Gareth Edwards (he who directed the last Godzilla movie) was tasked with creating the first live action Star Wars spin-off movie aka Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. So far we know of 2 other spin-off/prequel movies being developed, one that will deal with Han Solo and the other that will deal with Obi Wan Kenobi.
The spin-off movies are supposed to hold us over in between the trilogies and feed the fan lust for Star Wars nostalgia by basically filling in gaps of what happened in between past movies. The question is: is the force strong with this nostalgia movies?
Rogue One definitely answers "I'm one with the Force and the Force is one with me". Let's dig in...
One of the biggest criticisms of the first Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope was that the galaxy was lily white. Luke Skywalker seemed to live in a nerd world fixated on whiteness and males, and George Lucas (writer, director, producer) then tried to temper that in following movies by casting a black actor to play Lando and added a few more Asian aliens. Rogue One increases the ante and is one of the most diverse films in the Star Wars universe.
For Rogue One, which is the Star Wars version of the Dirty Dozen, we have a female lead in Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones).
There's the wise monk - almost Jedi like Donnie Yen (as the blind fighter Chirrut Îmwe), Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler and The Night Of) is the rebel defector Bodhi Rook, Wen Jiang is the gun totting Baze Malbus, Diego Luna is the intelligence agent Cassian Andor. This is more inclusive than Force Awakens.
The cast is as talented as it is diverse. Forest Whitaker as Saw is brilliant and Riz Ahmed doesn't have a lot to do but the little screen time he has shows his potential.
Then there's Alan Tudyk as the robot K-2SO. The sarcastic dry humour is off the chain. The movie also does a great job with using two characters from the classic trilogy. One I will not mention - save it for the movie - the other, Darth Vader, has a brilliant sequence which fandom will love to death.
Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz's script does a great job of balance - referring to the old story and building the ideas and drama of Rogue One.
The third act is very ballsy, especially for a Disney movie and Gareth Edwards has to be commended on creating a visually stunning movie. It has a lot of characters but one gets to know and understand them whilst still tying Rogue One to the Star Wars universe nicely.
This is a war movie in the same vein as Dirty Dozen, The Battle of Algiers without the gore of Saving Private Ryan. All is tainted, there are no saints in this movie but there's plenty of hope.
This is one of those that one may needs to watch twice or so to truly appreciate its nuances and subtle shifts in tone. Although I missed the Star Wars theme crawling title, the new stuff kept me entertained and engaged.
Yes the exposition is a bit slow but once we move past it, the film has a lot going for it. It may be remembered as fondly as the Empire Strikes Back one day.
Rating
****
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* dololo **Ja nee ***better than watching sabc **** Almost Perfect ***** Wololo