Went to see this today with my family at Leeds/Bradford Odeon.
IMDB says: The Rebel Alliance makes a risky move to steal the plans for the Death Star, setting up the epic saga to follow.
In this Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla) directed film, screenplay by Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, About a Boy) and Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Legacy), story by John Knoll (Avatar, Rango) and Gary Whitta (The Book of Eli, After Earth) based on characters by George Lucas, Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything, Chalet Girl) stars as Jyn Erso who has been tasked by the Rebel Alliance to accompany Cassian Andor (Deigo Luna: The Terminal, Milk) to get to her father Galen (Mad Mikkelen: Dr Strange, Casino Royale) who is being held by Imperial Senator Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn: The Dark Knight Rises, Animal Kingdom), and may hold the secrets to defeating the Death Star, the Empire's ultimate weapon.
In Jedha, a defected pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed: Four Lions, Jason Bourne) seeks Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker: The Last King of Scotland, Platoon) with a message from Galen, but Cassian and Jyn are approached by Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen: Blade II, Ip Man), a blind warrior and his companion Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang: The Sun Also Rises, Let the Bullets Fly), who are all then captured by Saw's men. When the planet is hit by the Death Star ray, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk: A Knight's Tale, Big Hero 6) brings the ship to rescue them and take them to the Rebel Alliance, but will they believe them?
With action from the get go, this film flies along and feels more like a war film than a sci-fi adventure. Yes we have the ships, the planets and the alien life forms and the fan nods to the original movies, but this is a prequel which puts us squarely in Back to the Future territory story-wise. Sadly I felt that the new characters needed more of a backstory that the film did not give us time to have
I would say it is on a par with Empire, but not as good as The Force Awakens, mostly because the CGI took me out of the movie one too many times. I enjoyed the Darth Vader scene in the locked corridor of a transport ship, but the actor playing Vader did not have the presence needed to truly pull it off (he needed to stand up more and have a neck at the very least IMHO) and the CGI Grand Moff Tarkin.
My boys however, they loved the movie and I am sure every single die-hard Star Wars fan will love this film.
Tagline: Save the Rebellion. Save the dream. 8/10
Trivia: The Rebel base at Yavin IV features several full-sized cardboard cut-outs of X-Wings and Y-Wing fighters, using the same technique of filling out the hangar as in the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). This film is set days before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and five years after Star Wars Rebels (2014). Alan Tudyk, who plays K-2SO, improvised the slap across Diego Luna's character Cassian's face in the scene on Jedha. Costume designer David Crossman stated that some of the original costumes used in Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) were used in Rogue One (2016).
It is with sadness that I have just learned of the death of iconic actress Carrie Fisher. R.I.P. Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia lives on in our memories.
#RogueOne #StarWars #FelicityJones #CarrieFisher #PrincessLeia
