READ THE DISCLAIMER! SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!! So due to some circumstances, I was able to go to an early screening of the new Star Wars: Rouge 1 movie that was supposed to come out today. It is the official, cannon, pre-quel to Episode 4: A new Hope. One thing I will say before judging is that I will try and be fair with the time and technology gap of 40 years when A new Hope came out. Methods have changed and the effects and actors are not the same. With that being said, my opinion...It broke away from tradition. I give it 4.00/5.00 Reason #1 The Plot As far as origionallity goes, the plot is believable and ties into Episode 4 very well. A chief scientist runs away from the empire, he is hunted down by the white coat antagonist and dragged back to the empire to finish a super weapon, with his wife shot dead in front of him and his daughter, Jen, on the run. Jen is recruited by the rebellion to retrieve a message from her father from a rebel extremeist who is an old family friend. The Death Star magically shows up destroys the city and hideout of the family friend after Jen and her new spy friend and robot barley make it out alive. Jens father, that same scientist, apperantly put a weakness in the superweapon we all know and love(for the non-star wars fans ITS THE DEATH STAR!) but ends up dying halfway through the movie anyway. Jen steals he plans after taking a ROUGE squad of rebel assasin, sabatours, and spies to Scarif, an Imperial Data storage facility and messing up the data facility with a fake rebel invasion, which later turns into a real invasion...sort of. Of course all the main characters die when he Death Star shows up AGAIN and blows up the entire Imperial facility. Rrason #2 The Characters Now admittedly, this one had some funny characters in it. You have the biological offspring of Lee Sin and Jackie Chan who is the closest thing you will get to a Jedi in the ENTIRE movie and the robot who cant keep his mouth shut("Your letting her keep it? Would you like to know the probability of her using it on you?...its high...very high..."). I think Tony Stark has some competition. However I would like to point out a few faults. First, why the fuck does Jen have a Kaiber Crystal but no lightsaber(YES I SAID NO LIGHTSABER), and 2nd, who the fuck is this Spy that just decided to join her on her suicide squad. We literally get no back fround from him other than he lost everything to the empire and became a spy. That point could have been explained a lot better. Next, everyone dies to explosions! Literally everyone important dies to an explosion. Jens father, bombed by Rebellion Torpedos, Jackie Chan The Blind Monk, blow up by a laser blast to a console, Laser cannon toting Bob Marley, blow up by grenade, Bodi, also by grenade in a djfferent scene. Spy guy, Jen, and the white coat imperial dude that was chasing them the entire movie(the prime antagonist) all blow up by the Death Star. The only one who didnt die by explosion and was important was the witty robot who went out freaking Rambo style. An interesting bit was how they brought back Grand Admiral Tarkin, Princess Laiya(? Cmon guys gimme a break, star wars names are hard to remember and spell), and the Rebellion Senator(You know, the one with the white robes, short hair and always is on Yavin 4.). Since the origional actors are over 60 years old by now, facial prothetics were used to recreate thier appearances. Princess Liaya's and he Senator lady's were pretty good but Grand Admiral Tarkins was...not as convincing. And a big point. DARTH VADER! One of the faces of the entire franchise and a vital character in episode 4, so of course they put him in Rouge 1...near the end. We only see him twice, when he admonishes the main antagonist and when he goes on a killing spree on the rebel ships, chasing after the Princess. A buge annoying flaw that I saw was he was really, really, really REALLY chatty. You all remember his personality right? Straight and to the point with a force choke to make his point. In other words, Brutal. Yeah he was kinda badly scripted. Its fair to say that it was 40 years ago but come on... step up your game Disney. Sooo characters were a bit lacking. Reason #2 Music and setting Now manh shows can score high because of things like grapbics, music choice, and setting(SWORD ART ONLINE BITCHES!). As all star wars movies, there is the grand and loud Star Wars theme song that everyone has heard at least once. It was here in Rouge 1, but not as loudly or as grand as in all the others which is sad becuase its sort of a trade mark thing to expect in a star wars movie. Graphics...its just ow...the use of CGI was to an extreme level that if one was to watch episode 4 right after they would get shocked by the quality change. And what I am trying to say is that is a BAD THING! One of the charms of the old star wars films is that it didnt use CGI or anything fancy. George Lucas used inch scale models for all his space ships and walker scenes which when computer generated look nice but they loose the star wars charm. Again, they did things differently 40 years agi but...its just doesnt feel like a pre-quel when the pre-quel is more polished than the actual movie its a pre-quel to. Reason #3 Tid bits This is where I rant about anything that caught my attention that doesnt fall under the previous catagories. NUMBER 1, there was no yellow text at the begining of the movie. We all remember the long yellow text that told of the situation at the begining of EVERY star wars movie right? There was none in this one. Kinda dissapointing cuase thats the time when everyone is grabbing last second snacks and bathroom breaks. NUMBER 2, why he fuck does 5 yr old Jen have a Storm Trooper Doll(Read that as Torture Doll). The empire took away her comfy life on corosuant and she has a dolly of thier soldiers...Im calling bullshit(#Fiveyearoldisasadist) NUMBER 3 THERE WERE NO JEDI! Literally other than mentions, there were no Jedi amd only Darth Vader had a lightsaber in the end scene. Jen had a Kaiber crystal, she went to the alliance, she even had a scientist for a father but no fucking lightsaber! In the begining when her mother is shot while shes watching, the grass was shaking and I thought it twas the awakening of the force...but it was just fucking wind apperantly. NUMBER 4 The way the that guy from Red Squadron blew up...now that reminded me of good old star wars. Good job on that bit. NUMBER 5 Whats with the text intoducing the planets? What no characters commenting on the planet to introduce them? Just a little box of text...really... NUMBER 6 WHO THE HELL IS THAT GUY ON YAVIN 4 IN THE TOWER THING! He is in Episode 4 and now in Rouge 1. What is his purpose! The Conclusion SO in conclusion, it had some good points and some bad. Dont let me stop you from watching it though. Its still a Star Wars movie that I will be watching 99 more times while its still in theaters. All in all, its a pretty good movie. Broke away from the norm, but creative in its doing so and I cannot wait for the others to come out. So I rate Star Wars: Rouge 1 a 4.00/5.00 with a possible lower score if it didnt break tradition in the first place.
Note I may edit this later when I have the time but right now I got school in 10 minutes and of those minutes 5 minutes to study before a test I am taking in 20 minutes. I hope u all like this review cuase it literally took me 2 hours to write and there is so much more I want to say.
TL; DR Is this thing finally out yet? I'm so sick of hearing about this stupid series. Now that this damn movie is out I can probably stop hearing about it in a few weeks. - As you can see, I'm not a HUGE fan of Star Wars
I saw the movie too, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So what if there were no jedi? The story was about heroes other than Jedi - people who were willing to sacrifice their lives just so they can make a difference, no matter how small. All in all, the movie was a truly fresh take on star wars. 5 stars for me.
Everyone died because that's the lore .. In the episode where they destroy the death star, whatshername says that a lot of people died to get the plans... Also no jedi cause they were all killed in the prequels? 'member that? I went to the movies with a few friends and some of them complained that some dialogues/monologues were badly written, like some shit a 12 yo would say... while I agree, but I don't think it makes R1 a bad movie, I mean SW is supposed to be nerdy and for kids, most people who watch it now just want a nostalgia trip and don't actually view this movie from a fresh point (mainly episode 7, because R1 considering it to be a spin-off/stand alone makes it easier to digest). I rate this movie 4/5.
I was deeply disappointed when I found this wasn't about the new Star Wars make up and was instead a simple case of misspelling.
Breaking away from star wars legends was a mistake. In legends the engineer gets tortured by the emperor when he fucked up the death star. Killed and then but back in a clone body since he still was a great engineer. The emperor kills him when he is pissed and he gets constantly revived. And the deadly error of the death star was a simple mistake.