Be Warned: Spoilers be here…
Initially I was worried that a film that had Ben Mendelsohn aka Warren Murphy, one third of Neighbours‘ Warren-Charlene (Kylie Minogue)-Scott (Jason Donovan) love triangle as a villain might bow before the power of his mullet:
But the mullet is history and Mendelsohn has grown into a fine actor with credits including The Secret Life of Us, Tangle, The Dark Knight Rises, Starred Up, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Axe Cop and Blood Line.
As Orson Krennic, he quickly sets the tone for a very different Star Wars movie.
Now some have moaned about tone, some have taken Star Wars so seriously they forgot how old they were when they first watched it but it is safe to say that Rogue One links amazingly into Episode IV.
But I hear you whine… in Episode IV, Vader says they intercepted the transmissions and in Rogue One that had it on a disc… try watching the film, they sent a signal up that was intercepted by the Rebel Fleet. The signal was copied to disc which led to the coolest Vader scene ever and then the escape of the Blockade Runner.
As a film there were Easter Eggs a plenty, including some nice tie-ins to Star Wars: Rebels, as well as some faces and droids from the past. We even get to see what happened to the Red 5 predecessor.
The cost of war and the “one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist” ideals are explored and in today’s world ring as relevant as Lucas’ Vietnam nods did back in the day. The impacts of these actions on individuals is also explored, especially the costs of being an extreme revolutionary like Saw Gerrera (played by Forest Whitaker) or acting without question like Cassian Andor (Diego Luna).
Finally we get to see the underbelly of the Rebellion and its various fragments. Something I would be happy to see explored in more details. Mon Mothma being back and played once more by Genevieve O’Reilly (Episode III) helps show the political balance needed is keeping a Rebellion on course.
Rogue One uses CGI to bring back some major characters and some minor ones like Gold Leader and Red Leader, and also uses some footage not included in Episode VI to show the diversity of the Rebel fighters during the final space battle. Does it always work? Occasionally you could get picky, but the majority like Grand Moff Tarkin, which we were talking about back in August 2015 were good enough and made storyline sense, so we were finally happy to see it on the big screen.
Verdict: 9/10  Adds, explores and expands the Star Wars Universe as we know as well as tie it in  to the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and Star Wars: Rebels. What is supposed to be a stand alone story adds some much needed backbone that clears up some plot-holes left by Lucas.
Ogun Bat is a Japanese superhero created by Takeo Nagamatsu in 1931 and is considered to be the first Japanese superhero. The anime ran 52 episodes between April 1st 1967 and March 23rd Read more
Released in December 1980, Zork: The Great Underground Empire - Part I aka Zork I was an interactive fiction video game written by Marc Blank, Dave Lebling, Bruce Daniels and Tim Read more
Zoolander is back but a lot has happened since 2001! Rest assured the Ben Stiller comedy features familiar faces and a few new ones with plenty to get you excited. Read more
At a dinner party with their wives, NASA scientist Dr. Keith Ritchie (Tony Huston) reveals to his colleague Dr. Curt Taylor (John Agar) that he has secretly been in communication Read more
In Italy during World War II, an American military patrol discovers a spaceship that has crash-landed in the woods, along with its alien crew. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm9fnNfLg8M A nearby Nazi unit also Read more
Zone Fighter was a tokusatsu science fiction/superhero television series produced by Toho Company Ltd. It aired from April 2nd 1973 to September 24th 1973, with a total of 26 episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdhcjsVLDQY The series follows Read more
Zone 414 is an upcoming American science fiction thriller film written by Bryan Edward Hill and directed by Andrew Baird. The film stars Guy Pearce, Matilda Lutz, Jonathan Aris, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Olwen Fouéré, Colin Salmon, Antonia Campbell-Hughes, Read more
It is the final episode of Season 1, and as expected following the somewhat calmness of last week's episode this week is about to go off the scale. Our crew Read more
Episode 5 of Zomboat! is the penultimate episode of Season 1 and it gave the audience a chance to catch their breath before the grand finale. Instead of the fast Read more
In Zomboat! Episode 4 we discover that even a shopping trip can be hazardous to your health in post-apocalyptic Birmingham. With the boat moored and apparently safe Amar (Ryan McKen) Read more
After our diversion last week our Zomboat crew begin travelling in the right direction and end up back where they first got on the boat. This also happens to be Read more
Zomboat! burst onto our screens last week and while we loved it we noted that it felt "a bit rushed with lots crammed in." As Episode 2 washed over us Read more
Debuting on ITV2 in the UK, Zomboat! is filmed in the 2.35:1 widescreen ratio of most zombie movies and answers the life long question of what would happen if you Read more
When the government's latest crime deterrent, obmoz, goes completely off the rails and starts to destroy everything from the underfunded super team Planetronix to the president himself, who ya gonna Read more
Homemade horror-comedy feature Zomblogalypse received its UK premiere at Dead Northern Film Festival - in association with Fangoria and Shudder - at City Screen York on 26th September 2021. The Read more
Tony Todd is back in an all new zombie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBlWz-n-nec When the world is in shambles, plagued by a zombie outbreak, only the strong will survive, but just how Read more
Columbus, Tallahasse, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of the snarky makeshift family... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL6NTQhEqn4 Read more
In Zombieland 2: Double Tap, Columbus, Tallahasse, Wichita, and Little Rock move to the American heartland as they face off against evolved zombies, fellow survivors, and the growing pains of Read more
Directed by Chris Watson and distributed by Troma Entertainment, Zombiegeddon begins as Satan creates a human-like race called zombies. When the zombies begin taking over the world, dirty cops Jeff Read more
Zombie With A Shotgun is the feature adaptation of the popular web series of the same name. Aaron and Rachel are on the run due to the fact that Aaron is Read more
Brett Summers
Founded Cult Faction in 2014. Some would describe him as a teacher, writer, dream weaver, and visionary... some would not...
5 thoughts on “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”