Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Threeboxindoors — 16 Dec 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is about as flawed as it is entertaining. With almost documentary-like camerawork, this is the most handheld Star Wars film by far, offering a more grounded and realistic feel, but the dialogue can feel cheesy and cliche at times.

Very well shot but also very imperfectly shot, this film looks flat-out gorgeous. The editing can be a little choppy at times though, but that isn’t anywhere near as distracting as the CGI version of Grand Moff Tarkin, as well as some other CGI characters.

Which brings me to my biggest gripe - The characters. Likeable, funny, but that’s about it - They lack any depth, background, or proper development, and we aren’t given any reason to care for them.

Director Orson Krennic is an extremely weak villain and doesn’t even compare to Darth Vader, who was only in TWO SCENES. This wouldn’t have been as much of a complaint if the rest of the characters were more interesting, but it still would’ve been a stupid choice.

The first act of the movie is quite messy, and feels like a series of loosely tied together scenes, jumping from location to location too quick and repetitively. There isn’t really much else for me to say about the rest of the movie apart from the last act, which is a long if not too long action sequence, and although VERY entertaining and brilliantly directed, it has endless cliches and does get repetitive after awhile.

Lacking any suspense that the previous Star Wars excelled at, this is a fun, decent ride with incredible effects but it is a very disappointing installment to the Star Wars franchise. I don’t see there being any replay value either.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story gets a 6 out of 10. It’s decent.