Rogue One

Released 13th December 2016, Rogue One follows Jyn Erso as she aids the rebellion against the Galactic Empire and their new superweapon. Being the first live action spin-off in the Star Wars franchise, it does a superb job at separating itself from the central saga with only brief cameos or natural overlap conjoining the entities into a broadened and cohesive universe (something the sequel trilogy ironically failed to do). Rogue One opts to establish a grittier tone than the main saga by grounding itself in the extremist portion of the rebellion and showing the morally dubious conflicts that come in liberation and freedom. The character of Cassian Andor is the primary representative of this thematic concept through Diego Luna’s performance; Luna is able to encapsulate Andor’s darkness and conflicts through his facial performance and delivers his nuanced dialogue with consolidation and strength.

Jyn Erso acts as the protagonist of the ensemble and s brought to life by Felicity Jones. Erso’s arc follows her come to terms with joining the rebellion and hold onto hope in her trials; Jones gives a great performance with diverse skills shown across the narrative. While Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen and Mads Mikkelsen and Forest Whitaker are good as Bodhi Rock, Baze Malbus, Galen Erso and Saw Gerrara, respectively, Donnie Yen stands out as the force-sensitive Chirrut. He has similar ‘depth’ to Bodhi and Baze but his dialogue and action scenes are thoroughly memorable and he provides an intriguing alternative to force users in a universe where force-sensitive usually equates to Jedi. Ben Mendelsohn is particularly great as Orson Krennic, the film’s main antagonist. Mendelsohn really conveys Krennic’s beleaguered attitude in the face of his superiors’ judgement while still acting as an imposing threat to the heroes. As usual the film’s token Star Wars droid, K-2SO, steals every single scene they are in with the impeccable delivery of Alan Tudyk in his hysterical sarcasm.

That said, a key strength to K-2SO (and the rest of the film) is the impeccable visual effects. Once again we can see the Disney budget paying off in illustrating this fantastical universe on screen to aid the escapism that the franchise has always been built upon. Michael Giacchino also manages to deliver a powerful score which feels inspired by Star Wars and subsequently works to create a unique score in John Williams’ symphonic paradise; Giacchino’s application of Dies Irae across the narrative is especially inspired. Overall, Rogue One serves a fresh perspective of the Star Wars universe with enough thematic concepts and visuals to keep the audience engaged in this fatiguing franchise.