Reviews

As I have long been a Star Wars fan, I've always been waiting for new films in a little bit of suspicion after Disney bought the franchise. And I was really happy that the first movie Disney brought us (episode 7: The Force Awakens) was inspiring in capturing the essence of star wars soul, may be even better than George Lucas's own prequels (episodes 1 to 3). But this time, with Rogue One, director Gareth Edwards along with screenplay and story writers told one of the best stories of star wars series. They told a story that truly reflects what we old fans like about the series, a story that took me to the day I went to the first movie with my father. And it was a great movie that I enjoyed with my son.

The story was in fact tense and dark. It offers some of the most notable underlying themes of original star wars such as hero's' (or heroine's) troubled relationships with fathers; losing him early, longing and hating him, and finding him, ...but losing him again. In Rogue One, Jyn Erso who is the daughter of an empire scientist (Galen Erso) who builds Death Star, adds to a row of strong female characters of Disney era. Felicity Jones takes the lead in her orphan role and brilliantly plays a beautiful and tough yet vulnerable character. Lack of trust between the characters make star wars movies dark, but this story is probably darker than others since most other characters have similar untrustworthy backgrounds. For example Jyn spent her childhood not trusting her father and turned to Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) for shelter only to be abandoned by him.

Hope is always the ultimate weapon of rebels to fight and succeed against a greater force. This gives them the reason to fight and makes star wars believable even if many unbelievable things are happening on the screen. We do not believe what we see, we want to believe that all sacrifice they have done could not be for nothing, it gotta work and it works. Like in first star wars movies, rebels find their way out of impossible situations. Their hope always wins.

The movie is tense. It connects sequence of actions with small reliefs that prepare audience for next sequence so well. As you watch, you immerse yourself into the story and really worry about the rebels. Disney made good casting choices to make the main team more colorful with addition of Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang. In his blind Chirrut Imwe role Donnie Yen brings choreographic martial arts style fighting to star wars while his ability to sense so strongly reminds us Jedis although no Jedi is in the movie.

Rogue One brings back the style of space wars of original movie, too. The white imperial star destroyers hold true to the original mock ups of George Lucas with their all-white surface without any significant touches of coloring & shading of modern CGI. Some scenes such as one in the communications tower on Scarif are direct reference to original movie. The final war scene on the tropical beaches of Scarif is one of the best war scenes in all star wars episodes and also reflects a taste of some old style Pacific war scenes of World War II movies.

The movie does very good as a prequel to episode 4. It connects to princess Leia and explains how she got the death star plans. But the true climax of the film is reached upon the charismatic entry of Darth Vader into the final battle scene. Again it was his daughter escaping unknowingly from father with something that would change the fate of galaxy with a new hope.

While we exit the theater with my son we were talking about probably similar scenes and having similar joy when I and my father had some 40 years ago. And I was thinking that one of the best stories of science fiction genre may be all about hope that is so great that can even fight Death Stars.

I have neither seen the first movie, nor read the book. So I should admit that I am an outsider to this Hunger Games hype. However, high expectations for this sequel among the fans and high rating at IMDb tempted me to watch it. The first thing I do not really get is 8.3 rating here. My ratings and IMDb ratings have never fallen that apart in recent years!

The first 1:30 hours, (ie complete duration of a regular feature film) is definitely one of the most boring fist halves I have ever seen. The story evolves but without any strategic emphasis or proofs on none of the important plots of the story. The directing was so weak that I would not understand a real uprising is baking among the districts, if president Snow had explicitly informed us about that risk previously in the opening. The Victors' Tour meeting scenes were definitely far from adequate to reflect the revolutionary atmosphere in the districts.

Jennifer Lawrence's performance is one of the good things in the movie. In fact, in some parts her lead was the only reason to stay focused. But despite her acting performance we could not get her actual view of the events. The hope she creates in the people, or what she really cares, even her indecision between two man was not properly explored. And considering this superficial character building for the lead role, I am not surprised none of the other characters had a chance to become real. Shallow characters wasted a lot of drama during the film, especially in the more intense action scenes. Director's understanding of character building is having mere close-ups on beautiful face of Katniss Everdeen.

President Snow can not escape from the fate of being a shallow character. While Snow is the symbol of the authoritarian government, his character was only partly revealed and the director misses the valuable moments with sub par dialogs between Snow and his grand daughter, or others to create a solid portrait of a man of power and loneliness.

Finally, in the second half, the action starts. Despite the quality of the cinematography even action scenes can not surround you enough. As an important example, the idea of poisonous fog is a brilliant one, but the chase between the spreading fog and Katniss and her allies is not thrilling or even believable at all.

The final is the worst part. The whole final scene rushed into a mere couple of minutes to miss and ruin many important aspects of the story. Revealing the revolutionaries, explaining the whole grand plan behind the 75th hunger game are all squeezed into 2-3 sequences in the last 5 minutes. This short and economical final is of course a choice of director Francis Lawrence but then why did he kill us by boredom of around two and a half hours?

And of course the final scene is like a teaser of a TV series for inviting the audience to the third hunger games. No Sir, movies should be complete even if there will be planned sequels. There is a start and an end to the movies, at least the ones I prefer to watch.

So, why I still gave it a 5/10. I think this very poorly directed story is indeed interesting and progressive. The Capital, suppressed and poor districts, growing feeling of injustice, police terror, authoritarian and corrupt government and dictator Snow. All make up a good setting for a dystopian yet realistic sci-fi atmosphere. But director trivializes this brilliant story. Still Jennifer Lawrence leads the movie with her strong character. Cinematography is good, despite lacking in drama especially in action scenes. So the story would have really made it big in the big screen. But in the hands of Francis Lawrence, it became a boring and long sci-fi flick.

While I was leaving the theater, I was still trying to understand why it got 8.3 from IMDb. Fans?