Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first in a yet unreleased number of stand-alone Star Wars films that Kathleen Kennedy (President of Lucasfilm) has said to be the future of the Star Wars franchise. Rogue One tells the story of the Rebels fronted by Jyn Erso (portrayed by Felicity Jones) on a quest to gather the plans to destroy the Death Star, leading the way to Luke Skywalker and friends to ultimately destroy it in ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’ the very first Star Wars film.
Featuring an internationally diverse all-star cast including the aforementioned Felicity Jones (British), Deigo Luna (Mexico), Donnie Yen (Chinese), Riz Ahmed (British-Pakistani) and Forest Whitaker (African-American) Rogue One is one of my favourite films of the year. One of the main reasons? Having a diverse cast yet, not overly emphasising the fact it is a diverse cast. This makes the diverse nationalities seem the way it should… normal.
Gareth Edwards (of Godzilla fame) brings everything excellent about Godzilla to the film, especially his incredible way of making everything seem overly large for example the shot below.
Rogue One is best described as a war film. With a grittier, more harsh narrative Edwards was able to bring an intergalactic story full of robots and lasers to a level that’s more realistic to the audience. Yet as aforementioned keeping the Star Wars fans favourite droids, famous faces (yes Darth Vadar is back) and battle sequences in abundance throughout the film.
Donnie Yen and K-2SO steal the film for me. With Donnie Yen bringing something completely different to the franchise and putting a great spin on the ‘force’. K-2SO brings a lot of comedic relief throughout probably the most tense Star Wars film ever.
Rogue One is heartbreaking, it’s beautiful, it’s everything a prequel film should be (no shade). It’s a brilliant start to the anthology stand-alone series (a Han Solo film is set to be released in 2018!)
What did you think of Rogue One? Let us know here or if you haven’t seen it yet.. go go go!
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