'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' came out this past weekend, and is easily one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It stars Felicity Jones, Donnie Yen, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, and Alan Tudyk, among many others. Obviously, the Star Wars brand is absolutely huge, and this movie was going to make a lot of money whether it was good or not. Still, this movie was kind of a risk for the brand itself. It's the first movie in a series of solo films that, while related to the rest of the series, aren't a part of the regular series. They stand completely on their own, so if this didn't do well critically, there's almost nothing they could have done to redeem it.
I'll preface this review by saying that I'm not a huge Star Wars fanboy. I like the Star Wars movies, don't get me wrong. I absolutely loved 'The Force Awakens', but I don't have the same nostalgia for the original trilogy as a lot of people do, simply because it was just before my time. When it comes to this movie, I liked it, but I didn't love it.
There are plenty of things to like about this movie. The action is very well done, and the cinematography is beautiful. The performances across the board are pretty good, but I think the standout of the film was easily from the droid K-2SO voiced by Alan Tudyk. The droids always seem to be fan favorites in these movies, and I honestly think K-2SO is the best one yet. He's hilarious throughout, and actually pretty tough and reliable. Another thing that really elevates the film is the presence of Darth Vader. He's not in the movie all that much, but when he's there his presence is undeniable, and there's one particular scene that might be one of the best in the whole series.
Some flaws: The first half of the movie is kind of choppy, confusing, and a little boring at times. Like I said, I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan ever, so I don't know everything there is to know about the ever growing universe that it lives in, but I have seen all the movies and I feel like too often I was confused about what was going on. I almost gave it a pass for that, but when I really thought about it I realized that I didn't have that problem at all during 'The Force Awakens,' so I couldn't. I also feel like the characters were very underdeveloped. All the performances were fine, but aside from Felecity Jones' character, I felt like I didn't really know much of anything about anybody else in the movie. Character development is really important for me as a movie-goer, and I felt like 'Rogue One' let me down in that department.
Overall, I thought 'Rogue One' was a good movie. There's plenty to like about it and there's some memorable aspects of it, and it's definitely worth seeing in the theaters. Still, I think it has too many flaws to be considered a great movie, which is the expectation for any new Star Wars movie.
