Star Wars: 10 Things Rogue One Did Best

10. Gareth Edwards' Directing Style

Gareth Edwards has a lot in common with George Lucas when you think about it. A young upstart (Life begins at forty after all) who got his big break on an effects driven feature (Monsters) that he was the driving force behind. And even though he only had one big budget blockbuster under his belt, he was the perfect choice for Rogue One.

As a director, Edwards has a much faster and chaotic style than we have previously seen in Star Wars, which works brilliantly in the action scenes. It also helps that he’s very hands-on. If you look at the behind the scenes footage, you’ll often see him behind the camera.

Which is an approach that can bring unexpected and often excellent results. A lot of shots both in the movie and only seen in the trailers come from random moments of Edwards stumbling across things that work by constantly beavering around the set looking for different camera angles.

And thanks to new technology and an iPad with a Vive Controller stuck on the back, Edwards was able to bring his style to the entirely digital scenes like the space battle, allowing him to be even more hands on.

Edwards’ way of doing things has exactly the kind of energy that Star Wars needs. Or maybe he was just hopped up on Blue Milk and Death Sticks the whole time.