Rogue One
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Rogue One (also known as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) is a 2016 American epic space opera film directed by Gareth Edwards. It was based on George Lucas' Star Wars franchise.
Plot
Shortly before the events of A New Hope, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s 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.
Why It Rocks
- Great acting, especially from Felicity Jones and Diego Luna, with Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa) and Genevieve O'Reilly (Mon Mothma) reprising their roles from the prequels, and David Ankrum (Wedge, voice cameo) and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader, voice) from the OT.
- Unlike other movies in the series, the movie's tone is darker, acting like a WWII movie but in the Star Wars universe.
- Clever use of unused footage from A New Hope for Red Leader and Gold Leader, even getting the latter's actor, Angus MacInnes, to dub over new lines for the character.
- Nice visual effects.
- K-2SO is a very cool and funny character.
- Good humor here and there, especially Vader's "Be careful not to choke on your aspirations".
- Excellent music score from Michael Giacchino.
- The action's just as exciting as the main saga.
- Manages to take a darker tone, thus putting speculation of Disney forcing (no pun intended) Lucasfilm to make the new films more lighthearted to rest.
- Also manages to segue seamlessly into A New Hope.
- Darth Vader. Not only is he awesome as always, but his rage scene towards the end (where he chokes many Rebel soldiers) will send chills.
Bad Qualities
- The CGI for both Tarkin and Leia falls into the Uncanny Valley.
- Underdeveloped characters.
- Some good scenes were cut from the original release due to reshoots by Tony Gilroy. The reshoots were done due to Disney being dissatisfied with Edwards' "gritty war-story" version.
Reception
The film received positive reviews from critics and fans, with praise for its acting, action sequences, musical score, visual effects, and darker tone, but received some criticism for its underdeveloped characters and digital recreation of actors from the original trilogy. It grossed over $1 billion worldwide, making it the 27th highest-grossing film of all-time, the second highest-grossing film of 2016, and the third highest-grossing film in the Star Wars franchise. It received two Academy Awards nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects.
It has an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Metacritic scores a film a 65/100 "Generally favorable reviews" and a 7.8/10 on IMDb.
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