Former scientist Galen Erso lives on a farm with his wife and young daughter Jyn. His peaceful existence comes crashing down when the evil Orson Krennic takes him away from his beloved family. Many years later, Galen is now the Empire’s lead engineer for the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, the Death Star. Knowing that her father holds the key to its destruction, a vengeful Jyn joins forces with a spy and other resistance fighters to steal the space station’s plans for the Rebel Alliance.
Stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Year 2016
For all you “fanboys” that may have lost that loving feeling, don’t lose hope. Rogue One brings back the force in the best way since The Empire Strikes Back (sorry Return…). If you felt like last year’s The Force Awakens was a little too hokey/fun fluff, then be prepared to be blown away. Sure this one does pack some fun adventurous moments, but it’s more of a slow burning story that takes itself much more serious. You might know where it goes of course if you know the story, but to see it in all it’s splendor up on the big screen is what us cinemaphiles live for. The best description I can give is that it’s destruction in the most beautiful way. Of course the special effects are top of the line. It’s the best money can buy and it shows.
The characters are meaningful, but don’t give too much away into deep analysis, which is alright. We only have so long to tell this tale. All of them (and I mean all) where great! The only qualm as far as characters go that I might express is that we didn’t get more of Donnie Yen doing what he does best. Other than that, everyone is terrific. I also love that our main protagonist (a woman, woot!) was not and did not have a love interest. I’m so tired of movies that are awesome enough to have female leads, but then make them fall in love. It’s not about that!
The only thing I would say that some people had a problem with is that there wasn’t enough classic Star Wars fanfare. I will tell you right now that it does not explode in the beginning with the scrolling script into space and the horns playing. This had a totally different feel. There also wasn’t the occasional or almost every take comedy relief. I felt that all of that was alright due to it’s tone. There was no way to tell this story lightly. It needed to be a bit colder and more serious. I liked that break. By all means though when the continuation comes out from Awakens please feel free to Star Wars cheese it up. I’m ready now.
I’ll jump right into it…
The main problem I had with this movie was that I felt that the first half moved too slow and was so contested that I almost lost interest. In the first 15 minutes was are throw from one planet to the other getting the low down on characters. Even for a die hard fan of Star Trek and Star Wars I still found myself a little like…wait what, where are we? I was having a hard time grasping the role of Forest Whitaker’s character. Aside from Jyn and Donnie Yen’s character and his gun wielding sidekick and of course K-2SO, I didn’t really care for the characters at all. Okay, I guess basically that just leaves Jyn’s male counter part, Cassian (I just had to looked up his name because I feel he was so forgettable). Random cameos and “hey look it’s Star Wars” moments annoyed many other people from what I hear. I felt the plot was trying to hard to manifest itself when it could have been much simpler. Halfway through the movie I was kinda like..eh
Having said that…
This movie is literally Star Wars Porn. This is the best of what the a galaxy far far away has to offer. Seriously, they could have started the movie at the one hour mark and I would have been totally happy with it. The one thing this movie does that not to many other Star Wars movies are able to do very well is really make the Empire seem like a scary and mighty force to deal with. Not to mention that it solves one of the biggest WTF question in the Star Wars universe: “Why was the Death Star so easy to destroy?” Jimmy Smits has a small part but seeing him in the movie really tied the prequels to A New Hope and bridged that gap. LOVED seeing Mon Montha! Her role is soooooo important to the idea of the Rebellion yet we never see her. She seriously needs her own spin off movie. And seeing her with Bail Organa was just… well once again… Star Wars porn (thanks Lucas for cutting all her scenes out of Revenge of the Sith! grrr). And if the last 30 minutes of the movie is not enough for you. Then the last 5 minutes will literally blow your mind and make you wet your Star Wars under-roos! I need a show of hands of how many people watched A New Hope once they got home! Even with the flaws I mentioned before, this is an amazing movie. I’m not going as far as some have and say its the best Star Wars yet, but it definitely earns its place in the Star Wars Universe. In my opinion, more so than the Force Awakens. This is a story that had to be told and was told well. As April and every once else says, Donnie Yen is probably one of the biggest draws. And like April said also, I appreciate that they did not create a romantic situation for the lead. No time for that! Felicity Jones does a fantastic job as does Alan Kudyk as the voice of K-2SO, a totally different type of droid personality! I have no problem with the lack of the opening scroll. I think that’s better to indicate that it’s not a part of the primary Skywalker plot line we have been seeing in Star Wars so far. And its not the first Star Wars movie to do this (Hello, like it or not The Ewok Adventure was really the first Star Wars Anthology movie). All in all, this is a great movie. The Force is strong with Rogue One, Rogue One is one with the Force! 4.5 out 5.
Yays! Glad you came around from the second half. Some people can’t get into slow burning stories, but I felt like it was saying, “Take me serious!” If it had started with a literal bang like Force Awakens would it have been better? Perhaps, but I don’t think it would have complimented the overall tone.
BUT YES… I’m pretty sure this one had people running home and putting on New Hope. It lead right into it in a beautiful manner and am pleased to induct it into the series as a winner.