Simon Foster
"It carries the burden of being about odds and stakes, of legacies and consequences, of understanding destiny..."
Read the full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2016/12/17/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story.html
A rogue band of resistance fighters unite for a mission to steal the Death Star plans and bring a new hope to the galaxy.
"It carries the burden of being about odds and stakes, of legacies and consequences, of understanding destiny..."
Read the full review here: http://screen-space.squarespace.com/reviews/2016/12/17/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story.html
Is not my new favourite Star Wars movie. But does contain my new favourite Star Wars scene.
Final rating:½ - I strongly recommend you make the time.
Fun Star Wars movie. Plenty of homages and nods to the original trilogy throughout the film, Andy plenty of cameos as well. Has amazing action sequences and enough thrills to keep any true Star Wars fan hooked right from the beginning. No opening crawl at the start for a change and a great score by Michael Giachinno, but still includes the original end credits with John Williams' original music. K-2SO is a show stealer and is very funny as a character. Overall the best Star Wars film since Empire Strikes Back in my opinion. The force is with this one.
On the surface, this is a well-made action movie set within the Star Wars universe filled with nods and homages to "A New Hope" that will make you tingle with warm nostalgia. The reappearance of sets, costumes and characters from our favorite childhood movies might make you say "Now, THIS is a Star Wars movie!"
However, nostalgia and making copious amounts of money on that nostalgia seemed to be Disney's primary strategy with this movie. It's mimicry, plain and simple. The CGI recreations of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher felt very dirty and a flagrant disrespect to the departed actors, not to mention jarring, for a first time viewer. The digital appearance of Grand Moff Tarkin disengaged me from the frail story and made me settle my st...
Oups! I just realized that, for some reason, this movie had fallen between the cracks. It was quite some time since I watched it but I seem to have forgotten to write a post about it.
For me this was one of the best of the new (after the original trilogy) Star Wars movies. It was fun, entertaining with plenty of good, old-fashioned Star Wars action. I generally do not like prequels but this time I felt it was nice to get a bit of the background to the statement that a number of spies died to get this information in episode IV. We were even provided with a bit of an explanation as to why the Death Star had this silly weakness in the first place.
The actors were doing a decent enough job of it. The chatty android was fun without being t...
The episode III½.
So this is like a bridge between the original trilogy and the next three prequels. A story where the main characters from the original tale are not involved. Being a big fan of this franchise, I loved it. I did not expect big, so got entertained well. But pity that this wonderful characters are not going to return. This is just a one-off film. For seeing its overwhelming success, there could be a prequel, which has a very very slim chance.
The story was like that had started in a half way. That's why I wanted a prequel to tell us the Galen Erso's point of view story. When he has been taken back to the base to work for the Empire, his daughter is the only one who escapes from there. After a few years later the gro...
Dark Vader: "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director."
Rogue One follows Jyn Erso (played by Felicity Jones) a Rebellion soldier and criminal, who is about to experience her biggest challenge yet when Mon Mothma sets her out on a mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. With help from the Rebels, a master swordsman, and non-allied forces, Jyn will be in for something bigger than she thinks.
I had my worries with Rogue One, if I must admit. After the massive success of "The Force Awakens", the universe of Star Wars has now expanded even more. There's going to be more sequels, prequels, and spin-offs every year now. Why this worries me is because I fear I'm going to be sick of theses and not really get exited anymo...
A pretty cool prequel to 1977's 'Star Wars'. I wouldn't say I overly enjoyed it, but it's worthy for the purpose it serves.
What stopped me from loving 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' was probably, mostly, the pacing, which I found to be too slow in parts. It never majorly affected my viewing experience, but I could feel it slightly dragging here and there. I also didn't like the cast on anything more than a neutral/standard level.
Felicity Jones does an admirable job in the lead role, I did like how they set her story up at the beginning. I also found any scene with Mads Mikkelsen good to watch, while Riz Ahmed and Forest Whitaker are solid; Alan Tudyk is OK as well. Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn, however, didn't do anything for me. ...
One of the better "side stories" of the Star Wars universe. Being mid 40'ies :) my first experience with Star Wars was the original movies on the telly, but I have since seen the remastered editions on the big screen as well as the new aditions to the franchise. In that perspective, Rogue One is among my top 5. It can be seen on its own but has good references to the original movies for the devoted fans.
Rogue One feels familiar within the Star Wars franchise but still bold and new! A great on-ramp for people new to Star Wars and a favorite for Star Wars enthusiasts.
Rogue One brought back the gritty struggle of the fledgling resistance returning the franchise to the feel and excellence of the original franchise. While the Force and the Jedi's influence could be felt throughout, Rogue One didn't get caught up in lightsaber duels and prophecies, focusing instead on the underground espionage of the Rebellion. Without returning fan favorites safe with plot armor, the stakes were much higher with new characters in jeopardy and danger, and some not surviving. The cast's risk and morally flexible nature made this Star Wars movie focus on t...
So, there seems to be two main points that the real haters are focusing on.
Now, I do believe these are both reactions to, well, The Force Awakens. The first just being a hatred for Rey, who was a Mary Sue and one that gave the entire movie a fanfiction feel.
And where that is true for The Force Awakens, its not Rogue One, at least it is not Rogue One if we are staying in the Star Wars universe...it COULD be fanfiction if someone warped Saving Private Ryan into the Star Wars universe and...yeah, not, It's not fan fiction.
The Second point, the SJW one, well, that could honestly also be a backlash against The Force Awakens as, yeah, anyone that called Rey a Mary Sue was accused of being a misogyni...
For some reason, there appears to be a bit of snobbery about the standard of the recent Disney productions, but I thoroughly enjoyed this tangent to the "Star Wars" brand. Felicity Jones tries to help the rebels obtain the plans for the planet-blasting "Death Star" that was designed by her father (Mads Mikkelsen). It's end-to-end action, with great special effects and a whole slew of new characters to get to know/like/loathe, without having to have seen any of the other films. Diego Luna and Ben Mendelsohn don't quite cut the mustard for me; and indeed the cast could all gel a bit better as actors; but the story is exciting and much closer to the action-packed style of the first trilogy. What's not to like...?