Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) | Movie News & Review

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ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

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rogue one: a star wars story (2016) movie

Genre | Science Fiction

Classification | M

Running time | 135 minutes

Released | 15 December 2016

cast

Felicity Jones ... Jyn Erso
Diego Luna ... Cassian Andor
Alan Tudyk ... K-2SO
Donnie Yen ... Chirrut Îmwe
Wen Jiang ... Baze Malbus
Ben Mendelsohn ... Orson Krennic
Forest Whitaker ... Saw Gerrera
Riz Ahmed ... Bodhi Rook
Mads Mikkelsen ... Galen Erso

director

Gareth Edwards

writer

Chris Weitz ... (screenplay by) and
Tony Gilroy ... (screenplay by)

John Knoll ... (story by) and
Gary Whitta ... (story by)

George Lucas ... (based on characters created by)

cinematographer

Greig Fraser

music

Michael Giacchino

film editor

Greig Fraser

box office result

Worldwide $1,056,057,273

Australia $37,481,197

North America $532,177,324

the best dialogue

Chirrut Îmwe: I'm one with the Force, and the Force is with me.

Darth Vader: [while using the Force choke to strangle Krennic] Be careful not to choke on your aspirations, Director.

Jyn Erso: We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope!

things to spend money on ...

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ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) MOVIE IMAGES

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ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) STORY SYNOPSIS

Former scientist Galen Erso lives on a farm with his wife and young daughter, Jyn. His peaceful existence comes crashing down when the evil Orson Krennic takes him away from his beloved family. Many years later, Galen becomes the Empire's lead engineer for the most powerful weapon in the galaxy, the Death Star. Knowing that her father holds the key to its destruction, Jyn joins forces with a spy and other resistance fighters to steal the space station's plans for the Rebel Alliance.

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (2016) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 14 December 2016
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

It’s fair to say that Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has less audience expectation than Star Wars: The Force Awakens did at this same time last year. Where The Force Awakens was seen as a bridge to a new generation of characters, simultaneously incorporating fan favourites from the original trilogy, Rogue One expands the scope of A New Hope by providing important backstory to the 1977 film that only true Star Wars fans could have previously contemplated in their mind’s eye prior to the release of this new film. Opinion will divide into two camps on Rogue One. There will be casual moviegoers and not-so-diehard fans who will think it’s a pretty good adventure that puts the ‘War’ in ‘Star Wars’. Then, there will be the Star Wars fans, who, like the Galactic Senate of the prequel trilogy, will debate endlessly about the pros and cons of Rogue One in an effort to determine whether this is the best Star Wars film that has been made. Either way, Rogue One does not disappoint!

The film, written by Chris Weitz and Bourne series scribe Tony Gilroy (with story credit going to ILM visual effects supervisor John Knoll and Gary Whitta), kicks off in a different fashion to the trilogy films, eschewing the traditional screen crawl that has become a trademark of the Star Wars franchise, introducing key characters in a prologue sequence that demonstrates the much harder edge Director Gareth Edwards brings to the galaxy far, far away. The First Act moves quickly from planet to planet, assembling the key characters around Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), Rogue One’s central protagonist. Along the way, there’s just enough in-house references to both the Original and Prequel Trilogy films to make fans smile and nod without the story becoming a slave to the nearly 40 years of Star Wars lore. By the time Rogue One gets to its Second Act, the action has been ramped up to levels beyond anything previously seen in a Star Wars film. Two stand-out set pieces not only capture the action but also the emotion of the characters and, in Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars universe, even the film’s heroes are flawed and, at times, violently opposed to each other.

While comparisons between Daisy Ridley and Felicity Jones are bound to be made, Jones is a very different kind of heroine. Where Rey’s story is about destiny, Jyn Erso’s story is more about fate. Jones is certainly no slouch in the action stakes and she more than matches Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, with whom she spends the majority of time throughout the film. Luna’s Andor is not your classic heroic support either. Very early in the story it’s made clear that he’s a dangerous man and has a very low level of trust in everyone. Other standouts include Donnie Yen as the blind Force-sensitive Guardian of the Whills, Chirrut Imwe. The characters that Yen and Wen Yiang play are a wonderful, subtle nod to The Journal of the Whills, the story that George Lucas set out to tell, and morphed into Star Wars, back in the early 1970s. However, without doubt, the new audience favourite will be Alan Tudyk’s reprogrammed Imperial droid, K-2SO. Tudyk voices K-2 as a droll, sardonic mechanoid who gets all of the best lines in the film!

It’s easy to underestimate the technical wizardry on show in Rogue One as audiences have to come to expect so much from Star Wars films in terms of their visual impact. For the first time since The Empire Strikes Back, the physical effects are as important as the visual effects with the multiple ground battle sequences between the Imperial and Rebel forces bringing the action as close to the audience as it has ever been in a Star Wars movie. A great deal of credit for this goes to Australian Director of Photography Greig Fraser, whose experience on films like Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty and Snow White and the Huntsman proved his ability to capture big effects action with intense, gritty reality. Rogue One proves that a prequel, when thought-through and told as a self-contained story, can succeed without lapsing into the self-referential, back-filling territory of the George Lucas prequel films. Whether you’re a casual movie-goer with a passing interest in the Star Wars films or a died-in-the-wool, hardcore fan, Rogue One IS the prequel you’ve been looking for!