I grew up watching Star Wars, as many of us did. It holds a special place in my heart and has "since [I was] a small boy."We all have opinions on the original trilogy, the prequels, and the sequels, and I get that.But the original trilogy is still, obviously, the most "pure" vision from Lucas about what Star Wars is supposed to be. And one of the things I always have enjoyed about Star Wars is the *wars* (battles) among the stars (aka, space battles).Anyways, all of that to say:Rogue One, objectively, captures SO much of the original vision and story behind the original trilogy.A core theme of the OT was the desperation of the Rebel Alliance and the fact that they were a scrappy, rag-tag band of people united for a single cause. They scraped by and cobbled together what they could to fight. Rogue One NAILS this. It's literally about a rag-tag mini band within the Rebellion struggling to make ends meet and gather intel to defeat an otherwise insurmountable obstacle (the Empire).We see this same theme explored in the scenes with the Rebellion in general, too. The leadership can't all agree; some members (Raddus) act without the approval of others. There are conflicting missions (Andor's secret mission to assassinate Galen, choosing to defy those orders). The hit-and-run attack on Eadu by the Rebels. Saw's faction on Jedha. The strike team on Scarif.We see SO much scale. Honestly I thought Lucas did a great job in the OT of showing scale, but I felt like with modern graphics and CGI, we really got an incredible sense of scale with the Death Star, planets, Star Destroyers, etc. (We also got some great scale shots in Episode III, but my focus here is on the OT). This is part of what makes Star Wars Star Wars. The sense of hugeness and expanse. I think it's also why some of the newer shows that basically stick to Tatooine fall a little flat for some: it lacks a sense of scale. It's hard to feel you're in the Star Wars universe.The space battle is INCREDIBLE. I think it rivals Episode 6 and Episode 3 in terms of overall quality. It also hits the "scale" goal too. But the quality and intricacies are phenomenal. The desperate tactics also really made it feel like "Rebellion." They literally used a frigate to ram a stationary Star Destroyer into a shield gate to get access to the planet. That is not tactics you would ever see the Empire using. I also think it's hard to have Star Wars without truly good space battles.Darth Vader. I don't really need to say more about that.Rogue One, imo, does a better job than most of the original and prequel trilogies at showing a sense of grief, loss, and emotion with Jyn's whole arc with her father: she goes from feeling abandoned and assuming he's evil, to finding out he's alive and a secret spy, to him dying in her arms minutes after she finds him again. That's HEARTBREAKING---and I am here for absolutely every second of it. I don't think another Star Wars movie has made me cry.John Williams didn't compose the score, but Michael Giacchino knocks the soundtrack out of the park. I don't think I've enjoyed any other Star Wars soundtrack this much besides the OT and PT, and a few of the Mandalorian themes. Every part of the score feels SO perfect.People criticize it for having weaker character development in that all the characters we are introduced to during the movie and then die so we get minimal background. But I feel like for the time we get with each of them, they did pretty well. By contrast, Boba Fett (for example), who they had a whole show about, felt like he got less character development (the Tusken Raider scenes I thought were building up to that, but honestly they didn't pull a lot from that into who he is as a person, imo).I have personal issues with basically all of the sequels and some of the new shows, and I know some will agree and others will disagree. But I think it's hard to deny that Rogue One captures the overall feel and vibe of what Star Wars was originally all about at a level that's been difficult for Disney to match to date.I think I've genuinely re-watched Rogue One over 50 times since it came out. via /r/StarWars https://ift.tt/Q07xLVJ
