Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Fortifier — 31 Dec 2016

This edition to the Star Wars cinematic universe felt a lot to me like "Suicide Squad"; great fan service and cool cast, but is ultimately empty due to undeveloped story and characters. Most Star Wars films begin with two protagonists, then as they journey throughout the galaxy we learn more about them as well as the world around them and the story itself. Then eventually the "torch" is passed down to two new characters who we follow as the story continues.

In short, the previous Star Wars films accomplished beautiful character, plot and world development at the exact same time. In "Rogue One", however, the "torch" is thrown around rapidly as the characters sit in a circle like a game of "hot potato". There is little to no character development, we're thrown around all over the place in the Star Wars universe, and the writers leave absolutely no time for its audience to emotionally invest in the story or characters (which is extremely disappointing for not only a Star Wars film, but for a film that is over TWO HOURS LONG).

This is what its like for the first two-thirds of the film; while there is a lot of fan service to go around (which is expected from this film), the story and character development is simply atrocious. The third and final act, however, is what saves this movie from being an utter waste of time. This is when the action and threat becomes real and the characters finally come to life. If this film was just the final 40 minutes I would actually give this film a much higher rating.

In conclusion, this series relies far more on fan-service of an already established Star Wars universe to please its audience rather than an actual (never mind "original") story. Believe me when I say that, unless you are an absolute die-hard fan of the Star Wars franchise, you're better off simply re-watching the Original Trilogy if you want to watch Star Wars again.