6 Reasons Rogue One Was Awesome

Let’s be upfront right from the start, Rogue One was awesome!!  Whether you agree with me or not, it really is.  It was a completely different and fresh take on a franchise that now has 8 installments, and sometimes has lacked originality.  I was a little skeptical going into Rogue One, but by the time the ending credits rolled I was totally blown away and giggling like a little school girl.  So naturally I thought it would be a good idea to go back and look at some of the reasons why Rogue One was awesome and why I’ll be watching it many times over.

This is not a Full Review of Rogue One.  If you want to read my Rogue One Review then you can click here.  Also this article is FULL of Spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet then I suggest you come back when you have! 🙂

Here are my Top 6 Reasons:

6. It Had an ending:

I loved the fact in itself that Rogue One had an ending.  Huh?  Every movie has an ending.  While that’s technically true, at the same time it isn’t.  In today’s Hollywood (Star Wars films included), every time we are introduced to a new movie, you can be sure that whatever happens at the end is only going to be a setup to the next movie, a cash carry to create a new mega-franchise where in every movie the main character or villain die, only to come back in some way in the next one.  Or in each film they raise a more and more questions without giving the answers to the previous ones.  It feels cheap and you’re never left with any closure to the story.  “The Force Awakens” only opened a million questions to us and we got basically 0 answers.

Rogue One changes that.  Yes essentially it is a lead-in to A New Hope, but the fact that the main characters die at the end and that we’ve already seen the sequels assures us we won’t have to sit through Disney inventing some ridiculous new plot for Felicity Jones to be in just to squeeze a few more dollars out of us.  We know what happens after the end scene in Rogue One so it gives you closure to the story which is refreshing.

5. Fixed Plot Holes

Finally after 40 years of waiting we have some answers to questions brought up in “A New Hope.”  I always wondered how Princess Leia ended up with those plans in the first place?  Who stole them?  Not knowing the story made you just gloss over them like they were no big deal, but seeing the whole story behind added more meaning to them.

Also the biggest one which has been a huge critique over the years by fans has been “How could the Death Star be destroyed so easily?”  It seemed kind of unbelievable that Luke could just jump in his X-Wing and destroy the biggest, most fearsome weapon of all-time, which is the size of a moon, just by shooting a little torpedo in a hole on its surface.  Now we know that Galen Erso specifically designed a flaw in the system that when triggered would destroy the whole thing.  Makes more sense now!

4. All the Easter Eggs

Rogue one was full of easter eggs from start to finish, most of which had me grinning from ear to ear.  Right off the bat we see that delicious Blue Milk at the Erso residence.  They brought back some characters from A New Hope like the two jerks that Obi Wan smacked down in the Mos Eisley Cantina in Jedha City, who we found out are still jerks, also Gold Leader and Red Leader from the attack on the Death Star made it out alive of the final battle scene.  Mon Mothma from Return of the Jedi reprised her role as Rebel Leader.

Of course it wouldn’t have been a Star Wars movie without our 2 favorite droids in the galaxy R2-D2 and C-3P0 and even though they don’t affect the story in Rogue One, it was great seeing them before their famous voyage with Princess Leia aboard the Tantive IV.  Bail Organa (Leia’s adoptive father) made an appearance and ensured that the Death Star Plans would be delivered to Obi Wan via Leia.  Many references to Star Wars Rebels are made as in Ghost, Syndulla and Chopper.

The two most controversial appearances were from Grand Moff Tarkin and Leia herself.  Disney figured out how to bring Peter Cushing back from the dead to re-take his role as Tarkin and opposed the ambitous Director Krennic.  Honestly I didn’t expect to see Tarkin at all, and while I know many didn’t like the idea, I loved it.  He was such a looming figure in the Original film I thought it was realistic that he should be involved in the plot in Rogue One.  His scenes weren’t so long and didn’t take away from the film the fact he was CGI.  I loved it!  The same with Leia.  If it had been the whole movie it wouldn’t have worked, but the Rebels handing her the plans and her saying her line: “Hope” I thought was an incredible segue to A New Hope and the perfect ending to an incredible film!

3. Realistic and Bolder than any Star Wars movie.

Let’s be honest, there hasn’t been a more in your face, realistic Star Wars movie than Rogue One.  For the first time in the Star Wars universe we see things not only in Black and White, but also in Grey, and a number of times from our so-called “heroes.”  We see the Rebels who are supposed to be the “good guys” make decisions that are at the very least questionable, if not plain morally wrong.

For example right at the beginning we see our Rebel Captain Cassian killing an innocent informant because he wouldn’t have made it away from the nearby Storm Troopers and might have given Cassian up.  Later on he also takes a mission to assassinate Galen Erso sniper-style even though he ultimately doesn’t do it.  The Rebel leaders themselves then are shown to bend the rules by ordering the assassination and in the end succeeding when a bomb hits Galen by a Y-Wing.  A side of the Rebellion we have never seen before.

This is a more realistic world where people die, often in horrifying ways and we’re exposed to the true suffering of the fighting that goes on in Star Wars.  We see a scene where Jyn saves a little girl in the middle of a street-battle, where rebels under Saw Gerrera are using “terrorist-like” guerilla war tactics.  The little girl is then returned to her mother only for them all to be wiped out by the Death Star minutes later.

We are truly scared of the Empire in Rogue One.  For one Storm Troopers actually hit their targets, which has always been a running joke among Star Wars fans.  We also “witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station,” aka The Death Star.  Yes this Super Weapon is absolutely terrifying!  Before we only have seen the Death Star from a far shoot down a planet and see a bunch of specks of light blown into oblivion, like “Illuminations” in Epcot.  In Rogue One we witness how personal everything actually is, the kind of suffering this deadly machine creates, and we see characters we’ve come to love(and hate) throughout the film not have any chance when caught in its path.  The Death Star was at its most terrifying in Rogue One and exactly what George Lucas wanted to convey to the audience 40 years ago.

And oh yeah, everyone dies, I mean like everyone!  That is about as bold of a move as you can make when literally all of the characters on the poster die in the film expect for Vader.  Disney wasn’t worried so much about profits on action figures and toys based on the characters in the film, but more so on creating an incredible and engaging movie, daring to do something no previous Star Wars film has done and something you expect out of a movie like Saving Private Ryan.  I was literally shocked to see something like this in a Star Wars movie and think it was a risk that will pay off.

2. Battle Scene/Final 40 Minutes

Wow, just wow!  Yeah the beginning half at times was kind of slow.  In fact that was one of my few complaints about Rogue One, the jumping around in the beginning of the film and introducing too many new characters all at once made it a little chaotic, but the sequence in the 40 minutes of the film was quite possibly the greatest battle scene yet witnessed in Star Wars.  Everything about it was amazing.  It kept you on the edge of your seat, not knowing how these guys would pull off the mission and then slowly coming to the realization that they wouldn’t make it out alive.

The Space sequence I believe was in fact the greatest in the history of Star Wars, mostly because of the size and scale of the battle and it was like nothing we have seen since Return of the Jedi.  It really transported me back to the Original Trilogy and I was bobbing and weaving with the X, Y and U-Wing pilots as they engaged swarms of Tie Fighters and Star Destroyers, unreal!

Then that super intense beach fight was crazy!  The moment where the rebels look at each other and notice the AT-ATs are coming straight for them was amazing!  I loved seeing the few Rebel pilots who made it through the shield gate and how they were giving air support to the ground crew, even engaging the AT-ATs and Imperial fighters.  Too bad a few more of them didn’t make it through in time!  This is what you watch Star Wars for!

Everything about how our main characters died was touching too.  Seeing the Chirrut risk his life to activate the signal for the others, only to be cut down seconds later was shocking.  Baze running to his friend’s aid, seeing Bohdi Rook and their escape plane blow up and realizing this was it.  And watching Jyn and Cassian together at the end on the beach as there was nothing they could do to stop their destruction by the Death Star.  They were all moments that you won’t forget.

Then there’s the very last scene once the Rebel ships receive the Death Star Plans which leads us to…

1. Darth Vader

The inclusion of the Dark Lord in Rogue One was by far my most anticipated and in the end, favorite thing about the film.  Even though Darth Vader doesn’t play a huge role in Rogue One, the scenes he does have do one thing for sure: They remind us why he is the best villain in the history of Cinema!

Before we get to Vader himself, how sick was his Castle??  This was based on sketches that was going to be used in “The Empire Strikes Back”, but in the end was scrapped.  Vader’s Castle was used in the expanded Universe and is located on the planet of Vjun.  If you noticed in Rogue One we don’t get the location of the Castle but it sure looks like Mustafar, the spot of Anikan’s infamous duel with Obi Wan where he was left a cripple.  Apparently he hasn’t gotten over that yet. 😉

I’ll get to the last scene, but how dope was it to see Vader in the Bacta Tank in his castle and the Imperial Guards there protecting him!  This was the first time we’ve seen him in one of these and makes it quite clear how messed up he really is.  I wonder how often he has to use it and if the Guards are always with him?

Then Krennic started whining to him and Vader totally showed him what a pathetic little wimp he is and choked him out!  I like the line when he told him not to “choke on his ambitions.”  Classic Darth Vader dominance!

Then we get to the big one..the absolute most amazing moment from Rogue One, the moment that had me gasping in disbelief at what I was seeing.  You see a group of rebels who are trying to bring the Death Star plans to their leader when the hallway lights go out and sheer terror comes upon them.  Then it happens…you see that famous red lightsaber light up and Vader annihilates about 7 rebels in a matter of seconds.

What was awesome about it was that since the movie was basically over you weren’t expecting it at all.  the final scene was beyond anything I was expecting.  To see absolute fear on their faces as Vader slices and force throws them all out of his way was possibly the greatest moment in the history of Darth Vader.  I felt like a little kid watching him again…Truly unbelievable!

This was the first we’ve seen of Vader in action since he became the Sith Lord, and it makes me wonder if Disney will be doing any Vader Spin-offs down the line, there are so many events that happened in that gap between Episodes 3-4 that you easily could make some great films.

The last scene, when you realize that you are essentially seeing the minutes that lead up to A New Hope is amazing.  Everything is exactly like Leia’s ship.  The hallways, the doors, it’s remarkable how exact they were.  The whole last sequence was perfect and a remarkable lead-in to Episode 4!

So those are my 6 Reasons Rogue One Was Awesome.  I absolutely loved the movie and it has me even more pumped up for Episode 8 and the next spin-offs to come.

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about the 6 Reasons why I wrote Rogue One was Awesome.  Do you agree with me?  What were your favorite parts of the movie?  Where does Rogue One rank among the other Star Wars movies for you?  Let us know in the comments section below! 🙂

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