Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) Movie Review
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) Movie Review
Rogue One is enjoyable, but has weird moments. It ties together flawlessly with A New Hope. I knew they were close together, but Rogue One is basically hours, if not minutes before Episode IV. So I’ll give them that. Some of the new characters are fun and interesting, but none of them have real depth like some of the older characters, like Darth Vader. Speaking of Darth Vader, he (Spencer Wilding) has a pretty terrifying cameo. Some Rebel Troopers are in the Death Star, and boom! there he is, slashing them down with his lightsaber murderously. It kind of reminded me of the scene in X-Men: Apocalypse where Wolverine just rips everyone to shreds.
But back to Star Wars. This movie is the first one I would seriously consider an action movie. It deserves the PG-13 rating, as there are sad deaths, an endless body count, and brutal moments. Also, parents need to know the movie is very explosion-happy. The characters (even the heroes), can be very violent: with lasers flying through the air, grenades blowing up every few seconds, and even some martial arts battles. Though some of our heroes and heroines can be merciless to their opponents, they are still cool.
Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is a strong rebel with courage. Cassian (Diego Luna) is interesting, but had a familiar character type. Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) is one of my favorite characters. He could be unintentionally hilarious, and he also is a good role model for disabled people (although Daredevil pulled off the buttkicking blind person, too). Baze Malbus (Jian Wen), the trigger-happy guerrilla fighter, is good, but his guns are pretty destructive. K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), provides some much-needed comic relief. And then Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) comes in, smashing and blasting his way through everything. Rogue One has some seriously sad deaths; maybe a few more than we thought.
If you can’t handle long, overly-dramatic deaths, then maybe this is one to skip. Some mental torture is even involved, in a scene where Saw gets answers out of an ex-Imperial pilot (Riz Ahmed) with a huge pink blob that looks like Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rogue One, unlike some other Star Wars films, has barely anything Jedi-related. The closest we get to a lightsaber duel is at the end, where Darth Vader makes chop suey of some Rebel cannon fodder with his red saber. Also, Chirrut is “one with the force,” as he states quite a few times. Other than that, Rogue One is focused more on the “Wars” than the “Star.” It seems quite militaristic, almost a sci-fi version of some WWII battles.
One strange thing that Rogue One does is create more types of Stormtrooper. I didn’t like this because: A. There are enough Clone and Stormtrooper types already, and B. There’s no use in doing so because they won’t be in the next three movies. Star Wars, please listen to me: STOP MAKING MORE OF THE SAME THING. NO MATTER WHAT IS “DIFFERENT” ABOUT YOUR “NEW” TROOPER, THEY WILL STILL BE DOING THE EXACT SAME THING. It is cool in the beginning when there were just Stormtroopers, Snowtroopers, and Biker Scouts, with the rare Sandtrooper. Now there are countless types of troopers, which serve the EXACT SAME PURPOSE. It’s getting on my nerves. It really is. Rogue One also brought back one of my favorite Star Wars vehicles: the AT-ATs. When you see them lumber out of those palm trees, you are taken back to when you first saw The Empire Strikes Back. The magic is totally there. And when Baze shoots at one with his rocket launcher, and you think he nailed it, and it comes back, unsacthed, it’s priceless. That is pure moviemaking wonder right there. That whole beach scene is fairly awesome. It felt like the Endor scene in Return of the Jedi. AT-ATs, explosions, lasers everywhere… so amazing. But it is also pretty violent.
Safety Chart:
Violence: 7/10- Countless explosions. Characters are shot with lasers close-up and from far away. Dramatic death scenes may be too much for little kids. Spaceships try to shoot each other down. Spaceships crash onto the ground and explode. Some martial arts action. Stormtroopers are beaten with a bo staff. Darth Vader slices up Rebel troopers with his lightsaber. The Death Star blows up a planet. Characters use all kinds of guns, like machine guns, laser blasters, rocket launchers, pistols, and more. A character sets up to snipe a man from far distance. Robots are shot to death. Huge war machines are seen, likes gigantic tanks. Rebels place grenades on several objects. Big spaceships crash into each other, causing tons of deaths. Most of the characters die. One character is crushed by huge pieces of falling rock. A man is tortured by an alien, but this is not graphic. Little blood or gore, except for some red scratches on characters’ faces. A robot slaps a human. A character shoots a dying Stormtrooper from point-blank range. Nothing is too graphic, but it can get intense.
Language: 2/10- Just some insults, but nothing very unpleasant.
Drinking/Smoking: 2/10- It’s possible they might drink some kind of strange liquid at some point.
Rogue One is interesting, depressing, confusing, exciting, and fun all rolled into one. Despite having some seriously weird scenes, it is worth seeing. Rogue One, in my opinion, is a good addition to the Star Wars saga. If I’ve convinced you to see it, then mark my words (really, do): it is the most downright weird Star Wars film you will most likely ever see.
