I had a good feeling about this...since they announced the movie plot. I just thought it could have been a great part of the star wars mithology to look into, and the first time ever since 1978 a (risky) chance to openly sideline the main movies storyline. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem (regardless its up and downs) with the Skywalker's saga, but at this point even without taking into account the expandend universe Star Wars built a vivid and structured universe with so many things untold to add or other things simply hinted but ready to be developed.
So...i liked this movie alot for the aforementioned reasons since it was just a concept, and now more than ever as finished movie being to me somehow the first "new" Star Wars movie since Episode IV. As we all know Lucas had an original story and couldn't squeeze it into a single movie (and a single budget in those days) so it delivered its vision in three parts. But it was just a single story but with such a powerful vision that once the movies ended the universe around them kept living and growing on itself in popular culture. Since a was a kid playing with my Star Wars toys I had my own stories happening in the Star Wars universe Beyond the movie events, my x-wings were always diving into some attack well after the Battle of Yavin, stormtroopers and rebels where caught in endless fights in some hidden base under my bed or securing secret data in strategic lookouts over my desk.
That's where Rogue One is (finally) happening. It's a zooming in and out over a huge landscape of the saga, somehow far from where much greater powers and characters are at work, the get right to that tiny spot that you knew was there but never took the time to appreciate all the difference it made. Edwards manage to accomplish many not so easy goals all at once, first Rogue One boldly moves away from the storytelling tone of all its predecessors but still cleverly keeping its roots alive inheriting part of the mood of the Empire Strikes Back, not by chance generally considered the darker movie in the classic trilogy. From there he builds up a strong, well paced war movie in a far, far away galaxy thanks to a set of solid characters and especially in the first half a stellar screenplay and editing that interwine various plots and happenings. If there is something I could criticize of the movie is that actually the final part loose a bit its keen focus on characters to leave more space to the action. On the other hand a price every aviation or space opera fans will gladly pay to see what will likely remain for some time the greatest space fighter scene ever. The Rebel Alliance attack on Scarif is simply aviation dogfights porn.
And it's amazing thinking that what we are witnessing it's kind of the tiny story compared to the overall Star Wars saga happenings we already know; but again Edwards hits the target dosing the screen time of the most iconic characters, like some punchy chorus in a good song he knows where and how to make Darth Vader have its powerful entrance. Moff Tarkin, R2 and C3PO, Leia as Vader himself even in their small screen time are like towering elements on the background, bringing depth, scale and framing to an already vivid picture. Last but not least Rogue One without getting into too deep waters remaining an entertainment product, strikes that difficult balance between been a war movie and a movie about war, where the first holds the powerful epic of the sacrifice for some higher belief with the unarguable cinematic power of war scenes, while the second weight is to the more jaded vision where circumstances makes us what we are, and once your innocence is lost there is no turning back or true redemption. Just dealing with what we have done and making our best to stay true to why we did it. In Rogue One too, wars not make one great. That would have been a great, though a bit too revealing tagline I guess...
Review by MarcoBlockedParentSpoilers2016-12-16T10:14:12Z
I had a good feeling about this...since they announced the movie plot. I just thought it could have been a great part of the star wars mithology to look into, and the first time ever since 1978 a (risky) chance to openly sideline the main movies storyline. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem (regardless its up and downs) with the Skywalker's saga, but at this point even without taking into account the expandend universe Star Wars built a vivid and structured universe with so many things untold to add or other things simply hinted but ready to be developed.
So...i liked this movie alot for the aforementioned reasons since it was just a concept, and now more than ever as finished movie being to me somehow the first "new" Star Wars movie since Episode IV. As we all know Lucas had an original story and couldn't squeeze it into a single movie (and a single budget in those days) so it delivered its vision in three parts. But it was just a single story but with such a powerful vision that once the movies ended the universe around them kept living and growing on itself in popular culture.
Since a was a kid playing with my Star Wars toys I had my own stories happening in the Star Wars universe Beyond the movie events, my x-wings were always diving into some attack well after the Battle of Yavin, stormtroopers and rebels where caught in endless fights in some hidden base under my bed or securing secret data in strategic lookouts over my desk.
That's where Rogue One is (finally) happening. It's a zooming in and out over a huge landscape of the saga, somehow far from where much greater powers and characters are at work, the get right to that tiny spot that you knew was there but never took the time to appreciate all the difference it made.
Edwards manage to accomplish many not so easy goals all at once, first Rogue One boldly moves away from the storytelling tone of all its predecessors but still cleverly keeping its roots alive inheriting part of the mood of the Empire Strikes Back, not by chance generally considered the darker movie in the classic trilogy.
From there he builds up a strong, well paced war movie in a far, far away galaxy thanks to a set of solid characters and especially in the first half a stellar screenplay and editing that interwine various plots and happenings. If there is something I could criticize of the movie is that actually the final part loose a bit its keen focus on characters to leave more space to the action. On the other hand a price every aviation or space opera fans will gladly pay to see what will likely remain for some time the greatest space fighter scene ever. The Rebel Alliance attack on Scarif is simply aviation dogfights porn.
And it's amazing thinking that what we are witnessing it's kind of the tiny story compared to the overall Star Wars saga happenings we already know; but again Edwards hits the target dosing the screen time of the most iconic characters, like some punchy chorus in a good song he knows where and how to make Darth Vader have its powerful entrance. Moff Tarkin, R2 and C3PO, Leia as Vader himself even in their small screen time are like towering elements on the background, bringing depth, scale and framing to an already vivid picture.
Last but not least Rogue One without getting into too deep waters remaining an entertainment product, strikes that difficult balance between been a war movie and a movie about war, where the first holds the powerful epic of the sacrifice for some higher belief with the unarguable cinematic power of war scenes, while the second weight is to the more jaded vision where circumstances makes us what we are, and once your innocence is lost there is no turning back or true redemption. Just dealing with what we have done and making our best to stay true to why we did it.
In Rogue One too, wars not make one great.
That would have been a great, though a bit too revealing tagline I guess...