Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) [Blu-ray]
Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars stand-alone films Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empires ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

Before the events of the original "Star Wars" trilogy, the Rebel Alliance enlists a team of rogue fighters to steal plans for the Galactic Empire's new space station -- a powerful superweapon called the Death Star.

Storyline: All looks lost for the Rebellion against the Empire as they learn of the existence of a new super weapon, the Death Star. Once a possible weakness in its construction is uncovered, the Rebel Alliance must set out on a desperate mission to steal the plans for the Death Star. The future of the entire galaxy now rests upon its success. Written by Ryan Cullmann

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Martin Liebman, March 25, 2017 Since A New Hope changed the face of cinema in 1977 and created generations of fans that have turned George Lucas' film into a franchise, a worldwide phenomenon, and a fully integrated staple of popular culture, it's been obvious that there were more stories to tell, more character to introduce, more events to watch unfold well beyond the Skywalker family arc. Many more, in fact. The Star Wars films are filled with lore and mystique, much of which seems to be as ripe for storytelling as the saga of Anakin Skywalker, his son Luke, and... (find out this Christmas! Maybe). Many novels have expanded upon what's been going on a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, and even several TV shows have opened up that galaxy's rich history, but the bread-and-butter of the Star Wars universe remains its feature film entries. The original trilogy -- the fourth, fifth, and sixth stories in the saga -- long stood on their own, with fans eagerly anticipating the day when Lucas would reveal to the world the stories he wrote around them. The prequel trilogy was largely met with mixed reviews, not necessarily leaving a sour taste in the mouth -- the movies by-and-large ooze that Star Wars texture and tell the story of how the series' antagonist came to be -- but certainly, mostly, not quite taking the franchise where fans really wanted it to go. With Disney's acquisition, the franchise once again returned to prominence and to the screen with the very well received Episode VII: The Force Awakens. Rather than the slow-drip release schedule of the first six films, Disney has set in motion plans to finish the nine-part original series and release a number of "story" films that further explore the farthest reaches of the known -- and maybe even the unknown -- Star Wars universe. The first of these films, and perhaps the most obvious jumping-in point for a number of reasons, takes place between Episode III and Episode IV and tells the tale of how the Rebel Alliance came to be in possession of the plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the Death Star, the destruction of which would drive the 1977 film and, really, set the table for everything to come since, prequel, sequel, and side story alike.

Below (and in the fourth paragraph from here in particular) there will be very minor spoilers, not for this film's plot's mechanics but more for some of the winks and nods and odes and carryovers from the 'Star Wars' universe that appear in the film. Some screenshots may be considered minor spoilers for character appearances in the film as well.

Rogue One tells the story of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), daughter of Imperial engineer Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) who is reluctantly leading development of the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. Jyn, long separated from her family and raised by hardened rebel veteran Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), is recruited to undertake a mission to infiltrate a secure Imperial base and transmit the Death Star's plans to the Rebel Alliance. Upon mission's outset, she's joined by Rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an imperial defector (Riz Ahmed), and a reprogramed imperial droid (Alan Tudyk). The film's plot is relatively straightforward and its most fundamental ending detail is already known to anyone who has seen a Star Wars movie. It begs the question, then, that at what point does a franchise begin to oversaturate its world with detail? When does filling in gaps ruin the charm of the greater story, and at what point is too much information simply too much information, particularly when the core of the story's outcome is known the moment the project is announced? Star Wars certainly has some leeway in this regard, given its immense, unceasing popularity and audience demand, and the universe is certainly ripe for the picking. Rogue One takes on the relatively easy task of expanding on a key moment that propels the series forward and the uneasy task of doing so while adding drama where none really exists. And it doesn't reach that point of oversaturation, excess detail, or frivolous expansion. The movie wasn't necessarily needed, either, but the story, its setting, and its staging make for a hugely entertaining Star Wars experience that effortlessly blends the familiar with the unfamiliar and takes Star Wars in a new direction while still being Star Wars at its heart-and-soul center.

The film's entertainment value is high. Action comes swiftly and on a large scale, leaving behind many of the more cartoonish elements of episodes I, II, and VI in favor of a more gritty, realistic, blood-and-guts tone and texture, but without the visceral visual support that would have given it an R-rating. Rogue One is essentially the Deep Space Nine of the Star Wars universe. And that's not a bad thing, because that show is, by many measures, the best of the Star Trek bunch. This is Star Wars at its grittiest, down in the mud and muck and out on the fringes of the rebellion, much as DS9 was for the Federation. But it's also like DS9 in another way. In Rogue One, most of the core, fundamental, in-and-out Star Wars details and qualities remain. It's a structural departure and off-the-beaten path but very much attached at the hip nevertheless. There are no scene wipes, for example. The movie doesn't begin with the classic John Williams fanfare, bold yellow logo, and introductory story crawl. Rogue One is the bleakest and most tonally dark Star Wars movie yet, and by a fairly wide margin. From an emotional perspective it's not quite approaching The Empire Strikes Back, but it's certainly in the same ballpark. It doesn't simply share the Star Wars universe, it expands on it and in many ways enhances it and does so with a more sinister, but necessarily darker, underbelly that manages to blend an established outcome with suspense and drama while still portending dark things to come, even as they've already been resolved in the cinematic timeline.

Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) and Writers John Knoll, Gary Whitta, Chris Weitz, and Tony Gilroy may not have come up with a movie and script that's a bastion of creative storytelling or thematic resonance -- it's not The Force Awakens, at all -- but they've made a movie that balances that difficult line between freshness and working around a known outcome, building up and concentrating on the how rather than the why. It's the same problem shared by the prequel films, but with the possible exception of Revenge of the Sith, Rogue One handles it better. The movie is ridiculously entertaining and engaging, even if it's just a linear tale of action and espionage and a movie that more than makes up for its shortcomings with a remarkably well-versed recreation of the Star Wars universe, a particular challenge for this film given its close proximity to A New Hope, easily the most recognizable and well-known in the franchise. Every little touch is dead-on right. It's not fan service (though a few fun little bits are included...a porky minor character "Red Five," which would be Luke's callsign in A New Hope, meets a quick demise in this film), it's exacting production design. Every little texture is right. Whether on ships or clothes or props or environments, anything and everything has been crafted with attention to detail that, maybe more than anything, makes the movie work. Even the way interfaces work and the way things plug in fit in exactly within the Episode IV timeframe. It's exciting to revisit the most cherished moment in the Star Wars universe, and Edwards doesn't disappoint, even if the traditional Star Wars staple lightsaber battle, always a part of the climax in every other main entry (though coming earlier in the film in A New Hope), is understandably absent.

There are a few things that don't work quite as well as they should, though. The Death Star data files are said to be massive, stored on a very large "hard drive," for lack of a better term, but when the rebels receive them, they're transferred to a significantly smaller data card. The ragtag and underfunded rebels apparently have better technology, in this case, than the Empire. Another is Vader's voice. James Earl Jones returns to do the work, but with age the pitch and cadence both seem wrong, slightly off. It's conceivable that the voice doesn't exactly match for a reason, that perhaps he's still in a transitional phase from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader, still recovering from his wounds and becoming accustomed to his new enclosure. The film doesn't give an exact timeline for exactly where it sits after Revenge of the Sith. That said, and small spoiler here, it's obviously very close to the beginning of A New Hope, its endpoint maybe as little as minutes and probably no more than a few hours, a day, maybe, at the most, before the start of Episode IV, so that theory seems unlikely, and maybe that's just a personal nitpick that won't bother anyone else. Some of the pilot "cameos" felt forced. The aforementioned "Red Five" joke is great, but while Red and Gold leaders work in terms of timeline, the execution felt unnatural and they seemed almost directly lifted from A New Hope in the way they appear positioned in the cockpit and move and look around and the words they speak. Counter to that, neither the Tarkin nor Leia appearances seemed distracting, though the latter's single spoken line feels forced to underscore Episode IV's title, even as the word is bandied about several times throughout the rest of the film.

Rogue One is a great movie. It's not all that thematically resonating, but its characters are well developed, its action is amazingly well staged, and it's so deeply ingrained into the Star Wars universe -- even as the darkest and grittiest movie of them all, and by a fairly wide margin -- that it can't help but fit right in. A few minor little things also hold it back, but given the dilemma of recreating not only places and things but important people as they were almost 40 years ago, it's practically impossible to find fault with most of it. It's not as "good" as The Force Awakens in terms of artful cinematic elegance and story relevance, but from a sheer entertainment perspective, and with its fully saturated return trip to the most beloved timeframe in Star Wars history, it's the more purely entertaining and enjoyable film of the two by the slimmest of margins. Next up in the branched-out Star Wars stories is the Han Solo film, which will face many of the same challenges Rogue One overcame as it will almost certainly explore the character's rather deep lore, including his relationship with Chewbacca, friendship with and winning the Falcon from Lando Calrissian, and run-ins with Jabba the Hut. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story's Blu-ray release is top-notch. Video and audio are pristine and an entire second disc's worth of bonus content make this a must-own. Rogue One earns my highest recommendation.

Trivia:________

[CSW] -4.1- Whoever wrote Rogue One got it right! It was a great story. I cared about the characters, even the new robot. It was funny, touching and exciting. Everything a Star Wars movie should be. This movie was a new and original story not a rehash of a previous episode. The film felt like it was created by people who really love Star Wars. This is a great prequel to the first Star Wars movie (A New Hope) that came out in the late 70s. Because the theme has been rehashed and the story extended so much that although it was new enough I can't say that it was over the top. Still it was a great movie and the perfect lead in to A New Hope.
[V5.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - D-Box


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