WARNING THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

The Plot

Rogue One is effectively the screen crawl from the very first Star Wars film A New Hope and tells how the Rebel Alliance got hold of the Empire’s Death Star plans, and follows the story of Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbus, Bodhi Rook and a reprogrammed imperial droid K-2SO.

 

First Opinions

Being a Star Wars enthusiast I was eager to watch this Star Wars Story and also I was on the hunt to find as many Easter Eggs as I could. The film begins on a fairly bleak planet where we first meet Jyn Erso and her parents. At this point her father is taken away and her mother is killed by the main villain Orson Krennic; Jyn hides in a shelter and so survives. While I enjoyed the beginning of the film I felt it was a bit slow to start and I wasn’t overly impressed to begin with.

 

The Storyline

As I mentioned previously it is a slow starter; sure there is some action in Jedha, where we meet some of the main characters and where we see a few ‘Easter Eggs’ for Star Wars nerds, but the film is building up to the actual plot of stealing the Death Star plans. Come the second half of the film it certainly lives up to expectations. It is also really interesting to find out the actual Rebellion (which is so successful in A New Hope) was on the verge of falling apart and the galaxy being submitted to the might of the Empire and Siths. I know a lot of people were expecting them all to die, and they do but I think the way the film went about killing the characters off was good; except Jyn and Cassian as their last scene was a bit weird as it was made out they were lovers, and died in each others arms which didn’t suit the film, because at no point throughout the movie was there any romance between them.

Highlights

There were quite a few memorable moments that I thoroughly enjoyed, a lot of them being references to the Original Trilogy, Prequels and The Clone Wars Series. The first moment I really liked was when we meet Chirrut and Baze on Jedha. There they are confronted by a platoon of imperial stormtroopers and Chirrut (who’s blind) uses the knowledge he has of the force to fight them all almost single-handed.

The droid K-2SO had some fantastic one-liners and he was excellent and bringing in small bits of humour throughout the production, definitely my favourite character.

I also loved the small cameo R2-D2 & C3-PO make as the Rogue One team leave the Rebel base to go to Scarif. Another major highlight is at the very end when Darth Vader invades a Rebel ship and annihilates over a dozen rebel soldiers.

Comparison to Other Star Wars Films

I really enjoyed it. While I think it is better than the prequels, it isn’t as brilliant as Episodes IV, V & VII.

 

Rating

 

A fantastic 6 on the Kev-o-meter

Pictures:

Movie Poster – Screen Rant

Chirrut Imwe & Stormtroopers – Dork Side of the Force

Battle of Scarif – YouTube