Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Griff C — 17 Dec 2017

I was admittedly apprehensive when Lucasfilm/Disney announced that they would be producing anthology Star Wars stories outside of continuing the main episodic saga. Though it is just their first such effort, seeing Rogue One gave me confidence that these movies can work.

Though this takes place in familiar territory (right before A New Hope), it expands and deepens the already-existing mythology without feeling like a retread. You know how the story will end, but you are still entranced by the journey to get to that end result.

It's hard not to watch the original film now without thinking of this one, and that's good in this case. Technically, the movie is visually stunning, perhaps even more so than the previous year's The Force Awakens.

As for the instances where the filmmakers tread the uncanny valley with two characters from the original movie, I think they did an adequate job. The CGI there wasn't perfect, but I've gotten used to this on subsequent viewings and doesn't take any enjoyment of the film away for me.

The cast here is also pretty good. While this may not have the best performances of the actors' careers, they serve the story well. Speaking of the story, I found it particularly bold [SPOILERS] for the main characters to be killed off.

Granted, the original film essentially called for this, as they do not appear or are explicitly mentioned in Episode IV. However, I would not have been surprised if a few had been allowed to survive and were just shipped off to the other end of the galaxy to explain their absence.

Thankfully, that was not the way the creators went, so kudos to them. Now, this isn't a perfect film. I wish a little more time could've been spent delving into the characters' backgrounds and motivations.

Also, the Bor Gullet scene was pretty unnecessary in the same vein the rathtars were in Episode VII. I think these are pretty easy to overlook though, and shouldn't impede one's enjoyment of Rogue One.