Courtesy Photo Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Since the ‘80s, whenever one describes a movie that suddenly gets dark in an otherwise light and exciting story, the movie The Empire Strikes Back has been used as an instant comparison. Rogue One has done the seemingly impossible and made itself into the new Empire for the Star Wars franchise. Empire is dark, but Rogue One is hopelessly bleak.
Director Gareth Edwards, who made waves last year with Godzilla, brings that sense of scope to the Star Wars universe. We’ve seen the size of the galaxy these stories take place in before, but never has the galaxy felt quite so lived in as it does here. The planets we visit, like Jeddha, which looks like a cross between Tibet and Afghanistan, or Scarif, which looks like a planet made of Caribbean islands, look miles away from prequel planets like Coruscant or Naboo. The lack of green screen makes worlds of difference, pun absolutely intended.
Edwards favors close-up shots where others go for panoramic, giving his world a sense of urgency and reality that hasn’t been present in Star Wars for decades. As good as The Force Awakens was, the emphasis on the force and Jedi made it something altogether different from Rogue One, which centers on a scrappy band of rebels and their mission to steal the death star plans and, essentially, kick off the entire franchise.
Felicity Huffman stars as Jyn Erso, a young woman whom we meet imprisoned in an imperial labor camp. Her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelson), is the architect of the Death Star, and the rebels need her to help them get to him. What follows is a frenetic tale of hope against hopeless odds. Joining her on her journey is Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), re-programmed imperial droid K2SO (Alan Tudyk), blind monk Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), and heavy arms bad-ass Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang). Rounding out their team is imperial defector and pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed).
As previously noted, Rogue One is significantly darker in tone than any Star Wars movie that has come before it. It’s a bit of an odd choice to release it at Christmas time, because tonally this movie is distinctly divorced from the usual hopeful or jolly family films released during the holidays. No, this movie has more in common with holiday flicks like Seven Pounds, in the “hopefully tragic” is the best summation for the plot.
Rogue One will undoubtedly go down in the annals of sci-fi history as one of the best, if not the best, chapters of Star Wars ever released. As heavy-handed as it is, it delivers so much on so many levels. It also delivers a Vader that is as scary as his legend is made out to be canonically. To say more would be to spill over into spoiler territory, so just get out there and treat yo’self!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Rogue One Is Star Wars At Its Most Bleak
Courtesy Photo
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters nationwide.
Since the ‘80s, whenever one describes a movie that suddenly gets dark in an otherwise light and exciting story, the movie The Empire Strikes Back has been used as an instant comparison. Rogue One has done the seemingly impossible and made itself into the new Empire for the Star Wars franchise. Empire is dark, but Rogue One is hopelessly bleak.
Director Gareth Edwards, who made waves last year with Godzilla, brings that sense of scope to the Star Wars universe. We’ve seen the size of the galaxy these stories take place in before, but never has the galaxy felt quite so lived in as it does here. The planets we visit, like Jeddha, which looks like a cross between Tibet and Afghanistan, or Scarif, which looks like a planet made of Caribbean islands, look miles away from prequel planets like Coruscant or Naboo. The lack of green screen makes worlds of difference, pun absolutely intended.
Edwards favors close-up shots where others go for panoramic, giving his world a sense of urgency and reality that hasn’t been present in Star Wars for decades. As good as The Force Awakens was, the emphasis on the force and Jedi made it something altogether different from Rogue One, which centers on a scrappy band of rebels and their mission to steal the death star plans and, essentially, kick off the entire franchise.
Felicity Huffman stars as Jyn Erso, a young woman whom we meet imprisoned in an imperial labor camp. Her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelson), is the architect of the Death Star, and the rebels need her to help them get to him. What follows is a frenetic tale of hope against hopeless odds. Joining her on her journey is Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), re-programmed imperial droid K2SO (Alan Tudyk), blind monk Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen), and heavy arms bad-ass Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang). Rounding out their team is imperial defector and pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed).
As previously noted, Rogue One is significantly darker in tone than any Star Wars movie that has come before it. It’s a bit of an odd choice to release it at Christmas time, because tonally this movie is distinctly divorced from the usual hopeful or jolly family films released during the holidays. No, this movie has more in common with holiday flicks like Seven Pounds, in the “hopefully tragic” is the best summation for the plot.
Rogue One will undoubtedly go down in the annals of sci-fi history as one of the best, if not the best, chapters of Star Wars ever released. As heavy-handed as it is, it delivers so much on so many levels. It also delivers a Vader that is as scary as his legend is made out to be canonically. To say more would be to spill over into spoiler territory, so just get out there and treat yo’self!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is now playing in theaters nationwide.