They’re pretty positive, so Star Wars fans, looks like you’ve got a…

…huh…?

Ok, so the reviews are pretty positive and Rottentomatoes.com has the film scoring a nice 84% positive among critics so far but…is there a proverbial disturbance in the force?

Some of the positive reviews clearly are that: Very positive.  Naturally, there are those who outright do not like the film.  While going through the reviews both good and bad, I get at least a couple of repeated criticisms leveled at the film by most critics.  They are: 1) The film’s leads, including Felicity Jones’ Jyn Erso, are very bland and 2) the film kinda muddles along for the first 2/3rds of its run time before giving audiences a rousing climax/finale.

One of the more curious reviews I read was this one, by Germain Lussler at i09.com, a writer who I find very entertaining to read.  His review of the film can be found here:

Rogue One Truly Understands How To Be A Great Star Wars Film

Based on that headline, you would think the film was a home run for Mr. Lussler, who in his review admits to being a HUGE Star Wars fan.

Yet as positive as the review starts out, Mr. Lussler then notes the things he feels are either wrong or don’t work in the film and, by the end of his review, wonders:

But as you leave (the movie), you may also start to wonder something. The film has so many surprises and winks to the rest of the franchise—are all those fan moments of excitement and recognition masking the film’s other flaws? If you’re a Star Wars fan, it’s hard to say definitively when you’re on one side or the other, but I do feel the characters, pacing, and story are engaging without them. Hopefully the many connections to the other films—and there are a lot of them—act more as sprinkles on top.

The fact of the matter is that for many, Star Wars and its various films have moved beyond critical reaction.  To many, the love of the features is such that they’ll dive into any new film of the franchise with an incredibly sunny disposition and, in many cases, actively ignore any faults that may lie within.  A reassessment and realization of a film’s flaws (if any) may -or may not- happen later on but by then the latest movie will have made a tremendous amount at the box-office and, in future years and regardless of how they feel about the film later on these same fans will own copies of those movies as well.

While George Lucas prequel films are today almost universally panned, people forget they did great business at the box office and people lined up and eagerly watched each and every one of these films.  At the time of their original release many stated they loved the films, only to later go back and admit their flaws.  I suspect many of these fans who later admitted to not liking those films have copies of them and, with the arrival of Rogue One, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if many do a viewing of these three prequel films before going into the latest one, which takes place just before the events of the original Star Wars film (Or Star Wars IV: A New Hope as it was renamed).

As I’ve stated many times before, I was never all that into Star Wars and doubt I’ll catch Rogue One in theaters when it is released this week.  Having said that, unlike all those who seemed to take glee in stomping on a creative work, I sincerely hope fans get what they need from in this film.

I sincerely hope they enjoy the hell out of it.

I’ll say this up front: I’m not a big Star Wars fan.  I’ve written many times before of how, as an 11 year old boy, I watched the original film in a full-to-the-brim theater in 1977 and perhaps a week or so after it was originally released…and while everyone around me went nuts while I just couldn’t get into the film (you can read more about that here).

I mention this only because I want to quickly add the following: Presenting this below information is in no ways meant to be me “gloating” regarding potentially bad news regarding Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (ROSW from now on).  As I’ve tried to make it painfully clear many times before, I have no problems with people having diverse opinions about works of art, be they books, movies, TV shows, etc. etc. etc.  Just because I like/don’t like something doesn’t mean I expect the entire world to follow my opinion and vice versa.

Having said that, let’s dive into the “controversy” surrounding ROSW.

Page 6 published the following article regarding ROSW on the May 30th:

Disney Execs In A Panic Over Upcoming Star Wars Film

The upshot of the article, written by Emily Smith, was that Disney Executives were “not fully satisfied with the first cut (of ROSW) from director Gareth Edwards” and that the film would have to “go back (for) four weeks of expensive reshoots in July“.

After a few days of rumors, Germain Lussier over at io9 provided an interesting summary of the information regarding the film and its potential reshoots up to that point:

More Details Have Been Revealed About Those Rogue One Reshoots

Then came this article which presented even worse news regarding ROSW.  Found on makingstarwars.com and written by Jason Ward, the article stated the ROSW reshoots might add up to as much as a whopping 40% of the film…

How Extensive Will the Rogue One Reshoots Be?

Amid rumors of new writers coming in to help work over the material (even that J. J. Abrams was going to have a more active role in overseeing the “fixing up”), there came this article from The Hollywood Reporter and written by Alex Ritman and Borys Kit which noted…

Star Wars: Rogue One enlists renowned stunt coordinator Simon Crane for reshoots

So, what are we to make of all this?

Again, I don’t for a second wish to be snarky or put down Star Wars fans.  While the franchise didn’t do much for me, I’m always curious about movie news such as this and I find the conclusions one can make regarding these bits of news fascinating.

This first conclusions one can make regarding these stories are the easiest: After Gareth Edwards finished his principle photography for ROSW and presented a rough cut of the same to Disney studio executives, they were clearly not happy with what he did.  Whether the executives are right or not, and I suspect Mr. Edward’s “cut” of the film will eventually make its way to home video, is irrelevant: The executives are paying the bills and if they feel the product is not “up to snuff” they have every right in the world to demand re-shoots, whether they involve 10% of the film or 40% or even 100%.  It’s their money and time and if they have each, they can do with it what they will.

There is, however, one other interesting conclusion one can draw from this and, I would hasten to say, it is my own conclusion and could very well be wrong: It appears there are several “loose lips” in this particular production and they’re not bothered at all with throwing Gareth Edwards under the bus.

The fact of the matter is that all these bits of information can’t help but make him, and his initial cut of the film, look bad.  With each new name floated out there being brought in to “fix” the movie, we’re left to think executives at Disney have lost faith in Mr. Edwards based on that original cut and, further, feel the need to not only bring in others but announce to the world they’ve brought in others to make things right.

The ultimate conclusions regarding ROSW will be made after it is released to theaters, of course, but think about this: If the film is a HUGE success and winds up beloved, those studio executives get to pat themselves on the back and say they saved a flawed/bad Gareth Edwards film from failure by bringing in all these others to help make the film “good”.  On the other hand, if the film “fails” both critically and commercially, these same executives, thanks to the rash of news released to this point, can point their fingers at Mr. Edwards and say “Well, we tried our best to save the film but there was just no way to save Gareth Edwards’ flawed work.”

Either way, it appears people out there are setting themselves up to create a win-win scenario for Disney and her executives and a lose-lose scenario for Mr. Edwards.