Rogue One: A star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 15/12/16

So, Rogue one was released today and I went to see it in the early hours of the morning along with many others. Here are my initial thoughts from my first time watching, no doubt there will be things I’ve missed but I’ll try my best. 

First, Rogue one isn't like any other Star Wars movie we've ever seen, it's darker, its grittier and much more real than the previous seven movies, which I liked a lot. It plays with your emotions throughout and is the perfect way to bridge that gap between Revenge of the Sith (ROTS) and A New Hope (ANH). The movie follows Jyn Erso, The daughter of Galen Erso. Who is Galen Erso? and why is he so significant to the movie and the Star Wars universe? well that’s because he is the man responsible for the development of the death star as the lead scientist for the Empire. The movie Reveals that Galen was split up from Jyn whilst she was aa very young age and was taken by the Empire to help further their research and development into new weaponry. We see that Galen was prepared for the empire to come looking for him, supposedly because he had been working with them in the past, this meant that when Orson Krennic an imperial commander comes knocking Jyn knows where to hide.

We then move onto the present day, which seems to be weeks or months before the events of A New Hope due to the death star being completed. An imperial pilot (Bodhi Rook) is said to have defected from the empire and talks of a weapon the empire are building that is a 'Planet Destroyer'. Of course, he is talking about the death star. He travels to Jedha the historical planet that serves as a sacred place to the Jedi (This planet reminds me of a modern day Aleppo, war torn and a barren state) to give the plans to the militant 'Saul Gerrera', Saul is the man who came for Jyn when her father was taken and is livening on Jedha with a group of rebels who are thwarting imperial movements to extract Kyber crystal from the planet which is needed to power the death star, Gerrara is doing this of his own accord as he has no trust for the rebel alliance. When Bodhi arrives he is taken to Saul like a hostage, he gives Saul a hologram from Galen Erso who it turns out sent Bodhi to Saul to tell him about the death star. 

Meanwhile the Rebel Alliance has captured Jyn from the Empire and taken her back to Yavin 4. They plan to use her to Saul Gerrera to engage with them in any way because Saul trusts Jyn. Jyn travels with Cassian Andor a Rebel leader and his Imperial droid programmed to help the rebellion 'KS2-0' to Jedha to meet with Saul, there is a skirmish in Jedha city which is instigated by Gerreras Rebels, Jyn and Andor are taken to Gerrera where he shows Jyn the message her father sent him. Galen speaks of his love for Jyn and always doing what he could to help her. The main point of the message is that he has worked hard to cover up that he has purposely placed a weak spot on the death star (the exhaust vent we all know so well from ANH, that’s why it was so obvious, it was put there on purpose ) 

Up to now we've seen that Jyn is a badass which is a great thing for the Star Wars universe as we haven’t seen many powerful females other than Leia and Padme. By this point Jyn and Andor have met up with Chirrut Îmwe & Baze Malbus. They were both former guards at the Jedi temple on Jedha which has been ruined by the empires search for Kyber crystal. Imwe is blind and so has adopted a strong faith in the force to guide him frequently reciting ‘I am the force, the force is with me’ like a prayer and at one point explaining that dark energy surrounds a person who is intending to kill another. Malbus is a weapon wielding arsenal on legs who has Imwes back on several occasions. 

Jyn finally gets to see her father one more time at an imperial research facility on Eadu where he works, Galen is confronted by Krennic who has found out that the Bodhi had help in defecting and releasing top secret information, Krennic threatens Galen’s team before Galen himself stands up and takes the blame. His team are killed anyway, by this point a rebel fleet is attacking the platform they are on and inadvertently kill Galen as Jyn watches. They trade final words as Galen dies in her arms. 

The crew of Jyn, Andor, Imwe, Malbus and KS2-0 head back to Yavin 4 where on the way Jyn discovers that Andor had been told to kill Galen as to stop him furthering the Empires research any further. When the crew arrive back at Yavin 4 there is no agreement between several parties as to whether they want to go to 'Scariff' the planet on which Galen had told them they could find the complete copy of the death star plans. Unofficially Jyn, Andor, Imwe, Malbus and a group of 20 or so rebels made up from spies & assassins take a stolen imperial shuttle to Scariff where a battle ensues on the beaches. Andor Jyn and KS2-0 make it inside using costumes of imperials as disguise. they make their way to the central vault of the data tower and KS2-0 begins sifting through the information to find the plans. The plans are named 'Stardust' by Galen in reference to what he called Jyn as a child. Meanwhile Bodhi sacrifices himself after the rebel fleet intersect radio comms notifying them that the group had gone to Scariff anyway. and are being kept off the planet by a defence shield, Bodhi dies whilst connecting the comms systems which tell the fleet that they need to open the shield in order for Jyn and Andor to transmit the death star plans. 

Obviously, we all know how this ends and if you don't you probably won’t understand a word I’ve written. The plans are sent up to the Rebel fleet just in time as the death star is unleashed onto Scariff utilising a fraction of its power to destroy the planet, and everyone on it, this includes Jyn and Andor who we see accept their fate on the beach as the planet disintegrates. Above we see Darth Vader and his fleet dismantle the Rebels. their ships are destroyed and Vader personally boards the rebels largest ship in search of the plans or to destroy anyone who would be able to get them back to Yavin 4. This scene shows up to the beginning of A New Hope, is sees Vader kill nearly a dozen rebel troops. one last troop makes a physical copy of the plans which are then give to princess Leia who is aboard a smaller ship which is dispatched from the main larger ship. This ship the one we see being chased by an imperial star destroyer in the first scene in Star Wars ever. Leia ends the movie with her only line when she is asked what the rebel trooper has just handed to her, she replies with 'Hope' hence the title 'A New Hope' 

My overall thought on the movie is that it's incredible, the story works well the characters were unique and were built very well, even guys like Gerrera who arent on screen is built very well before his death as Jedha is destroyed by the death star. The movie needed a quick build as we eventually lose everyone from the shuttle that was dubbed 'Rogue one' by Bodhi so there would be no more time to build these characters as they are a one-time thing. 

There were fun spots and a good mix between old and new characters that linked the story to the original trilogy. We see R2D2 and C3PO for a short second as 3PO is perplexed as to why everyone is going to Scariff and that they aren't ever told anything. we see Mon Mothma head the rebel alliance, and we also see Bail Organa who has an interesting conversation with Mothma. She asks him to find help from her 'Jedi friend'(assuming she means Obi Wan Kenobi) and to only reach out to someone he trusts to find him, to which he replies 'id trust her with my life' in reference to him asking Leia to find Obi wan ( Help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope) 

Darth Vader is given a decent amount of onscreen time enough to belittle and scare Krennic and destroy the whole rebel fleet. One scene of Vader stands out more than any though. There is a scene in which we see him in a test tube type thing. No suit, no helmet, but we know its him because it’s that same hollow breathing, its gives us more of a glimpse into Darth Vader under the suit and shows that he’s very fragile physically. Vader also has a scene when he first boards the rebel ship in which he is stood tall, his lightsaber flicks out, and on a big screen he looks as if he’s coming for YOU, it’s a moment that made me take a breath, and one that'll probably make a very good poster. 

There was always going to be the issue of time in this movie, essentially it had to be the same cast as in 1977 or new characters, most of this movie is made of new characters or ones that are easy to replicate which is fine apart from two who were too big to leave out, that is obviously Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin. Now Carrie fisher obviously has aged a bit since she was 19 in the original Star Wars and Peter Cushing died long ago. So, what they decided to do was use CGI like Fast and Furious did when Paul Walker died. Now it was obvious that both were CGI but I think that adds to the movie, no one else has the same look as peter Cushing did and he couldn’t be replaced, and Leia is so important she needed to look the same for continuity sake. 

The Movie was very strong and quite honestly, I was much more impressed by this then the force awakens (not that I didn't like it) and if Disney want to do more of these back-story time filler type movies then I’ll be happy if all turn out like Rogue One. 

Oh, and one last fun cameo we see on Jedha, two familiar faces, who both don't like the look of Luke Skywalker, one of whom has the death sentence on 12 systems and one of whom ends up with one arm in A New Hope (In case you don’t follow, they are Ponda Baba & Dr Evazan from Mos Eisley cantina)