The words “Star Wars” and “prequels” don’t necessarily have the best connotation these days. Therefore, I was cautiously optimistic about Rogue One when I went to see it with my friends Thursday night. I’m happy to say, my prequel fears weren’t realized. Rogue One is a Star Wars prequel that absolutely works and adds greater depth to the original movie.
Rogue One is set immediately before the first Star Wars movie, now known as Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie tells the story of the rebel spies who stole the plans to the Empire’s planet-killing Death Star, the main backstory to the first movie set forth in its opening crawl.
While Rogue One features some familiar faces from the original and the prequel trilogy, along with some cameos we fanboys completely love, the main characters are all new. For the most part these characters are not only eager to rebel, they’re instantly eager to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire like Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
The story’s protagonist, Jyn Erso is a very reluctant rebel. She is also very reminiscent of Han Solo. She’s a loner and an outcast, surviving in the galaxy as a criminal. While the Empire has taken everything from Jyn, her priority is self-preservation not rebellion.
She’s forced into an alliance with Cassian Andor, a rebel intelligence officer who’s also lost everything to the Empire. Overthrowing the Emperor is what drives him, but he’s no white Jedi Knight. Andor’s willing to do brutal things as a means to that end.
Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor are thrust together despite the lack of trust they have for each other. Trust is something that must be earned as they seek out information about the Death Star. The trust gained along their journey allows theses characters to grow.
The other allies who join Jyn and Cassian as Rogue One progresses, also adds to this growth. Each character reaches a certain point of maturity as individuals, and clarity as rebels. It is these individuals who will determine the success or the failure of the Rebellion.
The Star Wars movies have always shown how the acts and decisions of individuals impact the larger scope of history. This is true in our real world just as it is in the Star Wars universe. Key people do things that have consequences on countless others that will reverberate throughout the years.
That is the essence of Rogue One. Without the actions of Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and their small band of rebels, there wouldn’t be a reason to tell the story of the original Star Wars.
Rogue One also does something that really wasn’t seen in the original trilogy. It shows the despotic oppression of the Empire in an up close and personal way. We see an Imperial prison and labor camp, killings for no reason other than to terrorize those standing nearby, and the military occupation of a planet simply to strip it of it’s resources.
Similarities to the despotic actions of Nazi and Communist regimes in recent history are not incidental. They are clearly there to create empathy between an earthbound audience and the plight of fictional characters in a galaxy far, far away.
From a storytelling perspective, the most amazing thing to me about Rogue One is how perfectly it serves as a prologue to the original Star Wars. While Rogue One is its own story with its own characters, it fits rightly into the world of Star Wars that George Lucas originally created for us back in 1977.
After seeing Rogue One, I went home and put on Star Wars.
Rogue One dove tails neatly into the beginning of A New Hope. It made the opening crawl which I’d read at least a hundred times have deeper meaning. It made the mission of getting the stolen Death Star plans as vitally important to me as it had been when I was a kid.
Much more significantly, Rogue One made me have a deeper appreciation for that first movie which had come 39 years before. When a prequel or sequel can add greater meaning to that which preceded it, that’s when you know you’ve been told a fine story indeed.
Have you seen Rogue One yet? If so, let me know what you thought in the comment section below.