Cinema Bits...where you'll find movie reviews of films that are in theaters now or already on DVD and Blu-Ray!

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

It’s been a
year and true to Disney’s word, we’d gotten our first taste of a movie-a-year
after The Force Awakens.Their claim to release a Star Wars movie each and every year into the foreseeable future has
really started this year with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and I
really can’t wait to get into what I had witnessed this past weekend.

Now, I had
been excited before and while watching The
Force Awakens last year, wanting so badly to see what has transpired in the
time since we’d seen our favorite characters in the original Star Wars trilogy.Although there were many characters
introduced into this continuing cinematic universe, we were still able to catch
up with our favorites interspersed throughout that story and that’s what made
that movie special.Also, the special
effects were so much better and not overbearing as how they had been in the
prequels of Episodes I, II, and III.I
really hadn’t thought that any of these one-offs I’d heard about would do any
better or would interest me, but I knew I’d see them nevertheless.

When word
had gotten around about the story of how the group of Rebels was able to steal
the Death Star plans and deliver them to Princess Leia, basically the one or
two sentences from the opening crawl of Star
Wars: A New Hope, I thought it was genius!Yes!That’s what they should
do!Tell the stories of what is
mentioned in these opening crawls!Right
away, I knew they had a hit on their hands.If done right, and without George Lucas’s need to overbear the
audience’s senses with hordes and hordes of special effects, this film could be
a great intro to the original 1977 film!

Were they
able to accomplish that?Well…let’s get
into it with a plot breakdown…

A defected
Imperial scientist, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), is brought back to The Empire after being in hiding to help engineer a weaponized space station
called the Death Star—an intergalactic armament powerful enough to destroy a
planet.Imperial death troopers led by
Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), force Galen to come back after his wife, Lyra
(Valene Kane) is killed by them.With
Galen’s daughter, Jyn (Beau Gadsdon), hiding, then left to be raised by Saw
Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), he ends up with The Empire and is forced to work
on their dreaded weapon.Years later,
with the help of an adult Jyn (Felicity Jones), a rogue team from the Rebel
Alliance—Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) with his reprogrammed Imperial droid, K-2SO
(voiced by Alan Tudyk), the blind combatant Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen) and his
comrade Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang), along with others—fight to find and steal the
plans for the Death Star, setting up the epic saga to follow.

Right from
the start, I’ve heard and read mixed reviews about this story, although most of
them have been positive, and I’ll say that this review will be on the upper end
of the positive spectrum.What director
Gareth Edwards did here was brilliant and meticulously done, giving us something
on the level of the original trilogy.Yet, Rogue One was not designed to gel seamlessly with the other
movies much like The Force Awakens had
done, but something Edwards can boast as creating something very
standalone-ish.

What was
different than your typical Star Wars
movie?Well, just like The Force Awakens you’ll notice that
there is no 20th Century Fox fanfare that plays and shows before we
see the text, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” but that’s just
because of the ownership switching from that studio to Disney Studios.Actually, that wasn’t very noticeable.What was very obvious here was that after
that text shows up, we don’t hear the John Williams score we’re so used to
hearing in the beginning of every episodic film we’ve seen so far.No, in Rogue One, we go from that simple
blue text into the movie—no trumpet-blasting heroic music, not even an opening
crawl to explain what has happened since Episode III.Since John Williams was not involved with
this film, it’s understandable and I can commend Edwards and the actual
composer of this film, Michael Giacchino, for going against the predictable way
of just reusing the themes from Williams (although there are a few cues here
and there) and composing his own motifs throughout.The music is very fitting and exciting at times;
I can almost say that I’m glad they decided to go with a different composer on
this film.

With The Force Awakens, the one complaint I’d
heard many people make was that the story was just a retread of A New Hope and I can see the points that
some people had made.I can also side
with J.J. Abrams on how they’d played it safe to get the franchise back on
track, having faith that they’ll give us something great when they continue the
saga with Episode VIII.Here, however,
the story is very original (although already given to us in a few lines of text
in A New Hope’s opening crawl) and
energetic, giving us a story we can follow along and see where it’s going.If you’re a big Star Wars fan, you may be able to guess how it’ll all end, but it’s
epically told and brings you to the edge of your seat, wondering how it’ll all
come together.

As you may
have heard, you’re going to see a lot of very familiar faces—some blended into
the story perfectly, one or two forced in just for the nostalgia—and that’s
what makes this a Star Wars movie and
one that sets a feeling of familiarity once it starts.Although the Episode I through III trilogy
had familiar characters that were known in the Star Wars canon, it was set a bit too far back in time, leaving you
guessing if the characters you were seeing were actually the ones you were
familiar with.In Rogue One, you know who
you were seeing, whether you knew the names or not, because this story
literally takes place right before A New
Hope and characters you see here will be the exact same ones you’ll see in
the 1977 film.Some of them—or one in
particular—was brought in painstakingly and it works so well (not going to
spoil it).

Let’s be
honest, the acting in this film will not gain any attention from the Academy,
but it’s all believable enough that you’ll really feel like you’re going
through the turmoil they’re all facing.You’ll feel their adventure as they travel throughout these different
worlds and be pleased or saddened by what ensues in their journey.Identifying with their characters felt
straightforward because each one has their own persona and identities, both in
their ways and their looks.The main
group of our heroes is very diverse and it helps us recognize them when they’re
on screen.

Here, in
this film and out of all the Star Wars films,
you’ll see the most realistic action out of all the films in the cinematic
franchise.Unlike the other films, where
there are some storm troopers that get shot up quickly and the heroes move on,
the battles here take time but are action-filled.You really get a sense that the heroes are
having a hard time with their quest and you may even feel some doubt that they’re
going to succeed.For the first time,
you really get a true sense of the Death Star’s power, up close and personal,
seeing it from the victims’ perspective.Instead of seeing the space station sending a large laser blast to blow
up a planet, you actually see what everyone on the planet is seeing or even an
overhead close-up of the destruction.All in all, this film may be a little more violent with a lot of lives
lost and devastation seen all around.

I can’t help
but go over this as a big Star Wars
fan, but I can see how this would play out to the casual viewer if they watch Rogue
One as a standalone movie.It
definitely can work that way as well as a way to introduce anyone who hasn’t
seen the original trilogy (though, I can’t believe no one has ever seen
them).

Now, I’d
mentioned a bit about what we see with the Death Star’s capability for
destruction, but that’s not where the awesome visuals stop.All throughout this film, you’re going to see
giant spectacles, great use of motion capture technology (Tudyk’s K-2SO was
magnificent) , X-wing and tie-fighter battles like never before…there is so
much digital eye candy in this film, you’ll have to see it a second time just
to take it all in.We’re also introduced
to a few new worlds, as well as some familiar ones, and it’s just a great sight
to see.Where George Lucas
failed—forcing in the obvious CGI-laden worlds that ended up looking so
distracting—Disney, with the help of Gareth Edwards, prevailed.

One
semi-spoiler—but if you’ve seen the trailers, you’re aware of this already—is
that the inclusion of Darth Vader was amazing and really made up for his weak
appearance in Revenge of the Sith.Oh, he’s evil here…bad ass and scary, making
you fear for the fate of anyone who goes up against him.

I can go on
and on about this film, but let me just give you my final “bit” on Rogue
One: A Star Wars Story.

As a preface
to my whole opinion—it is a must for you to watch this film before viewing A New Hope.After watching this film, I believe the
episodes should be renumbered—this movie being Episode IV, A New Hope as V,
Empire Strikes Back as VI, Return of the Jedi as VII and The Force Awakens as
Episode VIII…that’s how well Rogue One fits into the whole
series.All the characters are likable
and create such great chemistry together; it’s hard to believe, especially
seeing as how they don’t have much time in the story to connect.Overall, I was amazed and enthralled, and I
can’t wait to see this again.I highly
recommend that you all see this, Star
Wars fan or not.

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As an introduction to what I do here, I like to break down a movie, just a little bit, and I explain what I like and didn’t like about the film.

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Most of the reviews I feature on here are films that I deem classics or very worthy of viewing. But every once in a while I’ll venture out to the local theater to see what’s playing.

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