Rogue One Review

What I liked: Rogue one was good. Like Episode VII it fit right in with the world of the original series. The effects were great and the aliens creative. I was very impressed with all the alien landscapes. They were beautiful and detailed and much more interesting than the obligatory sandy planets we see every time. But mostly I liked realizing that we have landscapes that otherworldly here that we could go find. I also loved seeing planets with rings. Because this movie is outside the trilogy of trilogies, it doesn't feature Skywalker relatives, which is really quite refreshing. I always thought that there might be other people in the galaxy. Despite, or really in my opinion because of, being disconnected from central arc Rogue One connected to the other movies with more grace than any of the other films. Our favorite minor characters were back in ways that made sense: Ackbar, bejeweled MuMu woman, bearded rebel guy. Other random cameos were not included. The portions of the plot which connected did so in ways that add to story we already know, not simply capitalizing on our familiarity. The new characters are interesting and have effective character development. The film itself was a worthy addition to the Star Wars family. I liked the robot he was a good update of the C3PO type character without falling in the established role (BB8). I liked the minigun. I realize that there is really no reason to have a laser minigun, especially with the ammo belt, but it was pretty cool.

What I didn't: Rogue One was a really good movie and I had a great time watching it. Never the less, I am left with a great many unresolved questions and very few characters to answer these questions. I also have a few points of disappointment. Where were the words and the fanfare? One cannot start the film with blue words and not proceed directly to the yellow words. The lack of fulfillment of this expectation distracted me from the entire fist scene. Which was fine. Other than blue milk and beautiful black rocks it provided nothing non-redundant with later exposition. Why the cape, is it just to make you feel special? I mean, really, the cape is part of exactly 1 other outfit and no other uniform. Why does Vader live in Mordor? Is the Empire that hard up for cash that he needed to room with Sauron? I'm just saying that maybe Voldermort or another villain would have been a better choice because I think Anakin has had some bad experiences with lava in the past. I am a little underwhelmed with the spy craft depicted. It really wasn't very covert. At all. Also you really shouldn't send the head of your intelligence agency out on field work. In occupied areas. And he clearly does not appreciate the concept of targets of opportunity. When presented with a moral dilemma about a target the correct response is to shoot the person who outranks the target not to just sit there in indecision! And there is no doubt about whether the ship was on a "mercy mission" now, really exactly zero sneakiness. And who let some random person not even part of the rebellion stick around for the high level security briefing? But I guess the reason none of these problems really backfired is this movie violates the n+1 spies rule: there is exactly 1 spy. So I should really be finding fault with the Empire's complete lack of intelligence. I also have serious concerns about the Empire's targeting ability, regardless of what they were aiming at, they missed very badly. This movie also explains why there were no replacement parts in the Empire ever again. Or tech support. "Sorry no one has the user manual for that spaceship, good luck." Who let her give the pep talk? It was just about the worst pep talk ever and that includes Theoden's "Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! DEATH!" Where did the walkers come from? They popped out of the ocean like daisies! On a more critical note, this movie had 6 interesting main characters but it could have done a better job of showcasing them. This only stood out to me because I recently saw Magnificent 7 which did a great job of juggling 7 very distinctive characters and an action packed plot. These characters were fine but they could have shined a little more. Except the pilot. He was schwarmy. Finally, where were the other women. I appreciate having a female lead especially in a good action movie but am slightly less impressed with the inclusive casting when there are only 3 other women in the whole film, all in minor role. It would have taken just a little more effort to cast some extras.

Who should watch this? People who love star wars, people who think they have outgrown Star Wars (but clearly are wrong). Despite the same rating as other Star Wars movies this is an older kid movie.

Would I watch it again? Yes, planning on it.