Went to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story with some friends, and I think we all agreed it was really good (that ending!!). Without getting into any spoilers, I will say they tried to set the tone of it being separate from the main Star Wars movies. And I think they largely succeeded. There’s no opening crawl, and the rhythm of the story is very different from traditional Star Wars. Yet, at the same time there was a LOT of effort to place continuity between the people and events of this movie and the opening seconds of A New Hope.
I am probably in the minority when I say that I wasn’t a huge fan of some of the facial CGI used in Rogue One to put people in certain places, we just haven’t put a real solid bridge in the Uncanny Valley yet. But the effort was praise-worthy and pretty amazing, nonetheless, and I can see where you couldn’t tell that story without using CGI to make certain moments occur.
The story did seem kind of rushed at certain parts, and we jump to a lot of planets and places — some we’ve seen before and was fun to see again. Where CGI was absolutely perfect is when it came to Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO. That character simply stole the show and had some of the best lines and moments. Donny Yen was fantastic as the blind monk following the Force, but I feel like he didn’t get nearly enough time in the role. At any rate, my minor gripes aside Rogue One was entertaining. It will join my Star Wars collection when it makes it to Blu-ray.
So this is what it could feel like to get a Star Wars movie every December, eh? If these in-betweener Star Wars movies are decent and don’t detract from the main movies, I think I could get used to it.