Rogue One Is The Best Star Wars Movie

[Vinay Pettyjohn]

I realize the seriousness of these words even as I write them, but having recently gone through the entire series again, it is a fact I can no longer disregard: Rogue One is the best Star Wars film since the Original trilogy.

A New Hope (1977) started a decades-long cultural phenomenon, centered on the notions of predestination vs. self-actualization, which all the ensuing films explored in one way or another: can we become more than what our heritage has fated us to believe? is evil innate, or is it chosen? can everyone change? are some people allowed second, third, fourth chances? is forgiveness synonymous with closure?

The Original trilogy nailed this best, perhaps because it concentrated on Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, who were the direct receptacles of the nature/nurture moral dilemma, which in turn fueled their actions and struggles at large, affecting the rest of the characters.

And in many ways, it has certainly done just that: despite the myopic arguments regarding the films being more open to representation and diversity, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi have ben widely praised for honoring the Original trilogy while still pushing the mythology in exciting directions.

So having said all that, I was surprised one day, as I was ranking the films in order of favorites (The Empire Strikes Back, forever the first), to find that Rogue One kept appearing at the top for me.

And while it is vaguely daunting to be left in completely new waters, with completely different characters from the ones we are used to, the film boldly steps up to the task, untethered by the monumental shoes it has to fill, and tells its own story.

Having finished work on the Death Star, Galen has now communicated the plans, along with the aforementioned flaw, to the Rebels, so that it can be destroyed before it is used to annihilate enemies of the Empire. With her band of ragtag rebels, Jyn attempts the impossible: namely infiltrate Imperial territory on a stolen Imperial ship to steal the Death Star plans and pass them along to the Rebels (led by none other than Princess Leia).

Rogue One, on the other hand, operates on the logic that there are no winners in pointless wars, and nothing is black and white: there are just casualties and losses, and unfair twists of fate. This film has no time or interest in moments of rousing, solid hope and thrilling optimism: if anything, the best instances come from the realization that there are still people willing to be brave, even when they know the odds will never, ever be in their favor.

Every single character dies in the film, some more heroically than others, even though they succeed in their mission: the Rebel Alliance, as indicated by the ending, successfully receives the plans which will be the catalyst for the events to come in A New Hope and so forth.

The war films Rogue One emulates are themselves emulations of what has happened in wars across time and space: there are no fanfares for every single person who has died pointlessly, which only makes their loss ring crueler. Considering that History has been told subjectively over time, I always wonder how many people have been consciously or unconsciously erased from the recognition they rightfully deserve.

Rogue One, through its characters, fully tosses those notions away. True, they are all rebels against the Empire, and work emphatically to support the efforts of those who would see it torn down from the inside. But the road to that goal is not as straightforward as it has been for the other major characters of the canon.

Jyn, for example, does not start out as an unofficial leader. At the beginning of the film, she is a petty criminal with a looming, tainted legacy. She is the daughter of a man both sides consider a criminal and traitor, and loving him while coming to terms with what he has done is one of the many things she struggles with, as well as what it means for her own sense of morality and allegiance. She is practically kidnapped and forced to help the Rebels, and even then, she must find it in herself to be brave and to care about a cause bigger than her own. She is no Rey, no Obi-Wan Kenobi, no Luke Skywalker who feels the pulls of something greater.

The Rogue One characters are never afforded that luxury: like Luke, Leia and Kylo Ren, Jyn struggles with having family that was instrumental in perpetrating havoc and destruction. Unlike them, she is not chosen, special, or otherwise powerful: hers is the same fate as millions of others in her situation, who must deal with their neuroses, get over it and move on.

Rogue One succeeds as a standalone film because it is not trying to tell a sprawling, generational tale of internal dilemmas and reverberating actions and consequences; rather, it is only trying to tell a slice of that sprawling tale, and thus, is more self-contained. Less stakes, with less possibilities of failing. It is a mission-driven, rather than character-driven story (all the while doing justice to the characters at its heart, of course), which gets rid of the more convoluted plot points one can expect from a conventional Star Wars film.

This realization almost scored my heart, where the other films left me galvanized and hopeful, even in the face of terrifying odds; and I finally realized that perhaps, this film most poignantly captured the essence of what George Lucas was maybe aiming for, all those decades ago starting in 1977.

Tatooine. Bespin. Star Destroyers. Luke Skywalker. Darth Vader and his TIE Advanced. The Death Star. Twice. X-Wings. TIE Fighters. Stormtroopers. AT-ATs. R2D2. Rogue Leader is Star Wars the way you remember it. Except this time you're piloting the ships and fighting for the Rebellion, in the struggle to overcome the evil GALACTIC EMPIRE. We often compare games to movies, but from the archetypal star screen introduction right the way through to the game's monumental climax, this is the ultimate accompaniment and tribute to those three original Star Wars movies we all cherish.

Rogue Squadron fans have been rewarded with a superb continuation to the N64's best Star Wars game. Rogue Leader begins with players taking on the guise of that whiny runt Skywalker, and as a warm-up budding pilots must down the original Death Star, first taking out laser towers and slaying a number of TIE Fighters. With a little help from Han Solo (and of course the Force) Luke puts pay to deplorable imperial machinations. And then the game gets interesting.

Visually this is Star Wars as you saw it on the big screen. Scenes from the films are remodelled in the crisp game engine and look almost perfect, accompanied by John Williams' inimitable score and virtually any of the films' sound effects you might care to mention. From the intricately detailed planes of the Death Star with TIEs swooping this way and that, to the sight of Bespin emerging from the haze, and the inevitable approach and decimation of the then imperial-laden city, Rogue Leader leaves little to the imagination. This is Star Wars. You will feel like you are there. Is this now clear?

Good. Then I can start telling you about the rest of it. The mission structure is deadly simple. You have ten regular missions to complete, some of which intersect with the films and some of which do not. You play either as Luke or Wedge depending on the mission (so for instance, while Luke's off giving his right hand for a tussle with Vader, Wedge is busy carpet-bombing something), and you can play from either third person or cockpit views.

The whole game could be over in a day if you race through the narrative, but the idea is to fight for the bronze, silver and gold medals, which demand increasingly difficult objectives, and then play with the prizes. Success could mean unlocking some of the game's secret ships, levels or modes of play, and when you have access to more of the ships it becomes easier to get the silver or gold on earlier levels. Hidden ships range from the obvious to the peculiar, and for those of you with a Fett-ish, Slave 1 is among 'em. You even get to play as the Falcon, which is a selling point in itself.

The objectives are similarly diverse, including the aforementioned Death Star run, the Battle of Hoth and bits and bobs in-between. The missions often feed into one another, and you get to down Star Destroyers as well as the smaller TIEs and imperial shuttles. Some of the missions seem a bit unnecessary, like the jailbreak mission in the middle of the game, but it's good to see that they all stand up to repeated play and give you a little breather now and then. For instance, although you can pull down your targeting computer to help you pick TIEs out of a particularly dense nebula on the way out of Hoth, later on you can toggle the thing on or off without holding down the relevant button and skewering your concentration.

The control system itself is very responsive and early reports suggested it went a bit far, but as the game wears on you start to appreciate it. Over-responsive controls are obviously not conducive to fine-tuning manoeuvres, and bouncing around the bowels of Bespin in a Y-Wing can be maddening, but conversely, spinning 180 degrees on an imperial credit and blowing the hell out of a pursuing TIE Fighter can be the adrenaline rush to end them all. Overall though the twitch-this-way-twitch-that-way feel of the system conflicts with the game's principle virtue: its authenticity.

That said the ships all behave differently. The Y-Wings, while pretty frail, are very handy for bombing runs (for which the game switches to an elevated view to help you find your targets) and the B-Wings, while less manoeuvrable than an X-Wing, can make themselves quite small and happily scamper about the nose of a Star Destroyer without getting caught by too many laser blasts. All of the ships are very much as they were in the films, thanks to some detailed design which blows recent efforts like Jedi Starfighter right out of the sky, and the bigger ships lose none of the detail you might expect. Indeed, flying past the bridge of a Star Destroyer you will feel a twinge of fear at the sheer size and imposing sight of the thing. And there are bigger things to come.

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