Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Film Review

Forcethon Day V

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is directed by Gareth Edwards and stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendolsohn, Donnie Yen and Forest Whitaker.

Plot
Set just right before the original Star Wars, the Rebellion spreads its influence among people, the Galactic Empire builds a super weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. A group of rebels disobeys orders and take a shuttle to go on a mission to steal plans that hide secrets on how to destroy this weapon of mass destruction.

Review
Fun fact: Today is my first time watching Rogue One since it came out in theaters. I liked it, I just haven't gotten around to watching it again or picking up the Blu-Ray yet, but thankfully it's on Netflix, but I will pick up the Blu-Ray eventually. I just prefer physical media over digital.

This is the best Star Wars prequel we have ever had. There's no Jar Jar or annoying Anakin or anything like that.

This movie actually explains one of the biggest plot holes in Star Wars history, how Luke was able to destroy the Death Star so easily, (spoiler) Jyn Erso's (Felicity Jones) father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) purposefully put a flaw in the Death Star so that when that flaw is destroyed, the whole thing blows up.

I wanna talk about the special effects. They managed to bring Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher back using CGI, and it looks amazing. These are some of the best special effects in the entire series.

There were a lot of theories before this movie came out saying that Jyn Erso is Rey's mother, given by the ending of this movie, that is not true.

The cast is pretty good here, those people I mentioned in the beginning. Let's talk about them:

Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso really well, she gets picked up by the Rebellion after learning that the Empire is building a weapon that can destroy planets.

Alan Tudyk as K-2SO is good here, he's pretty much the comic relief of the movie like how C-3PO (who along with R2-D2 has a cameo in here, making those two the only characters to appear in every movie in the entire series) was the comic relief of the original trilogy. K-2SO is a droid for the Empire who Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) re-programs to serve the Rebel Alliance.

Diego Luna is good as Cassian Andor, he's part of the Alliance and tries to assassinate Galen Erso but doesn't. That may have been a spoiler... Moving on.

Donnie Yen was good as Chirrut Imwe, he adds to the Force and Jedi and who can or can't use the force or something. I'll just say that he's one with the Force and the Force is with him.

Forest Whitaker is really good as Saw Gerrera, he's a character from The Clone Wars TV show, I'm sure there's more to him on that, I don't know, I've never seen the show so I'm going by what's in the movie here.

He's a friend of Galen Erso and a mentor to Jyn, who he finds after Galen is abuducted by Orson Krennic. He leads a group of rebels unaffiliated with the Alliance.

Ben Mendolsohn is good as Orson Krennic, I don't remember too much at time of writing he's the weapons director for the Death Star and he is killed by Cassian.

James Earl Jones is back as Darth Vader, which reminds me, this film makes Darth Vader cool again after that thing we call a prequel trilogy. That last scene where he's (spoiler) on the Tantive IV from the original Star Wars killing rebel soldiers on the ship without mercy, that's awesome. Darth Vader is truly scary in that scene and I would like to see a Darth Vader horror film although we'll probably never get that.

Vader makes a choking pun when talking to Orson Krennic (Ben Mendolsohn):
"So I'm still in command? You'll speak to the Emperor abou-"
*chokes*
"Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, director."

Vader actually isn't in the movie that much, maybe two or three scenes. I'm not surprised, seeing that this came from Gareth Edwards, who directed 2014's Godzilla. Fun fact: I saw Godzilla in theaters when I was 12 and that was one of the most disappointing theater-going experiences of my life.

Although this movie really isn't about Vader as it is about this team of characters. Vader's really only in it when he needs to be. In the original Star Wars he's only in it for 12 minutes.

Well, I think I've said all I need to say without spoiling too much despite throwing some spoilers in there.

This is the best film I've reviewed in the Forcethon so far although I'm reviewing a better Star Wars movie tomorrow.

Come back tomorrow for reviews of Star Wars and The Disaster Artist.

8.5/10

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