‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ – Review & Casting

HOLY COW WITH BLUE MILK! That was amazing! If you love Star Wars, you will love Rogue One. Go out and see it as soon as possible. IMAX not required, but recommended.

Review

Rogue One puts the War in Star Wars. This is a movie about the pains of war, and doing things you will regret. There are no Jedi in this movie to come in and save the day. While our characters trust the Force, they can’t manipulate it. This is a movie about individuals with not only everything to lose, but everything to gain.

The soundtrack had original songs as well as new masterpieces. The sets were great when intimate, as well as grand otherwise. The costumes were familiar when needed, as well as unique when exploring unique territory. This movie does not invalidate any part of Star Wars you already love, but brings you new things to love as well.

Even though we already know what happens after the movie (A New Hope) it is still full of surprises, and does nothing as obvious as Star Wars can often be. This movie doesn’t hold up as a stand alone film however, because they don’t explain things that most of the population should already know. Darth Vader is a big bad evil guy that can use the Force, what the Force is, what the Empire is, or why the Rebellion rebels. I’m not saying these things need explanation because most people I’m sure already know, but this shouldn’t be someones ONLY Star Wars.

This movie isn’t perfect however. There were two pretty noticeable flaws. One being there were very Star Wars names, like Cassian and Chirrut, with people with fairly strong accents, causing some names and even partial sentences going misunderstood. Definitely worth rewatching with subtitles to catch more of the dialogue. The other main issue I had, was Grand Moff Tarkin. The actor who played Tarkin in the original films, Peter Cushing, is dead. He died in 1994. There were a couple of options to remedy this situation, all involving an actor that looks as close to Cushing as possible. Either CGI his face to make it the same, keep him in shadow for the majority of his screen time, or just let him be, and let the audience get over the fact that the original actor is dead. They went with the CGI, which was really well done, but not perfect, leaving the character in the “Uncanny Valley.” This pulled me out of the film a number of times, just looking at his erratic movements, and just all around unrealistic look.

All in all, I thought it was a great film. I cannot wait to see it again, and again, and again. A fantastic addition to the Star Wars Saga.