Thursday, December 22, 2016

ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

By JOHN STEINMANN

JOHN STEINMANN FOR WIZARD WEEKLY

Friday, December 16th was the official launch of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  Star Wars fans have been hungry for another movie since the release of the last film, The Force Awakens, nearly a year ago in December of 2015.  The new movie does not follow the sequence of the original story line, but rather is a movie that is set between Episode III and Episode IV.  Rogue One does not feature many main characters that fans are traditionally used to seeing except for a few that were reanimated using computer generated imagery (CGI).  Instead, the movie, stars the Rebellion and how they stole the plans to the Death Star.  This was a question that people have been wondering for decades and, thanks to this new installation to the Star Wars series, fans finally know how it was done. 

The main character in Rogue One is Jyn Erso, the daughter of Galen Erso.  Galen is the scientist that was forced to create the plans to the Death Star against his will.  Galen, however, purposely made a flaw in the structure of the Death Star since he disagreed with the Empire, making it possible to destroy the entire space station from an opening in the exterior.  Different from all other Star Wars episodes, since Rogue One is not an episode, the film does not utilize the famous phrase, “In a galaxy far, far away.”  This fact, along with the absence of the “known world wide” opening theme music, may have upset some of the fans.  The story line is amazing and, without giving away any spoilers, there were many twists that appeared in the movie.  The ending scene, which was perhaps the best part of the movie, leads perfectly into Episode IV, A New Hope. 

Now back to the aforementioned CGI of several of the characters, including the character that made a return in Rogue One.  There were two CGI reanimations; one of the Imperial officer, Grand Moff Tarkin, and one of the famous young Princess Leia.  It was rumored before the movie was released that this may be included, but most did not think it would turn out as well as it did. Technology is so far advanced that the creators were able to perform a digital resurrection of Tarkin that was so real it was spine tingling.  There were several other characters included that made a reappearance such as Darth Vader and Bail Organa.  While they played small parts and were not in many scenes, they added crucial elements to the movie. 


If you are a Star Wars fan or if you just feel like trying a new genre of movie, go out and get your tickets today.  It will be well worth your money.

No comments:

Post a Comment