Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) by Jesse O — 22 Jul 2017

I know I've gone through this the last several times I've reviewed movies released under their umbrella, but I hate Disney. I really do. And I mean I hate Disney the corporation. I hate the fact that they know own Marvel and their entire catalog of heroes, Star Wars and Pixar.

It's good for film nerds, but I think it sort of stifles creativity when everything you make has to meet the Disney seal of approval. That's why I'm hoping that Marvel never gets the rights to Deadpool back from 20th Century Fox.

If Marvel gets Deadpool's film rights, the entire thing will be a toned down PG-13 version of the same character we've grown to love. And I would absolutely hate that. There's some gleefully violent and profane about Deadpool that adhering to a strict PG-13 rating (as Disney will demand) will just take what makes Deadpool different from any other superhero away from him.

He can still be irreverent and break the fourth wall, but a much more toned down version of that. Having said all of that, what they have done with the Star Wars franchise so far has, actually, been really fucking cool.

The Force Awakens was the perfect mix of old and new and it brought the franchise back with a bang. I also love the idea of one-off stories like this, telling a side story featuring different characters, but set in the same gigantic universe.

The reason I like this idea is because of the fact that, quite frankly, you can do absolutely anything you want creatively. Not that you don't have to adhere to the canon of this universe, but you don't have to worry about leaving enough bits and pieces in order for you to make sequel after sequel.

It allows you to tell more human stories in a universe that definitely needs them. Hell, you can pretty much kill everyone off, regardless if the characters are beloved or not, because you don't have to worry about continuing with the story.

And ***SPOILERS FOR FLIXSTER*** that is exactly what this movie did. I'll be entirely honest with you, ladies and gentlemen, I thought this movie was pretty damn great. I even thought that it was better than The Force Awakens.

Let me explain what I mean by that. TFA was the re-boot of the franchise. It combined new and old elements to make something that felt fresh and exciting again. But it was also a movie that had to set up enough plot points to justify two more sequels.

Therefore, to me, I believe that the best is yet to come for the Episode 8 and Episode 9 of the main Star Wars franchise. This movie, on the other hand, there's no real pressure since the story itself is self-contained.

And I like how it uses a big 'how the fuck does that make sense' in the original Star Wars trilogy. And that was the destruction of the supposedly indestructible Death Star. This film, quite simply, tells the story of this ragtag group of misfits trying to find the plans for the Death Star's weakness in order to send it to the rebellion for them to destroy it.

This group's goal isn't even to destroy the Death Star themselves. While this battle itself is more more scale in the arc of the original trilogy, this group really are the unsung heroes of the entire franchise.

They're not nameless or faceless, but they might as well be given the fact that they won't likely receive any of the credit when the Death Star is eventually destroyed and the Empire is finally defeated.

The Jedi are the ones who are gonna get all the credit. And I think that's what gives the film its strength. This group goes on this suicide mission not to receive credit for their contributions, but just for their efforts to, maybe, lead to the defeat of the Empire.

All of the characters are more than welcome additions to the franchise, if even they're only alive for this lone film. You grow to, pretty much, love all of these misfits. I'm not saying there's an insane amount of character development, but there's more than enough to make you buy into these characters and get a real sense of their personality.

The narrative itself doesn't end on a super positive note (everyone literally dies). The Rebellion (and the Empire for that matter) lost the Battle of Scarif, but their sacrifice will lead to better things in the future.

So it's a definite bittersweet ending to be sure. The Battle of Scarif is absolutely tremendous. There's so much action going on and it never feels out of control. It's easy to follow and supremely well-edited.

I don't know what else to say about the Battle of Scarif. It's just a top-notch chunk of action. If the film has a flaw is the fact that there's some scenes where it just drags. This after the Death Star's destruction of Jedha, but before the Battle of Scarif.

It's not so much of an issue, since you're so invested in this world and these characters that they help to overcome some of these issues. The acting is really good all around. The casting is pretty damn great and varied.

I don't really know what else I can say about this film? As mentioned, the fact that they killed the entire Rogue One squad gave some added heft and meaning to the action. And it's the sort of story that changes how you view the original trilogy.

Perhaps not by much, but it does change it. The thing about these one-off films in the same universe is the fact that you can show that there's real consequences to be faced by your lead characters.

They can't just avoid everything all the time like heroes often do. Eventually, they were gonna get themselves stuck in a situation that they couldn't get out of. And that's what this film shows.

It does a great job of giving weight and importance to the squad's actions. I don't really have anything else to say, but I thought this was a great movie. It's got a few pacing issues here and there, but those issues hurt less than you might think.

Great action, great characters and impressive usage of Star Wars lore makes this an easy recommendation from me. You don't even have to be a Star Wars nerd to like this, though it would certainly help a lot.