When I look back at my review of "The Force Awakens", I admit that my rating may have been a bit high, maybe just influenced from my giddiness in the immediate moments after watching. Upon further reflection I can see some of the issues people had with it, I see more of the flaws and understand the complaints. I still enjoyed it, but I would probably knock it down a point or two. I'm trying to temper my current giddiness over "Rogue One", but I can't promise I can contain myself.

I'm not really sure how to set this up for someone who isn't a big fan of the Star Wars franchise - it is such a mixture of old and new, combining elements of the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, giving nods to the old style of film-making while bringing it all into the current era. It takes the retains the humor of the previous movies, but also takes things into a much darker place than any other chapter in the Star Wars story. If this was the first Star Wars movie you ever saw, I don't think it would elicit anywhere near the emotional response it got from me.

At the beginning of "A New Hope", Darth Vader is trying to get stolen plans back from Princess Leia. The only clue we were originally given was during the opening crawl, stating that "rebel spies" had stolen Death Star plans. "Rogue One" takes place just before "A New Hope", showing us exactly how the Alliance came into possession of those plans. I never like to give spoilers, but it involves some double-agents, defectors from the Empire, guerrilla tactics from the rebels, and some overall bad-assery.

I know that "sci-fi" can be a broad term and not always easily definable, but I feel like this is more of a "espionage thriller and war movie held under a sci-fi umbrella", if that makes sense. If you removed all the aspects of aliens and robots and space stations, you still could have made a solid movie about a small group trying to overthrow an evil oppressor.

One of the hallmarks of Star Wars has been casting newcomers in the main roles (Mark Hamill, Jake Lloyd, Daisy Ridley), and bringing in established actors for important supporting roles (Alec Guinness, Liam Neeson, Max Von Sydow). I had never seen Felicity Jones before, but I was impressed. I'm a fan of Diego Luna, although I know most people hadn't heard of him, and I enjoyed him here too. The rest of the cast was solid and brought to life some new characters I absolutely love. The only one I waver on is Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera. Whitaker played the part well, but at times it was too much of a "hey, that's Forest Whitaker in a Star Wars movie" moment.

It was a tricky task to try to build a bridge between the beloved Episodes 4-6 and the reviled Episodes 1-3. Essentially, "Rogue One" is Episode 3.5, so it obviously has the usual prequel signatures of winks and nods to future events. I have heard others complain, but I had no problem with any of the callbacks (or call-forwards), save for one moment that made even me sigh and roll my eyes.

I had mentioned in my review of "The Force Awakens" that, even though I'm just being naive, I felt like that movie was made by people who love Star Wars and were just happy to be part of it. For "Rogue One", I felt the same naive pleasure, that the writers and cast were just looking around thinking "wow I just got to shoot a stormtrooper" and enjoying being part of this franchise.

***There are certain things I need to discuss that would fall into the realm of SPOILERS, so consider this a warning: immediately below this text is the original teaser trailer, then my rating, then my [CH] image. If you don't want things spoiled, DON'T SCROLL PAST THE PICTURE. Seriously, I'm putting a block of text there as filler, just to give you some buffer room in case your finger slips, but really, don't scroll past if you don't want spoilers. Seriously.***

 

 

On the [Celluloid Hero] scale, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" gets a 9 out of 10.

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Okay, here we go.

- CGI Grand Moff Tarkin - I understand the moral dilemma of bringing a dead actor back for a substantial role. I got a chill when I first heard his voice, and since we initially only see his reflection, I figured that would be it. I was surprised to see him have such a large part, but really, it didn't bother me.

- CGI Princess Leia - Obviously this one felt a bit different because Carrie Fisher had just passed away. It's also different because we see such a difference between 19-year-old Carrie in "A New Hope" versus 60-year-old Carrie in "The Force Awakens", whereas Peter Cushing was already a million years old in 1977. Regardless of the CGI, I did feel a rush just knowing "whoa this movie ends literally moments before Episode IV begins!"

- Darth Vader - I thought his lava fortress on Mustafar was awesome. The scene with Krennic was unnecessary, and I didn't love the "choke" pun, but everything was made okay with the insane rampage. Cutting guys down, deflecting lasers, force-slamming a guy into the ceiling, throwing bodies around, and finally gutting one poor guy clean through a door was one of the great villain scenes ever.

- The deaths. Holy crap, everyone dies! Even as it was happening, I still kept thinking "c'mon, this is Star Wars, this is Disney, they can't kill everyone, can they?" Jyn's mom dies, that's sad. Saw Gerrera dies before he can see his rebellion rise up, that's sad. Jyn's dad dies, just as he sees his baby girl for the first time in a decade (maybe thoughts of my newborn daughter crept into my head and brought tears to my eyes, maybe they didn't). Bail Organa leaves the Alliance base to head home - wait, don't go back to Alderaan! Unnamed rebel soldiers - dead. Bodhi, Baze, Chirrut - all dead! The robot dies?!? Well, we can still keep our heroes, right? Oh. Oh no. RIP everyone.

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