Wednesday, 26 July 2017

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

(Gareth Edwards/2016/USA)

The first of Disney’s off shoot films in the Star Wars universe and it’s a decent effort doing exactly what it says on the tin. It’s a Star Wars story about how the death star plans used in Episode IV: A New Hope are obtained by the rebel forces. There is no introductory scrawl which is only right as it’s not part of the main series and should be seen as distinct and separate. Essentially a war movie and quite dark in tone to the canonical films, the main characters are developed enough to bring you along but this film suffers from trying too hard to set up its pieces and ultimately from being overlong. We essentially know the motivations and narrative arcs before the outset. None of these characters appear elsewhere in Star Wars movies mmmkay, let’s just think about that for a minute. A good trimming would have reduced the viewing time to a manageable and satisfying 90 minutes but instead so much time is spent getting to the final playout that a feeling of wanting it all to wrap up takes over. Outside of these draw backs though it works well as a companion piece to the Star Wars films and answers a long asked question of episode IV.

(3/5)

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