Fans and filmgoers rejoice! Rogue One: A Star Wars Story rocks, setting a new high standard for
the space fantasy franchise and exceeding fan expectations. Rousing adventure
and exhilarating spectacle are back in cinemas in time to make your
Christmas wish list come true.
Gareth Edwards – Monsters
(2010), Godzilla (2014) – is part of
a new generation of filmmakers who grew up with the mythology of the Star Wars Saga and is now able to play
in the Universe that George Lucas created and bring their own sense of fun and
reverence to it.
Edwards clearly has a passion for the series being a fanboy
himself, and still very much in touch with the awestruck child inside of him.
Able to draw from 40 years of Star Wars
lore, he has brought to the screen everything that people love about the
original films as well as the acclaimed animated Clone Wars series.
Darker and grittier in tone than previous films in the
series, Rogue One follows a young
woman, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), taken from her parents at an early age whose
father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) was recruited by the Empire to help build a
secret weapon that will bring order to the galaxy.
Everyone knows about Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia’s
adventures with the help of Han Solo to smuggle stolen plans of the Death Star
back to a secret rebel base and mount a successful attack that would destroy
the Empire’s most feared weapon. Well… Rogue
One is the first new Star Wars
film which is an adjacent story, not part of the Skywalker saga, with never
before seen characters that fills a time gap just prior to the events of A New Hope (1977), revealing the story
of who and how those plans were stolen and delivered into the hands of our legendary
heroes.
As outlined in the opening crawl of Episode IV: A New Hope, “Rebel
spaceships, striking out from a hidden base, have won their first victory
against the Evil Galactic Empire” and in fact the Rebel Alliance’s secret
base on the fourth moon of Yavin plays a much bigger role in Rogue One as we get to see more of the
ancient temple ruins hidden among the jungle forests of Yavin 4 where the
rebels regroup and plan their next move.
“Rebellions are built on hope” according to one of Rogue One’s most dedicated members
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) whose morals have suffered due to having seen too
many bad things and having done things he’s not proud of in the name of the
Rebellion. But hope is in short supply at this crucial time in the Star Wars saga; the Jedi, guardians of
the peace and justice, are a distant memory after the Emperor’s purge in
Episode III some 20 years earlier, and the growing power of the Empire is on
the verge of completing a superweapon capable of destroying entire planets.
Against such a threat the Rebels have no defense or any
power to stop such an attack unless they can find a way to destroy it from within
before it can do any harm. But this will not be easy and will require much
courage on the part of many over the course of four films.
Armed with only vague information about a critical design
flaw in the Death Star’s construction covertly sent by her father, Jyn eventually
inspires a small rogue band of freedom fighters, extremists, Imperial defectors
and reprogrammed war droids to infiltrate a secure Imperial archive facility to steal
highly sensitive plans that could save the galaxy from certain destruction.
Much like World War II where the Allies were out classed by
superior weapons of the German Empire, Rogue
One is very much a war film about a small but courageous ragtag band of warriors
coming together by fate for a common cause to fight a more advanced enemy against
all odds.
Rogue One skillfully
pays homage to moments and characters from previous Star Wars films and other media especially Episode IV: A New Hope which Rogue
One directly precedes, and much of the fun for fans will be recognizing
those moments which resonate with earlier films. The locations are once again
chosen from many parts of the world, with Iceland, Jordan and the Maldives
standing in for an array of unique otherworldly planets.
Rogue One also does
a great job of creating memorable new characters and matching the look and feel
of the original classic films. It has a rousing and spectacular ending that
plays right into the beginning of A New Hope, which had audiences on their feet and cheering as the final credits
role.
JP
