Review Detail

I enjoyed DigModiFicaTion's Solo edit so much that I just had to check out his take on Rogue One, and despite the title (which I'm not a fan of), it didn't disappoint. Making a few conservative cuts to the first act of this film adds a level of cohesion that I always felt this movie lacked, pacing-wise. The distracting nostalgic cameos are mostly gone, the Bor Gullet sequence is excised, and the narrative is squarely focused on Jyn Erso, making her the proper protagonist. A couple of darlings are killed in the process (I badly miss Cassian's original introduction), but it's undeniably effective at cleaning up the messy first half of this flick.

Rogue One has always been a mixed-to-positive bag, primarily due to how little drive I feel from Erso as a character and all the fan service. This edit mostly solves the latter problem and somewhat addresses the former. I still don't find Jyn that interesting; the most exciting bits of her life happen off-screen, and there's little built around her relationship with Galen. But streamlining the rest of the crew into supporting roles and cleaning up the second-unit footage helps us connect with her properly. And this is still a beautiful-looking film with an affirming theme; hope in the face of existential crisis is an idea that resonates even more in November 2024.

I still *hate* CGI Tarkin and will never get over it. Go look up Guy Henry, the actor who plays him; the dude looks SO much like Peter Cushing, it's actually unsettling. Cast him! Let actors act! CGI de-aging/deepfake/necromancy is weird!