OK right I had said that my two Red Dwarf posts would be the last ones of the year but I think I have time for just one more post and that post will be on the new Star Wars film: Rogue One, which I seen last night at the pics so I figured a quick review was in order.
So this will be my final review of 2016 for sure and let's get a move on and see how the latest film in the franchise holds up....
Oh and there might be just a few SPOILERS but don't worry I will keep them to a minimum (promise!).
STORY
Right, so I will try and keep the story re-cap pretty short but it all starts with a research scientist, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) being forcibly recruited by weapons designer, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) to complete work on the Death Star, the superpowered weapons station that has the ability to destroy whole planets. Galen's wife however is killed during a confrontation between both men, which results in his capture but his young daughter, Jyn escapes and is taken to safety by rebel extremist, Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker).
The film the moves forward 15 years where Jyn (Felicity Jones) is now a young woman and has been captured by the imperial army, however she is soon rescued by a rebel intelligence officer named, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) who takes her to the rebels who want her help to extract her father, Galen, so they can learn more about the Death Star. However unbekwnonst to Jyn, Andor is given orders to kill Galen instead of extracting him.
As their mission get's underway Jyn and Andor are accompanied by K-2SO, a reprogrammed imperial droid aswell as Chirrute Imwe (Donnie Yen) a blind warrior, who believes in the force and his good friend, Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) a warrior mercenary as well as a former Imperal pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) who has since defected.
However as Jyn is reunited with Gerrera on the planet Jedha, where the two of them argue as Jyn felt she was abandoned by him years ago but Gerrera plays Jyn a recording of a message from her father telling her that he has implanted a weakness in the design of the Death Star that could result in its destruction.
However around this time, Grand Moff Tarkin of the Empire, orders the use of the Death Star to destroy the capital of Jedha where Jyn and the others are who narrowly escape but Gerrera stays behind and is killed. And its from here that Jyn tells the others about her father's message and what they must do in order to access the Death Star's plans that will expose the station's only weakness....
THOUGHTS
While its not one of the very best Star Wars films, Rogue One is still a very entertaining film in the franchise and it does tell an important story within the saga itself as the rebels here fight to gain access to vital information that will play major importance in Episode IV.
The film is also packed with plenty of great action scenes throughout and it also introduces some new intriguing characters aswell as the re-appearance of a couple of familiar ones in Darth Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin, who play their part in trying to stop the rebels from carrying out their plan.
PERFORMANCES (NO NOTABLE SCENES THIS TIME!)
In an effort to cut down on SPOILERS there will be NO SPOILERS in this section and instead I will quickly mention the performances alone, which are all mostly pretty good.
Starting off with Felicity Jones, who is very good as Jyn, a young woman who is recruited by the rebels to help in their mission to try and explot a weakness in the Death Star. Jones plays the part with a tough vulnerability and although her character doesn't standout like the newer characters in The Force Awakens does, she still does very well with the role.
Diego Luna is also good as the rebel fighter, Cassian Andor, who helps Jyn in their cause to exploit the Death Star's weakness. Luna's performance is though at times a bit on the understated side and his Mexican accent can at times make him difficult to follow but regardless of that its a good effort.
Mads Mikkelsen does very well as Jyn's father, Galen and its good to see him play a good guy for a change as Mads is usually associated with playing the villains but here he shows he is equally capable at being a goodie even if he is slightly underused in the film.
Ben Mendelsohn is very good as the Imperial director of weapons research, Orson Krennic, who is in charge of the project to create the Death Star although he does become locked in a power struggle with Grand Moff Tarkin.
Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen who play the blind warrior, Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus respectively also do well in their roles as the two good friends who fight aside as they help Jyn in her mission and the two men also share a good comraderie onscreen together.
Forrest Whitaker too does very well in his brief role as Gerrera, the Clone Wars veteran who protected Jyn for years, although Whitaker's role does feel somewhat short-lived in the film (sorry hope that's NOT a spoiler!).
Alan Tudyk however steals the show here as the voice of the reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid, K-2SO who has been given a somewhat sarcastic and sassy personality by the rebels and he naturally get's all the best lines in the film and provides the comic relief.
Riz Ahmed (who you might have recognised from Chris Morris's controversial film, Four Lions) is also pretty good as the former Imperial pilot, Bodhi Rook, who ends up helping the rebels fight against the Empire.
James Earl Jones reprises his role as the voice of Darth Vader and once again his vocal presence in the role is unmistakable and he provides a very good scene where Vader meets with Krennic and it ends uncomfortably for one of them (guess which one!). Spencere Wilding, however was the actor who played the physical role of Darth Vader here as he took over from David Prowse.
And last of all Guy Henry does a pretty good job as the voice of Grand Moff Tarkin, who is represented as a CGI'd version of Peter Cushing, which to an extent works fairly well in the film.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
As for the direction, Gareth Edwards does a fine job at the directorial helm and for the most part he paces out the film very well and he confidently handles the film's many action scenes although the film does get off to a bit of a slow start. However overall Edwards does a commendable job and get's some good performances from his cast aswell provide good solid action that even the most hardcore of Star Wars fans should be happy with.
Music wise the score was for once in a Star Wars not composed by John Williams but instead it was done by Michael Giacchino, who's score closely resembles the style of Williams's and in fact I was almost convinced that it Williams that scored the film itself!
However it does become quite apparent after a while that this is Giacchino at work and I've never really been a big fan of his scores (particularly the Star Trek scores) as they just lack the excitement and imagination of what the best composers in Hollywood, especially Williams, could offer, which left me a bit disappointed.
FLAWS (Warning this section may hint at one or two SPOILERS but don't worry not too many!)
As for the flaws....yes Rogue One isn't perfect so it has some.
And to start off I felt one of the film's main problems was that the characters aren't particularly memorable and they just are mainly there to service the plot. In fact the most memorable character in the whole film is in fact K-2SO, who provides the most personality out of all the characters that are here. But without giving too much away perhaps the characters are designed not to be that memorable anyway as this film serves as a direct prequel to the events of Episode IV.
Another issue I had with the film was the need to create Tarkin as a CGI character in Peter Cushing's image. I mean it works OK overall but I felt in a way it wasn't entirely necessary to have to portray the character that way as they could have easily just done a voice over and not show the character rather than rely on CGI. And DON'T EVEN get me started on Princess Leia's CGI character, which appears right at the end! (And that's as much as I am going to say!).
I also felt the film got off to a pretty slow start and it does take a while for it to kick into gear as the first 30 minutes or so does feel a bit slow and uninvolving. Thankfully though it does pick up the pace after this and becomes a more entertaining experience.
Another issue with the film is also to do with its tone as it is pretty grim and dark for a Star Wars film at times and it even makes The Empire Strikes Back look pretty light-hearted and cheery in comparison (not that Empire is dreary which it isn't!). And the ending in particularly does leave things on a rather downbeat note but I will not say anything more about that!
And lastly I felt a bit puzzled as to the destructive power of the Death Star because in this film from what we see the station is capable on destroying planets but it does it at a much slower rate than what we see in Episode IV. Now I know that the Death Star was still undergoing completion at this stage but in Episode IV the Death Star destroys the planet Alderan with one single blast but here in Rogue One, the station destroys things very slowly. So I'm guessing that the Death Star will have different power settings from minor damage to full blown "destroy you in the blink of an eye!" destruction levels. Achh who knows?
Anyway that's me done with the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, Rogue One is a pretty good and entertaining Star Wars film, which features a pretty solid cast and some top action scenes that will keep most audiences entertained.
And yes OK it isn't quite perfect and yes the tone of the film is much darker and more grim than any other Star Wars film, which we have seen but if you can dismiss that then there is still much to enjoy here and its a film that is worth checking out.
Right! So that is finally it from me for 2016 and all that remains is for me to wish you all a Happy New Year and I will see you in 2017!
Till then, have a good one! :-)
