Rogue One - A Star Wars Story - Film Review
Posted on: 2016-12-18
Our rating:
Without doubt better than all of George Lucas' execrable prequels combined, Rogue One is an ambitious, spectacular entry into the Star Wars canon.
Last year it was The Force Awakens. This year it's the just-as-equally-anticipated Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. A standalone movie separate from the saga films, this is the first in a series of spin-offs, a prequel that neatly dovetails directly to the very beginning of A New Hope. And when it comes to living up to the hype this is one film was most certainly does, crammed as it is with fabulous new characters, breathtaking spectacle and genuine heart and soul.
For sure, it's a lot darker than last year's Star Wars offering, playing down its lightness of touch in favour of a much grimmer, starker tone which has led to comparisons of it being on a par with The Empire Strikes Back. Such a high-water mark is a tough call, and while it does come very close to being a sibling of Empire in terms of tone, story arc and character, it doesn't quite make the grade of that galactic masterpiece. But it's darned close.
Reassuringly for fans though, there are frequent nods to the heritage and iconography of the Star Wars universe - characters, dialogue, props - as we follow plucky, feisty Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), a headstrong fugitive who's the daughter of scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), the man behind the Empire's most powerful and destructive intergalactic orb, the Death Star.
Joined by a ragtag band of rebels led by Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), it's their mission to capture the plans from a specially protected archive located on the beach planet of Scarif before the massive space station is commissioned by Commander Orson Krennic (a marvelous, scenery-chewing, boo-hissable Ben Mendelsohn).
Comic relief comes in the form of droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), though his retorts are delivered in a much more acerbically sarcastic, barbed form, and scene-stealing Chirrut Inwe (Donnie Yen), a smart-talking blind martial artist - a nice, first nod of the entire series to the fact Star Wars was the progeny of Japanese cinema and the fact George Lucas used Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress as a template for the original Star Wars.
She's also helped in her quest by ex-Imperial pilot Bodhi Rock (Riz Ahmed) and extremist Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). Even more impressively, we also get the return of one of A New Hope's most memorable and iconic villains courtesy of truly dazzling, breathtakingly realistic CGI which represents a new frontier in genuinely gobsmacking, photo-realistic digital trickery.
The whole thing moves along at a breakneck pace and, although there's a slight second-act lull, it more than compensates with an absolutely spectacular, 'we shall fight them on the beaches' WWII men-on-a-mission style battle on Scarif that's more Saving Private Ryan than Star Wars, depicting the brutal consequences of war amidst armies of merciless Stormtroopers and lumbering, colossal AT-ACT walkers.
Godzilla director Gareth Edwards clearly love this universe and its inhabitants and does an absolutely stunning job, weaving a familiar tapestry of Star Wars lore into something fresh, exciting and often very moving, while orchestrating the raft of thrilling, visually incredible set-pieces with consummate flair and aplomb. And although the Dark Lord of the Sith himself, Darth Vader, could have done with considerably more screen time, his return is an undeniably smile-provoking, goosebump-inducing one.
Without doubt better than all of George Lucas' execrable prequels combined, Rogue One is an ambitious, spectacular entry into the Star Wars canon, reassuringly familiar yet boldly new, and bodes extremely well for future spin-offs and standalone movies. The Force is most definitely strong with this one.
5/5
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