A welcome addition to the universe, but misses the greatness of the better Star Wars movies...

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2017)

After the resounding success of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" Lucasarts Studios has rewarded the loyal Star Wars fans with a film that would introduce us to the story about how the rebel alliance exactly got to the plans of the ' Death Star' in the beginning of the movie where it all started. In this way, the film builds on the success that Star Wars with her first 3 films has amassed, which is a very smart choice. We can't exactly say the same about the prequels sadlySay what you want but the pre- quels were now not really a bull's eye. The story focuses around Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), who from an early age since losing her parents, took on a rebellious path which has proved quite troublesome for The Empire apparently. When she meets Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a member of the Rebel Alliance, she unwittingly lands into a plot against The Empire. Gradually the two in contact with various individuals who all have reason enough to join the group. The most notable of which are the duo of Chirrut Îmwe a blind (force wielding) ninja-like fighter, his best buddy Baze Malbus and K-2SO ( a hilarious re-programmed Empire-droid, with a great use of sarcasm). The mission sounds simpler than it seems: getting a hold of the plans of the Death Star to prevent the whole Galaxy being under the power of The Empire.
The 'Star Wars '-label on this film is both a curse as a blessing: on the one hand it brings the return to this "Galaxy far far away" nostalgia back. The grim post-apocalyptic atmosphere that the original trilogy had as well,finds its roots deep into this movie as well, the visual effects, the costumes and the overall atmosphere throughout this movies is a joy to watch and something you don't really find in a lot of movies nowadays.
On the other hand, the fact that this film was clearly as a story 'leading up to' (although is already 40 years old) A New Hope, makes the film also firmly limited in its freedoms: While this movie has created so many things you want to know more about, the movie simply doesn't have enough time to go into much dept about them. The characters suffer the most here. Outside the main character, Jyn Erso, none of the Rogue-One group members get a lot of time to develop their backstory, their motives of really much of an arc. So you feel little to no involvement when they are in danger during the suspenseful scènes. You just know too little about these characters to experience a real commitment. When u have already seen the original trilogy (as I suspect you did), you also kind of know where this whole story is going. While this is not fully deal-breaking, it does take away a bit of it stakes throughout the movie. The film is also rather slow start during the first part and it really takes a while to get the movie going. The first half of the movie does need quite a long time to orient the events in the universe and sometimes this feels orchestrated. I had a feeling that throughout the movie the paths of the characters were already pretty much set and this gave me a a bit of a compromising experience. However, the biggest problem that this movie will probable face is the fact that it made bad use of its. By putting our most favorite bad guy in the Galaxy in the trailers a lot of Star Wars fans had high expectations for the screen time that Darth Vader would receive during the movie. Unfortunately Darth Vader only appears 2 scenes. Although one of the scenes was absolutely amazing to watch (you will know it when you see it), I can't deny that I was a bit bummed out by only seeing him this much. That being said, Rogue One does contain at his core something where every Star Wars fan instantly falls in love with. The fact that Rogue One also answers some questions where a lot of fans have been waiting for 40 years for, does make this movie relevant. There are also some very nice treats for the very attentive fans amongst us, who will be rewarded for knowing and remembering all of their Star Wars-trivia (bonus geek points!) Last but certainly not least the movie is also surprisingly funny, much credit here for goes to the sarcastic droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk). All in all this movie is a welcome addition to the Star Wars universe. Star Wars fans that don't get their expectations too high will undoubtedly enjoy this movie. If you previously, however, weren't Star Wars fan was, this movie will not suddenly win you over.
Conscensus: don't go with too many expectations to this movie (not sure if you have a lot of Darth Vader expected). The film comes when slow start but once the action starts, both action-fans as Star-wars lovers really enjoy this movie. You also want to watch' A New Hope ' again right away!