Surprising for a Star Wars Movie

Rating: 4/10 (27 January 2017)

Rogue One opens up to a rainy scene, grassland plains between rolling hills, with a little girl running in the mud. She goes home to her parents and her father who tells her "it's time". This episode in the Star Wars franchise started out as any other. I was expecting a movie with the same plot lines, and typical characters without any depth. But I was surprised by the Star Wars movie. We open up to a seven of the girl years later, after her mother has been killed, and her. Father has been taken by the Empire. She manages to escape an Empire truck with the help of the resistance. She learns that her father is with the Empire against his will, making plans for the Death Star, which the resistance is trying to obtain. And thus begins the mission of movie. At points in Rogue One there is some tension between the characters, which lead to these sad backstory type sentimental lines, which don't really work for the movie. But these moments don't take away from the plot line. From the star of the movie comparisons can be seen between the markets of different planets and the Syria/Middle East conflict. The Empire can be seen on the planet, with their big militarized trucks mining and looting special crystals from temples to use to power the Death Star. They're going through the busy streets, storm troopers following behind. Then gunfire erupts as a rebel group starts to shoot at the trucks. The storm troopers fight back with large army robots and grenades, all the while civilians re caught in the crossfire. The girl, Jyn, fights with resistance member Cassian, who kills another member of a different rebellion. They are captured and taken back to their base, which turns out to be led by Jyn's uncle who raised her after her father was captured. Jyn is reunited with her uncle who she's not too pleased to see after he abandoned her. He apologizes saying it was necessary to save her, after which they make plans to take the Death Star plans. Jyn is joined by a reverse team of resistance fighters. The ending scene of rogue one seems very much like a war scene. Bombs are being thrown as imperial walkers crush the land, and by the end, all of the main characters are killed, a first for a Star Wars movie. One of the reasons the episode stands out against all the others is was because of how much more realistic it was (well, as realistic as a Star Wars movie can get. In the end, you see Cassian and Jyn struggle to the shore of a beach, all of the comrades dead, their mission a success, they collapse onto the sand as the death ray blasts the planet into oblivion.