Gritty, exciting sci-fi adventure
“It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire’s ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet. Pursued by the Empire’s sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy…” –From the original Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.
Vader and the Dark Side of the Force returns to confront a small band of pitiful rebels on a desperate mission in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.”
But at the outset, let’s be clear … this is not a typical Star Wars movie. There is no iconic episodic yellow text crawl to set the stage for the film.
Nor will you find young Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Han Solo or Chewbacca.
We are instead taken to a vastly different place in the Star Wars “Universe”— after Episode III where Anakin Skywalker has become Darth Vader and just before Episode IV when the Skywalker family drama kicks into high gear as Darth Vader boards Princess Leia’s ship, searching for the stolen plans for the Death Star.
Here we see the really ugly side of the galaxy — fully controlled by the Empire in all its evil forms.
We are initially introduced (in a backstory flashback) to Jyn Erso and her family which becomes the emotional linchpin to Rogue One. Here, her father Galen (played with a wicked relish by stone-faced Mads Mikkelsen) a scientist turned farmer, is captured by the Empire and “forced” to finish construction of the original Death Star that he began. With little (basically no) options, he walks away, leaving his 10-year-old daughter to fend for herself.
The bond between father and daughter here is inseparable, and his being pulled away is truly heartbreaking. Jyn, homeless and hiding in a cave, is found by Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) a veteran of the Clone Wars (i.e., Episode II – Attack of the Clones) and is raised to follow in the ways of the Force.
Fast forward 15 years and it’s the adult Jyn (Felicity Jones) who is broken out of an Empire-controlled labor camp prison on the planet Wobani and is scurried away by the rebels.
And with good reason.
The rebellion knows of the creation of the Death Star and an imminent major weapon test; once the Death Star is fully operational, it has the firepower to destroy a planet. The good guys inform Jyn that her father is still alive and has been elevated to chief designer of this monstrous project.
They need her assistance to sneak on board, steal the plans for the Death Star and return the stolen data tapes back to the rebellion so a plan can be made to destroy it.
This is basically the starting point of the original Star Wars in 1977 when Princess Leia is captured and the data tapes are lodged within the android R2D2.
Being sneaky is one thing.
Lucky is another … as the rebellion cobbles together a motley crew of “spies, saboteurs and assassins” to surround and assist Jyn in her suicide quest, including cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) a Rebel secret-agent type who has informants in the underworld, assassin Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) who just loves to blast his ray gun at Stormtroopers and stealing the show (for the human actors) is the blind monk and Force-sensitive warrior Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen).
Using only a pole as a weapon, Îmwe singlehandedly takes on a group of Stormtroopers.
Wickedly fun!
Oh and by the way, “Rogue One” stands for the call sign used by the rebels use in a captured freighter to fake out the Empire and sneak their way into the Death Star.
And did I mention the return of Darth Vader?
He is just as creepy and altogether evil as last seen in 1983’s “Episode VI: Return of the Jedi” with the booming voice of original veteran actor James Earl Jones.
“Rogue One” is a big diversion in the Star Wars lexicon and one that is well worth the wait. It has been reported for decades that fans clamored series originator George Lucas for a “right turn” into the dark side of the universe he created but to no avail, and it took billions of Disney dollars to wrest away control of Star Wars from Lucas that brought “Rogue One” into reality.
We are all the better for it.
“Rogue One” is a gritty, dirty and an altogether wonderful escape from the episodic world of the Skywalker family, a fitting “inbetweener” that answers questions only die-hard Star Wars aficionados (such as this writer) would be asking.
It’s all-out war when the Rebels make one final, desperate charge in outer space between the rag-tag rebel fleet and the might of the Empire … and on the jungles and beaches of Scarif (filmed in the Maldives) with the Death Star hovering just outside the planet.
Also not to be missed are screen-stealing scenes and terrific vocal presentation by Alan Tudyk as the seven foot tall, oversized droid K-2SO who gets all of the sidekick laughs.
Director Gareth Edwards (“Godzilla”) takes many chances with “Rogue One” but fortunately all for the better; pushing the Star Wars galaxy that much further to our own with new worlds introduced, blown up (sorry for that spoiler) with new villains to hiss at and heroes to emulate.
One of the great new “baddies” is Orson Krennic (Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn), director of the Empire’s Advanced Weapons Research Division and personally responsible for the kidnapping of Jyn’s father and the later construction and implementation of the Death Star. Krennic is a true believer in the incredible power he has created … where Lord Vader instead favors the mystical, all-encompassing Force. Their few scenes together will send more than one chill up and down your spine.
Star Wars returns—or at least an off-shoot of it—in “Rogue One,” an exciting sci-fi adventure that is heavy on laser beams,
exploding spaceships and the return of Darth Vader.
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