Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is known for its impressive connections to the original trilogy of Star Wars films and its surprisingly brilliant reception. It explained a few problems with the original films well while telling a necessary story in the perfect way, without attempting to maneuver its way around the ending it had to have.
However, despite its brilliant response, it wasn’t the perfect film. There are certainly a few continuity errors that take you away from the well-crafted Star Wars universe, even if it is just for a few seconds.
The Practical And Animated Effects Don’t Match Up
The overuse of animation and green screen was cited as one of the biggest issues faced by the prequel trilogy. Everyone was, as expected, delighted to find out that the sequels (and Star Wars Stories) were going to focus on practical effects and, where the animation was necessary, just add it on when needed.
Rogue One pulls this off almost perfectly but lets itself down in just one key scene. The U-Wing, as shown when it's stationary, has a different design on its door than it does when it is animated for take-off. It seems strange that they didn’t just design the animated version based on what the practical one looked like.
The Giant Jedi Statue Moves
One of the coolest things shown in the Rogue One trailer was the huge Jedi statue which had crumbled to the ground and was laying on its side. It was a great metaphor for the destruction of the Jedi at the end of Revenge Of The Sith, yet a subtle symbol of hope.
For some reason, though, we see it lying on its left side at first, but it flips over to the right when the camera zooms out. It’s a pretty obvious issue, but more to the point, why did they animate it both ways in the first place? This one we don't quite understand.
Inconsistent Rain
When Galen Urso dies, the pathetic fallacy of heavy rain surrounds him. We see it on the face of everyone around him, as well as bouncing up off of the ground around his body. For some reason, when the camera zooms in on his face, it clearly isn’t raining anymore.
Unless it stopped raining in the split-second it took to change shot (and then started again as soon as the shot changed back), then they obviously forgot to make the rain pour during the all-important close-up.
Sound Travelling Too Fast
There are a variety of science-based issues littered around the Star Wars universe. Mainly, we all know that space is a vacuum and therefore most of the franchise should be completely silent, and half of the time a character emerges from their ship, they should float away like a big block of ice.
However, Rogue One also forgets the speed of sound. When the landing pads explode, the Imperial Officers immediately hear the sound. Because they’re so far away, there should have been a gap of at least a second before they heard the explosions.
Landing Gear Problems
Problems with the landing gear seem to be just as prevalent an issue in the Star Wars world as they are in the real world of air travel. It happens to the Millenium Falcon all the time and even shows up during Rogue One when the transporter is getting ready to land.
While this instance doesn't show the landing gear being broken, we do hear a character explain that it has been locked in place. About a minute later, we see it actually being deployed, indicating that what the character had said a moment ago wasn't true at all.
Saw Gerrera's Breathing Mask
The very cool Saw Gerrera only gets cooler when he is equipped with his breathing mask. Normally, it sits on the center of his chest a bit like Darth Vader’s very own equipment, but there is one shot, when he is in conversation with Jyn, in which it changes position of its own accord.
It seems to have moved to the side in a close-up, suggesting that the directors might have been experimenting with a slightly different look and forgot to take it back to its original position.
Bail Organa’s Age
This continuity error is more down to a massive compliment paid directly to Jimmy Smits. This film is set around twenty years after Revenge Of The Sith, in which we see Bail Organa adopt Princess Leia. While he has a couple of grey hairs, Smits has aged 12 years between roles but looks practically no different.
You’d expect that as twenty years have passed, he would look at least slightly different, but he really doesn’t. Congratulations are in order for Smits, I guess.
Immovable Galen
When the shuttle (on the landing pad on which Galen is lying unconscious) begins to take off, we see Jyn pushed backward by the sheer force of the thrusters. Technically, Jyn is conscious and has the ability to withstand this or hold onto something, but isn’t able to, suggesting that there is a seriously strong force acting on her.
You’d expect Galen, who is unconscious and unable to even attempt to fight against this, would go flying across the landing pad just like his daughter. For some reason, he manages to lay in the same place, completely unmoved.
Moving Too Much Galen
Despite his impressively immovable strength demonstration, Galen’s legs don’t have the same rigidity. When he is laying there unconscious, his legs are moving everywhere with every change of shot. In the first shot, it’s his left leg that is splayed outwards, then his right takes on this role before it settles back on his left.
It isn’t the most noticeable thing in the world, but it shows that they must have filmed these scenes separately rather than from two different angles.
The Big Retcon
Finally, this continuity error isn’t an error at all. In fact, it’s basically the retroactive plot element that Rogue One exists to explain and moves towards throughout. The reason the Death Star had a flaw in the original films (which was never explained and has been looked at as a bit of a plot hole) was that it was planned and intentional from a rogue designer. Genius.
It makes perfect sense, and if anything, gives a newfound strength to the original trilogy. However, to purists who like to view the original films as the only canonical Star Wars story, then giving a reason to replace the ‘it just was’ mentality of the Death Star flaw might take away from the story they once knew.