Movie Review: Rogue One: A STAR WARS Story (2016)

Greetings, my fellow movie watchers!!

Today is a very special day! It is:

May the Fourth Be With You!

Also known as STAR WARS day!! As an avid fan I, of course, have to do something to celebrate (besides blasting the soundtrack, looking at all my merch, watching a movie, and drinking chocolate milk. [The last one is a tradition]), so I have decided to review one of the movies!

Here are links to all of my previous reviews:
IV: A New Hope (1977), V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), VI: The Return of the Jedi (1982), I: The Phantom Menace (1999), II: Attack of the Clones (2002), III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), VII: The Force Awakens (2015), VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), & IX: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Now, I've already reviewed all of the main ones, so it is time for the side stories. And you've guessed it, I'll be reviewing the greatly loved Rogue One (2016)!

If you haven't seen this and are wondering when in the series to watch it, it comes between III: Revenge of the Sith (2005) and IV: A New Hope (1977) (But don't watch them in the order the numbers are! Watch them in the order I have above) but it can be watched really anytime because it doesn't have spoilers for the others.


My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning. This is spoiler free!


Rogue One: A STAR WARS Story (2016):

Jyn Erso hasn't seen her father since he was taken away by the Empire fifteen years ago. One day the rebel alliance contacts her. They have reason to believe that her father has been working on a huge weapon called The Death Star and they need to get the plans to find a way to prevent it. She teams up with Cassian Andor, and droid K-2SO, together they find a pilot who defected from the Empire who might have a clue to lead them to her father. Will they be able to gain the upper hand against the Empire when all hope seems lost?

Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure.
Length: approx. 134 minutes.
Costumes: 8, pretty standard.
Script: 9, I don't recall any bad words.
Crew:
Directed by: Gareth Edwards.
Written by: Chris Weitz, Tony Gilroy, John Knoll, Gary Whitta, & George Lucas.
Starring:
Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso.

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.

Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe.

Wen Jiang as Baze Malbus.
Riz Ahmed as Bodhi Rook.

Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic.
Alan Tudyk as K-2SO.
Guy Henry as Governor Tarkin.
Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera.
Mads Mikkelsen as Galen Erso.
Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa.
Alistair Petrie as General Draven.
Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma.
Ben Daniels as General Merrick.
Ian McElhinney as General Dodonna.
Fares Fares as Senator Vaspar.
Jonathan Aris as Senator Jebel.
Sharon Duncan-Brewster as Senator Pamlo.
Spencer Wilding & Daniel Naprous as Darth Vader.

James Earl Jones as Darth Vader (voice).
Ingvild Deila as Princess Leia.
Anthony Daniels as C-3PO.
Valene Kane as Lyra Erso.
Michael Smiley as Dr. Evazan.
Warwick Davis as Weeteef Cyubee.
Cinematography: 6, this takes a nose dive because of the CGI. I originally didn't want to watch this movie when I learned that they used the character of Grand Moff Tarkin but because Peter Cushing is no longer with us they decided use a bunch of CGI. Now, I know that there actually is a guy there, and they projected everything onto him later, but it bothers me. Did they have to use that character? No. They could've used someone else. Other than that, it was okay.
Cinematography by: Greig Fraser.

Music: 8, when I saw this I was annoyed at how close it was to the original, but yet how far off! I just wanted it to be the same! Thinking about it now, I like that they didn't use the same, but adjusted it. After all, it isn't part of the episodes, but just a side story. The original STAR WARS score is my favorite of all time so I can be a little picky about it.
Music by: Michael Giacchino & John Williams.
Quotes: I'm going to say N/A because I really can't remember any of them.
Content: 8, there is a lot of violence with shooting, killing, and a few scary scenes.
Originality: 9, it is actually pretty original, and I am impressed that they could come up with a decent story connected to the originals, but yet be its own thing.
Good For: STAR WARS fans.
Age Range: It's rated PG-13, and I agree with that just because there is a lot of war action. Otherwise, it's totally clean so it depends on the person.

Overall Score: 8.
Bonus thoughts:

It's been a while since I saw this, but I still wanted to talk about it today. I watched this sure that I wasn't going to like it. Several things about the production bothered me: the already mentioned CGI, and the fact that they were supposed to be working on episode VIII! I also knew the whole storyline. Usually I'm really good about avoiding spoilers but I didn't on this one. It was because I was talking to a friend one time and we realized that we each love STAR WARS so I asked her, "Which one is your favorite?"
She replied, "Oh, definitely Rogue One. I couldn't believe that ------------!"
There went the ending of the movie. She had just supposed that I, like the rest of the STAR WARS fans, had seen it (but I hadn't yet, because of my small issues with it). A couple months later I was talking to some other friends about STAR WARS and they mentioned that they didn't like Rogue One. Since I already knew the ending without knowing anything else about it I asked them to tell me everything without worrying about spoilers.
A couple more months and my mom said that we should watch it. I was a bit defensive about it because people always say (I've this said to me more times than I can count),
"Rogue One is so great! It is so much better than The Last Jedi which was really disappointing."
Now, everyone has their personal preferences and favorites and least favorites (and that's awesome because otherwise it would be really boring) and if you love this movie I think that is great! But, The Last Jedi happens to be my second favorite STAR WARS. And, currently my third favorite movie of all time. So yeah. When anyone talked about how bad it was and how great Rogue One was I didn't feel like it deserved all that hype. You get tired of people hating on your favorites!
Anyway, we watched it. My mom loved it because she knew nothing about it, but I was indifferent the whole time. I didn't love it. I had heard everyone talking about how great Jyn and Cassian were, and I didn't like Cassian that much (Note, I thought that Diego Luna did a great job, just his character wasn't my favorite).

Even though I thought I knew everything, there were some surprises that were truly great, and there names are: Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbus, and Bodhi Rook.
Seriously, these guys are the best! If you haven't seen this movie, watch it just for them.


Okay, that's enough from me. Your turn! Tell me how you celebrated STAR WARS day and your thoughts on Rogue One!

Thanks for reading! May the Fourth Be With You!

MovieCritic

Movie Review: Zootopia (2016)

Welcome back!

For my last movie review this May (I don't know why I have suddenly wanted to review mysteries), I am going to do another of Disney's recent films, and by recent I mean in the 2000's. I was very skeptical about this one when it came out, but when I finally watched it I loved it. Enjoy reading my review!

My guarantee: On ALL of my reviews there are NO spoilers unless I give you warning.

Zootopia (2016):

(aka Zootropolis in some places)
"No one tells me what I can or can't be."
Judy Hopps has always wanted to be a police officer. When she finally joins the Zootopia Police Department, she is disappointed because no one will take her seriously because she is bunny! She knows that she can be helpful if they will only let her. She volunteers to take a missing mammal case that the ZPD hasn't solved in weeks. After convincing sly fox Nick Wilde to help her, they go all over Zootopia following leads. Will they find the missing otter, or will this case turn out to be much bigger than they could have imagined?
"Ma'am, I have a fake badge, I would never impede your pretend investigation."

Genre: Comedy, Mystery.

Length: approx. 106 minutes.

Costumes: 7, I mean, it is animated and they are animals, so nothing fantastic. There are a few scenes where some of the animals aren't wearing clothing.

Script: 8, they do take the name of the Lord in vain once or twice. They put a really hilarious joke in there with this line: "Life isn't some cartoon musical where you sing a song and all your insipid dreams magically come true, so let it go."
As you probably all know, "Let it Go" is the name of a song in the movie Frozen.

Crew:

Directed by: Byron Howard & Rich Moore.

Written by: Jared Bush, Jim Reardon, Josie Trinidad, Phil Johnston, & Jennifer Lee.

Starring (the voices of):
Ginnifer Goodwin as Officer Judy Hopps. "I'm not going to write 100 tickets...I'm going to write 200 tickets! Before noon!"

Jason Bateman as Nick Wilde.
Idris Elba as Chief Bogo.
Nate Torrence as Officer Benjamin Clawhauser.

Jenny Slate as Dawn Bellwether. "And I sent it, and it is done so I did do that."
Shakira as Gazelle.
Bonnie Hunt as Bonnie Hopps.
Don Lake as Stu Hopps.
J. K. Simmons as Leodore Lionheart.
Octavia Spencer as Mrs. Otterton.

Tommy Chong as Yax.
Alan Tudyk as Duke Weaselton.
Raymond S. Persi as Flash.
Maurice LaMarche as Mr. Big.
Phil Johnston as Gideon Grey.
Jesse Corti as Manchas.
Leah Latham as Fru Fru.
Della Saba voices a younger Judy Hopps.
Rich Moore as Doug. "Doug is the opposite of friendly...he's unfriendly." (Sorry, I just really wanted to say that.)

Animation: 8, (here comes the rant) you all know that I'm not a fan of digital animation, but it is okay.

Music: 8, the song "Try Everything" is great!

Music by: Michael Giacchino.

Quotes: 9:
"Real life is messy. We all have limitations. We all make mistakes. Which means, hey, glass half-full, we all have a lot in common."

Oscars won: Best Animated Feature Film.

Notes:
At one point, there is a moose news reporter on the ZNN (Zootopia New Network). They used this in versions for the United States, Italy, France, Canada, Russia, the UK, and Mexico. But, in other countries they used local animals. For example, there is a koala (Australia and New Zealand), a jaguar (Brazil), a tanuki (Japan), and a giant panda (China). Pretty cool, right?

Easter eggs: I'm not the best at spotting them, but I definitely saw one pointing to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. There are also references to other movies, like The Godfather.

Storyline: 9, there is some crude humor, but that's it!
"It's called a hustle, sweetheart."

Good For: Any mystery lover, any Disney fan.

Age Range: Disney movies are for everyone! There are some intense moments, but I can't imagine that it would be too much for anyone.

Overall Score: 8!

Bonus thoughts:

Now, to follow some advice:

"You wanna look smart, answer their question with your own question, then answer that question."

Do I like this movie? Yes, yes I do.

But, why?
I love the different messages of unity ("We cannot let fear divide us."), humility ("I'm not a hero."), and perseverance ("I like trying, actually."). Judy is so optimistic, it is catching! It also encourages each and everyone of us to: "Try to make the world a better place."


Thank you so much for reading! I hope that you all had a fantastic May, and that your June is just as wonderful! Have you seen this movie? Tell me what you think!

MovieCritic