A darker galaxy with a deeper meaning.

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2016)

Rogue One is a movie which shows great potential and takes many risks to which audiences may enjoy or disapprove of. Firstly, this may be deemed a minor spoiler but the movie does not feature an opening crawl. As this is a Star Wars story, it instead shows a prologue introducing the protagonist Jyn Erso and her family. Secondly, the movie takes many cuts to different planets so we as the audience are thrown all over the place which does make the movie seem slightly disjointed to begin with.
However, once the movie finds it feet and all the characters are in play, the movie shows off its stunning CGI and many physical props, creatures and sets which are bursting with action! Rogue One is indeed a darker movie but when thinking about its previous movie, Revenge of the Sith, it makes a lot of sense as the galaxy has been plunged into darkness and fear of crossing the might of the Galactic Empire! As the movie develops you see characters gain hope and TRUST which is the main theme I got from this movie. It all comes together in an exciting finale and shows exactly what a Star War should look like.
PROS: Exciting action, some witty and humorous lines, stunning locations, adds to deeper context of some characters we know and some we meet for the first time and a final scene which gave goosebumps to many viewers I am sure!
CONS: A shaky start to the movie with cuts all over the place, many bits from the trailers not in this movie which makes it obvious how much has changed since the movie was released, CG characters which are very impressive but can take you out of the movie in certain scenes and a lack of character development for these new characters that many viewers have grown a liking to.
Overall, I found Rogue One to be a very enjoyable movie watching the first time, on a second viewing showed great subtext and depth which does make this a worthy Star Wars movie to add to the franchise, filling up plot holes and even adding to the lore of a galaxy far, far away!