Princess Leia’s first moment in the original “Star Wars: Episode IV” film was giving R2D2 the plans to the infamous Death Star to get them to the rebellion so they could destroy the giant space laser.
Gareth Edwards, director of the recent “Godzilla” reboot film, aimed to answer the question of how she received the plans. He wholly succeed with a cast of likeable and diverse misfits in what is essentially a modern war film set within the Star Wars universe.
Seeing the battles from the perspective of the soldiers fighting them was one of the most exciting parts. This leads to the film’s best quality: it’s cinematography and sense of scale. Some scenes are begging to be framed and hung on a wall, and the visuals are absolutely gorgeous.
Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and Alan Tudyk are all incredible as their respective roles, but the rest of the supporting cast, including a blind monk played by Donnie Yen, his body guard played by Wen Jiang and even a pilot who initially seems to be a simple side character, played by Riz Ahmed all excel in their respective roles.
Ben Mendelsohn’s villainous Orson Krennic is the stand out. What initially seems like a by the numbers villain becomes a man truly bent on power and receiving what he believes is his due. He is reckless when angry and is one of the most complex antagonists seen in a film in quite a while.
The fan service is also strong with this one. Although, in a very relaxed way. Small characters pop up here and there in very amusing ways, and recasting lookalikes for classic characters is a smart decision. Darth Vader also returns for a few brief scenes. However, one of the film’s biggest issues comes from recreating a character completely from CGI.
Reconstructing a character from CGI is fine in theory, but this character is on screen for so much time, with so many camera shots aimed at his face, that it becomes unnerving and immersion breaking at times.
The musical score is also lacking, a shame considering how well known Star Wars is for its scores. Michael Giacchino simply can’t recreate John Williams’ brilliance. However, this along with the film’s other issues, are merely brief annoyances.
Due to its odd pacing issues early on and the strange decision to recreate a crucial character out of CGI, this Star Wars story isn’t perfect. But one thing is certain. A heightened emotional tone, a deeper building of the mythology, a strong cast and striking sense of scale mean that this is the prequel film that we deserved all those years ago. 4.5/5
Photo Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Lucasfilm Ltd.
