Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Movie Review

Cast: Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe, Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook, Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus and Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. Directed by Gareth Edwards

REBELLIONS ARE BUILT ON HOPE!!!!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first stand-alone Star Wars anthology film and it fills in the gap Star Wars Saga, mainly, between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope. So you don't REALLY need to watch the other Star Wars films to know what's going on but, it helps you to understand the world of Star Wars. I've been pretty excited about this movie ever since the first trailer because if you are a fan of Star Wars, you know the story. The story of Rogue One is as follows, the rebel alliance have to get the plans of the Death Star............well YOU KNOW THE STORY GUYS COME ON LOL. I'm just going to give you the opening crawl text that was in A New Hope. "It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destory an entire planet." There's more to it than that but, that is the general story that was presented to us Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

The introduction of the movie starts up unexpectedly, there is no opening crawl as we seen in previous Star Wars movie so it felt uncomfortable for me. I don't mean that as a negative for the movie, it just I've watched all the Star Wars movies. We get introduce to young Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones) and she barely escapes the Deathtroopers, who were sent to retrieve Jyn's father, Galen Erso, the research scientist who is responsible for developing the Death Star.

Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso

Young Jyn Erso

A massive orb superweapon capable of destroying entire planets with a single blast. The thing that I love about the new Star Wars film, specifically Force Awakens and Rogue One, is that we get to see the main female characters backstory. We never EVER got that with any of the previous Star Wars films, so it's nice to see where the characters came from. (Hopefully, we will learn more about Rey's past in the upcoming Episode VIII).

The Planet-Destroyer, the Death Star

The beginning stages, the first act, of the movie has a couple of pacing issues. We are introduced to the main cast of the movie, the Rogue One squadron. So it slows the movie down just a bit but, I didn't have an issue with it because as I said before, this is a whole new set of characters that we have never seen before in Star Wars, so we have to get to know them. I would have to say that the Rebel Alliance in this movie are not 'ALL THAT GOOD', they do some ugly stuff that slightly makes them as evil as the Galactic Empire. So many of the rebels have done horrible stuff ever since the aftermath of Order 66, some have become assassins, murderers, spies etc. But, it's all for the greater good because let's face it, the rebel alliance is barely able to make a dent in this war.

Rogue One Squadron

Felicity Jones is really cool in this movie, it's nice to see that we are getting some female lead actors in a big franchise, instead of becoming a romantic interest. So good move Lucasfilm. But, HANDS DOWN my favourite characters in this movie would have to be K-2SO and Donnie Yen's character called Chirrut Imwe. Let's talk about K-2SO because he by far what gives Rogue One some nice comedic elements to this movie. He uses a lot of sarcasm that made the audience, from where I was watching Rogue One, laugh a lot. I think I like him more than BB-8.

My favourite driod in Star Wars, K-2SO

Donnie Yen in this movie....OMG, I don't know what to say about his character but, I GUARANTEE that you will walk out the cinema saying 'that blind guy was so cool' because he was. He's a blind warrior who strongly believes in the Force and the stuff that he pulls within this movie is just incredible, to be honest. If you haven't watched Ip Man, I strongly suggest that you do. One of my favourite movies ever. Overall, the entire Rogue One squadron cast was really cool, Baze Malbus (played by Jiang Wen) was such a great character, he's a close friend of Chirrut and his weapon is a BEAST.

Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe. (I'm one with the Force; the Force is with me)

Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus

Sprinkled throughout this movie are so many easter eggs to the Star Wars saga, mainly Revenge of the Sith. Two characters appeared in this movie, which caught me by surprised but, I rather let you guys find out who they are. Be warned you might not like how they turn out because they had to use CGI for their faces because one of them died and the other is too old. (Hint: Watch A New Hope before Rogue One, the person is a general of the Empire).
 

The third act of the movie, HOLY (beep), THAT THIRD ACT alone is the highlight of the movie. That scene or rather this entire movie is a war film. If you know Star Wars then, you know how this movie will end. All I can say is that expect a lot of space/aerial battles and a lot of people dying. The space battles are by far the best in the saga.  It didn't occur to me that a lot of people were going to die in this movie because I thought the good guys will win. To sum it up, the characters that made that scene for me was K-2SO and Donnie Yen, they are by far my favourite characters in Star Wars.

And the one last scene, that got the internet hyped up is Darth Vader. Now be warned, Darth Vader is not in this movie a lot but, the throwdown that he gives is in the movie is unreal. If you remove him from this movie, it would barely change the flow the movie. Talking more about it will be dangerous lool, it's THAT GOOD.  Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Orson Krennic (played by Ben Mendelsohn), he was really cool in this movie. I had a sneaky suspicion that he was going to be one of the highlights, in my opinion, of this movie.

The return of Darth Vader

Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic, the Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Military

I can say without a doubt that Rogue One is by far my favourite Star Wars movie, I generally think it's even better than Force Awakens. Now don't get me wrong, I loved Force Awakens but, you can easily spot the plot structure of it in a heartbeat. I was going to give this movie 'Excellent/Great movie overall, a few problems here and there.' But, the more I think about this movie, the more I love it even more. I can say without a doubt that this movie certainly deserves an:


Grade A - Perfect movie in the series or as an individual (Buy it on Blu-Ray on DAY ONE).

I know I said the movies had flaws but, guess what it's my rating system and I can do what I want. But, I liked the movie, the flaws of the film just gradually went away.

So, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, have you seen it and what did you think about it? What was your favourite moment and character in this movie? Comment below, spread this article around, follow me on twitter (@dmyxxxx) and I'll see you guys next time. Later.