Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Title: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Director: Gareth Edwards

Cast: Diego Luna, Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Forest Whitaker, Ben Mendelsohn

    

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was one of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year for various reasons. Reason number one is audiences can’t get enough of Star Wars and number two, they wanted a better Star Wars film than The Force Awakens (2015), which though fun and entertaining, was just a carbon copy of various other Star Wars films. Not that The Force Awakens didn’t have any original elements to it, it did, and it had its fare share of awesome moments to spare no doubt, but it was too much like Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). People wanted a Star Wars film that would break new ground, expand the universe just a little more and The Force Awakens didn’t have enough of that I guess. So here comes Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, promising us a new take on the Star Wars universe, this time there would be no Jedi’s, no magic, no light saber duels, what Rogue One was proposing us was perhaps something totally unheard of in the Star Wars franchise,  a nitty-gritty war movie. Did it deliver?

The premise for Rogue One stems on that mission that occurs somewhere between Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). Rogue One is all about the mission that the rebels go through in order to retrieve the schematics for the Death Star, so they can discover its weakness and destroy it. We get a group of rebels, who are so rebellious they even rebel against the rebels themselves and go out on their own mission. Most of us know how the story turns out because after all this is a prequel, this is an in between tale, so it’s not so much about what will eventually happen, it’s more about how they go about it. How exactly do they do it?

So at least from an originality stand point, I have to give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story kudos because it’s not a carbon copy of anything, it’s at long last a somewhat original story. I mean, if I was to say it was a little bit like anything out  there, I’d have to mention that the opening sequence did echo Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards (2009) a bit, but that’s about it. Rogue One is a one way ticket to hell in which the mission matters more than those trying to achieve it, like many a war movie. The whole War Movie angle is very satisfying, especially when it comes to those awesome and extended space battles which are very complex. It was very focused on those space dog fights, loved that about it.

Kudos to director Gareth Edwards for making a Star Wars movie with decent performances, excellent action sequences and good effects! And all without light sabers and Jedi’s? That’s a feat right there! How original was it to have a Star Wars film take place on a beach? I mean, did you ever think you’d see Storm Troopers or AT-AT’s on a freaking beach? Nope, but there they were fighting amongst the tide and the palm trees! A totally new environment, which goes in tune with Lucas’s formula for his Star Wars films: the ever changing environments. This one takes place in a forest, another one is in a dessert; the other one is in the freezing tundra and so on. So Gareth Edwards didn’t deviate from Lucas’s Star Wars formula, he simply gave it his own spin and sometimes even surpassed Lucas in terms of direction. For example, I loved how Gareth Edwards got to squeeze out intense performances from his actors, something Lucas was never successful at. On Rogue One we get some real drama, the dialog doesn’t feel cheesy or forced. It was delivered with intensity and emotion. I mean, this movie was dramatic and had an overall dead serious tone to it. The robot of the film, Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO does add some levity to the film, but on the upside K-2SO is not annoying or silly like C3-PO could be. So on this film, even the robots act well.

  

The film is not without its missteps though. First, Felicity Jones does not make the strongest lead. She’s supposed to be a rebel leader, but her performance just doesn’t transmit that. By comparison, Rey from The Force Awakens (2015) felt like a much stronger character. It’s not that she’s bad in the role, she does fine, but she doesn’t excel, she doesn’t come off as memorable. She didn’t leave a lasting impression on me. Second weak spot comes in the form of CGI replicas of human characters. In my book, this has never worked well because humans are too hard to duplicate. We’ve seen this tried before in films like TRON: Legacy (2010), a film in which we saw a CGI version of Jeff Bridges. So far, Disney films are the pioneers in this field. The character they brought back to life for Rogue One is Grand Moff Tarkin, originally played by Peter Cushing.  While the CGI replica of Cushing does look, move and talk like Cushing, you can tell it’s not a living breathing thing and so it’s like right there in your face how fake it is and it kinda takes you out of the movie. I would have left these CGI characters in the shadows, or not focus so much on their faces, I mean, as it is it feels like Disney studios simply felt so sure of themselves with their CGI creation that they went and put it right there, up front, for all to see how good they are at computer effects. But truth is no matter how well made these computer effects are, you can always tell when it’s not a human. I really hope film studios will stop doing this sort of thing. To me it’s disrespectful to the actor who’s passed away. But you be the judges on this matter, what say you my dear readers? Should actors be duplicated by computers in this way? To me nothing can replace a real live actor.

But these are minor hiccups in an otherwise amazing Star Wars movie. If you are a fan, you will love this movie. It is not as in your face with the fan service as The Force Awakens was, there are still inside jokes here and there throughout the movie that only true blue hardcore fans of Star Wars will get. Like for example, Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor has no problems in shooting storm troopers first! You’ll see characters you recognize from A New Hope scattered all throughout the movie. You’ll see familiar spaceships, familiar landscapes, aliens and dialog that hints at other films. This is a movie made for Star Wars fans, but without being in your face about it like The Force Awakens was. Final words on Rogue One is this is one of the best Star Wars movies to come around in a long time. So far Disney is doing a fantastic job with these Star Wars movies, can’t wait to see what Episodes 8 and 9 have in store for us. With the amount of money these movies are making right now, I’m sure we’ll be seeing Star Wars movies for a long time to come.

Rating:  5 out of 5  

Valhalla Rising (2009)

Title: Valhalla Rising (2009)

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Mads Mikkelsen

Review:

Within the vast landscape of film, there are many genres and sub-genres. Amongst the many sub-genres that exist there is the type of film known as the “trippy film” or the film that makes you feel like you just ingested large amounts of psychotropic drugs. Amongst these films we can mention Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 (1968), Ken Russell’s Tommy (1975) -or any Ken Russell film for that matter- and Roger Corman’s The Trip (1967). A more recent example would be Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void (2010), a truly hallucinatory film experience. Actually, the best example I can think of for this kind of film is Terry Gilliam’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998). Every time I see that one, I feel like I took a butt load of all the drugs in the world, rolled them up into one big fat joint and smoked it. Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising (2009) definitely falls under this category of film.

"Conan: What is best in life?"

Valhalla Rising tells the story of One Eye, a Viking who is a slave to his masters. His masters make him fight to the death for the entertainment of others and for their own monetary benefit. That is until One Eyed decides he’s had enough of being a slave and finds a way to escape the hands of his oppressors. Once out in the world, One Eye is the master of his destiny. He unwittingly makes friends with a little homeless kid who decides to follow him around. Together they wonder the land, until they stumble upon a crew of Christian Crusaders who invite One Eye and the kid to join their venture of reclaiming Jersulem for Christianity. One Eye and the kid join them. Will they reach Jerusalem? Will One Eye and the kid stay with this pack of Christian Crusaders? What awaits them out there in the world?

I was pleasantly surprised with this movie. But I’ll warn you guys and gals out there, the film is kind of slow. I mean, this film is refreshing because it’s not playing by any of hollywood’s rules for filmmaking, but I’m sure it’s not a film that everyone out there will like. There is no happy ending, no action piece at the beginning middle and end. No big special effects. Valhalla Rising is more of an artful film, more interested in blowing you away with its visuals. The film was shot entirely in Scotland, so we get these vast landscapes with snowy mountains and lots and lots of mist. The wind is blowing most of the time, you kind of feel like your going to see Scottish Immortals trying to chop their heads off at any given moment. The first half of the film, which takes place in these cold windy mountains, has this ice cold atmosphere to it, you really get to absorb it because the director makes sure you get the visuals to really transport yourself to this ice cold world filled with Vikings who only care for killing and maiming, even if its just to amuse themselves.

In these ice cold mountains the film begins, with the main character kicking freaking ass all the way! You see when the film starts; One Eye is a prisoner who is forced to fight to the death with different opponents. In these moments, the film turns extremely violent and graphic. There’s this scene in which One Eye crushes this dudes skull with a rock that is just astoundingly violent and graphic. This premise reminded me a bit of Conan The Barbarian (1982), where Conan was in the same kind of situation, a slave/prisoner who is forced to fight opponents in a ring to the death. Only in this film One Eye kills his masters and sets himself free to wonder the world. Another similarity with Conan The Barbarian is that both films deal with the theme of religion.

The film is divided into 5 Chapters, where we see the main character go through different stages of his voyage. From prisoner, to free man, to warrior of God…and onwards all the way to the final chapter: Sacrifice. The film makes an interesting comment on religion because it takes place during the time when Christianity was spreading through the land, trying to obliterate any other kind of religion that existed out there. It was a time when these “holy crusaders” would go across the land slicing and dicing anyone who wasn’t a Christian. If one of these guys walked up to you, sword in hand and asked you: “are you a Christian?” you’d better pray your answer was a resounding “yes!” or else you would get your head chopped off by these holy crusaders. Or get burned alive. Take your pick. I don’t know what’s so holy about killing people who don’t think like you, but whatever, that was Christianity for ya! Another recent film that explores this type of “become a Christian or die!” mentality is Alejandro Amenobar’s excellent Agora (2010); a film that also explores that pressure felt in different parts of the world to become a Christian and leave any other kind of belief system behind. So One Eye kind of joins these crusaders, but you get the feeling that he is just hitching a ride with them, and his not really into their “holy” crusade. It’s without a doubt a film that comments on religion, specifically Christianity and its intent to get everyone to think like them, spreading their teachings to lands where people already have their belief systems set.

Film gets pretty graphic at times, but dont mistake it for a gorefest

Like I mentioned before, this is a film that is playing by its own rules, so it doesn’t care if we should be in the third act and by this time the hero should be getting to that point where everything is going to be okay. No, this is a film where suddenly the character will have a dream sequence, a premonition, or whole sequences where every character is hallucinating and baked out of their mind. It has long stretches of visual poetry and these are the moments where the director plays a lot with images and colors, using the visuals to create a hallucinatory, nightmarish vibe. The director himself said he conceived the film as an acid trip, so be ready for a movie like that.

Aside from that, another good thing the film has going for it is Mads Mikkelsen’s performance which I really dug. Interesting part of his whole performance is that he doesn’t speak a word in the whole film. He plays the silent warrior who says everything he has to say with the look he can give you with his one eye. This is a guy who’s seen so much hell, he sees words as useless. If he has to say anything, he says it with his axe. Another interesting aspect of the film is that the kid who follows him kind of speaks for him through out the whole film, the kid functions as One Eye’s voice. This was a very intense performance, Mikkelsen certainly owns this film, he carries it on his shoulders admirably.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn (extreme right) with his two main actors

Closing words: Valhalla Rising is not for everyone. It’s a trippy affair, with long winding moments of visual poetry. I would definitely say that you’d have to be in the right mood to see this kind of film. But is it a bad film? I don’t think so! I would recommend this film to those people who appreciate visuals over dialog, or if you simply want to watch an interesting looking film. Still, within its ‘simplicity’, Valhalla Rising does speak some truths. This was my first Nicolas Winding Refn’s film, but based on the visual strength of this film alone and the sheer bravura it exerts, I will definitely be seeing more films from this director. Looking forward to exploring the rest of his repertoire.

Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5