Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Rogue One, A Star Wars Story is a necessary detour from the Skywalker saga and one of the best Star Wars anthology films. The movie reframes the Star Wars universe as a wartime story about ordinary people making one extraordinary choice. It delivers on grit, scope, and emotional stakes while still feeling unmistakably like Star Wars.

Well, friendly speaking the plot follows Jyn Erso as she joins a ragtag Rebel team to steal the Death Star plans, a mission that ties directly into the original 1977 Star Wars. Alongside Cassian Andor and the reprogrammed android K-2SO, Jyn drives the story forward through moral compromises and personal loss. The film keeps most of its suspense spoiler free while giving enough of the Death Star origin story to satisfy longtime fans.

Performances are Rogue One’s strongest asset. Felicity Jones anchors the film with a controlled, human Jyn Erso who grows from survivor to leader. Diego Luna brings weary determination to Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO supplies much of the film’s dark humor and robotic bluntness. Ben Mendelsohn’s Orson Krennic provides a cold contrast, and Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera offers a volatile face of rebellion. The cast makes the emotional moments land, especially in scenes where sacrifice and duty collide. 

And yeah, visually the movie is striking. Greig Fraser’s cinematography and the production design create a lived in war zone, from shadowed Imperial stairwells to the sandy outskirts of Jedha. The film also gave modern audiences one of the most discussed sequences in recent Star Wars history, the Darth Vader hallway scene. Added late in production, that moment reasserts Vader’s terror and reshapes the film’s final act into something brutal and memorable. If you are searching for Darth Vader in Rogue One or Vader Star Wars Rogue One reactions, that scene is the most frequent talking point.

But most importantly, Rogue One performed strongly at the box office and with critics. The movie grossed over one billion worldwide and secured solid review scores, proving that a darker, sacrifice driven Star Wars story could succeed outside the main saga. Fans looking up Rogue One review, Rogue One cast, or Star Wars Rogue One will find praise for its tone and visuals alongside debates about its risk taking and heavy editing.

To be very honest, 4 out of 5 stars. Rogue One is not a simple feel good Star Wars movie. It leans into the cost of resistance, and at times the plot feels dense with characters and lore. Still, it rewards repeated viewings and sits well in any list of Star Wars movies in order as the anthology that proved side stories can be as powerful as the saga. If you are browsing for movie Rogue One a Star Wars Story reviews or exploring Andor Rogue One connections, this film is essential viewing for the full picture of the Rebellion and the sacrifice behind a single faded hope.

After the smash success of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the first entry in the Skywalker Saga after Disney purchased Lucasfilm, they decided to broaden the conditionally-beloved franchise's horizons with spinoff media, including the very first spinoff film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which tells about how the Rebel Alliance acquired the Death Star plans, referenced in the opening crawl of A New Hope. The spinoff begins with the signature phrase, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." and goes cold-open into the film, starting six years after the Galactic Empire forms.

Imperial Director Orson Krennic and his death troopers forcibly recruit scientist Galen Erso to finish work on the Death Star project, with his wife Lyra offed in the process and their daughter Jyn going into hiding with Saw Gerrera, leader of the Partisans. Jyn goes to prison thirteen years later, while Rebel Intelligence officer Cassian Andor (who would get his own series) learns about the Death Star being made with the help of Kyber crystals, also key to the creation of lightsabers in the Star Wars mythos, from an unusually-named Imperial defector named Bodhi Rook.

Jyn is rescued from imprisonment and brought before various Rebel leaders including Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, Jyn banding with Cassian and reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO, who has some occasional funny lines like, "I am taking them... to imprison them. In prison." Meanwhile, Governor Wilhuff Tarkin, one of the masterminds of the Death Star project, and depicted through CG rather than an actor (though I really couldn't tell), worries about the defector, wanting to test the station. Various events happen on Jedha, including a battle to defend the Kyber Temple on the planet.

The Death Star is tested on the moon but doesn't destroy it, and the Partisans evacuate, with Director Krennic and his colleagues relishing the destruction. Tarkin seizes control of the project, which angers Krennic and leads him to Mustafar to complain to disabled war veteran and Sith Lord Darth Vader, who warns him not to "choke on his aspirations," naturally accompanied by a Force Choke. Jyn goes back to Yavin 4 to help with plans to steal the Death Star schematics, securely held on Scarif, with the infiltration team receiving the titular name Rogue One.

The Battle of Scarif plays out magnificently, the ending tying into A New Hope, with Rogue One overall being a great start for Star Wars spinoff films, given its great cast, writing, effects, music, and addition to the series mythos. I know "fans" love to complain about the hypothetical infallibility of the Original Trilogy movies (and will definitely whine about the CG moments of Rogue One like Tarkin), but I actually liked it more than them, the Prequel Trilogy, and The Force Awakens. Aside from minor things like "Bodhi Rook" and the absence of the trailer line "This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel!", I consider Rogue One a cinematic high point in the franchise.

The Good

+Great story tying into the Skywalker Saga.

+Excellent visual effects.

+Superb soundtrack.

The Bad

-Fans will whine about the CG.

-Names like "Bodhi Rook."

-Lines in the trailer not in the movie like "This is a rebellion, isn't it? I rebel!"