Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writers: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy
Starring: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk
A review by Josh Canales
It’s no secret that Rogue One had massive shoes to fill, being the very first of a series of anthology films taking place within the Star Wars universe. The question now is: does it live up to the Star Wars name? In one word: yes.
It’s immediately clear in the first moments of Rogue One that this is walking a different path from the main series with its lack of the classic opening crawl. Instead viewers are treated to a scene that sets up the movie in a similar way as the crawl, giving us the basic idea of the current predicament. The state of the galaxy is in an all too familiar state of struggle, The Empire is stronger than ever and the Rebellion is growing smaller by the moment. Tired of their nuisance, The Empire is creating the ultimate weapon to wipe the Rebels off the map for good – The Death Star.
Rogue One takes on a tone that’s new to Star Wars movies, giving it a slightly darker feel, where you’re unsure if the heroes will actually succeed. The heroes themselves are shrouded in a veil of mystery, leaving hints of questionable past lives that leaves the viewers wanting to know more about each of these characters introduced. That is not necessarily a good or bad thing, it varies for each character. For instance, Jyn, our hero of the film, is orphaned at a young age (as per usual when it comes to Star Wars protagonists), and spends her formative years raised by an extremist Rebel leader. We learn next to nothing about her life as a rebel, we’re just told time and time again that she was the best at rebelling. For Jyn, the lack of insight to her past weakens her character by making her more difficult to relate to, as well as making her motives questionable at best. While at the same time, Chirrut Îmwe, a blind Force-attuned warrior-monk, gives us even less insight to his past, but is very clear with who he is and what his motives are, making his character one of the biggest standouts of the film. Overall, the characters are all very diverse and fun to watch, but the ones who really standout and make you care about them are the secondary characters such as Chirrut and K-2SO, the reprogrammed Imperial droid.
“Congratulations. You are being rescued. Please do not resist.” – K-2SO
Where Rogue One really takes a shine and cements its position in the top tier of Star Wars films is it’s battle scenes. We finally get to see where this franchise earned its name! From the dogfights in space to the hand-to-hand combat, the choreography is simply beautiful and intense. Fans really get to see the massive scale of these battles, whereas we previously were only allowed glimpses, they do not stray away from the action. Specifically I want to talk about the jaw-dropping martial arts that Chirrut brings into the franchise, the way he takes on Stormtroopers was possibly the most beautiful fight scene in the franchise to date. In addition to this, the use of the spaceships in battle was so creative and truly shows just how desperate to win each side becomes. Casualties are seen and felt throughout the film, this truly is a war movie and in war, no one is safe.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Star Wars without some crazy new visuals for fans to gawk at, and the movie certainly delivers; Rogue One is undisputedly gorgeous. The overall look of this movie is definitely different from that of previous franchise films, while still staying definitively Star Wars. Each scene has so much to take in, during my second watch-through (yes, I’ve already seen it twice this weekend) I noticed so much more detail than my first; although some things I wish I had not noticed. For example, the CGI on certain characters was not nearly strong enough to go unnoticed for very long and for some reason the Vader costume just felt off, which of all the characters to get right in this film, you’d think it’d be him. Regardless of my few complaints, this remains one of the most visually pleasing movies of 2016.
Even though the Vader costume looked weird to me, his portrayal was genuinely terrifying, for what to me felt like the first time. In the previous films Vader always came off as more of an idea than a terrifying entity because we never saw him doing truly horrifying acts, they were mostly just heavily implicated and mentioned. In Rogue One that all changes, we get to see Vader at his best – or his worst depending on which side of his lightsaber you’re on. While Vader only plays a minuscule part in this movie he is worth mentioning because he was one of few of the many cameos who felt completely natural to have on screen, whereas many of the others just felt like over-the-top fan-service that was simply unnecessary.
As for the end of the movie, I was left breathless. While there’s still so much I want out of each and every character in this film, even those left unnamed, I wouldn’t change a single thing about the way the movie ended. With it being a prequel, we already know what happens next, narrowing the available options for how it could end, I really couldn’t have asked for more. The final scenes were works of art when it comes to acting as well as VFX.
The Verdict
See it! Star Wars fans have been burned before but Rogue One proves that a good Star Wars prequel is possible. This movie is a fantastic start to the Star Wars anthology series and an excellent addition to the franchise in general. Regardless of how big of a fan you are, there’s a little bit of something for everyone to enjoy; the seasoned fanatic or the fresh faces. If you’d like a more in-depth review with a slightly different opinion, check out Stephanie’s review here where she talks more spoilers and other details I missed.
