Fear not, no spoilers here! Look, this is probably not the first response to Rogue One you have seen today. This also probably does not have anything new to add to the discussion about Rogue One. That being said, I have to let it all out. I just finished watching my most anticipated film release this year, and it was as good as I thought it would be.Still, I have some thoughts bouncing around in my head, both positive and negative. At times I felt concerned. Other times I was visibly and audibly ecstatic. Yet, the emotions were fused. Until this morning, the day after its international release, I had not really separated these thoughts and evaluated what I saw, but now it is only fair to critically evaluate what we/I saw on the silver screen.
Perhaps one of the most obvious complaints so far is the absence of the intro crawl. This made the film feel like something else, something not Star Wars. In hindsight, this is a minor complaint, and does not alter the quality of the film, but makes me feel dirty. Additionally, as the movie began, the pacing of the film seemed worrysome. Ten minutes in, I felt very concerned. "Oh no, all those reshoots have doomed this movie!" I was actually pretty concerned the movie's plot would leave me confused and lost. It felt scattered, plain and simple. Tyler Rayle, movie goer, said, "the transitions felt clunky," talking about the rapid pace of scene transitions in the first act of the movie. He said he, "[knew] what was going on, but it was far from smooth." So, within the first 20 minutes, I was scared... but that changed.
There is much to highlight here, so forgive me if this is more like a ramble. There were enough fan service moments to fill a pool with. They sped by, and I felt all the more connected to the saga when I noticed them. The core group of characters were beyond phenomenal, they all held a piece of the spotlight, and gave us memorable lines and moments that big fans will have ingrained in the back of their heads for years to come. The cameos are fantastic, and really made me want to jump out of my seat and scream at scenes. The action was like nothing we have seen yet, that offered some room for allegorical interpretation. Always a plus! The last ten minutes, in contrast to the first ten, felt concise, planned, and mapped out. It might be labeled as a cheap way to squeeze 5 minutes into the film, but it was fantastic. Even though we sort of knew how it would end, I could not help but feel suspense and wonder.
Daniel Knight, another movie goer, stated the whole movie experience was, "total euphoria." Yes, some CGI and animation were noticeable, yes the clunky opening signaled a possibly nightmarish outcome for the film, yes one actors performance was not as good as expected, and yes, some of the teasers found in the trailers were gone, but it felt like a excellent movie experience. The movie did not map out exactly as I planned, feel free to read my previous article on Star Wars, but it felt right. I left the theater elated, saying to myself, "that is how it should have ended," and yet, still curious about Episode VIII. I felt like Rogue One had managed to create an action pack film, packed to the brim with fantastic characters you grow to enjoy, with ungodly amounts of fan service, while living up to the quality of The Force Awakens. All this, despite the rocky start and countless fan theories now thrown out, has resulted in something truly special. As a fan, it might be hard to completely remove myself from the films, and maybe I am just biased, but everything about Rogue One has all fused into one of, if not the, best films of 2016.
