Rogue One Review by Corey Floyd

Amerime Media

Rogue One Review (Spoiler Alert)

By Corey Floyd

 Happy Holidays!! It’s that special time of year that we all enjoy Star Wars time. But this year they gave us something a little different an almost original story. Rogue one is an in between story between episode 3 & 4 regaling us with the story of the Death Star its creator and how the plans for it got to the hands of Princess Leia and R2D2. Along with episode 7, the lead is a woman Felicity Jones fresh out of the Inferno with Tom Hanks now goes to a Galaxy far far away. She plays Jyn Erso daughter of the man who designed and constructed the Infamous space weapon Galen Orso. Mads Mikkelson plays the role despite being the man behind the destruction of so much we learn that he wanted to live a life of peace and solitude Until the empire arrives with scary Death Troopers led by Orson Krennic played by Ben Mendelsohn from the Bloodline tv series plays the evil but sharply dressed Orson who kidnaps Galen and leaves his 8 year old daughter behind in hiding. She is raised for a bit by Saw Gerrera leader of what I can only describe as a terrorist cell not directly affiliated with the rebels played by Forest Whitaker. But we never bet to see her upbringing we are fast forwarded to her bring about 21 years old and able to fend for herself she meets  Cassian Andor an assassin with a conscience on the rebels side. Sadly I feel their performances fell flat, they are boring the supporting cast is way more interesting. Donnie yen make his Star Wars appearance as Chirrut Imwe as a blind warrior who may or may not be in tune with the force. He gets a chance to show off his martial arts prowess in stars and you can’t beat that. He shares most of his screen time with Baze Malbus played by Jiang Wen. He looks like an out of work clone trooper who is a great shot with a machine gun.  Lastly, my favorite character is K-2SO an imperial droid that has been reprogrammed to work for the rebels, he is voiced by Alan Tudyk most know from his performances from frozen and I, robot. K2-so remind me of if C3po had a cooler bigger version of him that's sarcasm wasn't over the top. This movie is about how Princess Leia got the plans to destroy the death star and yes there is a Carrie Fisher cameo using special effects we get a young Leia , we also get a surprise revival of Peter Cushings General Tarkin using the same technology which has been vastly upgraded since Jeff Bridges us of it in TRON LEGACY. The story jumps in and out of action sequences at a steady pace. But the third act is one of the best third acts in star wars. It was shot on scene which is fantastic and they used several different camera crew cause as the action went down we got some amazing imagery from a soldier's POV almost shot guerilla style in some scenes it's the most war I’ve seen in star wars films. Of course, they had a few scenes with Darth Vader and they were short and sweet. Anything more and I think it would have been overdone. It changes the way I look at a new hope I appreciate certain scenes a little more. The downside to this story is after meeting all these interesting characters it culminates it everyone's death one is shot 3 are killed by grenades and the main characters are atomized by the Death Star to never be seen again. I enjoyed this film just wish I had a chance to know the characters a little more. As a grade, I give it a B.