Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla)
	Actors: Felicity Jones (The Amazing Spider-man 2), Diego Luna (The Terminal, Elysium), Alan Tudyk (Dodgeball, Firefly TV-series), Forest Whitaker (Platoon, Ghost Dog, Arrival), Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal TV-series, Pusher)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Adventure, Epic
	Conditions of visioning: 26.12.2016, French version, 2D, Cinéma A L'affiche, Chaumont
Synopsis: The father (Mikkelsen) of Jyn Erso (Jones) abandoned her at a young age to work on a massive new weapon for the Galactic Empire. Once adult she is contacted by the Rebellion to help contact her father.
Review: Forget about Georges Lucas' embarrassing vision in the Episodes 1, 2 and 3 and J. J. Abrams' referential Episode 7: The Force Awakens, Rogue One is the Star Wars movie you have been waiting to see since Return of the Jedi. The concept of a spin-off is not new in this Universe, do you remember the 1984 TV-movie Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure seen on TV or the 1985 Ewoks: The Battle for Endor that I have no memory of? The TV-series The Clone Wars is more of a filling between two movies of the saga using the same main characters. I couldn't have missed watching the movie in theaters (in 2D as intended by the director, not in a useless quickly post-converted 3D) but I was not very optimistic about it for several reasons. First, since Disney bought the franchise, the movies have to obviously be children-friendly. Not that the original trilogy was forbidden to them but that was a limitation I would have preferred didn't exist. Then Episode 7 left me with mixed feelings, and although I like the work from Gareth Edwards, he is known from Monsters and Godzilla to show battles off-screen, which is definitely what I don't want in a Star Wars. I also read that there had been some re-shoots after principal photography of the movie, which could indicate creative differences between the director and the studio. Last but not least I didn't know what to expect from a story with limited stakes and of which we already know the ending, but movies like Titanic have proved me wrong on such a point. And in the end Rogue One did it as well. It took me about half an hour to replace exactly the movie in the saga and overcome the disturbance of watching it dubbed in French (I will watch it again in Original version as soon as possible), but then I started to fully appreciate the stakes which were not as small as I thought. I was also a bit confused with the role of some characters but came to appreciate them all in the end, in particular the "illuminated" played by Donnie Yen. I found Diego Luna at ease in his role, but Felicity Jones less charismatic, in particular less than Daisy Ridley as Rey in Episode 7.  One thing I appreciated a lot in Rogue One are the reference to A New Hope and the original trilogy, usually more subtle than the too obvious revival of the old characters in Episode 7. For example C3PO and R2D2 are only briefly seen and not for a stupid joke (oh the new trilogy...). Names of planets and people and ships can be related to the ones we know, and a few key characters can also be glimpsed for our greatest pleasure (one even linking the movie to the new trilogy). I will not mention them to avoid spoiling, except for Grand Moff Tarkin playing in A New Hope by Peter Cushing and chronologically first mentioned in the Star Wars Universe during the third season of The Clone Wars. This great actor died in 1994 but an agreement was concluded with his Estate to digitally resuscitate him in Rogue One. I find it to be a great idea, given the importance of this characters at this moment in time of the Star Wars story. Unfortunately I found his digital face a bit too stiff, giving away the trick. Contrarily to what I feared, Rogue One does contain fully blown space battles that gave me shivers and reminded me of my favorite one in Return of the Jedi, in a good way and not with the feeling of watching a copy like in Episode 7. And I was pleased with the few touches of humour present in the movie, not in the J.J. Abrams style of "you go first, I go first" I criticized about Episode 7. A quick word about the sets: the original trilogy contains classic landscapes that defined the look of the Universe, and the new trilogy contains impressive ones as well, but for some reason the tropical beach of Rogue One is maybe my second favorite one after the ice planet Hoth. I loved watching the scenes in that setting. Like to eliminate my last critics, the movie increased in intensity to reach a climax that simply made me jump from my seat in exclamation and applause. In fact I am tempted to watch Episodes 3 and 4 to better bracket the time period of Rogue One before seeing it again.
Rating: 8 /10