Some heroes heed the call to be a leader from the moment the need arises. Others, such as Jyn Erso, are more or less thrust into the role unexpectedly following some life-changing event(s). Jyn has been an outcast for most of her life. Homeless and on the run from the Galactic Empire from a young age, she's learned to survive on her own, rarely looking to others for support. What little support she does receive comes from a former guerrilla fighter named Saw Gerrera from the planet Onderon. Her journey on the run comes to a halt when she runs into a group of freedom fighters who are on a mission from the Rebel Alliance. What seems like chance and/or a stroke of good luck, however, is anything but. Jyn learns from the Rebels that they are on a mission to intercept information on a new powerful weapon being developed by the Empire called the Death Star. Jyn is hesitant to join the Rebellion until she learns that her father is being kept hostage by the Empire and the head of the Death Star project named Orson Krennic.
Aside from the somewhat awkward title (let's face it, "A Star Wars Story" really wasn't needed in the title to separate it from the main episodes), Rogue One is a worthy addition to the Star Wars film universe. I was a bit skeptical that a movie set so close to the first in the original trilogy was needed, since the backstory was basically told during A New Hope (and no, I'm not talking about the "many Bothans died to bring us this information" speech, I know that was from Return of the Jedi involving the second Death Star), but...WOW. I loved it.
For starters, I loved the feel of the film. It really was gritty and felt like a war movie set in space rather than "just another Star Wars film". I know I use this term a lot in my reviews...and probably overuse it...but the war aspect really was brutal and a welcome change from what we've seen before. I've got to hand it to Disney for taking a chance and stepping away for a bit from the more space adventure-esque feel. The Force Awakens was a good start (don't get me started on the whole "it was a remake of A New Hope" argument, all I'll say is that I wholeheartedly disagree), but Rogue One was better, at least in that aspect. As a whole though, from reading other people's reviews/reactions I think I'm in the minority when I say that I think The Force Awakens is honestly overall a better movie. And yes, I know I'm probably going to get a LOT of crap for that.
Considering I can't say much else on what I loved for fear of posting spoilers, I'll just say this: I was ecstatic to hear James Earl Jones as Darth Vader again, and the original trilogy "fan service" (nods to the previous movies, inclusion of beloved characters, etc.) was handled better than The Force Awakens.
Now for the bad - which thankfully is a short list. Rogue One is a beautifully shot film with some gorgeous visuals...until two original trilogy characters show up. The CGI to recreate these characters *was* better than how a situation such as this has been handled in the past ( Jeff Bridges in Tron: Legacy comes to mind as a not-so-good CGI recreated younger version of a character), however it was still too easy to tell that they were CGI recreations. One was handled better than the other (I'm not sure I want to say who so as not to give up too many spoilers), but they could have used a bit of work.
The editing as far as the story goes was a little bit choppy in the beginning. Not so much that it's too hard to follow, but it disrupted the overall flow of the movie. After Jyn's first encounter with the Rebel team is where I thought the movie found its stride and evened itself out.
There are other smaller things I had problems with, but again, I can't really specify them without getting a bit spoiler-happy. I might post an extended review after seeing it again and waiting for it to be out for a few weeks.
One last thing, for which I'm not sure whether I'd specify it as a good or bad thing: I've read some reviews saying they saw the character of Jyn Erso as just another "Social Justice Warrior (SJW)" character put in the film to further an agenda. I don't see how they came to that conclusion. Could be just me though. I didn't see her as anymore of a SJW character than some people claimed Rey was in The Force Awakens. I didn't think Rey was much of one either.
My overall verdict: As mentioned above, Rogue One is a worthy addition to the Star Wars franchise, and make me actually pretty excited for what's to come in the future - for both the spinoffs and the main episodes. I will most definitely be seeing it again and getting it on DVD once it's out.
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