on par with the first two

Rating: 9/10 (29 March 2017)

this is by far the best star wars movie since the empire strikes back. why? because even though being very different from the main stream star wars narrative it pays homage to the one quality of the original star wars movies that we know and love them for i.e originality. this is more of a war movie than a sci fi. and granted there are some war movie clichés, never have I seen a more rooted in reality space wars film. you can really feel the WARS in star wars, even more than you can in the first two films dare I say. I can understand why die hard star wars fans don't like it, because it takes a leave from focusing too much on the defining traits introduced in the original movies e.g light saber fights and jedis using the force but the prequel trilogy was all about that and remember how it turned out. instead rogue one takes a different approach and focuses more on the struggles of the characters to survive in this brutal rule of the empire. unlike previous films, nothing is easy in this one. you can really feel the tension and danger and lives are lost in the struggles. plus I loved how the characters were very different from the original trio unlike those of the force awakens which should be a defining quality of the new characters since they are by definition NEW characters. also the character building of cassian was very good, in the start you see him murder someone because he will be a burden and I thought wow, what a jerk. but by the end you see him risking his life for jyn and nothing seems out of place