Review: ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

And Whattay Spectacular Story!

3.5 stars

Mini Review:

This is a standalone story of Lucasfilms gigantic ever-popular Star Wars series of films. Although it connects you to the scariest villain of all time: Darth Vader, this story is about the rebellion and unlikely heroes who are not jedis or princes. The story is engaging, the action is spectacular and the film induces die-hard fans to begin making their own lists of other possible stand alone movies the realm of space wars…

Main Review:

So what happens when the Empire begins to chase defectors who wish to live a quiet life? What do colonies on distant planets look like? What kind of tortures and tribulations are in store for rebels? Are they even organised?

What is fascinating about this story is that the hero is a girl. And she’s not some withering wallflower. She’s fiery and has something to prove. She’s the star in this Star Wars story. And you can see her character grow from a lonely little girl waiting to be rescued to someone who will rescue the rebel forces from themselves. It’s a wonderful story meant to inspire little girls.

Darth Vader though continues to put the fear of the dark side. His very shadow instills goosebumps. And the voice of James Earl Jones helps. The dark side is powerful here, and that’s what makes the whole story that much more cheerworthy. Each time the rebels get the better of the stormtroopers, you hear the collective, ‘Yess!’ in the audience and that is a sign of engaging cinema. You don’t care for being dragged from planet to planet, but you are so invested in this band of rebels, that you enjoy the strange names and places and watch in awe as the Death Star wreaks havoc on unsuspecting cities…

Grand Moff Tarkin who is master manipulator of the forces, who is the commander of the Death Star as well as the Imperial Destroyers is back in the film. The CGI is so phenomenal, that Peter Cushing is reprising his role even after his death about 22 years ago. And the voice is just as stern and scary as ever. You want to see more of blind Donny Yen and wild Jiang Wen and Diego Luna who plays Cassian Andor. You want to understand what drives the bad guys like director Krennic of the Death Star project to be so bad. The movie has so much action there is precious little time spent on character development, although you do expect Mads Mikkelsen to say, ‘I am become death’ any moment...

However, the best part of the story are the fight sequences. You watch with your mouth open and the humor is never far away, no matter how terrible the destruction is. You’ll fall in love with the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre again.




(this review appears on nowrunning dot com)