Warning: This review contains MAJOR spoilers for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Let me start off my saying WOW! This movie was much better than anticipated. Bravo to the writers, producers, actors and everyone. Originally, I thought this would just be another Star Wars movie like any other. There were points where I thought you had to be a fan to be as excited about certain pieces, but anyone could understand it if this was their first Star Wars movie.
The plot of the movie was pretty self explanatory given the others movies that are already in the Star Wars, but even with knowing, I guess technically what was going to happen, it was still spectacular. Really the only thing that I was disappointed with was that there was no opening crawl as every Star Wars movie and game previously had used. However, I must say that there were several pieces of the movie that stuck out above the rest. Here are my top five points of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and my rating.
1. Jyn Erso
Jyn (Felicity Jones) was an outstanding person for this role. As the first movie to focus on a non-Jedi, she had a lot of eyes focused on her. Many people seemed frustrated to have a female heroine in Star Wars right now leading the entire movie, but I am pretty sure that frustration was placed elsewhere after seeing the film.
2. K2SO
probably one of my favorite characters (other than the next one). If you ever wanted a droid with sass, this is your droid. A reprogrammed imperial droid, K2SO (Alan Tudyk) had so much spunk that I would await his return every time he left. This made it even that much more sad when we lost this character.
3. Chirrut Imwe
Ok, so even without a Jedi, I am happy Disney decided to add in a character like this. It just goes to show that you do not have to be a Jedi to have the force on your side. Chirrut (Donnie Yen) showed that anyone can be great, even if you are dealing with a disability like his. Also his main line throughout the entire movie relates so well to my life.
4. Old characters returned.
So, since this piece of Star Wars takes place literally right before episode IV, there are a lot of characters involved in the rebellion that I was thrilled to see. Obviously, you can't have a Star Wars movie without R2-D2 and C-3PO. Even though their appearance was brief it satisfied a lot. You also have Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits), who we have grown to know and love through most recently the animated television shows. There was also one other character return that I am pretty sure you know who it is, but I will hold for point number five.
5. That ending!
Now we all knew Darth Vader was going to be amongst the cast, but what I didn't realize was they way they would twist Rogue One's ending to literally end at the beginning point of Episode IV. The last ten minutes were so intense. There was non stop action, and it was done in a way to continuously drive your emotions forward, from main character deaths, Vader striking down everyone in his way, and every single character that touched the Death Star plans continuously pushing and fighting to their last breath. Bravo to all especially for that! Also, may I just say that the fact we were able to see Leia back in action made me almost tear up with joy. Obviously a different actress, but she is so close to the original that you could barely tell. I would gladly return to see this movie again in theaters, and you can bet that once it is out, it will be in my possession. Overall, I give Rogue One: A Star Wars Story an
