Above, Rogue One visual story guide page.... (All images courtesy of Disney and Lucas Film)
Spoilers
Spoilers, below!
Spoilers
Spoilers
You’ve been warned!
Spoilers, ahead!
Rogue One suffers, like the other films, from a lack of realistic complexity in a world of the highest-of-tech. Everything is taken for granted, it always works, frayed wires and items can hang out of a device and it will still function. Inspired by the “Droids,” Lightsabers, ships and all, THIS film left me wanting more. Showing how it all works, would have been a good addition.
What I like the most…. this is a story of how an engineer built the most destructive weapon in the galaxy. Apparently, an engineer so sought after in the galaxy, was made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Being extremely GOOD at one thing made him MVE (most valuable engineer). Which is definitely counter to today’s engineering climate, where we have to be proficient at a spread of subjects. We can’t just be electrical engineers, we also have to be mechanically adept and an advanced coder.
I would love to see where all these Star Wars devices are made. George Lucas I’m looking in your direction. What was your concept? Forexample, one book (now not canon) mentioned a race of aliens that made all the tech. If I recall, they almost magically could design systems. I guess that was an explanation. Anyway…
Just like real engineers, once the Death Star team was finished with their work… they were unceremoniously “let go.” Not as violent, but this has happened to me and a few other engineers I know. They bring you in for a job that only you can do, soon as it’s done, you’re gone. It’s money. I am sure the Death Star engineers were offered big space bux. That's inspiration for us all, right? Space bux? The moment you sit in the dank cubical to work, you realize it was a huge mistake.
As the story goes... Things happen… some exciting, some on the slower side, and some quips thrown in here and there.
Our main hero gets a message from her father, the designer of the Death Star. In it, he apologizes for being away for most of her life. But, he worked tirelessly to hide a flaw in the Death Star design, for her… and the rest of the galaxy. If he could deliver a holographic message, could he not also attach a file with the flaw laid out? Not very creative here, the message was on what looked like a bulky USB flash storage device.
Technological difficulties plagues our heroes, as they must get a signal out to the rebels. Which they can’t do unless they plug in some random cable from their cargo ship. In retrospect, wireless isn’t standard? All their personal communication devices seem to work just fine, at any distance, even inside the bowels of some super-structure.
Unused scene from Rogue One. What is Jyn holding? Looks like a 5.25" hard-drive.
It’s no mystery what the rebels were searching for, plans to the Death Star. Where were these plans? On what looked like a 5.25” ancient hard disk drive from the 1970's. (Fitting for the time the film was made.) I could see the gravitas being diminished if all they needed was something the size of a micro SD card. To be honest, I’m OK with the big disk drive. But, remember episode 2? Didn’t Count Dooku has every aspect of the Death Star design on something much smaller?
I felt this was realistic to designing of modern day technology. Imagine the number of files involved in the design of an airplane, the LHC, or even a smartphone. You need a lot of storage. Now... they are building a planet! However, we wouldn’t store the files inside a giant “claw-game” like in Rogue One.
The final, ultimate, step that everyone will die for is literally a single lever switch. The “go” switch, I suppose, for data transfer. Of course, just out of reach as the big-bad shows up to stop our hero. So cliché… didn’t we see this in Captain America the Winter Soldier too? After all is said and done, the end was what you’d expect, with a twist. And of course, "that Vader scene."
Since we all have watched the next movie, A New Hope, since the 1970’s… we know what must happen here. In the end it is a drama -- and not an exploration of the high-technology in this universe. Perhaps, the Han Solo film will focus more on the tech behind it all… I mean, they are always fixing the Millennium Falcon after all.
Best parts:
- An engineer is the unsung hero of the series. Changes how the whole series can be looked at. An engineer saved the galaxy from evil technology – and a new Jedi saved it from spiritual evil.
- Darth Vader scenes.
- New devices, ships, and rag-tag heroes.
- Cool new Droids. Chopper from Star Wars Rebels, too.
- It's a fun ride overall.
The iffy areas:
- Tech just works. No explanation even when engineering is involved in the plot. Geez… can you imagine the number of revisions on every single part of the Death Star? I imagine where were plenty more flaws in the design the rebels could exploit. HA HA!
- Clichés and tropes
A solid 3.8 out of 5, for sure.
Message me at: cabe(at)element14(dot)com
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