So with the Star Wars franchise going full cinematic universe now with main films and
spinoffs and prequels and all that, it’ll be interesting to see if this beloved series
can be sustained outside the main Skywalker storyline.
So, now that the first Star Wars story is out, let’s talk about Rogue One.
*clip* And as I usually do for these reviews, I’m
going no spoilers to start off and then with fair warning later on I’ll get into the
spoilers.
Alright, Rogue ONe, first off, what did I like.
The cast is great here, and also extremely diverse.
Like, this is the most diverse cast I think I may have ever seen in a huge blockbuster
like this.
Felicity Jones is pretty good as Jyn Erso, based on the trailers I was a bit concerned
with her performance, since she seemed to deliver each line the same way *clips*, but
in the movie she was actually pretty good.
Diego Luna, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, and Forest Whitaker were pretty solid, it was cool to
see Mads Mikkelsen in another major tentpole movie.
But the three that really stood out to me where Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennick,
he just really chewed up the scenery in every scene he was in and I enjoyed that.
I also really really liked Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, he was great, and by far the standout to me
was Donnie Yen as Chirrut.
Coolest character in the movie, had some awesome moments, and some heartfelt moments, and some
really funny lines.
Definite favorite character for me.
The next best thing this movie has going for it is the action and the visual effects, because
they’re both incredible.
Especially towards the end, the action is amazing, it’s grounded, it’s dirty, it’s
different from the usual Star Wars movies.
Yes, you still get some of that classic Star Wars, but seeing this more on the ground Star
Wars stuff with just regular guys where some magic force power isn’t gonna come in to
save everyone, that stuff was awesome.
There’s one part on the beach battle where the ATAT enters the battle, and that moment
was just fantastic.
THe music here is also great as is to be expected from Star Wars, and the direction by Gareth
Edwards is phenomenal.
Like i’ve said before, Edwards does really well with scale like we saw in Godzilla, and
that is more true than ever here.
The Death Star feels huge in this.
Besides that, this is just a really well shot beautiful movie.
And it nails the 70s Star Wars feel of it while also making it feel modern, like it’s
got that 70s tech and those sets that feel very original Star Wars-y, but they also feel
like they've got a 200 million dollar budget behind them.
The movie also has one or two emotional scenes, one especially towards the end, there are
some funny moments, and for fans of Star Wars there’s quite a bit of fanservice in here
(more on that in the spoilers section).
Now, this movie isn’t perfect.
By any stretch.
Enjoyable, yes, flawless, no.
Firstly, while I liked most of the characters, we didn’t really get a lot of backstory
or characterization for any of them.
Like Donnie Yen and his friend, there’s a whole story waiting to be told about them
that we just didn’t get.
And Diego Luna, he seems like he should have more to him, but it was just never explored.
I know, a movie can only be so long and you don’t wanna get bogged down in each character’s
backstory, but just something more than what we got would’ve made me care more about
these characters.
Also, some of the pacing was weird, mainly in the first act.
And also, some of the reshoots this movie had felt a bit noticeable.
THere are things that seem like they're going to be major plot points that pop up and then
they just never show up again, like Forest Whitaker’s mind-reading tentacle slug creature.
That had literally no effect on the movie, why was it there.
And ultimately, I kind of just left the cinema a bit disappointed.
I was like, yeah, I liked that, but i just didn’t really feel blown away or even really
really satisfied like after I saw The Force Awakens.
Now before I get into spoilers, I’ll just wrap this up.
In conclusion, this is a pretty great, fun watch.
If you’re a big Star Wars fan, you’ll love this.
If you’re more of just a casual movie-goer, I think you can still have a good time with
this.
As someone who kind of falls in the middle of those, I liked this.
Not perfect, but pretty good.
I’ll give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story a 7.9/10.
Alright, we’re gonna get into the spoilers now.
If you haven’t seen Rogue One yet, come back to this video when you have.
Ok, first off, the elephant in the room.
Darth Vader.
He was awesome.
His first scene with Ben Mendelsohn was really awesome, there was a lot of symbolism, James
Earl Jones’ voice was still perfect, it was great.
And I thought, ok, it was cool to see Vader again.
And then he shows up at the end and just starts cutting down rebels, and that was incredible.
He’s cutting through them with his lightsaber, he’s force choking them up onto the ceiling,
absolutely amazing to watch and I imagine totally mind blowing to hardcore Star Wars
fans.
Speaking of which, like I said, there is a lot of fan service and easter egg type stuff
in here.
Just a couple that I picked up on, I liked the I’ve got a bad feeling about this nod.
Tarkin showed up in this, the fact that he was pretty much entirely CGI was a bit distracting,
especially at the start.
A friend who I saw the movie with compared it to Polar Express, while I wouldn’t go
that far, yeah, those special effects are far from perfect.
Same with Leia at the end, I was like, that looks really close to Leia, but there’s
just something off about it.
Also, to me, C-3PO and R2D2’s cameo was kind of forced and just came out of nowhere.
Now as far as the character deaths, well, there were a lot.
I made some bets going in with my friends on who I thought would die.
*clip* And as it turns out, pretty much everyone in the movie died.
While I didn’t cry or anything, that ending with Felicity Jones and Diego Luna on the
beach was pretty powerful, not gonna lie.
So those were my thoughts on Rogue One.
What did you think of it?
Let me know all of your thoughts down below in the comments.
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Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.