2016 is an unpredictable year. Perhaps not as packed with anticipated releases as 2015, but there are excitements to be have. DC and Marvel is going head to head - a minor battle between Doctor Strange and the Suicide Squad and the final battle betw...
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17 I ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY I Film Discussion
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Star Wars is at the very least one of the greatest fictional universes ever conceived. For the past four decades or more, the universe of Jedi, Siths and the force had grown to become entrenched in the foundations of blockbusters history. This is a franchise that had evolved over time, shifting and changing not only according to the ideas of its original creator but the fans. It is influenced by the ever-changing mindset of the world.
Today in the 21st Century, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – a movie that was initially conceived to merely elaborate a single line in the opening crawl of the first Star Wars film – follows a story of a band of rebel fighters caught amidst a complicated battle between order and terror. It is a story of heroism and sacrifices but it is also a complex look at the war on terror. It is hard to overlook the obvious metaphor, with stormtroopers on 'tanks' rolling through a foreign-looking city, searching houses and causing disturbances. Some extremists threw in a bomb. A stormtrooper orders the tank to fire at a building. His reasoning: There's a "terrorist". Shootings ensued and an innocent girl is crying in the crossfire.
Our main character, Jyn Erso, was the first to rush in to save the girl. The sight of a crying girl likely evoked the memory of her father – one that we saw in the beginning. Jyn is a daughter of a scientist working to build a... dare we say... weapon of mass destruction for the empire. She despised what her father had done.
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Jyn spends a large part of the film's runtime deciding what she really feels about her father, the empire and the rebellion. Although not physically gone, her father became something of a past. Thus she became the seemingly hollow, introverted survivor we see at the beginning (after the titles). Throughout the film she would regain the rebel spirit that likely lived in her family. We see that in her mother and also in her father.
Jyn is the centerpiece of the story, and a highly problematic one. Calling her initially "hollow" is no exaggeration. She seems like a quiet angst type but the audience never gets to see her sit around and have a beer with someone. The introduction to Rey in The Force Awakens efficiently builds a personal and likeable connection between the main character and the audience. In the case of Jyn, we know her by her motivation and her attitude. By the end of the film however, you feel this is sufficient. Every action she takes is explained. The passionate and at times sarcastic attitude is shown in a very minimalistic way and yet we do accept it. At the end of the day, the empire, or the war incited by the empire, broke her family.
Other than Jyn, the film also focuses on a myriad of other characters – Diego Luna plays Cassian a no-nonsense and brilliant rebel fighter. He's an experienced rebel and the war has hardened him. We meet his sidekick, K2SO, a re-programmed imperial robot with a sardonic style of comedy. They come across a defected imperial pilot who wishes to redeem himself. We also come across Chirrut and Baze played by Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen respectively. The former is an optimistic kungfu master who is strong with the force and the latter is an archetypal quiet, angry I-don't-give-a-shit-about-any-of-you mercenary. Both lost their homes to the empire.
