Going Rogue

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Alrighty.  So if you've been following my blog for sometime now, you know that I'm definitely a Star Wars nerd.
                                                    *I believe it says that over here somewhere 😀-----------------------à

  Naturally I watched Rogue One: A Star Wars Story when it came out.  It was epic.  I watched it three times in the theater.  In my opinion it is my number three Star Wars Movie so far (1. Episode 5, 2. Episode 3, and 3. Rogue One).

I think that Rogue One was an excellent way to start off the Star Wars stand alone films.  There is a Han Solo stand alone coming out after Episode 8, and many more after that.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**


The Cons:

Star Wars Rogue One had a few cons.

The biggest one was not enough character depth.  However it is somewhat understandable, where in the Star Wars Saga Movies (Episodes 1-7) they develop the characters over multiple movies.  There is only so much character depth you can have in one movie.  And with the ending that Rogue One had...**MAJOR SPOILER**... with all the main characters dying at the end, it is rather hard to develop characters after death...unless your a blue force ghost or something...


The second con, which I think it was more of the Star Wars fan in me being a little upset, was that Bail Organa didn't speak that much.  I wish we could have heard the guy who basically is one of the main founders of the Rebel Alliance speak more.  It could have been a perfect opportunity to make even bigger connections between the Prequel Trilogy and the Original Trilogy.

But that was pretty much the only complaints that I had for Rogue One.  Now onto the best things that Rogue One did:

The Pros:

The Dark Times.  When Obi Wan says:

We realize what he was talking about in Rogue One.  The Rebel Alliance, by the time of Rogue One has only done small things to wound the Empire.  Imperial Officials would even classify the Rebels as terrorist insurgents.  You really see that in the fighting scene on Jedha, when Saw Gerrera's rebels attack the Stormtroopers.  And by the end of the movie, the Rebel Alliance council members are talking about breaking up the alliance, you realize that the Rebels are really close to falling apart.  And even the ending of the movie, what Jyn Erso says to the rebels she is leading to the Planet Scarif, "They've no idea we're coming. They've no reason to expect us. If we can make it to the ground, we'll take the next chance, and the next, on and on until we win, or the chances are spent." - from Wookieepedia.
It really shows that the Rebels are desperate and probably would not last much longer if Jyn and her Rogue One crew didn't go to Scarif.  It kinda goes back to what Princess Leia says in a New Hope:

Alright, the second Pro to the movie was how it cut from scene to scene.  You ever notice in the Star Wars Saga that from scene to scene it looks like it was put in a Microsoft PowerPoint slide show?  Well that doesn't happen in Rogue One.  In fact, where that would normally happen in a Star Wars movie, the story continues.  It's often in those moments that we have the best character development.  The best scene to do this was when the main characters were leaving Eadu, where Jyn's father - Galen Erso - dies.  When the characters leave Eadu that don't just leave it there.  They actually talk about what happened, causing conflict among the characters.  Plus it was a really sad scene when Galen dies, if you were following the movie entirely from Jyn's perspective.

The Third Pro was they brought Saw Gerrera to the big screen.  People who have watched Star Wars the Clone Wars TV series would recognize Saw as the Onderon Freedom Fighter.  This is what he looked like in the Clone Wars:

And this is what he looks like in the Movie:

And now he is going be in the second half of the TV show Star Wars Rebels Season 3 looking like this:

This was a really cool way to make the Star Wars the Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels seem more a part of the Star Wars Universe.

Another awesome part were all the Easter eggs in the movie.  There are too many to list, but one of my favorite ones was the fact that you see the Star Wars Rebels ship The Ghost fighting in the Space Battle of Scarif.

You see it here in the bottom left, next to the Hammerhead Cruiser:



Also in the movie, you see it flying across the Rebel Command Ships view screen at least two times.  Though it is a small nod, it is a huge way to bring Star Wars Rebels into the Cinematic Star Wars Universe.

Another cool easter egg - and really his only line - was when Bail Organa and Mon Mothma were talking about Obi-Wan.  That was a pretty cool nod to Episode 4.  It was kind of a sad reminder that Bail Organa dies on Alderaan when the Death Star blows it up in Episode 4.


Another Pro of this movie was the villain.  Director Orson Krennic.  He was epic, and I believe that Ben Mendelsohn was the perfect actor to play him.  When Krennic talked to Vader on Mustafar, and everytime he tried to stand up and talk to Vader, Vader would just put him back in his place just by looking at him.  It was awesome.  Another cool thing was the color contrast between Krennic (wearing white) and his Death Troopers (wearing black).  It was cool how that matches up to Darth Vader (wearing Black) and the Stormtroopers (wearing white).  Just a little bit of symbolism.  Plus Krennic has a cape - and what good Villain doesn't have an awesome cape to go with them.

A great Pro of the movie was the casting.  All the actors did an amazing job.  They performed their roles perfectly.  The script for the movie wasn't too cheesy.  K-2SO was an awesome comic relief, reminding me somewhat of a Star Wars Legends character - HK-47.  I think another strong point of the movie was that there were no Jedi.  Because by now the Jedi are all but extinct:

And finally the best Pro was Darth Vader.  That after all is what sold tickets right? 😏
The first introduction to Vader was when Director Krennic went to Mustafar - yep the same planet where Vader and Obi-Wan had their duel, and where Padme died in epsiode 3.  It showed Vader's castle - which was a nice nod towards Star Wars Legends.  It also gave a revelation where in Star Wars Rebels season one, Hera says that Mustafar is the place where Jedi go to die:

Well I guess we know why now 😉

Just hearing James Earl Jones' voice as Darth Vader was just perfect.  And Vader's witty remark to Krennic that some people have complained was out of Vader's character, in my opinion fits well with him.  After, Vader does have witty remarks in the other films.

A strong point for the Rogue One movie, was not making Vader a present threat throughout the entire movie, as the main villain.  Director Edwards did a beautiful job of crafting Vader to being a looming threat throughout the whole film.  And then at last, we see the Darth Vader that we have always wanted to see.

That scene where he just emerges from the dark, turning on his blood-red lightsaber, was perfect.  It was an epic ending to an epic movie.  And it ties beautifully into Star Wars Episode 4 because Episode 4 literally starts off right where Rogue One ends.  I also loved - in case you didn't know - that this scene showed Vader combine both force powers and lightsaber ability together, instead of showing one or the other.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it is the only scene in the Star Wars movies where it shows a Jedi or Sith using both force powers and a lightsaber at the same time.

Anyway that is my review of Rogue One.  Go catch it in the theaters if you got the money and time, or wait for it to come out in late April 2017.  Also watch Star Wars Rebels.  It goes even deeper into the background context of the movies.  Star Wars Rebels returns this Saturday, Jan. 7.  Here's the season 3 mid-season trailer - It's GONNA BE EPIC!! 😃:

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