When I first saw Rogue One: A Star War Story back in December of 2016, I wasn’t pleased.
As days turned into weeks I noticed the masses were absolutely loving it. I was the Elaine to their English Patient. I didn’t get why they liked it so much!
Part of my dislike towards Rogue One was because it came a year after the release of The Force Awakens, very poor timing in my opinion. I wanted the continuation of THAT story…not this random unnecessary film. If Rogue One had come out before or even after the sequel trilogy I probably would’ve liked it a lot more. Perhaps that’s a stupid way to look at it but nevertheless it influenced by opinion.
People were similar to how they are with The Mandalorian now, saying things like, “NOW THIS IS REAL STAR WARS”. That is just off-putting to me, especially as a diehard sequel lover.
Anyways! Over the last year I’ve rewatched Rogue One a couple of times…and I’ve enjoyed it. Well, what’ya know.
I put all of the before-mentioned things aside and saw the beauty in this film.
–Orson Krennic is a great character, the perfect villain for this story in fact. Like many modern day film villains he was relatable. His death may be one of the most poetic things ever in a galaxy far, far away.
–Cassian Andor is a ruthless rebel who just wants to get the job done. He’s sort of like the John Wick or James Bond of the Rebellion I suppose. We’ve never seen that in Star Wars before and I look forward to his show, whenever that may come.
–K2-SO has become one of my favorite droids in Star Wars as he’s genuinely funny. His death is even super sad! It always has been to me.
–Chirrut is an amazing side character, possibly one of the best. It was a very creative way to have the Force featured without actually having any Jedi in the film.
–The battle of Scarif is THE GREATEST battle in a all of Star Wars (both land and space). It’s epic on both fronts and with time at the essence you can really feel the tension, especially as each one of our heroes dies one by one.
It feels nice to finally write something positive about Rogue One but it still doesn’t come close to the top of my Star Wars ranking list (a topic for another time). The first half of the movie is such a slog in my opinion and it doesn’t really get good until after Eadu, which is basically the end of the movie. Jyn Erso, the protagonist of this tragedy, is just very bland. She’s a total badass but I feel like there’s no personality or reliability there. Just my opinion.
Overall, I’ve come to accept that Rogue One is an excellent film and a great addition to the Star Wars universe. I think it absolutely would’ve been better as a show as we could have gotten to know all of the characters a bit more before their inevitable sacrifice. It’s a Star Wars “war movie” and I still feel it lacks the charm that the Skywalker Saga and even Solo or The Mandalorian have.
PS: The Vader hallway scene was always and will always be epic.
