Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Spoiler Movie Review (Many Images!)

Warning. My review here is full of spoiler images and the plot is laid out. So, do not look at this if you want the surprise factor of going to see this movie.

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First, let me say that I am a Star Wars fan - when growing up it was my favorite - I loved the trilogy, and at one point collected toys and such. I eventually fell out of interest around the time they started making the prequels. So, I do love Star Wars, but I'm not obsessed with it.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One starts off giving us a little back story of our heros - Jyn Erso is the daughter of Galen Erso. Galen Erso is the main scientist who helped create the infamous Deathstar. Galen Erso isn't a "bad guy", but one who is being forced against his will to work for the empire.

This entire film uses all the cliche Star Wars themes, but repackaged in a new way. Even though that might sound bad, in this case - by the end of the movie I feel it's ok. For instance in the beginning these scene is much like how Luke Skywalker's aunt/uncle were killed making him have to go off and be a Jedi hero - well in Rogue One we have the same scenario. Jyn is separated from her parents - hidden away while her mother is killed and her father is kidnapped by the Empire to finish their war projects.

They interject little cutsey scenes attempting to get you to laugh - which is common Starwars.

Then we skip ahead decades later, and we find ourselves on a planet that reminds me of what the Cantina scene from "A New Hope", but it's the entire city.

We meet the other hero, Cassian Andor, and slowly in between fights we meet the rest of the crew. Not much is given on any of these characters.

A lot of time is spent on planets. Even though there's a ton of action throughout the entire movie - for some reason I felt like it was dragging on.

The entire movie looked perfect. I couldn't disagree with most of it, however I do wonder why they keep changing up the Stormtroopers.

K-2SO is the main droid character in the movie, and they did an excellent job on him. He's probably the highlight of the movie because of his attitude which reminds me a bit of C3P0, but a bit more laid back. K-2SO was a former Empire droid, but was reprogrammed to work for the Rebellion.

This movie centers around those working on the Deathstar and those in the Rebel Alliance that we become familiar with in the trilogy. It's considered a stand alone film, but it's actually a film connecting a bunch of things that lead up to the trilogy. So, I actually like this one a lot - compared to "The Force Awakens", which I have to say was garbage IMO.

This film does have it's points of feeling like it was dragging on - perhaps I'm getting too old for these kinds of flicks, or my senses have been long overloaded, but I think kids will like this one if they like the other films.

You meet characters that will later appear, which is cool considering their roles in the films were 30 years ago and it was cool to see them still alive. I will say I could tell they tried to hide the age of these people with keeping the entire movie in a dim light. Still, it worked.

Lots of excellent scenes that took my memories of what is to come later with the trilogy. I was waiting to see Jaba poke his head around, but I did not see him.

Like I was saying about how this film feels like the Cantina scene, but for two hours - they insert little scenes that will come again in the later movies.

Chirrut Îmwe, is a cool character. He reminds me of a Samurai/Kung Foo Master, but REALLY wants to be a Jedi. I'm not sure that he is a Jedi, but he fights well in the entire movie.

I think one of my problems with the movie is how it kept going into battle scenes that almost mimic battle scenes from the trilogy, but all packaged into one. I'm sure this was done for consistency, but it still felt a bit generic. There's a lot of fighting in the movie and not so much focusing on a story - line, but I'm thinking this is because the movie is simple:

This is the way the Rebel Alliance finds out how to destroy the death star. Galen Erso sets up a backdoor for the Rebel Alliance so they have a chance to do it. His daughter wakes up to the truth and gets the rebels to help her to get the information out. The main characters all die, but the ones who later die in the trilogy. The rebels obviously get the Deathstar plans just in the nick of time, and things are a success. Still, they could of done something more... not sure. Maybe cut the movie down to an hour... make it short and sweet.

Like all of the movies there's an emphasis on father relationships. Instead of this being about Luke/Vader this is about Jyn and Galen. There's even a scene as Galen is being killed where she screams "father!". Reminded me too much of the scene with Luke finding out Vader is his father with the "noooooo!".

Now, where the story picks up with Vader is when things begin to get awesome. In fact, I will say this movie alone shows how bad ass Vader is. You also get a glimpse in what he has to deal with on a daily basis to stay alive.

The movie obviously progresses into a final battle where the Rebel Alliance meet up to plan what to do. All scenes you would later also see in the trilogy's. At first, I didn't know if I liked it, but once the movie is over and I saw how things are wrapped up it makes good sense.

A lot of this eventually feels like Return of the Jedi, but without the Ewoks. That might be an error to not include some cute beings who get slaughtered so you hate the Empire... get those emotions stirred, but not it was just more battle - get the plans - succeed - etc...

I do think a lot of this film is geared towards the older fans, like me. To bring back these memories by showing similar scenes.

The entire movie is not in space until the end. I thought it was neat how they showed the ships going from Lightspeed into appearing all the sudden in their destination - so they improved upon things with that in this movie.

The final scenes are classic, with the hero's dangling on high rise structures with a quick battle with the evil bad guy, but then they succeed and everyone feels good... However, this movie does not end well for our hero's as the Deathstar shoots the planet and wipes the hero's out.

But, WOW how they can really end these films well. The very last scenes are my favorite where you see Darth Vader truly show how bad ass he is - they show him kicking everyone's ass and it reconfirms to me he's not to be messed with.

And the last scene of the movie tops it off - they show one of the rebels running with the Deathstar plans and hands it to Princess Leia bridging everything to lead right into "A New Hope", by even saying they have "hope". Even though the effects on Leia aren't perfect they did very well nonetheless, and leaves you feeling "Damn, now I need to watch A New Hope". :)

So, this movie was good. I won't say it was great, but it is a lot better in my opinion than "The Force Awakens". I didn't fall asleep, but I did at times get that feeling of "c'mon - move along", and it was a bit slow.

I do think this one is worth seeing in the theater, and will be great for the holidays.

All in all I give this a 3.75 out of 5 stars.

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