Film Review: ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ Starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna

Continuing a trend started by Episode III, this marks the third film set in the Star Wars universe to receive a PG-13 rating, and it’s put to effective use. Rogue One is darker and grittier than the original trilogy, but I also feel like this is one of the shortcomings of the film. By allowing a little more leeway in the ratings, it gives director Gareth Edwards the potential to pursue a discussion about tactics in war and the fine line that may often be tread by those we consider good, but for the most part, it gets glossed over for the sake of action. I genuinely think there was a lot of missed potential here.

That isn’t to say that it isn’t a good movie; on the contrary, I really enjoyed it. As I mentioned before, Vader steals the scenes he’s in, but the true star has to be K-2SO, a reprogrammed droid voiced by Alan Tudyk. An excellent comedic actor, Tudyk was given a lot of leeway in improvising his lines, which he put to great use. Most of the memorable lines and scenes involve him, and I think he’s given a terrific resolution in the end. Donnie Yen is terrific as well as a blind warrior. Fans may bitch about there being no Jedi in the film, but Yen’s portrayal of Chirrut Imwe might help appease their complaints. The production values are top-notch as well, for the most part. The scenery for each planet or base is well-done, and the battles are beautifully rendered.*

* – One moderate to major complaint about the visuals is the complete CGI rendering of a couple well-known characters. CGI has come a tremendous way, but I couldn’t help but get a sense of uncanny valley watching these two characters. Given the plot, one of them was completely unavoidable, but I feel like with some clever editing and camera angles, the second one may have been a bit easier to manage.

In the end, crawl and theme aside, this IS Star Wars. It’s a far superior entry to any of the I-III episodes, and it gives us a terrific appetizer to hold us over until Episode VIII is ready for consumption. It even attempts to answer a long-debated question that has puzzled Star Wars fans for generations. It isn’t perfect, but I don’t think anyone expected it to be. Rather, it’s an excellent addition to the universe, and a great way to flesh out some of the background canon that was wiped out when Disney acquired the Star Wars universe.

Rogue One gets a B+.