Different, but not Necesarilly Bad

Rating: 6/10 (25 January 2018)

Rogue One: A Starwars Story takes a largely different approach to the fantasy-like feel of past Starwars movies. Where the focus of earlier films was on the politics, jedi, and the force, this film follows a more realistic and war-like scene of the battle to retrieve the death star plans, as ships crash while trying to escape, and heroes commit controversial acts. On my first viewing of this movie, I was nearly thoroughly unimpressed. I say 'nearly' as K2SO did make me laugh. I found myself sitting down expecting to see lightsaber duels and chaotic masses of clones or storm troopers waging battle. I was then very disappointed when I found cinematic scenes that immediately took away the natural feel of a Starwars movie, poor character development, and practically no lightsabers! I did however, come back to watch it a second time, this time with a better idea of what I was getting into. This time I viewed it more as a war movie. What I mean by this is that the movie has a beach storming scene, and quiet reflective scenes, scenes exemplifying un-heroic deaths, and casualties galore. I came to like it on the second viewing as I accepted the more realistic take and came to feel the earlier movies were too fantastical, with one on one duels, and ship lifting with the force, etc. I do believe this story has flaws in how it fails to explain certain scenes and instances, however, also believe it did fairly well to describe the struggle of ordinary people in the fight for the galaxy. Instead of focusing on the Jedi, consulars, and emperor, this story focuses on people without grand talents, mainly people with simple blasters, ex-convicts, and even a blind guy with a stick. Overall, I believe the film was refreshingly different, even if the plot followed a very similar trend with daddy issues and the death star. It focused on a more realistic viewpoint of the galactic war, and on more realistic characters, characters that may not be wholly heroic for once.