Rogue One: Star Wars should Lean into its Stories

Recently I went back an watched Rogue One, the first of the Star Wars Stories movies. And after much thought and soul searching, I think it might be my favourite of the modern Star Wars movies. It feels like the one movie of the franchise that understands why the series was fleshed out as much as it was in what was once known as the expanded universe.

In my mind there are two kinds of “hardcore” Star Wars fan. There are the people like me who have spent the last few decades of their lives buying terribly written novels, collecting comic books and playing all of the games, simply enjoying spending time in the world and getting an increasingly complex sense of this fascinating setting.

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The Star Wars Fan Backlash is Pathetic

I didn’t really grasp the extent of how bad this problem was until very recently, it’s not that it’s just a recent issue. I know fans of things generally suck as a rule, it’s just, after the release of Solo the buzz around the internet was that maybe we were already burning out on Star Wars. This seems like a ridiculous statement to me personally. I went into that movie with pretty low expectations and ended up enjoying it regardless. Because I’m a fan of the franchise and even if an individual movie isn’t my tastes, there is usually something in there for me to enjoy.

Some Disney executives have contributed this poor performance to something more than simple “burnout”. One thought would be that Solo under performed because a significant number of people were boycotting the franchise, this coming as a result of their distaste of The Last Jedi, which came out last December. I always knew the movie was divisive, but for this to be the reaction of some people who regard themselves as fans is baffling to me.

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I wanted to hate the Han Solo movie

I walked into Solo with pretty low expectations, I’ve not been especially excited about this one since it was announced. Walking out though, I can happy say that I has a lot of fun with this movie. I worry though, that my enjoyment of this movie was purely from a place of deeply seeded Star Wars fandom that lessens me as a person.

I spoke about the problems this movie had in its production before, how Phil Lord an Christopher Miller were given the boot as directors and replaced with an infinitely more middle of the road director in Ron Howard. And while some of the excitement I had upon leaving the cinema has worn off, I still got a lot out of this flick.

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