I did manage to get to see one of the most anticipated (but not by me) movies of the year. It was pretty good. There were a few surprises that mostly had to do with technological advances and not with plot so I think I can talk about them without ruining the film for anyone still on the fence.Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the Rebel Alliance in order to draw out a former leader named Saw Gerrera (Forrest Whitaker) who has turned a bit too paranoid and bloodthirsty for the mainstream leadership to approach. Saw has in custody an Imperial cargo pilot defector (Riz Ahmed) and the Alliance wants to make sure his information is genuine. The pilot tells Jyn and her keeper, Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), that the Empire is building a weapon with planet-killing capabilities and that Jyn's father (Mads Mikkelsen) is the chief engineer. Jyn is determined to get her father back but Cassian has other orders.
This is a prequel to A New Hope and it does a solid job of telling a story that was essentially a throwaway line from that movie. The real triumph here is managing to bring back characters from A New Hope and de-age them convincingly. Darth Vader is easy; that's just a voice. But Peter Cushing, who played Grand Moff Tarkin in the original film, died in 1994. The filmmakers managed to superimpose his face on actor Guy Henry so seamlessly, it looked like he had walked from one set to the other. I knew it was fake and I could still barely tell it was CGI. It was astonishing. That impressed me more than anything in the actual film, although my love for Alan Tudyk did gain some new heights. Bless you, sassy robot.
My favorite parts of this film were the Vader parts. He's been Vader for 20+ years, is used to killing and thuggery for e, and doesn't give a damn. He's a god among ants, and everyone knows it. Especially when he's slicing up fools near the end. I'm a classic Empire guy, always have been (TIE Fighter is still the best SW game in my opinion). The First Order in Episode VII though, that's a little TOO 3rd Reich. Rogue One was a solid film, I thought. It was nice to see the War part of Star Wars.
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