Review: Solo - A Star Wars Story (fourth-pass)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (fourth-pass / IMAX 3D / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 135 mins / Dir. Ron Howard / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3

This is your spoiler-break. It's the chunk of text which acts as a buffer so that accidental-clicks or preview-feeders etc don't give away that REDACTED is in this film. Although by the time this review finally goes live (mad few weeks IRL, folks), it'll hardly be a secret, but still. The principle is there.

So in this bit I'll just say that the IMAX screen in which I saw Solo for the fourth time was sorely in want of bums-on-seats, although again, this should come as no surprise to anyone at this point. That was disconcerting enough, but the actual projection itself wasn't top-notch either, which in my admittedly limited experience is unheard of with IMAX. Severe ghosting with the 'green' lens (or digital equivalent) on the right-hand side of the screen. I'm used to shoddy projection with RealD screenings, but this ain't on. Obviously I had a word afterwards, but depending on which level of staff you catch in the foyer, you're never quite sure how much further your observation will travel.

Anyhow, neither of these things ended up spoiling what, for me, is a thoroughly solid entry in the Star Wars canon. Read on to find out why...



Despite having a largely optimistic lead character for most of its run-time, Solo is a movie of foreshadowing.

Some of this is blatant. Tobias Beckett's quiet advice to Han, "...assume everyone will betray you, and you'll never be disappointed", should ring in everyone's ears the next time they watch The Force Awakens, as the Corellian stands on the gantry in Starkiller Base looking at his son for the last time.

Other lines are more broad. The opening caption-card, 'It is a lawless time' is an indicator right off the bat that since the Empire are the ones supposedly running the galaxy now, they're still not going to appear in this film too often. And other than the spaceport scene on Corellia (where the troopers are told to back off by Moloch, anyway) and the furry Rangetroopers guarding the Conveyex train on Vandor, the film stays true to that promise.

Then, thre's a layer of in-movie, retroactive foreshadowing. When we first re-join Qi'Ra onboard Dryden Vos' pleasure yacht, she's wearing a semi-circular amulet as part of her dress, resembling the bottom half of the Crimson Dawn tattoo adorning her wrist. And when we finally meet the head of that organisation in the movie's final minutes, we see he's wearing one too (although Qi'Ra has removed hers by that point). It's a visual link which only really becomes apparent when the film is watched for a second time.

Oh yeah, and Maul. He's back.
Who saw that one coming?

Hmm? You didn't? Well, the clues were there...

+ + +

So I didn't understand, when I read the 2014 comic-series Son Of Dathomir, why the powers-that-be had left the ex-Sith Lord and all-round troublemaker, Maul, surviving. 'Again'. 

The Zabrak's exit in The Phantom Menace had been fairly definitive ('divisive', even), and while his Season Four return in the Clone Wars series had been oddly compelling, the thought remained that you wouldn't bring a character back from the void like that without planning a really great send-off. And the build-up of the Shadow Collective episodes in Season Five seemed to be heading for just that conclusion. Having Maul building a criminal empire with his brother/apprentice, utilising the Mandalorian Death Watch, the Hutt families, the Pyke Syndicate and Black Sun pulled together a lot of threads, and when Darth Sidious finally snapped and went to sort business out himself, that promised the ultimate smackdown. But Maul wasn't destroyed by Sidious, only captured, and with the line "Do not worry, I'm not going to kill you. I have other uses for you…" 

But in 2014 The Clone Wars was cancelled, and the ambiguous thread on which Maul's fate had been left dangling seemed even more ominous. Maybe we'd find out what happened to him, maybe not. Not every question in Star Wars needs to be answered, although most eventually are. But in the Lucasfilm/Disney re-jig - and keeping in mind that The Clone Wars series was to be considered canon in the body of work moving forward, a four-issue comic series, 'Son of Dathomir', was commissioned. It told the story originally intended for the sixth season of the show. In it, Maul is taken to Palpatine's secure prison on Stygeon Prime, where he is used as bait to lure out the Dathomir witch, Mother Talzin, so that Sidious can finally dispose of this matriarchal thorn in his side. But, long-story-short, Maul escapes at the end. 'Again'. 

So a few years down the line in Star Wars Rebels, we eventually learned the obvious reason why: to be a part of future Star Wars stories of course. But all good (or badass) things must come to an end, and everyone's favourite horny assassin finally met his match with his long-time nemesis, Ben Kenobi (hey, I told you up the top there'd be spoilers. They're just spoilers for 'all' of Star Wars, that's all) on Tatooine. So that was that. Arc closed, circle complete, there goes Maul. Bye mate. 

But of course, Solo takes place (for its largest segment), around ten years before that final duel. Maul's still around, still pissed off, it's an expensive place and he's got to get his disposable income from somewhere. And hey, what better job in a lawless galaxy than to be a crime-boss, right? Which brings us directly (again) to our first tip-off… 

1) One of the first things we see, after the familiar 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…' card, the next words to appear on-screen are "It is a lawless time". Season 5, Episode 16 of The Clone Wars sees Maul consolidating his criminal power and eventually facing off against the livid Darth Sidious. This episode is titled 'The Lawless'. Given these words at the beginning of Solo and Maul's appearance at the end, his crime syndicate now including (or being spearheaded by) Crimson Dawn, my brain can't think of this as co-incidence. 

2) Another linguistic nod comes later in the movie on Kessel. Qi'Ra refers to her (ostensibly fictional) boss as "his eminence". Not a particularly obscure term, but a very specific one nonetheless. Eminence isn't a word which occurs often through Star Wars scripting. But 'Eminence' was the title of Season 5, Episode 14 of The Clone Wars. This is the one where Maul assembles his allied criminal factions into The Shadow Collective, including the Pyke Syndicate. Showing one of the Pykes at the same time as this line is uttered is (in my fan-boy mind) a deliberate clue on the trail to Maul's eventual reveal. 

3) Yeah, I wish I could find a direct reference to episode 15 of that season, 'Shades of Reason', the other one covering Maul's rise as a master criminal. But hey - we can't have everything, right? 

It's entirely possible (probable, even) that these lines would have appeared whoever was going to be in the hologram which Qi'Ra fired up (this was only finalised late in the game). But the fact that they did anyway creates a link. Perhaps a retroactive one, but a link all the same. And that's not to say I second-guessed Maul's appearance. I absolutely didn't. But the words 'Lawless' and 'Eminence' rang bells from my second-pass onwards.

On the surface, Solo is a throwaway, star-hopping adventure. Just underneath that, it's a web that links the prequel, original and sequel trilogies, as well as Rogue One, The Clone Wars and Rebels.

This is about as Star Wars as they come…

The Star Wars's.



Yes.



Yes, all.



Time will tell.



Well I'd have said no, but I've also read 'mixed reactions' by now so who knows?



…I thought I heard a cut-off one during the exterior ground-battle on Kessel.
But no, of course I can't be sure.
I mean, I've only seen the film four times.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.

…but if you wanted to go round the houses with it, Solo stars Donald Glover, who voiced Miles Morales in episodes of Ultimate Spider-Man, which also featured Tom Kenny who performed in 2015's animated Back To The Jurassic, as did Grey DeLisle, who lent her voice to Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, a movie featuring the warblings of one Michael York, who went on to narrate the 2014 Sleeping Beauty which starred Olivia D'Abo, who was in 1994's Clean Slate along with James Earl Jones, who reprises his Mufasa role in the upcoming live-action version of The Lion King, which also features the tones of... Donald Glover.







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Star Wars - The Last Jedi (sixth-pass)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (sixth-pass / IMAX 3D / SPOILERS!)
Cert: 12A / 152 mins / Dir. Rian Johnson / Trailer


Previous reviews: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

"Heeded my words not, did you; 'pass on what you have learned'*¹. Strength, mastery? Hmmm. But weakness, folly, failure also? Yes, failure, most of all. The greatest teacher, failure is..."

~ Yoda.

So. As well as being a parable on change and narrative torch-passing, The Last Jedi is a film about failure. Namely, getting us to accept that our heroes - however much we've venerated them into untouchable demigods - can be fallible.

This is a movie about watching your heroes get shit wrong. A lot. And we all expect a little second-act tension, but here it's repeated and brutal. And yeah, that's probably going to upset people.

The bad guys are always great at being cack-handed of course, and The Last Jedi is no exception. The supreme leader of the whole organisation displays exactly the same blithe assumption and careless posturing which proved to be Palpatine's downfall (and which he presumably lived through, even if this was at a distance). His main henchmen are both quick to learn but emotionally unstable pawns, demonstrably unable to anticipate enemy moves in the heat of battle. As such the First Order strikes, like the Empire did, with brute force rather than calculated precision. So how was that ever going to end?

But our heroes... we haven't seen them stumble so blindly before, and it's a theme which continues to divide audiences. Because this isn't Disney 'not getting' Star Wars; everything we see in Episode VIII is entirely deliberate. And it all began (arguably) when Han Solo thought he could talk round his son on the Starkiller Base, before being proved disastrously wrong. And with The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson picks up that ball and sprints, full-tilt, toward an uncertain future. To wit:

• ‎Luke is morally wrong to have abandoned his responsibility and gone into exile while Kylo Ren still lives to make matters worse.
• Luke has failed Ben (and the Jedi/Alliance/Republic/Resistance) before we even start.
• ‎Rey is mistaken in claiming he hasn't.
• Luke is misguided in tossing away the Bespin-lightsaber and for an entire first-act of grumpiness*².
• ‎Luke recognises the failures of the Jedi Order, but fails to apply those lessons going forward.
• Rey leaves her (formal) training incomplete, jaunting off on a whim because of psychic messages from a known arsehole (familiar, Luke?).
Meanwhile…
• ‎Leia fails in successfully commanding Poe Dameron during a critical battle.
• ‎Poe's plan to take out the dreadnought succeeds, but he fails the bombing crew in executing it.
• ‎Poe fails in his mutiny to 'protect the fleet'.
• ‎Vice Admiral Holdo fails in her plan to get all the transports safely to Crait.
Meanwhile…
• Finn fails to escape the cruiser Raddus to aid Rey's safe return.
• Finn and Rose fail to secure the services of the master codebreaker.
• Finn and Rose fail to secure transport to escape Cantonica.
• ‎Finn and Rose fail to disable the hyperspace tracker.
• ‎Finn fails to take out the battering-ram cannon.

Yet we know that Luke, Leia, Poe, Rey, Finn and Rose have what it takes to win. With the exception of Rose Tico, we've met them all before and know they have the hearts of victors. Even in the short amount of time we spend with Rose, we see she's clearly going to be on the new Rebellion's A-team. So why is all of this stinging a particular section of fandom*³ so much?

Our heroes fuck up here, continually, yet we love them anyway. We know why they're failing and we know why they were trying in the first place. The lesson is not to stop failing but to keep trying. Look around you, put the news on. The message of The Last Jedi is the same as the one which Star Wars taught us in 1977. If the delivery seems jarring, that's more a reflection of the times we live in.

The entire film is a lesson of perseverance through failure. And that is how The Last Jedi succeeds. Even Yoda didn't get it right all the time.

"Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
~ Samuel Beckett*⁴.

+ + + + +

Oh, and the IMAX was fantastic as always. Thundering sound and a glorious picture which really underlines how regular 3D light-loss will affect a movie with dark, night-time scenes. If you get the chance to see this The Last Jedi in IMAX, go and see The Last Jedi in IMAX.



The Star Wars.



Yes.



Yes.



It's strong.
It's very strong.



That all depends on how wrong you are.



There is.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.






*¹ "Mate, Rey's been here for literally a day. Do I like like I'm finished? Do I look like I know *so little* it can be packed into one 'An Afternoon With Luke Skywalker' seminar? Really, Yoda? Really? It's precisely this kind of shit which caused me to flounce off in a strop in the first place, don't show up now wagging your finger and smacking me on the head with your stick, I've got a library to burn down..." ^{[ BACK ]}

*² While I'm on though, when Luke vaults over that chasm to spear the fish, is he really going to keep the pole upright and balanced when retrieving it from the spike? And how is he going to get back over when he's also carrying the fish? Or does he vault back over first and bring up the pole onto the flat-side? In which case why did he even leap over there in the first place? Why not just spear the fish from the side he was on? What the hell is in that blue-milk, Luke?? ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ I use the term 'fandom' wearily and loosely, [ cf ]. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ 1) Not the one from Quantum Leap, 2) Yeah, I know that quote isn't as glibly optimistic as it initially sounds. I don't care, I'm trying to make a point about Star Wars here and it fits my narrative drive to distort the original meaning. Look, this is 2017, have you not been paying attention? That's definitely how we do things, now. ^{[ BACK ]}


DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Spider-Man - Homecoming (second-pass)

Spider-Man: Homecoming (IMAX 3D / second-pass / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 133 mins / Dir. Jon Watts / Trailer



So I went to see Spider-Man again, at London's Leicester Square IMAX*¹, this time. And while the film obviously no longer held the element of pleasant surprise for me, I loved it every bit as much. More in some places. There won't be any wanging-great plot spoilers in this piece, but I'll be coasting over some of the events and characters which do and don't appear, hence the spoiler-warning.

[ On a side-note that I may as well slip in here, I loved that before the movie there was an ad for Dell gaming-computers using modified footage from the film. And in that sequence in the movie, you notice that the laptop Peter actually uses in class has the logo obscured. His friend Ned later uses a machine with Dell branding on it, though. Now, given that the current rights-owners to Spidey are the same people who'll work photo-realistic tech-appearances into an animated feature, I think someone in the Sony Brand Placement department is currently furious about the 'deal' that's been struck with Marvel. And I couldn't be happier at that thought. ]

So when I left the cinema after watching Homecoming for the first time, I felt something which hadn't come over me for quite a while. Excitement. Not the anticipation and intrigue I get before a movie, but the feeling that a huge door has been kicked open and now anything is possible. The endings of Doctor Strange and Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 were satisfying, but this was a buzz I haven't had since the closing moments of Amazing Spider-Man 2 (ironically enough), or Iron Man 3. It was that feeling of wanting to go right back in and watch it again. Immediately. And a few days later when I left the IMAX auditorium*²? There it was again. Outstanding stuff.

At that final shot (of the main film), where Peter Parker has returned home and found the real reward of his labours awaiting him? That look on his face of triumph, humility and acceptance, all at once? The camera panning slowly to the figure behind him, slightly out of focus, and that final line of dialogue? The first tim I saw that, I grinned like an idiot; the second, I had tears in my eyes. At Peter's side, we've taken our first step into a larger world.

The first distinction which makes the film work in a crowded marketplace is that while it's a reboot, it's not an origin-story. Thankfully. Either Marvel are confident in their target audience's familiarity with this flagship super-hero by now*³, or even they don't think they'll get away with telling a variation of the same story for the third time in fifteen years. Narratively, this gives the film a wider scope than many of the series' standalone movies featuring a 'new' hero.

It's also important to note that the new movie isn't 'classic comic' Spider-Man, either in tone or execution, but that's always been the way of the MCU. To take the core traits of the characters and reinvigorate them to fit a new, larger story. Homecoming does this even better than most in the series - Holland is his own version of the web-slinger, but still intrinsically the Parker/Spider-Man we expect. In terms of bringing a character we know into a story we don't and having them interact with the continuity, this is MCU at its absolute finest*⁴.

Instead we get relatively subtle (if still incredibly direct) cues from the script as to what's brought Parker to our attention this time: He was bitten by a spider (which is now dead), and Aunt May has had a tough old time of things lately (presumably because Uncle Ben is sitting on a cloud somewhere, next to a spider). Peter's climbing and acrobatic skills are inherent to him, he builds his own web-shooters, and everything else comes courtesy of the Stark-engineered suit. But the writers (and even I'm embarrassed to say that there are six of them on this project) don't feel the need to dot-every-i and cross-every-t, just yet. Familiar names like Mary-Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson and Gwen Stacy haven't been shoehorned into the story. Just yet. This is MCU Spider-Man, more concerned with its wider tableaux*⁵ than providing a fan-service checklist of Greatest Hits references*⁶. Although on a nemesis-level, with Vulture well and truly established, we get Shocker and Scorpion bookmarked in the continuity for future rumbling, as well as a few other character-seeds sewn into the bargain.

But Homecoming isn't just an advert for the next film in the series. The story develops and grows Parker's character rather than just setting it up for something else. Indeed, by the way this chapter is wrapped up (and the credits-stings in particular), you get the feeling that while Marvel are more than happy with the integration between rights-holders, Sony are playing things like they're not sure what happens next. Stark's line about Toomes' crew being 'below the Avengers pay-grade' would seem to imply that Spidey's solo adventures could be Sony-only ventures. Nothing is ruled out, but neither is it writ in stone. The question is, do Sony get to carry on using the Tom Holland Spider-Man in their own standalone movies if they don't include any other MCU trademarks? And the next question is, would we want them to? The Venom movie might go some way to answering those, but according to Marvel producer Kevin Feige, our friendly-neighbourhood web-slinger won't be present for that one. Which feels a bit like making a Joker flick that doesn't also feature Batman; possible, but weird.

And how long will Spidey be around in the MCU timeline? This film doesn't commit to inducting him into the permanent line-up of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but nor does it write him out of the future, either short or long term. Any future MCU-appearances (even a flash of the suit or mention of a character-name, presumably), will require the ongoing agreement between Marvel Studios and Sony which is currently in place*⁷ (although Deadpool managed to squeak round this with its heli-carrier appearance), so in for a penny in for a pound, right?

We should anticipate significant spider-presence for the foreseeable future, I think.
In the meanwhile, I'm off to see Homecoming again…

MCU-stuff. Spidey-stuff.



Yes.



Yes.



Best? Difficult to say. Not least because the groundwork has been laid for it to get even better.



I shall look sternly over my spectacles and ask you to explain yourself.



Still not sure. Thought I heard one in the ferry-scene first time round, but didn't hear it at all this time.



Level 1: Pre Vizsla's in this.





*¹ Despite that particular cinema having a constant schedule of films to show in the format, this has been the first movie outside of Star Wars which I've seen (indeed wanted to see) in IMAX. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² The IMAX experience was amazing again, as I expected (indeed, that's why I went). It's so good to see the (almost) ghost-less 3D in its intended colour-range. The big one at Cineworld's Leicester Square is the best screen for audio/visual reproduction, but with some of the worst leg-room I've ever experienced. I'm 5'11", that's not exactly lanky, and even I was getting knee-cramp by the 45 minute mark. ^{[ BACK ]}

*³ It should be noted that 2008's The Incredible Hulk played much the same hand, leaving the heavy-lifting of historic exposition largely to the viewer's memory of Bill Bixby, and of the 2003 cinematic offering from Ang Lee. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁴ Although obviously, The First Avenger is still the greatest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie. Don't bother disagreeing, I will fight you on this. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁵ It's arguable of course that the original comic Spidey was in the wider Marvel universe to begin with, and the stories still had room to fit those names into their roll-call... ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁶ And that's not to put down Marc Webb's Amazing Spider-Man flicks at all, it's just clear that there was going to have to be a significant style change when Parker stepped into the MCU. ^{[ BACK ]}

*⁷ Although speaking of cross-promotion: during a chase-scene, Peter Parker - who says in the film that he's aged 15 so was born around 2002 - points out that Ferris Bueller's Day Off is "a great movie". That would be the Ferris Bueller's Day Off which was released in 1986, sixteen years before he was born. Yet in Captain America: Civil War, Parker refers to The Empire Strikes Back as "that really old movie", despite it only being six years older than Bueller. The hell, Parker? (although the vintage Kenner X-Wing which hangs in Peter's room could well be an allusion to this apparent anomaly). ^{[ BACK ]}

+ + + + +

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Rogue One (fourth-pass)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (fourth-pass / IMAX 3D / SPOILERS)
Cert: 12A / 134 mins / Dir. Gareth Edwards / Trailer


Previous reviews:
• First-pass (spoiler-free)
• Second-pass (spoiler-free)
• Third-pass (**spoilers**)


This is your spoiler-break. The block of leader-text designed to act as a buffer between you clicking (or tapping, as it's sometimes called these days) on a review of Rogue One and realising it's rammed absolutely full of the worst (or best) kind of spoilers. If you haven't seen the movie, don't read the rest of this post. I mean come back later when you have, obviously, but don't be reading past multiple occurences of the word spoiler and then going "Well I didn't know any of that beforehand, so thanks a bunch". I mean, the film's been on general release for over a week now, but I know not everyone's been able to catch it yet. Look, I'm doing you a favour, here.

On a side-note, I have to say that the IMAX 3D at Leicester Square (formerly the Empire, now under the stewardship of Cineworld) is so much better than regular 3D it's unbelievable. No ghosting whatsoever, the increased resolution of IMAX and greater colour range make it almost like watching a new movie. Outstanding work.

Okay, that's enough stalling.



One of the more considered criticisms leveled at Rogue One, is that there's an overall lack of emotion to the film, considering how monumental the events are for its characters. Short version: 'Character X died and I didn't care'. If it's the bad guys having their tickets punched, maybe that's not such a big concern, but if it's a goodie you're meant to be invested in, it's a fair point.

Now personally, my advice would be to watch the film again. Rogue One is densely packed, but moments of insight and character development are there. They're just fleeting glances rather than long gazes out into the sunset. My hetero-lifemate wasn't overly enamoured the first time he watched the movie, but got a lot more out of a second-pass.

It's also worth reiterating that this is a heist-movie. Previous excursions in the Galaxy Far, Far Away have been based on the Hero's Journey, a classically-structured narrative centered around one character, building sympathetically and emotionally outwards. Luke, Anakin and Rey have all adhered to this template, and it's through them that we get to know the heroes and villains around them, sharing in their victories and losses along the way.

Rogue One doesn't follow that path anywhere near as closely. It's an action movie about a group of insurgents stealing data in the middle of a brutal and desperate civil war. While Jyn Erso is undoubtedly our protagonist, this film introduces eight (arguably nine) crucial characters in two hours; more importantly, the film decides to kill them all, too. That, combined with the involved plot-mechanics, is a lot to cram into the run-time. Emotional pondering is a luxury the screenplay can't really afford, so is distributed sparingly and accordingly.

And despite everything I'm about to go on and say, let me state that I'm unequivocally delighted with the writers' decision to Do All The Killing. With the Marvel Cinematic Universe seemingly reticent to give its main characters anything more than a paper-cut, it's great to have a sense of consequence to a movie. And while it's easy to say "Oh, but they have to die, because we don't see them again later", that's clearly not the case. Star Wars might feel like a small galaxy occasionally, but there are reasons for tucking characters away for future use. That said, I was worried that the more sympathetic players in the story might be surreptitiously and miraculously spared the Reaper, much like Dash Rendar's best-of-both-worlds salvation in Shadows of the Empire.

But no, the casualties in this film are as final as final can be. As Rogue One unfolds, explosions and debris come directly into shot with our last glimpse of characters, others hit the dirt having taken their final blaster bolt, and we literally see the light disappear from the eyes of one unfortunate. No-one is going to talk their way out of a fix once the film cuts to another scene, no-one is left ambiguously hanging around off-planet, no-one gets to make it to the shuttle just in time. While I'm certain there will be novels, comics and games detailing the earlier adventures of the heroes and villains we meet here, they're gone by the time Darth Vader steps into the hallway of the Tantive IV. They're not coming back*¹.

Although as I recall, we saw Darth Maul get chopped in half and fall down a well back in '99, and even he managed to swing an invite to the reunion party. I'm not expecting Jango Fett's head to be sewn back on anytime soon, but never say never, right?

But just to be an argumentative bastard, did they really need to die?. It's fine that they did, but how much of the body-count was narrative-necessity and how much was over-zealous housekeeping?

So without further ado (and I think we can all agree that the adoing here has already gone further than any of us anticipated), here's a look at the mainstays of Rogue One who bought the farm, in the order that they had their mortgage applications stamped, and wondering if that purchase was justified...

Name: SAW GERRERA

Who's there for the... Being the hardline guerrilla fighter who is the Rebellion's link to Imperial scientist, Galen Erso.

Pointlessness of death: Utter. Having been drafted in from Season 5 of The Clone Wars where he was schooled by the Jedi on how to aggressively resist the occupation of the Condeferacy of Independent Systems on the planet Onderon, Saw's character adds some much needed depth to the Rebellion. His presence shows early on that they're not a completely united front and that some branches of anti-Empire activism cross their line of justification and into extremism. Then, after hooking up Jyn Erso with the information she needs to help locate her father, he decides he can't be bothered any more. Over twenty years of furious survival, voluntarily invalidated with two lines of dialogue: "There's not much of me left" and "I'm tired of running". As an outspoken outsider of the Rebel Alliance (more a mercenary, if anything), he's hardly likely to be raising flags throughout the Original Trilogy by his absence, so it's not like he 'needs' to be disposed of by the story. Not without due cause, at any rate.

The rest of his gang are all legging it to their ships (although whether they make it isn't specified), the newly formed Rebel strike-team are actively helping him towards theirs... but Saw can't be arsed. He's not making a moral stand by hanging around in the doorway on Jedha, nor is he making a sacrifice which will help others. He's just giving up, which is precisely what you'd expect from a freedom-fighter who's only recently learned that his movement now has the means to strike a damaging blow to the government he's been raging against for two decades, right?


Name: GALEN ERSO

Who's there for the... Being the guy who brought the Death Star plans to full, mechanical fruition.

Pointlessness of death: None; justified. Despite working on the planet-destroying behemoth that is the Death Star ostensibly against his will, Galen's character knows he bears a narrative guilt that can't be assuaged simply by building a glaring flaw into his project. His death on the landing platform at the Eadu research facility might have been from Rebel ordnance, but Galen knew it was only a matter of time until he was caught in the moral crossfire, if not the literal one.

More importantly, this gives Jyn the nudge she needs to fully commit to the Rebellion, helping to execute the final part in Galen's penance - destroying the destroyer. That he dies in his daughter's arms brings Galen peace and Jyn determination. He is the jointly the mentor-archetype in Jyn's Hero's Journey and unlike Saw Gerrera, his death passes on the torch of destiny and redemption. Galen didn't have to die on that landing platform, but he did have to die for the story to work.


Name: K-2SO

Who's there for the... Technical analysis, precision combat manoeuvres and sarcasm.

Pointlessness of death: Fitting, but avoidable? K-2SO spends the film unquestioningly helping those around him and being an invaulable part of the team. Unbound by human uncertainties about death, the droid knows the Scarif control room will be his last stand, his selfless actions will help to buy precious seconds in transmitting the Death Star plans to the fleet above the planet. We see him fight in the Jedha marketplace with lethal efficiency and know that the only way he'll leave the control room on Scarif is either by winning or losing the battle outright.

And it's debatable that this is all in his programming of course; that K-2SO's commitment to galactic freedom is no more or less than that of your toaster's toward heating bread. But we've come to know the droid over the previous two hours, and he's arguably the most human of the entire crew, since his newfound sentience has him thinking of Cassian as a genuine friend, rather than owner/master. His new 'programming' is the same any human's - learning from past experiences, reactive to his surroundings and hopeful for the future. With only a single blaster for protection, K-2SO does as much as he possibly can to keep his companions safe and dies in a hail of blaster-fire, his place among the heroes well-earned.


Name: CHIRRUT IMWE

Who's there for the... Bromance, spirituality and hitting people with a stick.

Pointlessness of death: Fairly. A former Guardian of the Whills, Chirrut is that odd and previously unexamined creature: one who can read and feel The Force, but not control it. Attuned to a higher level of consciousness, Chirrut's blindness is a physical limitation only, and he's able to not only incapacitate a squadron of Stormtroopers armed with only his staff, but also walk across a live battlefield unharmed.

Which is exactly what he does for this team's 'release the master switch' challenge to open the communications-channel and allow the Death Star schematics to be broadcast to the waiting Rebel fleet. Guided by The Force, Chirrut walks in measured steps to the control bank. His hand finds the lever and pushes it to the 'open' setting, as blaster bolts whizz all around him. And it's this serene and poignant action that underlines his apparent stupidity in not immediately hitting the deck while the Rebels and Imperials continue to slug it out. Instead, he's routinely zapped and falls to the ground; even The Force can't repair blaster-burn that severe.

As one of a dwindling number of Force-sensitives in the galaxy, it's understandable for the story that he doesn't live to see the sunrise over Yavin IV when Luke's celebrating his voice-assisted victory. But is there a reason his concentration suddenly slipped while armoured troops were shooting at him? Did The Force leave Chirrut, his destiny fulfilled? Did he just take his eye off the ball, delighted with having completed his task and securing victory for the Rebellion? Was it just good old-fashioned bad luck? The film doesn't tell us, maybe the novelisation will shed some light on it?


Name: BODHI ROOK

Who's there for the... Information he can bring to the Alliance as a defecting Imperial pilot.

Pointlessness of death: Fairly, but unavoidable. Brash and enthusiastic (exactly the kind of personality who wouldn't last ten minutes in the service of the Empire), Bodhi is essentially a Rebel waiting-to-happen. Despatched by Galen Erso to find Saw Gerrera and deliver information to the Rebellion, he's every bit as much the Macguffin as he is the messenger throughout Rogue One. Trained to fly Imperial craft and understand their procedures, he's the perfect addition to the team.

But by the time he's explained everything to everyone in short bursts which will keep the audience up to speed with the film's proceedings and transmitted the stolen Death Star plans to Admiral Raddus' cruiser above, he's redeemed of his ex-Imp ways and the character arc is complete. Like any of the Rebel strike team, they're essentially waiting to die on Scarif anyway, so Rook's moment in the sun is capped where a detpack happens to be thrown into the hold of the ship he's transmitting from. Bodhi Rook dies because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and his character had nothing left to do.


Name: BAZE MALBUS

Who's there for the... Bromance, heavy-weapons and mopping up anything that Chirrut's stick doesn't finish.

Pointlessness of death: Entirely. The pint to Chirrut Imwe's chaser, the yin to his yang, Baze Malbus is an intriguing and boisterous counterpart. Also an ex-Guardian, Baze hasn't stopped believing in The Force, but he's stopped relying on it. Far handier with heavy-weaponry than metaphysical concepts, he and Chirrut form a symbiont-duo who look out for each other in a city which is rapidly going to the massiffs. Throughout the film, Baze gently mocks Chirrut for his continued trust in The Force, although never maliciously and always with the respect of someone who used to be that guy himself. By the time Baze watches his best friend get gunned down by Imperial forces, he's very almost back on track himself, repeating their shared mantra aloud as he strides across the battlefield, taking out Deathtroopers one by one.

Which is the stupid bit. Other than as an act of revenge (which isn't his style, irrespective of the Guardians Of The Whills stance on the subject), there is literally no point to his apparent sacrifice. The comms-switch is flipped and all that remains is to hold off the surrounding Imps. A feat of no real effort, given that Malbus has shown his prowess for the last two hours with his signature chain-gun. Even though he isn't instantly cut in half by the troopers, sloppy work from Baze (which would have been avoided had he taken them out from a distance) sees him come face to face with a ticking detpack. The surrounding Deathtroopers are no more by that point, but that says nothing of the other ground forces he could be defeating.


Name: ORSON KRENNIC

Who's there for the... Being the put-upon project co-ordinator of the Death Star project.

Pointlessness of death: None; satisfying. Even as a member of the management-team, it makes absolute sense that Orson Krennic is no longer around by the events of A New Hope. Underappreciated at best by an organisation that can be politely described as 'coldly efficient', Krennic is frustrated at every turn that his efforts in bringing the Death Star to functionality are written off, if not outright stolen by his contemporaries. The only man we've ever seen backchat Tarkin, he doesn't want the glory of sitting at the Emperor's right-hand, only the recognition that he's helped the cause. Krennic doesn't see the Empire as outright evil, he just knows that you can't make a galactically-secure omelette without breaking some insurgent eggs.

And when things start really going south, Krennic doesn't run to a command-shuttle and watch the ensuing battle from the bridge of a Star Destroyer; he unholsters his pistol and goes steaming into the archive complex, in an attempt to personally stop the Death Star plans being retrieved. And while it's true that he gives a speech to Jyn while holding her at gunpoint on the gantry, it's less about gloating and more about ensuring that she knows she's lost. This proves to be his downfall of course, literally, as he's slotted in the back by Cassian. But he doesn't go out like a punk. Lying on the walkway, as Krennic lifts his head and sees the Death Star just above the horizon, he knows it's only there for one reason. This is checkmate, the poetic irony that he strived so hard for the completion of a weapon which will now end him; the monster, returned to kill its creator (perhaps more ironic since it's now 'Baron Frankenstein' who's in charge of it). Angry and bitter in defeat as he was in life, Krennic gets a good death.


Name: JYN ERSO & CASSIAN ANDOR

Who's there for the... Being the determined vessels of righteous galactic retribution.

Pointlessness of death: In narrative terms, poetic. In practical terms, ridiculous. Now naturally, Cassian couldn't end his run being spanged in the back while he climbs the data-tower, even if it is Krennic himself who lands the shot and even Andor does hit every beam on the way down, like a more dashing Homer Simpson. No, Cassian meets his end with Jyn, in a moment of well-earned peace and grim acceptance on the shoreline of Scarif. The Death Star schematics uploaded to the Rebel fleet, their part in the relay-race is over, and although they know they won't live to see the Alliance's victory, they've done their best and earned a place in the history books. With the Death Star parked just outside the atmosphere and shrieking green fury to the planet's surface, it's unavoidable. Except, hang on a minute...

Earlier, in the data-archive, K-2SO informs Jyn that the planetary shield has closed. "So we're trapped?" she asks. "We can still beam the data out!" the droid replies, "But it's the size of the files that's the problem. The shield has to be taken down!" (although why he barks this at her is beyond me; Jyn is in about as much position to disable the shield generator as anyone else below it, but there we go). Anyhow, two Star Destroyers are wrecked, the shield-gate destroyed and the plans can be safely beamed to the fleet. But then, so can anything else. K-2SO's insistence that the shield was stopping the data-transfer was a side-point of that conversation. With the shield removed, there's no reason that Jyn and Cassian can't commandeer an Imperial shuttle in the confusion and escape off-world, right? E-mailing the plans back to the office is a nicety, and certainly something you'd do as a failsafe, but Jyn's got the hard-drive right there, on her. The Imperial forces might have noticed the upload (indeed, we know the did), but those two Rebels and their previous data could easily slip away and be 'lost in action'.

So, instead of limping along the beach, exchanging glances that look like they were going to be kisses in another cut of the film, maybe the two of them could have at least tried to get out of the atmosphere. Y'know, in case the Empire noticed the transmission and went to kick the crap out of the ship which received it? For Jyn and Cassian, it's a fitting, bittersweet end to their brief alliance; but Kyle Katarn wouldn't have accepted the end so readily ;)

But as I said at the top of the post, I'm actually very happy that the film-makers killed them all off…

All of The Star Wars.



Yep.



It does.



It's a strong showing.



Nope.



Yep.



Level 0: It is Star Wars.

Although if you really wanted to go the long way round with it…

Rogue One stars Mr Forest Whitaker, who also appeared in Taken 3 with Liam Neeson of course, who took to the skies in Non-Stop, a film which featured Lupita Nyong'o, who provided voice-work for the recent remake of The Jungle Book, as did its director Jon Favreau whose vocals guested in the 'Two Weeks Without Food' episode of Robot Chicken starring Seth Green, who rocked up in the 2005 movie The Best Man, as did David Oyelowo who appeared in The Last King of Scotland, along with Forest Whitaker, who's in that Rogue One…






*¹ Of course, watch me be proved wrong about this in the future as the singed sim-card of K-2SO is recovered from the smouldering ruins of Scarif, and he gets ret-conned into the shell of IG-88, or somesuch...

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.