In Rogue One, Rebel spirit and corporate control collided to make Disney’s best Star Wars.

I haven’t seen every Star Wars film, but I did like Rogue One quite a lot. It had spirit and the stakes seemed real. I also enjoyed how it leaned into the 1970s aesthetic, giving it the air of something that was a 1970s retelling (with better sfx) of something that had happened somewhere once upon a time.

Rather than spending time with the prospective Jedi knights of the Skywalker clan, Rogue One would tell a war story about the expendable soldiers who died to make Luke’s triumph possible in the first place. That fucking rules. That’s hard to mess up.

It was not a perfect movie, but it’s just so alive and breathing, unlike most of the Star Wars franchise. Felicity Jones, who is truly excellent in the film, creates a person who seems real and damaged and righteous in Jyn Erso, which is of course also unusual for the series. Another contrast: situations and environments feel dirty and grubby and dangerous in this movie in a way they do not in other franchise entries. That’s because the movie was shot on location, mostly, and not on soundstages and many of the effects are practical rather than CGI.

When AT-AT walkers stomp into the frame during the climactic battle of Rogue One, they finally make sense as weapons. They are theatrical monsters, forces of intimidation, things that should not be.

Yeah, that’s it exactly. And that was a great scene, and one of the few in any relatively-recent movie that made me say “whoa.” It’s the same reason countries roll main battle tanks through cities. The AT-ATs make perfect sense used that way, as terror weapons. (By the by, main battle tanks are poor as actual weapons when used in urban areas. They are quite easy to trap and destroy there.)

And, of course (huge spoiler alert!) how often is it that in a big Hollywood movie every single main character dies at the end?

Recommended. I will probably watch it again, which is rare for me.