Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review

"I'm one with the force, and the force is with me!"

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (let’s just call it Rogue One) is the first in a line of spin off films set in the Star Wars Universe, Rogue One was directed by Gareth Edwards and stars the likes of Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Forest Whitaker, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen and Ben Mendelsohn. The film itself is set between Episode 3 and Episode 4 (very close to Episode 4 indeed!) and follows a group of Rebels who come together to steal the plans for the dreaded Death Star, a weapon of truly terrifying power in the hope that the rebellion can destroy it. 

Now let’s jump straight into what I enjoyed about the film, well for starters there are a lot (and I mean a lot!) that I loved about the film. First of all this film is extremely gritty and there are some really tense moments as the rebels try to extract the plans, everything in the film feels used, vehicles are not spotless, Stormtrooper armour is dirty and worn and it just makes the universe seem even more real and actually lived in which for me adds another layer of depth to the whole universe which I have grown up loving. The characters are great additions to the Star Wars Universe, especially characters like Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus whose brotherly bond stole the film for me, and of course who can forget the droids of the Star Wars Universe, and once again in Rogue One K2SO steals the show again just like BB8 last year in The Force Awakens, but in Rogue One K2SO is completely different from what we have seen before and is quick witted and says the first thing that comes into his circuit boards which brings some nice comedic moments to the film. The action sequences in the film were of course highlights of the film especially the third act set piece which was just brutal with explosions and action happening all around you which was just stunning to see as a Star Wars fan. There were of course references to the Star Wars universe, with character cameos (some really really famous ones!) and some more subtle references from X-Wing pilots to vehicles to Star Wars: Rebels (The Disney cartoon show) a true Star Wars fan will clearly spot most of these and I surely did!

My only slight negative view on the film was the opening of the film, it just felt a bit jumpy as we jumped around from planet to planet to introduce the band of rebels that would take on this dangerous task, I understand that the film had to introduce a lot of new characters in a short space of time so we can get on with the mission (just like this year’s DC film Suicide Squad) but you really needed to keep up with the film as we chop and change between different sets of characters, some of which could of been more fleshed out in terms of character development but with a film on this scale where the whole point of it is to steal the Death Star plans some characters were defiantly coming to be slightly under developed.

Overall I would highly recommend this film to everyone (not just Star Wars fans), the film literally blew me away and completely exceeded my expectations as a Star Wars fan, and I can honestly say the future of the franchise is in safe hands and has an extremely promising future if every film is as good as Rogue One.

(The last 10 minutes of the film... oh wow wow wow! you will know what I mean when you see it!)

Verdict: 5 out of 5 stars