Rogue One (A Star Wars Story) Review (2016)

Rogue One (A Star Wars Story)

  THIS. This is what I wanted from The Force Awakens. 

  Rogue One is a stand alone Star Wars movie between episode 3 and 4. So you could say it's Star Wars 3.5 lol. 

  The plot is that there is a flaw in the Death Star, and a team of rebels must steal the plans revealing how to destroy it.

  Let me first say that I absolutely loved Rogue One, so I'm going to hit you all with the positives first!

  1. The acting from Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Alan Tudyk, Forest Whitaker, *DEEP BREATH* Jiang Wen, Mads Mikkelsen––basically just the whole cast was amazing. I loved them all, and I loved how ethnically diverse they were. Everyone gave it 100% which is rare for a Star Wars film because I feel like in every episode there is at least one horrendous actor. 

  2. It felt so Star Wars-y. While Force Awakens had the nostalgic help of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, and Mark Hamill, the vibe of the film felt extremely Marvel-ish. All of the one liners, that absence of real danger, the fluctuating tone. Rogue One just felt like it belonged in the Star Wars universe.

  3. With this film, we have a consistency in tone that is more gritty than the others. Because this is in between episode 3 and 4, anyone could've died and no one felt safe. This brought a real tension and urgency to the film.

  4. The CGI. Now, this is both a negative and a positive. The space sequences, the battle sequences, the whole movie in general, absolutely stunning to look at. The CGI for the majority of the film blew me away. That said, it's at this time we must also move into some of the negatives of the film. And one of those negatives was the decision to bring back Peter Cushing. If you don't know who that is, he was one of the villains in the original Star Wars trilogy who passed away almost 20 years ago. 

  "So how did they bring him back," you ask? CGI. Lol, I know... When I first saw him, I literally started laughing. It was soooo bad and soooo obvious that he was CGI, it looked like a video game. In fact, I've seen more realistic video games. If they had just shown him once, I would have been okay with it, but they kept bringing him back. I was like, "WHAT THE HECK. STOP THAT RIGHT NOW." Towards the end of the film they do it again with a different character (I won't say who because of spoilers), but that wasn't great either. Not as bad as Peter Cushing, but not great. 

  Another negative of the film was some of the pacing. In the first act there were a few parts that dragged a bit, but by the second and third act, they completely made up for it. Like really, the last act is AWESOME.

  The problem of having a Star Wars movie with no familiar characters, is that they must get us to care about a whole new cast in just two hours. While some of the characters could have been fleshed out a little more, and we never quite feel emotionally attached, they are developed enough to keep us invested till the end. I especially loved the robot, K-2SO, played by Alan Tudyk. His comedic timing was on point. 

  In the end, Rogue One is one of the best of the series and an objectively better film than the prequels/Force Awakens. If you're a Star Wars fan, go see this. If you're not, what the heck is a matter with you? Go sit in a corner. 9 out of 10 stars (I'd Buy It On Blu-ray)