Is Disney Going to Make More Movies Like Rogue One

(This column was originally published on January 16.)

"Rogue One" is the best "Star Wars" film made in my lifetime. "Rogue One" is gorgeous and thrilling.

"Rogue One" is also a mess. And "Rogue One" looks like "Star Wars," but it really isn't.

When Disney released "The Force Awakens" back in 2015, I left my 8 p.m. showing feeling angry. Disney had captured the ships and the "pew" sounds and the explosions of "Star Wars," without any of the heart. The movie breezed past character development and barely bothered to pause long enough to provide anyone in it with motivations. It felt like "A New Hope" on fast-forward, with all the "boring" (read: essential character moments and worldbuilding) cut out.

Also Read: 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Has a Chance to Succeed Where 'Rogue One' Failed (Commentary)

With "Rogue One," it seemed Disney might right the ship. A sharper story concerning what might be considered everyday people in the "Star Wars" universe, it was seemingly devoid of magical space warrior monks, instead focusing on desperate Rebel soldiers and spies fighting an Empire wielding overwhelming might. Plus, it sounded like a "Seven Samurai"-type story, where a band of heroes came together to fight odds they cannot hope to surmount. It sounded like the kind of story that would help expand the "Star Wars" franchise to include more humanity and more variety.

"Rogue One" does hit those notes. It tells the story of the theft of the Death Star plans and never once is the name "Skywalker" uttered. It throws in too many callbacks and hews too closely to setting up literally everything in "A New Hope," perhaps, but it focuses on the war on the ground in a way we've never quite gotten out of "Star Wars".

But it also doesn't really get "Star Wars." It thinks it does — "Rogue One" is incredibly comfortable with its lived-in galaxy far, far away in a way nothing has been since Luke's days on Owen and Beru Lars' moisture farm — but like its prequel predecessors and The Force Awakens, it's still hung up on the what of "Star Wars," forgetting the who.

Also Read: 14 Scenes That Were In the 'Rogue One' Trailers But Aren't in the Movie (Photos)

We need a family of friends, desperately

It's easy to get bogged down in the ships, the planets, the weapons and the religion of "Star Wars" and miss the forest moon for its massive trees. The thing that really makes "A New Hope" timeless and endearing, the thing that has propelled the franchise to a rank of essential pop culture unmatched by just about anything else, isn't the stuff that you see in "Star Wars," but the people to whom that stuff happens.

"Star Wars" is ultimately a powerful story about friendship, and it's that aspect that gives its fantastic world the humanity that draws us in. "A New Hope" never wastes a second that could be used developing the personalities on screen. Every line of dialogue builds the people and the world. Every action sequence tells you a little more about Luke, Leia and Han, Chewie and Threepio and even R2-D2, who never needs to even speak a word to be endearing

"Rogue One," on the other hand, is far more concerned with what people are doing than why they are doing it, or who those actions make them. There's Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), driven mostly by a desire to not be a prisoner and to maybe find her dad and to occasionally complain about being orphaned time and again. Rebel spy Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) has a great speech about midway through the movie about why he does things like murder informants and assassinate people under orders, but mostly his greatest motivations for doing anything amount to "Empire bad" and, later, "Jyn good."

Also Read: How the Character Chirrut in 'Rogue One' May Have a Direct Connection to 'The Force Awakens'

Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), maybe the character most overlooked by "Rogue One" itself, hints at volumes of backstory, specifically time spent with Jyn's father and Death Star inventor Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), that turned him from an Imperial freighter pilot into a defector willing to risk everything to help a friend. Jyn and Bodhi have a common connection — her heroic father — and I'm not sure the pair even speak to each other throughout the film.

The rest of the cast has similarly anemic development. We never learn a thing about Wen Jiang's Baze Malbus, except that he's bros with Danny Yen's Chirrut Imwe for some reason. K-2SO, the standoffish android with all the good lines played by Alan Tudyk, is programmed to fight for the Rebellion, so not a lot of arc there. And Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a disgraced insurgent even the Rebels don't really like, gets kicked out of the movie by way of the Death Star laser right as he's getting interesting.

More than ships and magic

The point is, "Rogue One" doesn't bother to build its characters, and so the relationships between them don't land. Without those relationships, "Star Wars" feels empty — a big, flashy, spectacular distraction.

Also Read: 'Rogue One': 35 Characters Ranked, from Worst to Best (Photos)

Compare "Rogue One" or "The Force Awakens" to "A New Hope" and the difference is stark. "A New Hope" spends gobs of time fleshing out Luke Skywalker, before bouncing him off Han, and then letting Leia play off both. The original "Star Wars" film doesn't require a giant action sequence every 10 minutes to keep the audience interested, so why does Disney think that's the case with its new films?

The greatest moments of "Star Wars" aren't when Ship 1 destroyed Ship 2. They're not the absolutely ridiculous but amazing lightsaber battles of the Prequel Trilogy. The moments that resonate with people are the human ones. It's Leia taking charge on the Death Star and Han showing up at the last second because he can't abandon his friends.

It's Luke's reaction to learning his father's identity and unwavering dedication to redeeming him. It's these characters showing up for one another again and again. We care about all of them because the "Star Wars" films want us to care about them, and they invest the time necessary to convince us to do so. "Star Wars" isn't lightsabers and Force powers. "Star Wars" is friendship.

Also Read: That 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Trailer Looked Great, But How Much of It Will Actually Be in the Movie? (Commentary)

But that's the underlying problem with the new take on "Star Wars": it's so afraid to be boring, probably in response to the much-maligned prequel films, that it forgets what people love about "Star Wars" in the first place. The setting of "Star Wars" is important but not nearly as important as the people who find themselves living in that world, fighting to make it better.

So far, Disney hasn't given those characters the commitment they need or the focus they deserve. The result is two movies that feel disjointed and, ultimately, unmemorable.

14 Scenes That Were In the 'Rogue One' Trailers But Aren't in the Movie (Photos)

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  (Originally published on Dec. 15, 2016) All too often these days, big moments from movie trailers don't make it into the final cut. Given the many rumors that "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" was extensively rewritten and reshot earlier this year, it's not entirely surprising that some pieces from the initial production are missing from the final cut. We've gathered up all the big moments from Disney's marketing that didn't make it into "Rogue One" -- including this shot here from the behind-the-scenes sizzle reel they released at Star Wars Celebration in July.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  Let's get the big one out of the way first: this incredible shot of our heroes sprinting across the beach on the planet Scarif with the Death Star plans -- that's what Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is holding in her left hand there -- is nowhere to be found in "Rogue One." Which is interesting because this shot is still being used in TV spots today, even though in the final cut neither Jyn nor Cassian (Diego Luna) fight on the ground at all on Scarif.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  This gorgeous wide shot of Director Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) surveying the aftermath of an Imperial defeat, seen in the first teaser, has been cut from the film. Krennic never makes it onto the ground on Scarif during or after the fighting.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  "They destroyed our home," Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), says before firing on the enemy on the rainy planet of Edu in the first full "Rogue One" trailer. Not so in the final cut of "Rogue One," where Malbus wordlessly snipes the baddies after he and Chirrut (Donnie Yen) wander into the battle to find Jyn.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  Despite this epic trailer shot, Jyn never has to face a TIE fighter head-on as it dramatically creeps up on her while she stands atop the Imperial base on Scarif. Instead, an Imperial fighter swoops in from the side, firing on her from afar, before Director Krennic enters the picture.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  "The Captain says you are a friend. I will not kill you." Though there are many incredible and biting one-liners that will make the former Imperial droid K2-SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) a fan favorite, this one, from the first full trailer, was cut from the film.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  Likewise, K2-SO's "There's a 97.6 percent chance of failure" line from later in that same trailer is also MIA.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  This shot, shown at Star Wars Celebration, announced Darth Vader's appearance in "Rogue One" -- but it also isn't in the film.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  Another epic Jyn moment removed from the film was actually one of the film's more popular promotional shots, featuring her in disguise on the Scarif Imperial base. Despite this being the header image on so many "Rogue One" articles this year, it's nowhere to be found in the finished movie.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  "This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel." Jyn's iconic line from the first teaser has made it on to shirts and has even become something of a punk rock motto among "Star Wars" fans. Unfortunately, it didn't find its way into the movie.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  In fact, it seems that most of what we saw of Jyn's meeting with Rebel leadership in that first teaser was removed. All of Mon Mothma's lines as she briefs Jyn on her mission are different in the final version of "Rogue One."

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  This bit, in which Jyn, Cassian and K2-SO are sprinting through the Imperial base on Scarif in their civvies, is notably absent.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  Remember Saw Gererra's (Forest Whitaker) big "What will you become?" speech in the first teaser? Didn't make it into the final cut. And, oddly enough, it seems that his scenes were reshot to give him hair that he didn't have in the first trailer either.

  Lucasfilm/Disney
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  "The power that we are dealing with here is immeasurable." This emphatic line that Krennic utters during his meeting with Darth Vader is nowhere to be found in the final cut.

  Lucasfilm/Disney

You may have noticed a lot of stuff missing

(Originally published on Dec. 15, 2016) All too often these days, big moments from movie trailers don't make it into the final cut. Given the many rumors that "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" was extensively rewritten and reshot earlier this year, it's not entirely surprising that some pieces from the initial production are missing from the final cut. We've gathered up all the big moments from Disney's marketing that didn't make it into "Rogue One" -- including this shot here from the behind-the-scenes sizzle reel they released at Star Wars Celebration in July.

Is Disney Going to Make More Movies Like Rogue One

Source: https://www.thewrap.com/rogue-one-disney-doesnt-get-star-wars-force-awakens/

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