Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Star Wars for me has always been a saga based on adventure, laughable naivety, likable heroes, and fairly one-dimensional but ultimately fun characters. Rogue One has none of that. Nothing against trying to make a darker story, but the attempts to turn the rebels into sort of bastards who aren't afraid to slaughter innocents because "the ends justify the means" are more distracting than interesting, as are all the other attempts at a grittier atmosphere and the efforts to make this sci-fi flick into a war movie. Although it could work, it would just have to have more interesting characters that we know something about. Not two Asians who are teamed up with the heroes because they happened to meet in the city and became best buddies during a scene that probably ended up in the editing room. No one in the bunch is the least bit interesting, failing to evoke any emotion and just being there, either pretending to be a blind halfling or a fat lover of big guns, and that's where all ends. Nobody is funny, nobody is cool, nobody is scary, they're just there, flying from planet to planet and you're supposed to root for them because the director said so. And the more the minutes tick by, the more tedious and annoying the whole thing gets. Fortunately, Rogue One looks great and pulls a truly epic space carnage out of its sleeve in its last half hour, so in the end I left the cinema not satisfied, but certainly not angry – although I did feel more and more embarrassed with each successive reference to Episodes 4 to 6. A moderately entertaining film and a pretty big step off for the entire saga. I hope it's the last one. (16.05.2017)

I tried hard to think about how to write this review so as not to spoil the movie. Let me put it this way, Rogue One has a great premise and on top of that, it is shot beautifully. Especially the final war scene is possibly the best war scene I have ever seen in the world of Star Wars. The problem, however, is that Felicity Jones looked unbelievably beautiful in the poster but in fact, her role was one of the worst roles in any huge blockbuster in the last couple of years. Not only did she look as if somebody ate her breakfast, but she also looked offended and conceited in every scene, like a little baby. Maybe she only had a swollen face at the time, but it didn’t improve the final impression. I was really looking forward to her, but in the end, her fed-up approach to the role disappointed me terribly. And similarly, Diego Luna didn’t fit the second main character at all in my eyes. And when the two main actors from the blockbuster from the Star Wars universe don’t sit well with you, it is quite a problem. Fortunately, the set of supporting characters, who were a pleasure to watch, salvaged it and slightly improved the overall impression of the movie. Too bad, I was very disappointed. I haven’t experienced such a disappointing blockbuster in many years. Well, what can you do, maybe the casting of the lead roles will be better next time? (28.06.2017)

Another Star Wars movie. And a great one at that! Rogue One has a bold and wonderful cast with some lesser known faces, especially in the case of the main characters, who are not chosen Jedis, but just regular mortals whose fate is to fulfil a single, but extremely important task in the saga. A fast-paced story packed with all kinds of fantastically epical action, taking place in beautiful, creatively designed locations (the huge ATATs at the Maldivian “atoll” are a childhood dream come true). Lovely episodes featuring beloved Star Wars characters, the plot of which is well linked to the first trilogy. Finally, an intriguing and powerful dramatic tangle of a large number of characters, each having their own importance and whose actions define the pillars of the first trilogy. You can see that this was written by people who not only love Star Wars, but also know how to work dramatically with characters and stories beyond the boundaries of fantasy. And they do not steal from the mythology of the Star Wars universe, but complement and develop it. Bravo! (15.12.2016)

The talk of dirty war action is just ruin or unfulfilled wishful thinking, where good characters are absent, or even unbearably obnoxious, giving the impression that whether it's the overacting or if it was built this badly from the start, it's hard to keep a film on such wobbly legs that you know how it's going to turn out. Therefore, any refreshment is welcome, rather than watching a generic blockbuster, of which you have a dozen a year, and it would have been enough to throw away 120 minutes and stick the last fifteen as a prologue to Episode IV. This is because few films this year have had as strong a highlight as the one when the red lightsaber lights up in the shadows. (16.12.2016)

It took a long 33 years, but we finally got it. After Episode 6, the best film in the Star Wars universe. It doesn't feel contrived, it doesn't tell the story through bridges for morons, and it treats the main and episodic characters in a brash and bleak way, like in a real war. The beginning is perhaps too slow (my only complaint), but otherwise it's pure fan joy. I'd love to have a beer with Gareth Edwards, not only is he one of the few to understand the poetry of the original Japanese Godzilla films, but his rendition of Star Wars doesn't look like a cheesy coloring book either. Give him Star Trek, too! (21.12.2016)