Star Wars - Rogue One

Yesterday Rebecka and I (John) saw the new Star Wars 'middle movie', namely Rogue One. Since it's still a super fresh film and I'd rather not spoil anyone, I'll talk completely in vaguer terms and avoid any plot points - this is not a review.

What I can say is that it was absolutely GREAT! I'm not a huge Star Wars fan. Sure, I like the movies, but I'm definitely no die hard nerd that live and breathe the universe. It's just a cool sci-fi series. Yet I, and many others, host a sense of investment in these epics. There's a story to be seen through and after roughly four decennia on air, Star Wars finally managed to fill a big, big hole: how did the Rebel Alliance manage
to get their hands on the Death Star plans, and why is it such a big deal?

Rogue One sets out to answer both of these questions and does so in a splendidly action filled and intense fashion. Prior to release it was said to be a 'darker' movie, less of a hero's journey and more of a war movie; and honestly it managed to do this perfectly without feeling preachy, cheesy or pushing the limits.

One got to see darker sides of one's previously flawless heroes, as well as humanizing aspects of the Imperium that has acted out as a ubiquitous bad guy with no other aspirations than being simply evil.

Something that made me exceptionally happy was the addition of a droid that had some kind of human(esque) personality. Being a fan of the game series Knights of the Old Republic and its amazing character (err, droid) HK-47, it was great fun to see the movies borrowing its sense of witty remarks and off-beat comic relief - albeit a bit more safe for the family than HK's rants on ways to kill us... meat bags...

Pacing wise they managed to introduce a varied and interesting cast without spending more than half the movie on their backstories and why one should care; yes I'm looking at you every DC movie released in the 2000's. I was actually surprised how much they managed to cram into two hours without anything feeling dragged out or abusing exposition.

With that the movie actually had more than enough time in the final act to conclude in an absolutely stunning finale and a hugely satisfying end. Once again, I won't spoil, but I left the cinema with a massive smile.

After the overly safe and lukewarm The Force Awakens, Rogue One managed to revitalize my faith in Disney and their purchase of the Star Wars IP. I'm looking forward to more 'in-between' movies that pad the release schedule, with a sprinkle of modest hope for the eigth entry not going back to what's tried and true.