Rogue One hit theatres on 14th December 2016, just under a year after the last Star Wars film entered theatres and became an instant hit. However this film is a standalone film, a prequel to the very first film (made, not in the series, so Episode 4) and tells the story of how the rebels came to get the plans for the Death Star in the first place. The film is directed by Gareth Edwards and features a brand new set of characters with a few cameos and scenes from iconic droids R2-D2 and C3PO as well as Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin. The film also has music composed by Michael Giacchino in the classic Star Wars style, however is noticeable different to John Williams style.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
The film starts off unlike all of the other Star Wars films, without the iconic 'Star Wars' text bursting onto our screen and the text crawl accompanied with the classic opening music. It still remained true to the theme of starting in space and the frame focusing on the main protagonist's (Jyn Erso) current home Lah'mu.
We meet Jyn Erso in her younger years along with her father Galen Erso and mother Lyra Erso hiding out in exile away from the rest of the galaxy in attempt to hid from the empire. Here we learn that Galen Erso is an Imperial Scientist and is key to the construction of the Death Star.
The film later flashes forward to the Jyn Erso we all know and love, in her older, more rebellious form currently (as expected from Jyn) in captivity in an imperial camp on the planet Wobani. She is rescued by a squad of rebels and taken back to the rebels headquarters on Yavin 4 where her adventure starts. Here we also meet familiar characters from the original trilogy, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and everyone's favourite fish-alien Admiral Ackbar as well as some other Generals and characters some may recognise from the Star Wars EU (where we learn more about them) or other official canon.
Jyn and her new companions Cassian Andor and reprogrammed imperial droid K-2SO set off on their journey to find out information on the whereabouts of Jyn's father Galen Erso. From here onwards the film is packed with fast paced scenes and action as well as some more heart-breaking scenes, one character (Saw Gerrera), a rebel extremist who we met earlier on as the saviour of Jyn and a good friend of Galen, dies very quickly into the film from the Death Star's first test on the holy city of Jedha. Many fans may have expected to see the character have more scenes in the film, but unfortunately we see his departure pretty quickly, not to say that the scenes he was in weren't cool though, they were.
The film continues and Jyn eventually meets her father at around the half way mark in the film, possibly a bit after, so rather a somewhat yet understandable slow start to the film, but all of the story-telling is well done, well scripted and very well executed as well as necessary. A few of my friends (very few) have said that the film is 'rubbish' or 'really slow at the start', however, I obviously disagree and when asked for a reason, the best response given is "it's just boring" or "too much talking at the start" which answers the reason why they didn't like the film. They simply do not appreciate the story-telling which is very necessary and frankly not boring at all (unless you're a simpleton like these people who only care for constant action scenes or explosions, in which case, I suggest they go and watch a Michael Bay film). So there, sure you could argue that it takes a while to get to the proper action scenes (which is epic, I'll get to that) but is appropriate to the rest of the story and is done as quickly as possible, any faster and the film start would have been rushed, some points would have been left out and emotional moments wouldn't have had the same impact as they do because we wouldn't get a chance to spend enough time with those characters beforehand.
We also meet the end of Galen Erso in the same scene, when I say Jyn meets her father, I mean, Jyn meets her father dying on the floor as he says his last words, even still, same thing essentially, certainly upsetting too.
The team (along with new members) continue their journey and come to the Imperial dominated planet of Scarif, where the empire keep all of their plans and data files (ayy, see where they're going with this?). Our characters gain entrance to the planet thanks to the imperial droid K-2SO as well as an imperial pilot (now rebel) and a friend of Galen Erso picked up along the way. This is where the sweet action scenes start. The Imperial Shuttle lands on Scarif with a team of rebels also where Jyn, Cassian and K2SO attempt to gain access to the data files and get the plans for the Death Star whilst the rebels create a distraction all over the island, causing confusion in the empire. And so, the battles begin, and oh boy is it cool, explosions across the island, epic gun fights all whilst our heroes climb and make their way through the 'data tower' to get to the plans. The battle gets even cooler when Rebel Headquarters learn that there are Rebels on Scarif and send out the Rebel Fleet for backup (the Rebel High Council recently declined to help Jyn out). This is when X-Wings, U-Wings and Y-Wings get through the shield gate and begin giving air support to those on the ground. Reinforcements are dropped from both sides as well as the deployment of AT-ACT (like AT-AT's but used for transporting building materials etc). Not only an epic ground battle but also a space battle outside of the planet, hundreds, and I mean hundreds of T.I.E. Fighters are deployed and an epic battle in the sky ensues accompanied with epic music. After a good 20-30 minutes of fast paced action and just generally cool scenes, we meet the end of villain Krenic, as well as K-2SO, and eventually Cassian and Jyn (And all of the other companians).
So a sad ending to this film, but certainly a good if not great ending to the film. I personally think this film was better than The Force Awakens (and TFA was good) as it brought back a sense of nostalgia being a prequel, as well as given us some backstory behind how the rebels got the plans for the Death Star. I also really liked the fact that we saw the heroes die too, not in a sadistic way, but more of a satisfaction as it seems like the heroes always win with little to no losses, at least nothing the audience cares about (if a rebel trooper dies who you never knew, you don't exactly cry about it).
The fact that the characters died felt different for a change, as well as that the battle on Scarif and above Scarif was much, much cooler than any of the fight scenes/battles in TFA, sure we had a Lightsaber battle in TFA and yeah that was cool as well as important for the storyline, but we didn't really see any proper battle scenes on the ground between two large forces (like the battle on Kashyyyk in Revenge of the Sith, because that was cool). The new location choice was also great too, we haven't seen a desert island before in the Star Wars Galaxy, it is a shame to see it destroyed, but there's bound to be more out there. As well as all of this great points, the game 'Star Wars: Battlefront' also had Rogue One: Scarif DLC added to it which was/is a lot of fun to play. And that's why I thought this film was great, like so good I'm going to see it for the third time soon good, better than The Force Awakens in terms of storytelling, script-writing, acting (yeah some acting in TFA was a bit patchy) and everything else. The camera work was of course amazing, they always do a great job on that as well as the special effects and practical effects. So overall, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, go and see it, right now. Even though I've spoiled it all essentially it's still worth seeing 10 times. Give them your money, it's really good. Now we've just got the Boba Fett Standalone movie as well as the other two movies in the new Trilogy.
Overall Rating: 9/10
