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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Star Wars: Rogue One
USA 2016
produced by Simon Emanuel, Kathleen Kennedy, Allison Shearmur, John Knoll (executive), Jason D. McGatlin (executive) for Walt Disney Productions (Lucasfilm)
directed by Gareth Edwards
starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Henry, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Alistair Petrie, Genevieve O'Reilly, Ben Daniels, Paul Kasey, Stephen Stanton (voice), Ian McElhinney, Fares Fares, Jonathan Aris, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Spencer Wilding, Daniel Naprous, James Earl Jones (voice), Ingvild Deila, Anthony Daniels, Valene Kane, Beau Gadsdon, Dolly Gadsdon, Duncan Pow, Jordan Stephens, Babou Ceesay, Aidan Cook, Daniel Mays, Andy de la Tour, Tony Pitts, Martin Gordon, Eric MacLennan, Robin Pearce, Francis Magee, Bronson Webb, Tim Beckmann, Geraldine James, Ariyon Bakare, Simon Farnaby, Drewe Henley (archive footage), Angus MacInnes (archive footage), Gabby Wong, Richard Glover, Toby Hefferman, Richard Cunningham, Jack Roth, Michael Gould, Rufus Wright, Michael Shaeffer, Geoff Bell, James Harkness, Derek Arnold, Matt Rippy, Nick Kellington, Michael Smiley, Warwick Davis, and the likenesses of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher
story by John Knoll, Gary Whitta, screenplay by Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, Star Wars created by George Lucas, music by Michael Giacchino, special effects by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), Blind
Star Wars
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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In that galaxy far far away, little Jyn has to see her mom (Valene
Kane) shot and her dad (Mads Mikkelsen) by baddie Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn)
because the Empire needs him to build the Death Star. Now Jyn (played as
an adult by Felicity Jones) is abducted by the rebels of the alliance who
have found out that Jyn's dad has sent a pilot (Riz Ahmed) to extremist
Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), who just happened to bring up Jyn. Now they
think the pilot has plans to destroy the Death Star (he has), and thus
want to get him out of Gerrera's grasp, who's of course much too extreme
for the Alliance. Now somehow that works out, with the small detail that
they manage to save the pilot but not the plans, which they have to get
from some other planet where there's this big archive. Somehow they make
it to said planet and to the archive, and it's up to Jyn and rebel Cassian
(Diego Luna) to actually get the plans and they manage to upload them to
the Alliance just in time before Tarkin (Guy Henry with the CGI likeness
of Peter Cushing) steers the Death Star to said archive planet, and blows
it up, thus allowing Jyn, Cassian, the pilot, their robot sidekick K-2SO
(Alan Tudyk), their closest companions, blind Chirrut (Donnie Yen) and
Baze (Wen Jiang) and a few other rebels to die their heroes' deaths. And
somehow the plans get into the hands of Princess Leia Organa (Ingvild
Deila with the CGI likeness of Carrie Fisher) of course, who calls them
"hope", to hammer home the point that this movie leads directly
to the events of Star Wars, later clumsily retitled Star Wars: A
New Hope. Oh, and Darth Vader (embodied by Spencer Wilding and
Daniel Naprous, voiced by James Earl Jones) is in there somewhere too, but
he does little other than swing his light saber for a bit. Well,
on one side Rogue One does much less to just please fans than The
Force Awakens (despite bringing Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher
back, plus Darth Vader, and many allusions to later films in the series),
and mostly tries to stand on its own feet, presenting us with a whole new
cast of lead characters who have no relation to established ones. Plus,
the film's less gimmicky and more adult that most previous entries,
telling a serious story in a very serious way. On the downside though,
the story of the movie's over-complicated and a tad simplistic at the same
time, and neither of the characters experience much development,
especially Cassian sees none at all. So what in the end is basically the
(well made) spectacle rather than anything else. The movie's really mostly
spaceships, gunfights, chases, stunts, explosions, (bloodless) violence, with little
meat beyond that. That's not to say it's not entertaining, because it
actually is - but it isn't a movie that stays with one for long.
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