Movie: Rogue One
Direction: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker
Music: Michael Giacchino
Cinematographer: Greig Fraser
Editor: John Gilroy, Colin Goudie, Jabez Olssen
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating: ∗∗∗½
What is it about: It serves as a direct prequel to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. And also the first stand-alone film in the anthology series. This film is directed by Gareth Edwards of Godzilla fame.
Why it’s disappointing: There’s nothing which we can point out as negative here, this was quite unlike other Star Wars film, may be that could be the reason you could feel there’s something wrong about this.
What to watch out for: This is a franchise, which has a never ending saga of films to come for decades, as it has been dishing out films since past few decades. It’s really wonderful how Hollywood, come out with such connections and make sequels and prequels connecting the dots and creating spin-off’s. Rogue One is one among those films, which has all the elements required to fulfill a movie buff or you can say a Star Wars enthuse.
Director Gareth Edwards, did a fine job in deriving the characters in a form which establishes characters forming a prequel to a film which was made years ago. The screenplay was pretty tight by Chris Weltz & Tony Gilroy.
The actors chosen for respective characters were really good. Felicity Jones makes a strong impression as Jyn Erso, she leads the pack really well and does a commendable job. And there was Diego Luna who fit the attire well and was perfectly supported by the robotic K-2SO played by Alan Tudyk. You cannot miss Donnie Yen as Chirrut, who plays a blind warrior along with Jiang Wen as Baze Malbus.
The cinematography by Greig Fraser was spectacular which was perfectly balanced with a VFX which was seamless with smooth 3D converted to IMAX format. The film was crisp with Jabez Olssen’s editing.
Obviously Michael Giacchino’s score was spectacular, and the theme still gives you the rush like the classics did.
Verdict: Gareth Edwards was quite spot on with the spin-off and did a neat job in building the franchise further. And that was well laid with a stellar cast and technically strong team which made this film a solid one. Definitely worth a watch, catch this one at a well-equipped cinema hall.
