Movie – Rogue One

Movie – Rogue One
Aka  : Rogue One : A Star Wars story
Score : 7/10 
Year : 2016
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cinematography: Greig Fraser
Music: Michael Giacchino   ; John Williams  (original Star Wars music)
Country: USA 
Language: English (+invented sci-fi alien languages) 
Duration: 2h13
Writers: Chris Weitz & Tony Gilroy (screenplay) ; 
John Knoll & Gary Whitta (story) ;   (based on George Lucas's characters)

Full cast & team (IMDB)

Although the first few scenes in the movie occur around 16 years prior to its main events,  Rogue One is an immediate prequel to Star Wars (IV) A New Hope, and set in the in-universe calendar year 0 BBY. It tells how and why Jyn Erso, the daughter of Imperial scientist Galen Erso, joins the Rebel Alliance's cause and embarks on a series of adventures, leading to the discovery of the secret plans in the centre of both movies, closing the plot-hole of the very first Star Wars from nearly 40 years earlier. 

A few characters either from A New Hope, or the previous prequels (chapters I-III) return, some via CGI that is, albeit noticeable and somewhat distracting, but necessary due to the small time-gap between Rogue and Hope. 

As often with movies and this particular saga, Rogue One has a tremendous imbalance of gender representation, with one female lead to six male, and an even worse ratio created by the many many male extras, far more than the few women seen here and there - not to mention dialogue issues. We can only accept that since it is set just before the events in New Hope, that Rogue One actually managed to show us a few more women, but it remains an unsatisfactory 'explanation' to their overall absence. 

On the other hand, more minorities are present, and some alien races are also part of the adventure, keeping in line with the majority of the saga, where diversity is a key in the sociopolitical comments.

Rogue One is the action before the slow build intro of A New Hope, in this desperate mission to retrieve important information to save the  Rebel Alliance we love so much as political comment against tyranny and destruction. 

Characterisation and acting aren't as rich as chapters IV-IX in the saga, but remains steady and feels part of Star Wars - much more than the first Solo prequel from 2018.

Dialogues and situations keep a balance between action, humour and more serious dramatic moments, the new music is naturally and seamlessly mixed with the original themes from John Williams, throughout this film. 

Cinematography is quite good ; we first saw it in the cinema when it was released, and the image quality wasn't reduced at all when watching it in a stream. 


Due to the nature of Rogue One, basically a Star Wars 3.9 as it is set just prior to IV, the very first movie, a good portion of the story is predictable,  and despite this aspect, it entertains fully - with occasional snarky remarks we had about all these men to women ratio. 

I score it a bit less than IMDB's average. 

Starring : Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Alan Tudyk, et al.