Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
(2016)
Directed by Gareth Edwards
Starring Felicity Jones, Dieogo Luna, Alan Tudyk
Rating: ******
5/6
In a Faraway Galaxy
A young girl named Jyn
Loses her father
To the Empire’s whim.
They take him away
To build the Death Star
And she gets raised by
Forest Whitaker.
In adulthood
She joins up with some Rebels
And with ambush attacks
Turn Stormtroopers to rubble.
Spoiler alert:
They steal some plans
Escape, hand them off,
And die to the last man.
Why spoil the plot?
This is a Star Wars story
And if you’ve not seen Star Wars
At least once I’m sorry.
The opening crawl
Of the very first film
Is the entire premise
Of this very film.
Now that that fact
Has been laid on the table,
How has the execution of this plot
Been enabled?
Splendidly.
I will not lie.
Is the best Star Wars movie
Since Return of the Jedi.
How did this happen?
I’m still not sure of that part,
But they had a story to tell
From the start.
They had an interesting cast
Of characters, too,
Like a sarcastic robot
As part of their crew.
Donnie Yen
Plays a crazy blind man
Who thinks he can harness the Force,
He can.
Darth Vader shows up
In a few perfect scenes,
And he’s really a pleasure
To see on the screen.
Tarkin has been
Brought back from the dead,
And we see Princess Leia
Towards the end.
These characters do bring back
Nostalgic feelings,
But unlike the Sequels,
They have a purpose, being
To actually contribute
To the story they’re telling.
They are not just there
To keep the box office swelling.
That’s the main difference
Between Rogue One and Solo
And the horrendous Sequels
That were doomed from the get-go.
Having a story
Ahead of time
Makes a world of difference
Every time.
Another thing we see in this movie
Is war
And it looks so much
Like a real war.
We have better ground battles
And better space battles.
Chaos and strategy
Enhance these battles.
The film as a whole
Is really well done.
That’s why it gets
A four plus one.