This will be a time long remembered. It has started with the Force Awakens and will soon see Star Wars movies come out once a year. If you don't know me, Star Wars is my all time favourite film series. The characters are memorable and likeable, the action is thrilling and the stories are always timeless. In fact, here is a list of how I feel about each movie. Ever since my dad showed me A New Hope when I was four, this series has always had a special place in my heart. Here are my opinions on the Star Wars films (the prequels are kinda obvious).
Phantom Menace - Didn't like
Attack of the Clones - Hated
Revenge of the Sith - Liked
A New Hope - Loved
Empire Strikes Back - My second favourite film of all time
Return of the Jedi - Loved soo much
The Force Awakens - Loved
The Story - 9/10
The story takes place in between Episode III and Episode IV and follow a strike team that go and try to steal the plans for the infamous death star, which has the capability to destroy an entire planet. It starts off by following Jyn Erso, whose father (played by Mads Mikkelsen) used to be an imperial scientist and is forced to working on the death star. The story essentially progresses like an action movie and leading up to a huge climax which I had a problem with since a lot of the conflict was character based. More on that later. The the story is drawn out does feel like how a Star Wars movie would do it. One thing I do give this movie credit for, is that it didn't portray the rebels as the total good guys. There are moments in this movie where I was like "Dude!" It shows that it is an ugly world and not everyone is inherently good and I like that.
The Characters - 6/10
Ok, I want to get real for a moment. Close your eyes and think why we come back to Star Wars. Is it the lightsabers? The ships? or the fights? For me its the characters. Han, Luke, Leia, Darth Vader are what keep bringing me back to the movies. They are memorable, layered and likeable and that is essential for a character that you would want to remember for the rest of your life. I remember Star Wars as fondly and cherished as I do because of the characters. The Force Awakens also provided some more characters that I remember fondly like Rey, Finn and Kylo Ren. I loved these guys and always will. But Rogue One didn't offer that. The only character out of the batch who I will remember is Jyn Erso, she was the only character who was fleshed out enough and given enough reason to care about. The rest of them weren't, the closest were Donnie Yen (the Ip Man trilogy) as this force monk who fights with Hapkido, Kenpo and Wing Chun and Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Tucker and Dale vs Evil) as this reprogrammed droid that is meant to provide some snarky and cynical humour. Everyone in this movie was neither memorable or sometimes just there to give a funny line. Also Vader comes into the movie and he is barely in it and he is likely one of the reasons why people wanted to see it. I guess I should expect stuff like that from the director of Godzilla (2014).
The Action - 10/10
At least this is one aspect of the movies they got perfect. The action. It is some of the most intense moments of violence I have ever seen in a Star Wars movie. This is possibly the most realistic Star Wars movie I have ever seen. What do I mean by this? In the original trilogy and the Force Awakens, the stormtrooper armour was shiny, white and pristine but in this movie was old and rusty. Like someone has used this for a long time and has seen war before. In fact every building looked like that they have seen a lot and lived in. Its like when I went to Rome with my school and I commented "Each of these buildings has a story to tell, but we won't know them". All of the times there was a firefight or a space battle, I was on the edge of my seat. I especially geeked out when Donnie Yen went all master Ip Man on stormtroopers and beat the crud out of people with his Bo staff. It is also the biggest Star Wars movie in terms of scale. Because the moment when the AT-ATs come in, it was daunting unlike in Empire Strikes Back. I also felt every blaster bolt to the body and laser cannon to the hull of the ship.
Conclusion
Despite my criticism of the characters, I still enjoyed this movie enough to want to buy the Blu-Ray and maybe even watch it again. If you love Star Wars or just like it, you will still get a lot of kicks out of it
I am going to give it an 8.5/10
I do not own this picture. Rogue One: a Star Wars Story is owned by Lucasfilm and Disney.
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