★★★★☆
This Christmas, the unstoppable force of Star Wars is with us again, in its eighth iteration — the spin-off-prequel-sequel Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In contrast to some of the flab and tosh in the series’ intergalactic back catalogue, the new movie proves to be a gripping adventure with a quality international cast that increases believability in some of the dafter scenes.
Two performances stand out: the first is Felicity Jones in the lead as the maverick Rebel Alliance fighter Jyn Erso, and the second is the new droid, K-2SO, a dry, mildly resentful, patrician robot in the habit of blurting out exactly what’s on his circuits. Played via motion capture by the laconically voiced Alan Tudyk and towering like a 7ft stick man over the rest of the cast, the rebel-owned Imperial enforcer droid provides most of the laughs on this portentous voyage.
The plot of Rogue One is fleshed out from the yellow-lettered crawl in the original 1977 movie: “Rebel spaceships . . . have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star.” So with the spoilers on screen long ago, the interest lies in precisely how the motley Rogue One squad gather to steal the plans and in watching Jyn grow in stature from disillusioned prisoner to rebel leader against her expectations. Jones handles the action with aplomb. There is no lolling about in a Carrie Fisher gold bikini, but a bad hair day, hand-to-hand combat, blaster battles and perilous leaps into the unknown.
While Rogue One does not have the grandeur or nostalgic impact of The Force Awakens, it does have the usual daddy issues that plague the series’ protagonists. The story opens on an isolated volcanic beach with Jyn as a little girl with plaits and a Stormtrooper dolly, watching in horror as her scientist father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), is captured by the Galactic Empire’s latest lunatic military man — weapons director Orson Krennic (a sweaty, manic, sibilant Ben Mendelsohn). The Empire is keen to force Erso to finish his splendid scientific work on the Death Star (cue the John Williams theme tune).
Jyn is subsequently raised by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), an insurgent in such a state of postwar decay that he has steel legs and a creepy oxygen mask. (There is a scene at his HQ with a tentacled, jelly-dripping, pachydermic creature during which you may wish to cover your child’s eyes.) As Jyn relocates Gerrera (who obviously didn’t stick around once she’d turned 16), the rest of the rebels come together: Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a handsome fighter with, it turns out, much in common with Jyn; the goofy-but-brave pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed with ponytail and goggles); a bearded heavy-metal killer played by Jiang Wen; and the martial arts actor Donnie Yen as a blind warrior monk, a sight worth seeing.
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Bring on the war machines! Bring on the spaceships zipping through rock canyons! Bring on the orange tracer fire! Bring on the search for the Death Star plans! Bring on cryptic mentions of kyber crystals! Yet as the story progresses from planet to planet, it’s a bit discombobulating for those of us who no longer have Star Wars posters on our walls and plastic figurines in our bathtubs. We zip in hyperdrive from the trading post at the Ring of Kafrine, to Jedha, Eadu, Scarif, and the Imperial labour camp at Wobani. World travellers will notice that the Maldives, Iceland, Jordan and even Canary Wharf Tube station stand in for many of these locations.
Peculiarly, the special effects vary from epic to clunky — or perhaps toy-shop-ready — and the rebels’ costumes are once again dusty combat wear in Kelly Hoppen shades of taupe. The architecture has an austerely stylish nod to the Nazi Albert Speer and the Imperial uniforms are fascist-chic. The introduction of black-armoured Death Troopers (a sort of SS elite compared to the white Stormtroopers) adds to the sense of doom. Indeed, this being a one-off story, some members of the cast turn out to be dispensable once their work is done.
The director of Rogue One is Gareth Edwards, who cut his fangs on the creature-features Monsters and Godzilla. He handles the George Lucas legacy with care, playing both to the traditionalists and a new generation. The old school will be overjoyed with the red-eyed reappearance of Darth Vader (rasped, as in the 1977 original, by James Earl Jones, now 85), and a blink-and-miss-it glimpse of C-3PO and R2-D2.
The new generation of fans will roll with a multiracial cast and a second kick-ass female protagonist following Rey’s appearance in last year’s The Force Awakens. There’s enough here to keep us going until Star Wars: Episode VIII, already on the film-release schedule for this time next year.
12A, 134min