Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review (2016) – A dark yet heroic masterpiece of the Star Wars universe!
It is now officially Sci-Fi Month!! We know it is fairly obvious, but we potatoes are big nerds! We are huge fans of sci-fi! Whether it be movies, TV series, animation, books, video games, and everything in between, there’s no denying our love for the genre! This year, we’re starting off our Sci-Fi month strong with a review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
If you’re unfamiliar with the Star Wars series, we would highly recommend that you watch the original Star Wars Trilogy before seeing this movie. Although Rogue One is a standalone film, it is fundamentally linked with the original trilogy and some things may be difficult to understand without the groundwork set by the original films. With that said, this is going to be a bit more of a spoiler heavy review, but we will try to keep it shorter and not to give everything away. Please take that into consideration and read cautiously.
Slight warning, this film does have some trauma, death, and violence. It is no worse than any other Star Wars film but we still felt that there may be some of you that may wish to know.
Let’s begin!
The movie opens on a planet called Lah'mu, a stunning world of volcanic sand and soil set in a rural landscape. A young girl named Jyn Erso (Beau Gadsdon) is running toward her home as an Imperial shuttle flies overhead. Jyn rushes into her home where her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) and mother, Lyra (Valene Kane) are frantically packing bags in preparation for the Imperial shuttle’s arrival!
They seem to have been expecting this unwanted visit for a while and are preparing for the worst. Galen and Lyra send Jyn to go hide as Galen walks out to confront the people who have disembarked from the shuttle, Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), and a squad of Death Troopers.
We learn here that Galen was a scientist who was previously involved in constructing the Death Star, a planet busting space station/weapon funded by the Empire. Krennic tells Galen that his help is needed as their work has halted without him.
Jyn, who was previously told to hide, watches from a distance as the confrontation goes on and she witnesses her mother being killed and her father being taken away. Jyn is able to successfully avoid detection and is saved by a man named Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker).
We then cut to the title of the film and, Oh Boy! Our hearts were pounding already! The build up for Jyn’s story left us with goosebumps! The entire opening sequence does a fantastic job of keeping a high level of tension and intrigue throughout!
The next time we see Jyn, she's an adult (Felicity Jones) who has been taken into custody by the Empire. While being transported to an imperial prison camp, her vehicle is attacked by rebel forces, led by a man named Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his reprogrammed imperial droid, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk)! Jyn makes an attempt to escape in the chaos, but is checked by K-2SO, who says one of our favorite lines, “Congratulations. You are being rescued. Please do not resist.”
We then cut to the planet Yavin 4, which is the base of operations for the rebel alliance. Jyn is brought before some of the top leaders of the rebellion and told that there is an imperial pilot being held by Saw Gerrera who has been telling everyone who will listen that the emperor is constructing a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. They are hoping to use Jyn’s familiarity with Saw to get a foot in the door with him since Saw is a…passionate person.
They want to gain more info from this imperial defector about what they are potentially up against in their fight with the empire. In addition, the rebel leaders inform Jyn that the defector was sent by her father, Galen Erso. They want to save Galen and bring him in to testify against the empire’s actions in the galactic senate.
To sweeten the pot, they also offer Jyn freedom in exchange for her help. This, along with being able to see her father again, is enough to convince Jyn to go along with the rebellion’s plan, although she is very reluctant and not very trusting of anyone there. Jyn has lived through so much trauma in her life, it is extremely difficult for her to let her guard down and allow others into her life.
She’s lived her entire life in survival mode, all because the empire couldn’t leave well enough alone and allow her and her family to live peacefully on their farm. She’s a tragic character, but we potatoes vibed strongly with her as we watched this film. We digress!
Jyn boards a ship piloted by Cassian and K-2SO heading to a planet called Jehda, which is where Saw Gerrera is currently hiding out and where the imperial defector is being held. Once they arrive, they find the capital city to be completely overrun by imperial soldiers, and even have a Star Destroyer hovering above it, which is an enormous flagship of the empire!
There is a manhunt currently going on for the imperial cargo pilot who defected, causing unrest and paranoia among everyone in the city.
While in the streets of Jehda city, a firefight breaks out between the empire and rebel forces! When the fighting has died down, Jyn and Cassian are able to get away unscathed, but are quickly apprehended by the rebel forces present on Jehda. They are then taken in as prisoners of Saw Gerrera.
Back at Saw’s base, Jyn and Saw have a rough reunion. Saw is hyper paranoid that everything and anything can be an imperial plot, including seeing Jyn again. He asks her if she is there to kill him. Jyn replies that she is only there to open the door to conversation with the rebel alliance and that her job is done. Saw then asks her is she even cares about the cause, and if she could stand seeing the Imperial flag being flown across the galaxy. She replies with “It’s not a problem if you don’t look up.”
That line hit hard. There are so many things going on in the world that need to be changed and improved. If only we would look up.
But this point of view is also incredibly understandable. Jyn has already been through so much. She comes across as a tough but weary person. She’s tired and we can definitely relate to that as well. But again, we digress!
Saw, disheartened by Jyn’s response, still agrees to help. He informs her that he received a hologram message from her father, Galen. The message details not only Galen’s love for Jyn, but also the fact that the Death Star was fully on track to be completed without him.
For this reason, he made his expertise so valuable to the empire, that they did not notice him secretly laying the groundwork to sabotage the Death Star! It would require a full technical readout of the space station, but the information would give the rebellion a chance to completely destroy the Death Star in its entirety!
To wrap things up here, the film continues with the rebels trying to get their hands on these blue prints and the Empire trying to stop them. The movie is well paced, entertaining, and just all around an incredibly good time!
There is so much going on in this film that we had to make this far more succinct in general. This is where we are going to leave it so as to not give too much more of this epic movie away!
The film does a great job of showing that the Rebellion is also capable of doing questionable things in the name of their cause. This is something that is largely glossed over in the original trilogy but was quite refreshing to see here! It added a sense of realism and gave us some of our first indications on the big screen that the Rebellion is, indeed, comprised of flawed, and scared people.
We also have to say, the acting in this film as absolutely phenomenal! Every character really gave it their all and it truly shows throughout the picture. Everyone did an amazing job, but one of our all-time favorites was the droid K-2SO. His snarky, sassy, and blunt way of speaking offered some hilarious levity to an overall serious film!
Honestly, this is the best thing Disney has done for the franchise since acquiring the Star Wars license. There are some fantastic call backs to the original trilogy and even to the prequel trilogy sprinkled throughout the film and it’s a true delight to try to catch them when they’re on screen! Folks who are new to Star Wars will still have a lot of fun with this action sci-fi film!
We love this film and had the best time watching it! We could not recommend it more! If you are a fan of sci-fi, action, spy, and war films, then this is the movie for you!
We give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 5 Kyber Crystal Martinis out of 5!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Drinking Game
Take a sip anytime:
1. Anyone says “Rebel” or “Rebellion”
2. Anyone mentions the "Death Star"
3. Director Krennic is manipulative or whiny
4. Stormtroopers on screen
5. K-2SO is snarky or sarcastic
6. K-2SO calculates probability
7. Chirrut mentions “The Force”
8. Baze protects Chirrut
9. Cassian kills someone
10. Jyn has a flashback or dream
11. Jyn has a badass moment or scene
12. There’s a reference made, or a character shown from another Star Wars film
What did you think?? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!