Time for a review i've been meaning to do for a while but never had the time to do it. It's Star Wars time, Rogue One is up and the question you should be asking is, does this film stand up against the others in the Star Wars cinematic universe (god i hate that saying)?...click read more and ye shall find out...
Star
Wars like many people my age, played a big part of my child hood. My
earliest film memory is watching A New Hope On VHS. Not the digitally
remastered special editions that came out in 1997 but the original
theatrical releases from 1977. That was my introduction to the Star
Wars Universe.
When
it was revealed that Disney had purchased LucasFilm, I like most
people gave out a cry of despair. Disney would over saturate the
cinema world with lack luster Star Wars films like the Pirates Of The
Caribbean movies. A Star Wars Film once a year to me seems like
franchise would become over crowded. But when Force Awakens came out
and I saw they put a lot of effort into it my faith in the Episode
franchise was restored. Then came the ideas of spin off movies. Films
set in the Star Wars universe but not part of the episode series.
Wow, do we really need a Han Solo origin movie, a Boba Fett movie and
an Obi Wan movie?...No we don't. The first Star Wars spin off was
released in December 2016, titled ROGUE ONE.
Rogue
One isn't an origin story, it's based on the second paragraph of A
New Hope's open crawl. The line which states; Rebel Spies manage
to steal secret plans to the empires ultimate weapon, The Death Star.
That's essentially the plot of Rogue One. Obviously there's a bit
more there but to describe the plot here for people who have yet to
see the film would be unfair. The idea for the plot of the film came
from special FX supervisor John Knoll who nailed it, that one line in
the crawl is perfect for a separate film set in the universe. More
Episode 3.5 than a spin off as the film leads directly into A New
Hope. We're introduced to new characters, some of which are from
Disney's animated series “Rebels” and the characters are written
well enough that you care about them and they leave an impression.
This is good writing.
Director Gareth Edwards, having worked in the sci-fi genre before
with his low budget road movie Monsters and with a large budget, the
remake cum reboot of Godzilla. But still with only 2 films under his
belt as a director, was he the right person for the job? Personally
i'd say yes because not only does he have a good eye for spectacle,
but the man is a bona fide Star Wars nerd and this works for the
series as there is a definite love and interest and knowledge of the
franchise and the universe.
Rogue One is a darker film than previous Star Wars movies. It's a
more violent movie, a more nihilistic movie. This strangely enough
works in it's favour as Rogue one, while being part of the space
opera saga is more war movie. Rogue One essentially feels like The
Dirty Dozen in space, a WW2 movie but set in outer space. This war
movie aesthetic sets it apart from the episode series and shows us a
glimpse at the actual Rebellion vs Empire war that's been raging
since the clone wars 20 years earlier.
As a stand alone Star Wars film, Rogue One actually works. If this is
the standard of spin off movies Lucas Film are going to be releasing
every other year, then count me in. I was sceptical at first but I
found myself enjoying the he out of Rogue One, maybe a bit more than
I enjoyed Episode 7 and I really enjoyed episode 7. The film is
capped of with a John Williams-esq score from one of my personal
favourite composers, Michael Giacchino. It's a wonderful score and
really completes the film.
Overall, I really really loved Rogue One, it had a decent story, a
wonderful cast of new characters and some great performances,
especially a stand out turn from Donny Yen and the blind sort of monk
who keeps exclaiming that he is one with the force and the force is
one with him which kick ass in the best Donny Yen style. Another
stand out is Alan Tudyk, mo-capping and providing the voice for new
droid, K-2SO, which brings a much needed sense of humour to an
otherwise dark film.
For me Rogue One was a hell of a fun time at the cinema and at home
and I can proudly say it'll get inserted into the yearly Star Wars
marathon. I loved Rogue One and cannot wait to see where they go with
the next few spin offs, but in the mean time we have Episode 8 to
look forward to and that's looking to be a good'un. Rogue One gets a
five revolver salute from this guy...
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