Fun
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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is finally on Netflix and it’s a film full of firsts. It’s the first Star Wars “anthology” film, the first Star Wars film to land on Netflix, and the first film to have to wrestle with reclaiming Darth Vader’s legacy. Yes, Darth Vader is in Rogue One. He makes for a splashy addition to the “grounded” film’s fare. He looms in the shadows, force chokes Ben Mendelsohn, and aggressively dispatches with a bunch of Rebel soldiers. It seems that among other things, Rogue One is desperately trying to make Vader scary again.
The very first Star Wars film opens with fear. We are immediately introduced to Darth Vader, a towering menace in a sweeping black cape. His face is covered with a mask that looks like it’s been melted together out of nightmares. In Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Darth Vader is essentially a superhuman font of terror. He stalks our heroes, kills our mentors, and dabbles in occult mysteries. However, as the Star Wars films went on, we began to know Darth Vader as a very different man: Anakin Skywalker. First he was presented as a tragic figure, but later, in the prequel films, Anakin became a petulant letdown of a hero, prone to temper tantrums and simpering monologues about sand. For a long space of time, the last glimpse fans got of Vader was the end of Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Anakin Skywalker’s final transformation into the legendary Sith Lord winds up being an incredibly campy moment, ready made for mockery and internet memes.
No matter what you think of the prequels — as I know they have a great many vocal defenders – the truth is the more we learned about Darth Vader, the more he lost his menace. Ever since George Lucas signed over Lucasfilm to Disney, there’s been a concerted effort to “Make Vader Scary Again.” His memory looms like a shadow over Star Wars: The Force Awakens: His grandson, Ben Solo (Adam Driver), meditates upon his charred helmet when he needs to pluck up the verve to fully embrace his darker side and the mantle of Kylo Ren. So, he’s back to being a source of darkness. But it’s the animated series, Star Wars Rebels, that does the most work reclaiming Vader’s legacy as a villain. He pops up in the Season Two premiere to wreck havoc on our heroes. In the world of animation, he can be presented at his full strength. There’s no physical limitation to the damage he can unleash. Rogue One aspires to connect the Vader of the animated world (and our childhood nightmares) with what we see on the big screen.
But does it succeed?
At first, I thought the answer was a resounding yes. I appreciated the sparse way Vader was used. He only appears in two, arguably three, scenes. The first of these scenes takes us to his own personal base on the planet Mustafar. He’s introduced first in his bacta tank and next with his shadow. His short scene with Mendelsohn’s Director Krenic is designed to hit upon our nostalgia for the “old Vader” of the original trilogy. That Vader was an imposing figure, armed with a badass force choke and complete confidence. You know how we know he’s confident? He spouts stone cold puns. Any man who can throw down a pun without giggling after has a giant sense of self importance. Such is Classic Scary Vader™.
Now, there’s a flip side to this scene as well. As much as it helps restore Vader’s rep as the greatest Star Wars villain, it diminishes Krenic. Ben Mendelsohn is an Emmy Award-winning character actor and a pro at playing intimidating antagonists. However, his Rogue One character never feels all that threatening. Because he’s constantly being undermined by Vader and the living CGI ghost of Grand Moff Tarkin, his role amounts to nothing more than a frustrated bureaucrat. Why should he scare us when there’s a much bigger, much badder, much scarier guy with a red lightsaber waiting to murder a bunch of good guys just trying to save the day?
See? You just forgot about Orson Krenic. You forgot about him because he was a measly excuse of an antagonist next to the neon gothic horror that is Darth FUCKING Vader. That’s the beauty (and the beastliness) of this final Vader scene. We get to see him in action. We get to see the full breadth of the horror he can unleash. It’s awesome and it’s glorious and it doesn’t totally fit in with the otherwise gritty tone of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This showcase for the power of the Force almost dilutes the powerful sacrifice of the main cast of characters, a team of three-dimensional characters who had to grapple with very human fear in order to pull off a concerted act of true heroism.
They’re all great, but Darth Vader kind of steals the show.
There are very few things I love in life as much as I love Star Wars. Its mythology fueled my childhood and its vast wonderland of an expanded universe has provided me with solace and inspiration in good times and bad. So I was really freaking happy to see that Rogue One made Vader scary again. The film critic in me just has to wonder if Vader’s bombastic cameo overshadowed the somber beauty of the rest of the film. Was Darth Vader too awesome for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story?
