On Saturday, December 19th at 10am, my brother and I relaxed in reclining leather seats and watched a story from a galaxy far far away! Below, I will be giving a short review and general thoughts on this film (and I can already say its pretty positive). Keep in mind readers who haven't watched it yet that I will be having some major spoilers beyond this point, so if you want to keep it a surprise, avert you eyes away now.
When i sat down and watched the LucasFilm logo flash on the screen, I was excited and ready to be transported into another world. And transported at hyper-speed I was!
Immediately after, I was surprised by the lack of one classic Star Wars staple: the story crawl.
Every Star Wars film had the crawl; it was as iconic as the opening theme that blasted my eardrums with joy. Instead, Rogue One jumped right into the story. I already had an inkling that this was going to happen (stupid media rumors), so I wasn't to thrown off by the possibility. Also, it made sense. This is really just another story within Star Wars, not the main story line we all have fallen in love with. Still, lets talk about the story.
THE STORY
I actually enjoyed the story immensely and was refresehed by the new direction of the film. It had much more of a "war" focus and felt grittier than other Star Wars films. Below I will recap the story, but if you care not to read it, feel free to skip ahead:
The face of a James Bond villian...
The story jumps us to an imperial ship landing on the home planet of Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones), daughter of Galen Erso (played by Mads Mikkelsen). The imperials were sent to retrieve Galen, who was responsible for creating the super laser for the Death Star. Galen, realizing his inability to refuse, sent his wife and daughter to hide and wait for a rebellion friend, Saw Gerrera (played by lazy eye master, Forest Whitaker). However, the escape plan goes off course as the Jyn's mother doubles back to defend her husband. She confronts the imperial soldiers, lead by Orson Krennic (played by Ben Mendelsohn) and is killed in a gunfight. The group takes Galen and searches for Jyn. Unable to find her, they leave. After an unspecified amount of time, Saw Gerrera arrives and takes Jyn to safety. Then we fast forward.
One is not like the other...because one of them is evil.
Years later, see a rebel spy, Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna) find information about a potential weapon called a planet killer (a.k.a. Death Star) and its creators. It leads to them finding and extracting Jyn from Imperial capture. While Jyn was being extracted, she reacted like any normal rebellious fighter, she rebelled.
Busting out and was able to smell fresh oxygen until a reprogrammed imperial droid by the name of K-2S0 (played by the lovable Alan Tudyk), "congratulated" her for being rescued. The rebels gave her an offer she couldn't refuse, help them find Galen and they would let her free. Cassian, K-2S0, and Jyn then headed off to the planet of Jedha to find a imperial deserter and friend of Galen Erso, Bodhi Rook (played by the multi-talented actor and rapper, Riz Ahmed). What made this really interesting is although Jyn was looking to get her father back, Cassian was under orders to kill Galen once he was found.
The group arrived on Jedha and were soon in the middle of a rebel attack on the Imperial controlled planet that was harvesting crystals to power the Death Star. After an insane battle, they are soon surrounded by Imperial forces. It wasn't until a blind warrior, Chirrut Imwe (played by Ip Man and martial art master, Donnie Yen), and his gun totting heavy sidekick, Baze Malbus (played by Jiang Wen) that they were able to escape the Imperial forces. That didn't stop them from being captured by a splinter rebel forces group. They were taken to their leader, who just so happened to be, Saw Gerrera.
Saw Gerrera gives Jyn a holo message from her father where he explains that he created a flaw in the Death Star (the one we are all familiar with) and that the plans needed to be given to the rebels right away if they were to have any chance to defeat it. It was at the end of message that the Empire planned to test the power of the Death Star on the Jedha. Not utilizing its full potential, they focused the attack solely on the city of Jedha. The rebel group, including their new friends and deserter pilot all left the planet just in time to escape the devastating effects of the Death Star's blast.
With the help of the former imperial pilot, they go to Galen's base of operations and hope to extract him (or in Cassian's case, kill him). As they try to fly under the radar on the stormy planet, they crash land outside of the landing area. Cassian and Bohdi leave the ship to find Galen, Cassian hoping to assassinate Galen without Jyn knowing. However, the wise words of blind Chirrut cause Jyn to go after her father. The
The attempt goes array after Rebel ship are dispatched to the base and attack. The attack leaves Galen dead and the extraction plan ruined. They regroup at Yavin 4 and talk with the rebellion council to encourage an attack at Scarif to retrieve the Death Star plans. Although his had split support, ultimately the council decided against it. Cassian, trusting Jyn, gathers a small group of rebel fighters and take a stolen Imperial ship named Rogue One to the Scarif.
If the most enjoyable character is the largest, this is completely accurate...but they need to make Donnie Yen bigger.
Cassian, K-2S0, and Jyn steal imperial uniforms and infiltrate the main archival tower while therest of the rebels caused a distraction. It was an epic 300 like battle where you knew that escape was impossible. Cassian and Jyn get inside and find the plans, labeled Stardust. Unable to go back to upload after K-2S0's sacrifice, they climbed the archive tower to the top relay dish. As they climbed , they were attacked by Orson and his Death troopers. Cassian is shot and Jyn climbs solo. Jyn gets to the top and puts the plans into the relay system. Unable to send, she re-positions the relay dish. Once she finished, she heads back to send the plans to the rebel forces. A TIE fighter comes out of nowhere and shoots the bridge and tosses Jyn back. She climbs back up and heads for the console when, you guessed it, Orson arrives holds her at blaster point. He gives his claim to victory when Cassian, you guessed it again, shots Orson. Jyn sends the plans to the rebel forces and the rebel forces that could retreat fled.
The Death Star arrives at the Scarif and destroys the base, killing all the remain rebels, including Cassian and Jyn.
Gosh, that was a lot longer than I thought it was going to be and I didn't mention the imperial side. Anyways, the story blends perfectly with Episode 4, leaving right were we start in Episode 4. The ending scene with Darth Vader laying waste to rebels was something straight out of a sci-fi horror story. It was awesome! What was also awesome were all the new characters.
CHARACTERS
Cassian Andor and K-2S0 looking at amazed at life...or the impending doom rolling toward them.
It was great to see some brand new faces and it really showed off the universe with the casting choices. In film, diversity has been made into a somewhat controversial topic of discussion, but necessary. Some argue diversity is needed (which I agree), but not at the cost of changing original stories with per-determined characters (sort of agree, sort of don't agree). What is great about Star Wars and most sci-fi stories is that having diverse cast is actually needed to create a better story. It doesn't feel forced or pandering to a certain crowd, it just feels normal. Each character had something interesting to bring to the story and each was truly unique. From Cassian's order focused spy life, to a Chirrut's force focused ability to overcome his blindness, it was great to see.
Blind Ip Man in a galaxy far, far, away...
Of all the characters, my two favorite would have to be K-2S0 and Chirrut. K-2S0 was once again another lovable droid, but with a fun sense of humor. He was one part C-3PO, one part Boba Fett, all hilarity. His humor is on full display on Jedha and again on Scarif when he dispatches Storm troopers.
Chirrut was nearly the opposite of K-2S0. Not to say he didn't have a great line on Jedha ("Why are you putting a bag on my head, I'm blind!"), but overall he was mostly a stoic, wise force believer. In Rogue One, they really put focus on the Force as a belief or spirituality instead of a actual power. His character was also one bad dude! Defeating a handful of storm troopers with only his staff is beyond awesome!
FINAL THOUGHTS
Don't Mess with the Moff!
My last thought that I want to mention is the use of CGI in the movie. I was quite surprised when I saw Peter Cushing return from the grave to reprise his role as Grand Moff Tarkin. We first saw the technology used first in Gladiator and later a more refined version in Fast & Furious and Marvel's Captain America: Civil War. Then later in the movie we see Princess Leia, who hadn't aged a day since Episode 4 in the 1970s. The technology was quite incredible and as much as they used Grand Moff Tarkin in the movie was quite a testament to the improvements made. I could definitely see this be used to continue aging actors careers in long running franchises in a few years. Rogue One was a great movie and although it had a few short comings with the writing (like sassy Vader), I felt it was still a great addition to the Star Wars universe.
Well, I was really long winded today...I am sorry about that. If you enjoyed it, let me know and I can do more movie "reviews" like this in the future. I am fully aware that this wasn't really a review and more of a synopsis with a few things I liked sprinkled in, but I enjoyed writing it to share with you the awesomeness of the movie.
I also want to thank everyone for signing up to the newsletter. I hope to have some awesome content come your way for the New Year. Also, finally shout out to Josh for winning the Lootcrate giveaway! I hope you enjoy the cool nerd merch!
May the Force be with You and enjoy the holiday season! -J.J.
