut. Then it's just Cassian and Jyn who were left. They got the plans. [Jyn] "Stardust. That's it." [Cassian] "How do you know that?" [Jyn] "I know because its me." And as they begin to climb this tower... [Blaster sounds] [Cassian yells in pain] [The sound of his body hitting metal] [Jyn] "Cassian!" [Cassian landing on that platform] So in the end it's down to Jyn. She climbs the tower
and gets ready to transmit the plans. Then Krennic finds her and they face off. [Jyn] "I'm Jyn Erso, daughter of Galen and Lyra. You've lost." [Krennic] "You die with the Rebellion." And then Cassian appears at the last second and shoots him. Saving her life. I will say one less nitpick you guys... I really feel like there's a scene missing
here of Cassian and waking up on that platform in bad shape and deciding to
climb up after her. It would have helped sell him surviving this really ugly fall and magically appearing in the nick of time, But Anyways.... Cassian and Jyn transmit the plans. And there's this moment of... ...Breathless satisfaction as they watch
the readouts go. Because they did it. They won. [Cassian] "You think anybody's listening? at this point it's [Jyn] "I do." At this point it's clear...they're the only ones left. And so the pair of them limp down to the beach. [Cassian] "Your father would have been proud of you, Jyn." And they face their end...together. And I have to tell you viewers... I know 50 million people who apparently
entered this movie secure in the knowledge that Jyn Erso and all of her friends were gonna die because they weren't in the original trilogy, But here's the thing:
[Song crescendos and dies down] I didn't. The galaxy is a pretty goddamn
big place and I naively assumed, most if not all of them would make it out and go to some far corner of the universe at the end of this movie. When the Death Star appeared in the sky over Scariff, I shit you not, I was like: Because I just didn't think they would die.
['Jyn Erso & Hope Suite' by Michael Giacchino plays] Because it's Star Wars in a Disney movie and killing off characters for shock value can be cheap, but damn it all if this didn't
work on me! I think it's safe to say... It worked on a lot of people. I think 'Rogue One' wouldn't be quite as memorable as it is, if they had lived. I think I wouldn't
have felt the need to spend 300,000 words giving these characters a happier ending on AO3 if this movie had left them alive. The tragedy of this moment captured me completely in such a way where... I love it, and wanted to imagine more for these character than this franchise could provide. People of issues with this movie. And I do too.
but I love this moment so much. I love that Jyn and Cassian and have this sort of non romantic romance, where their relationship is one of the driving
forces of the movie, but in their final moments they don't kiss or anything? They
just hold each other close and brace for the end. And I love the expression on
Diego Luna's face in those final seconds before the screen whites out. I don't
even know what to say about it. I'm not sure what the emotion is there, but that
little widening of the eyes really guts me. Funnily enough in early drafts of the
screenplay, not everybody died. I guess because
Gareth Edwards wasn't confident that he would be allowed to go to such a dark
place for his Star Wars film, but he was given the go-ahead and so we all got to
sit back and watch this happen. And on that note, let's take a
minute to talk about headcanons. So there's a phenomenon that happens
when fans of the things spend, probably more time thinking about stuff than the
writers do. Not because the writers are lazy, but fans can be a little obsessive.
I myself tend to hyperfixate on fiction sometimes. Because real life can be a
stressful drag and sometimes a story really captures my imagination to the
tune of 300,000 words. And while some of us might know the term headcanon? Let me break it down in case you're new. So the term 'canon' can be defined as the
following: So for example:
Canon would be the story of Exodus as it appears in most religious texts. And a
headcanon might be that...Moses was really close with his brother Rameses and was
kind of sad about what happened to him. Like in 'The Prince of Egypt.' In fiction Canon
is the accepted baseline. What's made officially by the creators released in
theaters or on TV or published in a book is canon. 'The Lord of the Rings' books are
canon for that fandom. So is 'Harry Potter' and... [Sigh] 'Fantastic Beasts & The Crimes of Grindelwald.' Headcanon is stuff that fans make up. Like what if Spock and Kirk are actually secretly or not so secretly space boyfriends? What
if Legolas was really into hair care products?
what if Professor McGonagall was just wanting a nap for seven books, but was
instead forced to deal with a bunch of idiot Gryffindor's? What if the fox in
'Fleabag' was a metaphor for the priests emotional baggage?
These are headcanons. Since they aren't 'strictly' supported by the text, but are
instead of fans interpretation of said text. And those headcanons can inform how
they view the final product. Sometimes it's just fun extra stuff like
relationships you want to happen, or a moment you wish to see,
[Those who know me IRL have heard me rant about wanting a Draco Redemption arc] or some extra thematic meaning. But headcanons are not text It can augment the text for a
particular viewer or reader, but they aren't a part of the actual canon
because otherwise everybody watching Star Trek would walk away knowing that
Spock and Kirk are boyfriends and what type of condition are Legolas uses. These
are the things that writers didn't work into the text. It's what we choose to add to the text. In the case of 'Rogue One,' some of the
character development was lacking sure, but after reading the novelizations, and
one or two of the comics, and thinking Way More about these characters and the
writers probably intended, I have enough headcanons to fill in all the gaps and
issues in the story and the character development. I can talk at length about the familial relationship between Jyn and Bodhi, or what K-2SO thinks of Baze, because I spent a lot of time with these
characters and consequently built up a lot of affection for them. Literally all
I have to do is look at a clip from the movie, or see one of the actors, and I
start smiling like an idiot, or just going 'aww' in front of my computer when I
see some fanart of the characters. Because I have a whole other movie in my
head that complements this one, and makes it a better movie for me as a viewer. The
trick is I don't think some people realize that what they've done is
extrapolated from what's on screen to make better movies in their heads. Your
interpretations are totally valid, but they aren't there on screen for everyone
to see. Sometimes the film doesn't do the work needed to make a perfectly cohesive
thing, but something in it captures us enough that we do the work ourselves, and
do it happily. But then after all of that some people
still claim the actual movie as it stands is the bestest greatest thing
ever. There's a very important distinction when it comes to viewing film critically that I'm not sure everybody has quite got the hang of.
Sometimes there's a difference between a good movie and a movie we like. And
sometimes there's a difference between a bad movie and a movie we dislike. For
instance '2001: A Space Odyssey' is considered a classic full of
unparalleled cinematic genius. I hated watching it though. Or for another
example I really like the fourth 'Die Hard.' You know, the one with Justin
Long? It's a dumb movie where Bruce Willis has ascended to Terminator status
and Justin Long reacts like a normal person to the insanity around him and
gets told to shut up a lot. I love this movie to pieces. It's very stupid. And
while I don't think 'Rogue One' is a dumb or bad movie by any stretch, It's
probably not the best of the new films either. I think realistically it is...an
okay movie. Maybe even a pretty good one at points.
An okay pretty-good movie that I love to the tune of 300,000 words! So now let's talk about the ending So after all of that this movie is
almost done but not quite. See, we've still got the connective tissue that
leads into 'A New Hope,' and one of The Most Stressful Scenes in Cinematic
History. So Jyn and Cassian die and the plans have been uploaded to one of the
ships in orbit around Scariff. And we see a couple of soldiers on this ship
pull out the drive that contains the plans... And then Darth Vader boards the ship I think some people like this scene because Darth Vader does a very cool
punch-em-up, but for me this scene is literally the most stressful thing. It
still gets me when I rewatch it, and let me tell you why. We just watched a whole
lot of people we liked die for this little drive clutched in the hands of
some nobody, we don't know in a room full of people we don't know. We don't know
this guy's name, or that guy, but we watch all of them accept, much in the way that
everyone down on the planet just did, that in this moment it's about more than
just their lives. This drive contains the information which will save the
Rebellion! And as Darth Vader savagely murders these people one by one it
passes from hand to hand, which leads to this guy just shoving his arm through
the door, and pushing the drive into this guy's hands, moments before being killed
because it's all he could do and just like.... God.... I remember watching the scene
in the theater and just muttering to myself like 'Nope, nope, nope. Get out, get out, get
out, get out, get out.' Finally, the last guy manages to get away and back to his ship which escapes Darth Vader's clutches and the brilliance of this scene isn't the cool fight choreography. It's the fact that even if we know how
this story ends, the tension here is undeniable. Honestly a big part of what I
love about 'Rogue One' is how much it got me to care about what happens when we
all know how this story ends. It's not about the destination with this movie,
it's just about the journey. Although this scene does make the beginning of 'A new Hope' unintentionally hilarious, because when Leia says: [Leia] "I don't know what you're talking about." "I'm a member of the Imperial Senate on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan." Just like.... Can you imagine having the balls to look some guy in the eye after he saw Your Ship flying away from the scene of the crime, and go: [Leia] "I don't know what you're talking about." Man I love Leia. But either way, this guy hands the drive to Leia and we get this final exchange: [Soldier] "What is it they've sent us?" [Leia] "Hope." And credits. And that's where the movie's real thesis comes into sharp focus. At least for me. We saw already that the movie disagrees with Jyn's earlier stance of passive survival. [Jyn] "It's not a problem if you don't look up." [Cassian] "We don't all have the luxury of deciding when and where we want to care about something." The idea of ignoring the wrongs of society because it's easy is something this film actively fights against. And we see that with the growth of Jyn's character from passive survivor to ardent freedom fighter. There's a quote from Martin Luther King that I think of sometimes when I think of that growth: It's a damning sentiment, but not an
untrue one. Jyn accepted the world she lived in and didn't fight it because she
had the option not to. There's also this other quote which um....according to Snopes
has been misattributed to Martin Luther King and is most likely just a paraphrased statement from a speech he made in Selma on March 8th, 1965, after Bloody Sunday. Anyways...the quote is: And I think that is the truest of all for Jyn
and for all the characters in 'Rogue One.' I think before the film began they were
surviving, but they certainly weren't living. Either from within the Empire, or
the Rebellion, or from the outside looking in, all of them are keeping
silent or turning a blind eye to something that mattered in order to
survive, and I think it was killing them. And I'll just remind everybody that
'Rogue One' was released in December of 2016. They definitely didn't know while they
were making it how relevant some of the ideas would be. But the idea of fighting
against an unjust system, because doing otherwise would be an evil, and...I don't
think I need to spell it out further. [Jyn] "Rebellions are built on hope." This film has a kind of radical optimism that just...really gets to me. [Jyn] "We'll take the next chance, and the next." "On and on, until we win? Or the chances are spent." Because it's possible to do good even if you won't reap the benefits of it. The idea of doing what's right, simply because it's right is a powerful message. Jyn, Cassian, Bodhi, Chirrut, Baze and K-2SO fight to the death for a just cause, knowing they won't see the end result. They won't see the Death Star destroyed and a victorious Rebellion. They do it for each other and for the future they won't live to see. [Soldier] "What is it they've sent us?" [Leia] "Hope." And I'm not saying we all need to go out and become martyrs,
[Seriously I cannot stress enough, please be safe with your activism. Its one thing for fiction characters to go out like martyrs and another when real people do.] but we can all take good in the world without the expectation of getting something back. Go volunteer for a good cause, donate to a charity, or vote in your local and national elections. Because apathy can be an evil in its own right, and doing good...for its own sake... Can be an act of rebellion. Also that fanfic was 300,000 words
of inserting the 'Rogue One' crew into the original trilogy, because I was sad and
wanted more of Jyn and Cassian and hugging and stuff. Hey kids, I bet some of you didn't come
here for politics, and I might get some comments from people that start with
'actually if you read this book, or comic, etc' I know it's going to happen. It's
okay, go off kids, it's fine. Also um there's suddenly a lot more of
you now? Hello everybody I have loved reading your comments about
'Fleabag' and...um...seriously it's wild how many people are subscribed to this
channel now. Meanwhile I'm making these videos on a computer that's six years old
and likes to freeze up every ten minutes. Sorry for the typos on the 'Fleabag'
video. now if I can get all the assets together I really want to do a video on
'M*A*S*H*' or 'The Haunting of Hill House' or 'Take Shelter' so...we'll see what comes
of that. maybe I'll get distracted by something
else? Whatever the case may be, thanks for watching and see you on the
next one.
It had its issues. But I really liked Rogue One. I feel like it was the dark precursor we needed to get the Mandalorian
It is not flawed. Arguably the 2nd best SW film after ESB
I think R1 is slowly being recognized as the new ESB ... finally.
If it’s flawed, how is it a masterpiece?