"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" Implodes By Pamela Powell

December 13th, 2016 Posted by Review 0 thoughts on “"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" Implodes By Pamela Powell”

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The “Star Wars” franchise continues with “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” starring Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, and Ben Mendelsohn along with several more high-profile actors.  No doubt that this cash cow will continue to produce green buckets  for Lucasfilm, but does their $200M investment give them a golden story?  No.  This lackluster attempt at delivering a prequel to “Star Wars: A New Hope,” provides little information, characters with no personality except for a droid, and puts all their golden eggs into the special effects basket.

WATCH THE TRAILER

For those of you who are not avid, and I mean truly avid, Star Wars fans, you’re going to need a tutorial before you see this film.  I recommend seeing the very first Star Wars which is actually “Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope” from back in 1977.  It will give you the right mindset for this latest installment.  Otherwise, you’ll be asking the same questions I was, such as:  “Which space ships are the bad ones?” star-wars-rogue-one-970x539 “He looks familiar.  Was he in one of the other 50 “Star Wars” movies?”  “What’s the difference between the Rebellion and the Resistance or was it the Alliance?”  Trying very hard to recall “A New Hope,” I attempted to find some logic behind this prequel, but alas, there was none until the very end.  The 2 hour and 16 minute running time was not worth how they gathered up the loose ends and put a sloppy bow on top.

If you go and if you’re not a huge fan, here’s the basic premise.  Jyn Erso (Jones) witnesses the murder of her mother and the capture of her father (Mads Mikkelsen) as the family attempts to flee the Empire’s representative, the evil, heartless Krennic (Mendelsohn).  15 years pass and Jyn has been raised by the rebellious outcast Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) and she now finds herself in a situation/position to confront her father (sound familiar?), find the truth (again, sound familiar?), and save the galaxy from the possible development of the Death Star…yeah, it’s that nasty, dreaded Death Star again.  So, with lots of help from her rag-tag team of bandits and Force Fighters (you know, the guys who follow the Force), Jyn wings a plan to  thwart evil.  It’s a non-stop battle to the end.

“Rogue One” fails on the most basic level—the story.  While the beginning seems promising, the film quickly goes into a tailspin, taking us into the blackhole of story-telling.  “Rogue One” is more of a showcase of special effects and highly choreographed fight scenes than it is a set-up to one of the most popular films of

k2so-1024x433all time.  When the voice of a droid named K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) and a blind martial arts fighter, Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) are the most animated and interesting characters in a film with a myriad number of characters, that’s a poor reflection on the writing, directing, and acting from the rest of the cast.  Riz Ahmed (Bodhi Rook) attempts to give us a bit of an entertaining character, but never seems to quite know how far to take it, dialing it in and out unexpectedly.  Even Mendelsohn’s unusual persona can’t find a way to shine in this one.   Jones’ performance is even less stellar as she flatlines her dialogue and Luna is just a non-descript sidekick.

roguemartialThe special effects are simply extraordinary, but you know what they say about too much of a good thing!    It becomes dull and monotonous, exactly the two descriptors for “Rogue One.” And one particular special effect is downright creepy, but I won’t spoil it for you.  However, there is a blatantly obvious good thing that as a female film reviewer, I need to point out.  The lead character and hero (or heroine) is female.  She is the leader and savior and for that I commend the writers; Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, and Gary Whitta.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is sure to make fans of the epic franchise happy as they have yet another film to see.  For those of you who are not able to recite the names of the all the Imperial-occupied moons and the succession of bad guys, I’d recommend skipping this one.  But, if you need a nap and your significant other insists on going, be assured you can catch up on your zzzz’s.

 

1 Star out of 4

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