Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Directed by: Gareth Edwards

Grade: A-

Rogue One is actually a prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy (specifically A New Hope) and tells the story of the team of rebels who retrieved the plans for the Death Star. I went into Rogue One spoiler free, save for obviously what was said and implied in A New Hope, and I really enjoyed this one.

It had a couple of problems and one thing that irrationally irritates me but honestly the last part of the movie made up for any issues I had with it.

I do agree with the people who found it a bit jumpy and messy in the beginning. The cast was great however and I felt it came together quickly enough. Felicity Jones as the lead character Jyn, was compelling and sympathetic. I also loved Donnie Yen, Riz Ahmed and Jiang Wen and I would have liked to have known more about all three of those characters.

K-2SO was a lovely surprise. At first I was like man another robot but I’d actually put him above 3PO at this point. Honest and violent. Forest Whitaker’s character of Saw was very interesting as well but I felt like he might have been hurt the most by reshoots or editing. I liked all the new planets we got to see…

Also seeing the Death Star from the point-of-view planet side and seeing how it works it’s destruction was strangely beautiful. Darth Vader’s appearance was spoiled in the trailers. So I will say after the first scene I was like, “Is that it?” But then that second scene! Totally worth it. I felt like all the damage the prequels had done to him (sorry) was fixed (at least for me.)

I am also a total sucker for stories like these where people are willing to lay down their lives to do something necessary but seemingly impossible and know that they probably will have to. So while I thought there were some missed opportunities character wise I was still buying all of it at the end. The final battle, both on the ground and in space, was really well shot. I felt like I knew what was going on at all times. The action was clear and suspenseful.

Irrational annoyance alert! Spoiler from the first ten minutes of the movie below!

Just in case you don’t want to know…

Spoiler!

What the hell was wrong with Jyn’s mother? I mean this happens in the beginning of the movie and she’s such a throw away character that maybe it shouldn’t bug me that much. But I can’t help but think what an idiot! You abandon your child to go into what looks like a relatively stable (if awful) situation and make it worse? I could understand if she wanted to go with her husband as a hostage because she loved him so much but she seemed to want to commit suicide by stormtrooper. My friend was like, “Hopefully, the kid got her father’s brains.”

She did.

And it’s not just the fact that she abandoned her kid that bugs me it’s that she did it for seemingly no rational reason whatsoever. The character could have been taken care of with one line from Jyn to Saw that her mother had died sometime later. It still bugs me a couple of days later.

Overall I liked Rogue One. There were certain elements that give me hope that despite making too many movies (in my opinion) Disney seems willing to do this universe justice.

Recommend: Yes. I would see it in theaters just for that final thirty minutes alone.