Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Limited Edition Steelbook [3D Blu-ray + Blu-ray]

Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryBelieve in the rebellion.It's hard to believe, that despite being one of the biggest film series in history, The Star Wars series has yet to see a cinematic spin off, over its now 30+ year run. Despite a cartoon series, comics and numerous expanded universe books. The Star Wars series remained largely outside the spot light, forgoing opportunities to push out spin offs and sequels, up until the series acquisition by Disney in 2012. In most scenarios this would be a good thing, saving the series integrity after the questionable prequels. However after 2015s Force Awakens successfully brought the series back and recently walking out of a viewing of Rogue One this past weekend, this may be the first time a corporation buying a series out is a good thing. When the end credits rolled on Rogue One, I left fully convinced not only of Disneys control of the Star Wars license but of the potential for the future of the expanded universe. It is a visually stunning, gritty and well acted war movie, that manages to show a different side of Star Wars while also being faithful to its source material.Set before A New Hope. Rogue one's story follow Jyn Erso, an outlaw who due to reasons I won't spoil, finds herself forced to help the rebellion, after a pilot defecting from the empire claims to have info on a super weapon they've been building (something strikingly moonlike). I'll keep things vague in this review, though as most know Rogue One is the story of the team who acquired the original Death Stars plans (the plans that would assure the rebels successful assault on the Death Star, 39 years ago). It was impressive that despite having a predetermined ending, Rogue One actually manages a few surprises, as well as some good retconning explanations for events in the originals. Though it's still the small band of rebels up against the impossibly large force of the empire (seriously the emperor needs to invest in better troop training). Many moments aren't quite as cut and dry, with spanners being thrown in the works and moments of questionable morality. There's nothing particularly out there or drastically different, though for Star Wars the very definition of good versus evil, it felt refreshing.The film can be broken up into three parts, with the first being the weakest. As we are introduced to the characters and drip fed plot, it isn't bad however it can feel a little disjointed, hopping from character to character before we know any of they're names. It feels necessary however, when the film settles in and the plot really begins. The second act of the film is brilliant, with the introduction of many likeable characters. From the brilliantly sarcastic K-2SO (Alan Tudyk) a reprogrammed empire droid, who loves to tell his team the odds of their survival. To the funny back and fourth between Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) a mysterious pair, who eventually join the group. The film has a good amount of comedic relief sprinkled throughout, that thankfully never feels out of the place or forced. By the end you'll genuinely care for Rogue One's rag tag group, this is down to great acting across the board and a smart script that made me care for them, without it feeling forced or unwarranted. The film's final act is a sublime battle sequence, that showed the kind of gorilla warfare I've wanted to see in a Star Wars film for years. The feeling of desperation and stacked odds is palpable, with rebel trooper hiding in bushes, setting traps while the empire chase them down in AT-AT's. the sequence is paced perfectly so that it doesn't fatigue and the mix of space and group fighting is perfect. A film that focused more on combat than mythology or character drama had to bring the action right and Rogue One does not disappoint here.Props also goes to Gareth Edwards direction and the special effects team. Going from creating the special effect on his laptop, in his independent alien movie monsters, to Godzilla to Star Wars is an impressive career trajectory and Rogue One is definite proof it's warranted. The team has gone on record as saying they were inspired by the Vietnam war when creating rogue one and it's easy to see the influence. The gritty nature of combat here, makes Rogue One stand out. With a great sense of scale throughout. The battlefields feel big, yet being down on the ground with the rebels feels personal. Multiple memorable shots still stand out to me, like the rebels fleeing on the beach from AT-AT looming behind to x wings ducking and weaving past Star destroyers. It's visually stunning without feeling clean or distance. The special effects are as expected excellent, with incredible detail put into every ship cockpit and alien facial expression. This is by far the most visually impressive the series has looked, with CGI characters I did not expect, looking so good I hardly noticed they were (I'm being vague but you'll know what I mean when you see it).Rogue One manages to be the rarest of things. Not only is it a great spin off, it is also an excellent prequel. (Both new ground for Star Wars). Any problems to be found here are at the most forgivable and at the least nit picky. It's a gritty and refreshing war movie that manages to feel fateful to Star Wars while being something different to the main series. Disney have made a strong case for their Star Wars Anthology series here (I'm slightly less worried about the Han Solo origin story now) and just an all around great holiday season movie. Whether you're a hardcore or casual fan there's something to enjoy here.9/10

I was utterly blown away by this film; I'd mistakenly thought they couldn't do much with the concept in terms of story, and I was SO glad to be wrong. It shows a different, darker side of the Rebellion, making it clear - as the original trilogy did not and really COULD not - that the Rebels sometimes had to compromise their ideals and stoop to the Empire's level if they were to stand any real chance of winning....or, in the face of something like the Death Star, any chance of even surviving. This actually made for a much more mature film which could still appeal to the younger audience without whom the originals would never have been so successful and so popular to this day.The visuals were superb - the ringed planet Lah'mu (not named, for some reason), the final stage of the Death Star's construction, the terribly beautiful sight of the entire plateau of Jedha City erupting in a miles-high plume of destruction, Star Destroyers colliding (I doubt that could ever have been realised with practical modelwork, as much as I love the old-school techniques)...terrific stuff.Saw Gerrera was an absolutely realistic response to a totalitarian regime; in every revolution there are always extremists, but Saw was more honest than most - and still held to "the dream" even as Jedha's landscape exploded around him. Cassian, too: ruthless to a fault, but always with the core of his beliefs staying intact, not apologising to Jyn for his intent to assassinate her father, not excusing his actions either - but realising himself that it was not the way to go. Besides, what would be the point? The Empire had already built the Death Star and therefore no longer needed Galen anyway.As for Jyn - I can't help but see her as a sort of female, angry Han Solo, i.e. having lost faith in pretty much everyone and everything, expecting nothing from anyone...and very surprised to find she's nowhere near as cynical as she thinks. A very powerful character; one can only hope she found peace in the Force.Chirrut Îmwe was an absolutely brilliant creation. He could, if not written or played properly, have been a cliché if not a caricature - the blind pilgrim with mad combat skillz - but I can only wonder how deadly he could've been with a lightsabre and true Jedi training. He was most formidable with just a staff! (It would've been nice if his comment to Jyn, "The strongest stars have hearts of kyber", had been explained - as it was in the novelisation - as something Lyra once told her, i.e. 'how did he know that?!')The only minor point was that the rivalry between Krennic and Tarkin could and perhaps should have been expanded upon; left as it was Krennic seemed almost childish, which isn't really fair - again, the novelisation depicts this in more depth. Oh well.It might have been the greatest retcon in movie history, but at last the Death Star's fatal design flaw makes SENSE. (Again referring to the novelisation, there's a very clever chapter detailing communiqués between Galen and his superiors, which show how he in fact TRICKED them into APPROVING the thermal exhaust port!)Oops, I nearly forgot the brilliant K2-SO, brought to life so superbly by Alan Tudyk, beloved to Firefly fans the world over as Wash. A greater contrast to C-3PO they surely could not have come up with, even given that he was a reprogrammed Imperial droid ("and there's a fresh one if you mouth off again!" - priceless!).I am NOT getting into the whole issue of bringing deceased actors into play via CGI, beyond saying that I actually thought Tarkin was very well-executed indeed; I was taken completely by surprise, knowing as I did that Peter Cushing passed away in 1994. In fact I didn't even KNOW at first they'd used CGI; I assumed at the time they'd created a lifelike prosthesis and/or found a near-identical lookalike. But Peter had such a distinctive look that simply putting a new actor in his place wouldn't really have worked; what they did, DID work.But the final scenes with Darth Vader proving once and for all just how truly badass he was - just ELECTRIC! You can just imagine what those doomed Rebel soldiers thought when they saw his lightsabre ignite: "By the Force, what is THIS?!" followed quickly by "Oh, we are SO dead, we are utter bantha poodoo!"Yet they DID THEIR DUTY. They stood their ground and fought, even though they were so far out of their league it was like setting a kitten against a rabid tiger, and bought the time needed for the Death Star plans to be safely dispatched. Heroes of the Rebellion, every one.All in all, a wonderful film, told differently from the originals yet, in a way, even more effectively.