A brilliant, dark and gritty war film that just so happens to be set in the star wars universe

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2016)

Rogue one is arguably more of a war film that just happens to be set in the star wars universe than it is an actual star wars film but at the end of the day it is a standalone movie separate from the main saga. While being an anthology film there are a lot of references to the main saga and a number of cameos spoilers!!!!!! (R2 and c3p0, leia, Tarkin and of course Vader plus bail organa and a mention of obi wan)end of spoilers. The tone and feel reminded me of halo reach along with something I'll mention later, it was dark and gritty with characters who weren't all supposed to be perfect (k2s0 and chirrut were standouts but I liked each character for what they brought to the film) and it captured the essence of a war film. What I really liked was the way rogue one portrayed the rebel alliance and particularly cassian andor as in the star wars universe the alliance were terrorists who were fighting a far superior enemy and they have to do anything to survive spoilers!!!!!!!!! (For example when cassian murdered his source who would have been captured by the empire and the alliance ordering cassian to assassinate Galen Erso(who is killed by alliance Y- wings)) end of spoilers. The third act was not only the best part of the film but was also one of the best parts of any star wars film with the rag tag group attacking scarif. The action and emotion was intense as major spoilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Each character met their end with a brilliant scene in which the death star fired on Scarif killing cassian, jyn and krennic) end of spoilers. The last few moments expertly showed Darth Vader as the villain he is as he spoilers!!!!!! (Boards the rebel flagship he has just disabled and cuts down rebels with his lightsaber) it is true that rogue one finishes just before a new hope as the tantive iv harboring princess leia escapes the system.) If I had to say one thing bad about rogue one i'd reluctantly say the pacing at the start seemed a little off (it felt a bit slow) but I'm not going to go into detail about that because it is a minor problem. Overall rogue one is a brilliant dark and gritty war film set in the star wars universe with enough cameos to please long term fans and an emotional end to interesting characters.