Set prior to the events of the third installment of the Star Wars series, A New Hope, Rogue One tells the story of the behind-the-scenes heroes that acquired the infamous Death Star’s blueprints essential to its destruction. Set in a variety of locales, the most notable being Jedha, an Imperial-held desert moon, Eadu, housng an Imperial research facility, and Scarif, home to the Imperial data bank. With atmosphere as varied as location, there is always an underlying tone of hopefulness laced in between the seemingly omnipresent Empire, guided by triumphant music and narrow escapes. Rogue One enlists the talents of Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso, Diego Luna as Cassian Andor, Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso, Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe, Jiang Wen as
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During the many establishing shots introducing the aforementioned locations, such as on Lah’mu, a small farm is shown to be only a small part of the massive and rocky surface of the planet, giving a peek at the grandiose nature of the film. The dark atmosphere generated by the dark ground and cloudy sky are employed to create a sense of tension and anticipation, climaxing with the capture of Galen and the escape of Jyn. Dramatic tension is also artfully established during the Alliance council meeting on Yavin IV by using a medium closeup to show the raw emotion of fear and hopefulness being expressed of the council leaders as well as spectators. In the same scene, during Jyn’s short spiel the shot transitions into closeup in order to further empathize her point. The contrast of colors is wonderfully utilized during the infiltration of Jyn, Cassian and K-2SO, with their darker uniforms standing out against the many white-armored Stormtroopers. Similarly, after Jyn and Cassian are forced to climb a shaft in the data vault, the entirety of the vault itself was white, blatantly highlighting their dark uniforms and focusing the attention on …show more content…
The acting was acceptable for the most part, hindered due to there only being two characters in the entirety of the Rogue One group that really had meaningful backstory and the rest filling in gaps that Jyn and Cassian could not. The execution of the movie as a transition to Episode III meant that some background knowledge is required to fully understand the more subtle nuances of the story as well as some sly references to other movies in the franchise. All of this adds up to an enjoyable experience overall, but could be improved on in terms of creating meaningful existence not only for the main characters but for some of the lesser known members of Rogue One, landing it a B in my opinion. As mentioned previously, subtle nuances in the movie and story may not be picked up by first time watchers, as well as the general chaos that is the Star Wars universe can be overwhelming at first. But for long time fans, this movie is definitely a treat, filling in story gaps of the seemingly impossible flaw in the Death Star as well as leaving a transitional ending to Episode III that led applause in the
During the many establishing shots introducing the aforementioned locations, such as on Lah’mu, a small farm is shown to be only a small part of the massive and rocky surface of the planet, giving a peek at the grandiose nature of the film. The dark atmosphere generated by the dark ground and cloudy sky are employed to create a sense of tension and anticipation, climaxing with the capture of Galen and the escape of Jyn. Dramatic tension is also artfully established during the Alliance council meeting on Yavin IV by using a medium closeup to show the raw emotion of fear and hopefulness being expressed of the council leaders as well as spectators. In the same scene, during Jyn’s short spiel the shot transitions into closeup in order to further empathize her point. The contrast of colors is wonderfully utilized during the infiltration of Jyn, Cassian and K-2SO, with their darker uniforms standing out against the many white-armored Stormtroopers. Similarly, after Jyn and Cassian are forced to climb a shaft in the data vault, the entirety of the vault itself was white, blatantly highlighting their dark uniforms and focusing the attention on …show more content…
The acting was acceptable for the most part, hindered due to there only being two characters in the entirety of the Rogue One group that really had meaningful backstory and the rest filling in gaps that Jyn and Cassian could not. The execution of the movie as a transition to Episode III meant that some background knowledge is required to fully understand the more subtle nuances of the story as well as some sly references to other movies in the franchise. All of this adds up to an enjoyable experience overall, but could be improved on in terms of creating meaningful existence not only for the main characters but for some of the lesser known members of Rogue One, landing it a B in my opinion. As mentioned previously, subtle nuances in the movie and story may not be picked up by first time watchers, as well as the general chaos that is the Star Wars universe can be overwhelming at first. But for long time fans, this movie is definitely a treat, filling in story gaps of the seemingly impossible flaw in the Death Star as well as leaving a transitional ending to Episode III that led applause in the