With “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” director Gareth Edwards has made an entertaining and intense, if mildly frustrating, war picture set in a galaxy far, far away. As a huge blockbuster, its tone, morally ambiguous characters and often bleak resolutions set it apart from standard studio fare. The first standalone Star Wars picture is sometimes as admirable as it is enjoyable, but it also has some glaring problems that are clearly holding the movie back from reaching its full potential. The good news is that it’s still a fine start to this new branch of standalone Star Wars stories.

The story opens with a young Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) seeing her father, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), being taken away by the Empire’s Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) in order to complete construction on a powerful space station called the Death Star. After her father is kidnapped, Jyn is raised by rebel-turned-extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a standout character who’s barely human. Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy’s script then cuts to an older, more dangerous Jyn in custody of the Empire. She’s been living much of her life under pseudonyms until she’s intercepted by Rebel forces and commanded to lead them to Saw Gerrera. Leading the mission are Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), who doesn’t trust Jyn, and a quippy, rewired Imperial droid named K2-SO (Alan Tudyk), who calculates that the odds she will betray them are strong. In the end, however, Jyn agrees to join the small band of rebels in an attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star.

The pacing in the beginning is a little off, cutting between Jyn and a pilot (Riz Ahmed) with an important message, but the characters are well-established, and they are the greatest appeal of “Rogue One.” Jyn isn’t much of a talker. She’s defined more by action and internalized emotions, but when she does speak, she’ll often question the Rebels. Many of the film’s heroes live in the grey, which is where Jyn lies. It’s said she that used to want to make a difference, that she’d go up against the Empire at any cost. Along her journey, she changed, and we get to see Jyn get back into the fight. It’s a compelling arc, but she’s not the only well-defined character with her own distinct personality and arc. The relationship between Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) and Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) is a surprising, funny and touching friendship that deals with faith. These two make up for a significant portion of the film’s emotional backbone.

Less compelling are the villains, and that’s rarely something you can say about the Empire. Orson Krennic doesn’t live up to the bar set by previous Star Wars villains, but even taking the character on his own terms, he’s underwhelming. He’s worried about his position in the Empire, but we’ve seen that conflict before. Another part of the problem is that many of Mendelsohn’s scenes involve him talking to an ill-conceived CG character. It’s a serious distraction in the film. Despite ILM’s otherwise stunning work, this character pulls you right out of the gritty and tangible reality that Edwards, cinematographer Greg Fraser and all involved have created.

The world building is top-notch. Edwards and the screenwriters show you the characters who previously lurked in the shadows of this huge universe. While “Rogue One” is a prequel, and its story isn’t as epic as the main series, it definitely expands the world in some impressive, clever and dramatic ways. The drastically different perspectives provide a new and unique view of this war, and Edwards does it make feel like war.

“Rogue One” is one of the more intense Star Wars movies. Edwards shoots very subjective and visceral action. The opening alone, which is a quiet and suspenseful sequence, has a fly-on-the-wall approach with some immersive, up-close-and-personal shots and warm, palpable environments. When the camera is barely managing to keep up with the characters during the chaos of the battle sequence, it’s immediate and thrilling. The major third act battle makes up for some of the film’s problems, including a second act which slows down considerably and makes Cassian’s arc more calculated than natural. Not all of the characters in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” get their due, but the ones that do make Edwards’ film and the world of Star Wars more convincing.

Does Pixar have a spy within its ranks? In 2008, the studio announced a project titled “Newt,” which involved two amphibians that were the last of their kind on Earth. Three years later, 20th Century Fox released “Rio,” which featured two birds that are the last of their kind. (Pixar scrapped “Newt” in 2010, citing an inability to get the story right, while acknowledging that Fox was going to beat them to the market.) Shortly after Lee Unkrich won an Oscar for directing “Toy Story 3,” Pixar announced that his next project would be about the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Cut to the present, where Fox once again beats Pixar to the market with the similarly themed “The Book of Life.” Don’t be surprised if Pixar is more tight-lipped in the future when it comes to non-sequel projects.

Of the two ‘stolen Pixar’ movies, “The Book of Life” is hands down the better movie. The animation is spectacular (executive producer Guillermo Del Toro’s influence, for sure), the story is breezy but smart (well, smart-ish), and it teaches valuable lessons about family, honor and being true to oneself. It also raises the stakes on pop music drop-ins (having a character sing a modern-day pop song in an out-of-context time period) by having the guts to use a Radiohead song. The movie gets a star for that moment alone.

A group of children are taken to a museum, and their tour guide Mary Beth (Christina Applegate) tells them the story of La Muerte (Kate del Castillo), ruler of the Land of the Remembered, agreeing to a wager with Xibalba (Ron Perlman), ruler of the Land of the Forgotten. The wager concerns best friends Manolo and Joaquin, and which one of them will win the heart of their friend Maria. Maria is sent to Spain to study, and when she returns years later, Manolo (Diego Luna) is a bullfighter who’d rather be a musician, and Joaquin (Channing Tatum) is a brave, powerful soldier. Xibalba, who has already interfered with the bet, senses that Manolo has the upper hand, and begins a chain of events that will send Manolo searching both netherworlds for Maria (Zoe Saldana), where he will learn a lot about his family history, and therefore himself, than he ever knew.

Again, how cool is it to hear an animated character in a major studio movie singing Radiohead instead of, say, Third Eye Blind or One Direction? The performance is brief, but it’s beautiful. Also, Ice Cube plays this wacky Candle Maker character that operates at the same level as La Muerte and Xibalba, and even though there is nothing about his character that makes sense, he steals nearly every scene he’s in.

There is a bit too much “Shrek” in the proceedings, though. While the Radiohead scene was genius, several of the subsequent song choices, aside from the new material co-written by Paul Williams (yes, that Paul Williams), are hokey. There are a couple of gross bathroom jokes (which, admittedly, my 7-year-old son thought were hilarious), and while Tatum was fine as Joaquin, it’s disheartening that the studio felt obligated to hire a Gringo in order to raise the movie’s profile, when there are a dozen Latino actors who would have knocked that role out of the park (Javier Bardem, anyone?).

The fact that “The Book of Life” boasts such a layered story structure (the tour guide talking about the gods betting on the mortals, thereby giving the audience three universes of characters) is huge in terms of distancing the movie from the Pixar Day of the Dead movie that will now likely never be. Yes, they went to places that Pixar would never go (frosted churros, ewww), but that works both ways (again, the Radiohead song). Hopeless romantics will love this movie, while everyone else will learn about the benefits of being a hopeless romantic. Sounds like a win-win to us.

“Casa de mi Padre”

Will Ferrell’s Spanish-language comedy “Casa de mi Padre” is exactly what you’d expect from the “Saturday Night Live” alum; although it’s good for a few laughs, the one-joke concept results in more misses than hits. Ferrell plays Armando Alvarez, the eldest son of a Mexican rancher in danger of losing his land. When Armando’s brother Raul (Diego Luna) returns home with his new fiancée (Genesis Rodriguez) pledging to save the ranch, he inadvertently thrusts the family into a war with a local drug lord (Gael Garcia Bernal). Essentially a telenovela done in the style of a grindhouse film, “Casa de mi Padre” is amusing at times, but it never amounts to more than a few chuckles. This is one very odd movie – even more than the typical Will Ferrell comedy – complete with musical numbers (“You No Se” is not only funny, but catchy as well), painted set backgrounds and talking animal puppets. Ferrell handles the challenge of acting entirely in Spanish remarkably well, but it’s a gimmick that loses its charm pretty fast. Fans of the actor will enjoy his latest in a series of bizarre career moves, but for everyone else, the film’s quirkiness only goes so far.

“Sleepwalk with Me”

Most stand-up comics probably only dream about making a movie as funny and honest as Mike Birbiglia’s “Sleepwalk with Me,” let alone one that marks their directorial debut. Based on his one-man show (which was in turn inspired by actual events from his life), Birbiglia stars as a fictional version of himself, an aspiring comedian who hasn’t had a whole lot of luck in life apart from his amazing girlfriend Abby (Lauren Ambrose). When their eight-year relationship hits a standstill after Mike expresses his objection to marriage, he hits the road to improve his act, all the while growing farther apart from Abby and dealing with a dangerous sleep behavior disorder. Reminiscent of Woody Allen’s films in a lot of ways, “Sleepwalk with Me” is a witty and consistently funny human comedy about the fear of commitment. Much like his character’s stand-up in the film, the story is entertaining because it’s so personal, and he makes it even more so by narrating the movie with brief snippets of POV segments littered throughout. It’ll be interesting to see how the general public receives “Sleepwalk with Me” when it’s finally released in theaters, because the movie is so good that if you weren’t a fan of Mike Birbiglia beforehand, you will be afterwards.

“Intruders”

There wasn’t a lot of horror on tap at SXSW this year, which is probably why Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s “Intruders” feels like such a big letdown. More than anything else, it’s just not very scary, with Clive Owen starring as the father of a young girl who believes she’s being stalked by a faceless bogeyman named Hollowface. Though he writes it off as a nightmare at first, he soon becomes a believer after witnessing the menacing figure try to abduct his daughter. Meanwhile, in Spain, a young boy is having the same terrifying visions, prompting his mother to seek help from the local priest. While the first act does a pretty good job of setting up the two stories and building tension, however, it never really goes anywhere. Instead, the audience is forced to sit through a number of supposedly frightening situations without so much as a scare, and it quickly becomes repetitive to the point that you lose interest. But where “Intruders” really drops the ball is in the final ten minutes, dragged down by a flimsy twist ending that is not only predictable, but requires Fresanadillo’s to cheat a little to get there. I admire the attempt at creating something original, but when a horror film can’t even play by the rules, there’s no point in watching.

Everyone in show business knows that comedy is hard. Apparently, however, it’s not hard enough for Will Ferrell. The SNL-bred all around comic superstar decided sometime ago he wanted to make a film in Spanish. He didn’t know what the movie would be about, but one thing was clear, the far from fluent Farrell would need to learn his part semi-phonetically, which by all accounts is every bit as difficult to do as you might imagine.

With the help of writer Andrew Steele and first-time feature director Matt Piedmont, that movie evolved into “Casa de mi Padre” (“House of My Father”). A broad but reasonably affectionate and detail-oriented spoof of telenovelas and Mexican and American exploitation movies, the film stars Farrell in one of his best performances yet as the 100% virtuous Armando Alvarez. Armando’s unwavering good guy nature is tested by the disrespect of his wealthy patriarch dad (the late Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) as well as the fact that his beloved brother, Raul (Diego Luna), has become a powerful narco at war with the ultra villainous La Onza (Gael García Bernal). Even more challenging is the increasingly melodramatic mutual attraction betwixt Armando and Raul’s fiercely stunning fiancée, Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez).

Bullz-Eye was fortunate enough to meet with several members of the cast and crew one day earlier this month. Along with comedy superstar Ferrell, we met with Latin-American heart-throb and respected U.S. actor Diego Luna, who may still be best known stateside for co-starring in 2001’s hyper-sexual “Y Tu Mamá También” with real-life lifelong best pal and “Casa” co-narco Gael García Bernal. Also along for the ride was fast rising comic actor Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation,” who portrays a bigoted DEA Agent. To discuss behind-the-camera matters we also spoke with screenwriter Andrew Steele (“The Ladies Man”). Also present at the event was the beguiling Génesis Rodríguez, who is the subject of a separate “5 Questions” feature.

Below are some highlights of the rather freewheeling discussions.

Will Ferrell on how “Casa de mi Padre” came to be.

I had always thought that it could be interesting to put myself in the middle of a Spanish language movie and fully commit to speaking Spanish. That heightened world of the telenovela meets the bad Mexican spaghetti western — all of that seemed like it could be a recipe for a type of movie you hadn’t seen before.

Diego Luna on his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Spanish.

He sounds perfect. You understand everything, basically. I was very worried. Forty days before we started shooting, I sat down in a bar with him and the director and he knew no Spanish at all. He couldn’t speak it.

He said, “Yeah, well, I’m gonna try.” Thirty days later he gave this two-minute monologue and, in fact, he makes sense. He understands what he’s saying. That was impressive, and [it was also] very impressive that two weeks after he forgot everything.

Will Ferrell on learning his lines in Spanish

Patrick Perez, who translated the script from English into Spanish, I kind of got to know him and he said, “Hey, I’m willing to work with you on your Spanish if you want.” I said “That’d be great.” We just started working about a month to six weeks out in front of the movie, meeting three or four times a week. Once we started filming, we would drive to the set every day and drive home every day. In the morning, [we’d] work on the scene or scenes for that day. On the way home, [we’d] start to work on the next day, to try to just embed it into my brain.

Every day I finished I felt like I’d wrapped an entire movie. It was just “Groundhog Day.” Diego and I laugh about because he improvised every take and I had no idea. “Okay, he’s finished? Now, I go.”

Farrell on the efficacy of Rosetta Stone language learning software.

I actually got it, believe it or not, but it was so frickin’ hard to set up and figure out how to use, that I [gave up on it]. Someone had written something like, “You’re a walking advertisement for Rosetta Stone.” I want to blatantly put out there, do not use Rosetta Stone. It’s really hard to use.

Writer Andrew Steele on absorbing the necessary South of the Border pop culture.

I did a lot of watching of ’40’s, 50’s, and 60’s Mexican cinema, which to me is the real Mexican cinema. They all turned to shit in the ’70’s and ’80’s. I got a lot of those videos. Those are fun to watch because it’s fun to watch low-budget filmmaking. We didn’t want to just parody that style, but there’s a lot of great things you can learn watching. I remember one Mexican movie where they didn’t even have enough money to have fake boxes. They had two boxes — they were taking off drugs from the back of a truck — and they kept cutting to the same two boxes.

Nick Offerman on getting the “Casa de mi Padre” gig

For years I’ve been friends with Will and I often wondered if he knew I was an actor, which is true. I got to be friends with him when my wife [Megan Mullally of “Will and Grace”] hosted SNL. I was Megan’s husband.

We’d enjoy each other’s company but, unless you’re a douchebag, if you’re friends with somebody like Will, you don’t go out to dinner and [say] “By the way, you know I’ve done Chekhov, right? I’m quite funny. Could you pass the butter, please?”…So [getting the part] was a crazy surprise, and I cried.

Will Ferrell elaborating on how it felt to know that his co-stars were improvising en Español, even though he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Ignorance is bliss. When you don’t realize people are improvising, it’s okay.

There were a couple of moments I was able to do something physically or in terms of a reaction. I just put all my faith in the fact that speaking Spanish for an entire movie was enough.

Diego Luna on the fact that Will Ferrell would not always know when he was improvising.

That was cool, but you know what was even better? Not even the director knew what I was doing. I would say, “You liked it? I just changed a few words.” I could say anything I wanted.

It was fun. It was weird, you know. Because, at the beginning I thought, “we’re doing a film with Will Ferrell.” Suddenly, Will Ferrell was this guy who was attached to a piece of paper and a dialect coach talking to him. He looked like a monk in a corner just praying these weird mantras….

As he soon as they would say “action,” though, something happens, because the guy is so intense and also so funny. I would be struggling to stay serious until the end of the takes. Also, the director would leave the reactions for a minute like they do in soap operas. So, you finish the sentence and you have four seconds of us looking at each other. It was tough to stay in control.

Writer and non-Spanish speaker Steele on the vagaries of having your screenplay translated into another language.

I wrote a script that has a lot of areas that are purposefully very bad. Bad English. Bad writing. It’s a style that I really enjoy. The translator has to understand…he can’t fix it. He has to try to get my style. So I got a translator, Patrick Perez, who ended up understanding what we were trying to do — for the most part. I’m, of course, in the dark here, but Diego seemed to understand it. Gael seemed to understand it. Interestingly, [recently deceased septuagenarian film legend Pedro Armendáriz Jr.] said, “this is a shitty translation!”

Nick Offerman on playing the Spanish-mangling DEA Agent

It was fun, especially the way Agent Parker disrespects the Spanish language. He knows enough to speak it grammatically, because he needs to for his job, but I feel like he shows such a lack of respect in his pronunciation. “I’m gonna speak your shitty language, but I’m not going to be happy about it.”

[As for myself, however] I would take some Latino street cred from drinking a lot of Jarritos soda and I know what the suffix “ito” and “ote” mean. For example, I would prefer you call me Nicolasote [Big Nick] to Nicolasito [Little Nick/Nicky].

Will Ferrell on how the heroic Armando Alvarez fits in with his other characters.

He is not in the overconfident, cocky mold. He is very sweet and super earnest about his beliefs. It’s almost cliché how he is the moral center of the movie. He only wants to do good, despite the fact that his family thinks he’s a little slow and dumb and speaks funny [and are drug dealers]. He’s not someone who has that confidence and you’re thinking, “Why is he so confident?” He’s just an earnest guy.

Diego Luna on his approach to playing the amoral, yet beloved, Raul Alvarez.

Behind that character there was another character, which was this terrible actor who was allowed to do anything he wanted. You know what happens with actors? With the same line they want to cry, smile, make you cry. It’s like everything needs to happen to me all the time so I can show you how much I can stretch my emotions. This actor allowed himself to do the weirdest choices; this actor would allow himself to stay in the frame too long in order to make sure he’s in the film…that’s just complete fun.

Nick Offerman on whether he modeled the bigoted Agent Parker on any particular person or character.

I based him, pretty specifically, on this nun that taught my catechism in school, named Sister Jesuinna. She hated the Latinos. She would beat them. [Laughter in a room that was roughly 3/4 Latino.] No, Sister Jesuinna was super cool. We had her in eighth grade and she brought Playboy magazine to Sunday school…she loved Latinos, and all people.

Will Ferrell on being the onscreen lover in two recent films of two Latino mega-beauties, “Casa” co-star Génesis Rodríguez and Eva Mendes of “The Other Guys.”

If you can create those kind of situations fictionally, why not? [Laughter] I think that’s just coincidence. In “The Other Guys” it was a running joke that it would be funny that my straitlaced character had this hot wife, “like an Eva Mendes.” Then, sure enough, we were able to actually get Eva Mendes.

In this case, we knew the heroine was going to be, hopefully, the type of leading woman you’d see in one of these soap operas. The amazing thing about Génesis was, she was the first actress to audition and we saw a ton of talented actresses. She kind of blew us away. We found out later that she worked on a telenovela for like six years.

Without even giving her a note, she was super serious with the material, she got herself to cry at one point…[I said] “How do you do that?” She said, “You just learn to cry on cue.”

She was sitting there [thinking] “why are they laughing so hard?” It was the first time we’d heard it read and you’re doing it so real and committed. We couldn’t get her out of our mind.

Diego Luna on filming his alcohol and nicotine loving character’s final scene.

It was very tough. They said there are all these elements that we’re going to blow up — like a bomb here, gun shots here, the fountain was going to explode. They said, “Well, you might be safe if you go through here.” And I said, “through where?” They didn’t even draw [me a picture] or anything. They had four cameras and just one shot. They said, “We cannot reload these and there’s no money to do it and no time. So, please, go to the end. No matter what happens, get to the end.”

I took it very seriously and I said, “I don’t care what happens but my drink and my cigarette are going to stay with me until the very end of this shot.” It was so much fun. So stupid, oh my God.

Will Ferrell on his next, politically themed, comedy.

I just finished “The Campaign” with Zach Galifianakis. That’ll come out in August, right before the conventions, I think. It’s the story of a small congressional race in North Carolina. I’m a four-time incumbent who usually runs unopposed. I only have aspirations of becoming Vice President, that’s it. Zach is a member of a big, prestigious political family. He’s kind of the black sheep and they run him against me. It’s basically just a vehicle for us to make fun of how insane this political season has been.

Diego Luna on whether he thinks “Casa de mi Padre” will go over in the Spanish speaking world.

I have no idea. I hope it does. They’ve been asking me a lot: What do I think? [Are] people going to get offended in Mexico? What I’m saying, because I truly believe it, is I think they’re going to be more offended here. The few lines [Will Ferrell] says about Americans — whoa.

I have a line I love which is where my character, the drug dealer, is trying to explain to his brother. “Look, I’m not a bad guy. I would sell chocolates if America wanted to buy chocolates, but they want drugs, and they want a lot…” I would love that to go out and make people laugh in the States. Then, there might be a chance that, at the end, they’ll think about it and say, “Well, yeah, probably this amount of violence happening [in Mexico] has something to do with us.”