Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Review (Spoiler free)

Rogue One is a prequel to the beloved original Star Wars trilogy, and was one of the largest releases of 2016. Rogue One was both a box office and a critical success. Despite all of this, I found the movie to be a bit disappointing.

The movie features an all new and diverse cast which I’m not a big fan off. Most of the characters were static, and those who had a character arch lacked motivation. In the beginning of the movie the main character, Jyn Erso didn’t like the rebellion (the good guys), but after seeing a message from her father that briefly mentions them she is suddenly willing to die for their cause. Cassian also becomes a bit nicer, but that’s about it when it comes to character development. One of the things I associate with Star Wars is the amazing characters, but these characters felt stale, and after exiting the cinema I could hardly remember any of their names. However, this movie in particular was not about the character, but rather the cause.

The plot is straight forward, collect an item and extract. My problem with the story is that the climax of this two-hour long movie is almost only a teaser of what is to come. The action scene in the end is great, and it finally makes the Stormtroopers feel a bit more like a special force instead of cannon fodder. The cinematography is also really good, they did a fantastic job at showing scale in the movie. One problem I had with the cinematography is that it sometimes looked artificial, especially in the scenes with CGI-Grand Moff Tarkin. It feels like they made everything look more computer animated through the lighting to make the CGI character look more normal in comparison. The special effects and the most of the CGI looks great, and the sound design is good as well.

The soundtrack felt uninspired, and it was hardly noticeable. The theme was not memorable, and follows a trope in movies where you can’t really notice the background music, something which is odd for Star Wars movies.

All in all, I think the movie was mediocre and lacked innovation, and I’d give it a 6/10. The movie was carried up by it’s amazing world and cinematography, but the writing and the characters could have been better.