Rouge One: A Star Wars Story

Synopsis:

In a period of great conflict, a group of unlikely heroes led by Jyn Erso (a daring fugitive) and Cassian Andor (a rebel spy) band together on a desperate mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction.

Movie Review:

"Rogue One a Star Wars Story" is the first stand-alone Star Wars movie, and it is one of the best prequel Star Wars films set between episodes 3 and 4. This movie follows a young rebel named Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who must team up with a rebel spy, Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) to steal the plans to the Death Star, which is the empires ultimate weapon of destruction. What this movie does well is that it has a darker tone and feels like you are watching a war/heist film rather than a typical Star Wars movie. The characters in the film are good but not great, but some you become attached to like Jyn, Cassian, and K2S0. I loved Jyn and Cassian’s partnership and they worked well together in the action scenes and their relationship is realistic. K2SO (Alan Tundyk) was the funniest character in the movie and he stole every scene he was in. "Rogue One" has one of the best action sequences of any Star Wars movie in my opinion; especially, when the rebels fight the Imperial Stormtroopers while Jyn, Cassian and K2 steal the Death Star plans— the whole scene is thrilling and suspenseful. Also, the space battle in this film is one of the best since "Return of the Jedi"—it is powerful and exciting. Darth Vader appears in this film only briefly, but when he is on screen he was terrifying and his scenes set up the original Star Wars movie. The only problems I have with the film are some character issues in which they were underused and uniformed the audience about their past like Bodhi Rook(Riz Ahmed), and the second half of the movie slowed down a bit, which made it feel lengthy. "Rogue One a Star Wars Story" is a well-crafted, well-acted, action packed movie; and of course, a memorable music score like the other Star Wars movies. It is a great prequel and I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Director: Gareth Edwards

Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelson, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikklesen, Riz Ahmed, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen, and Forest Whitaker

Runtime: 133 minutes