Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Andere Star Wars. Und ausgezeichnet! Eine mutige, aber hervorragende Besetzung, oft mit neuen Gesichtern, insbesondere bei den Hauptfiguren, welche keine auserwählten Jedis sind, sondern gewöhnliche Sterbliche. Ihr Schicksal in der Saga ist es eine, aber umso wichtigere Aufgabe zu erfüllen. Der Verlauf ist unheimlich intensiv und hat eine vielfältige und fantastische Action. Schöne Schauplätze mit einem kreativen Design, an denen sich die bombastische Handlung abspielt (die riesigen ATATs auf dem Malediven-"Atoll“ sind ein wahr gewordener Kindertraum). Gelungene Episoden von Kultfiguren aus SW mit einer Pointe und einer Verbindung zu der ersten Trilogie. Und schließlich ein spannendes und dramatisches Gewirr von vielen Figuren, von denen jede wichtig ist und deren Taten die Pfeiler der ersten Trilogie definieren. Das haben Menschen geschrieben, die Star Wars einfach lieben. Aber gleichzeitig können sie auch aus dramaturgischer Sicht mit den Figuren in anderen Grenzen arbeiten als nur in den märchenhaften. Sie klauen die SW-Mythologie nicht, sondern ergänzen sie und entwickeln sie. Bravo! (15.12.2016)

It took a long 33 years, but we finally got it. After Episode 6, the best film in the Star Wars universe. It doesn't feel contrived, it doesn't tell the story through bridges for morons, and it treats the main and episodic characters in a brash and bleak way, like in a real war. The beginning is perhaps too slow (my only complaint), but otherwise it's pure fan joy. I'd love to have a beer with Gareth Edwards, not only is he one of the few to understand the poetry of the original Japanese Godzilla films, but his rendition of Star Wars doesn't look like a cheesy coloring book either. Give him Star Trek, too! (21.12.2016)

The talk of dirty war action is just ruin or unfulfilled wishful thinking, where good characters are absent, or even unbearably obnoxious, giving the impression that whether it's the overacting or if it was built this badly from the start, it's hard to keep a film on such wobbly legs that you know how it's going to turn out. Therefore, any refreshment is welcome, rather than watching a generic blockbuster, of which you have a dozen a year, and it would have been enough to throw away 120 minutes and stick the last fifteen as a prologue to Episode IV. This is because few films this year have had as strong a highlight as the one when the red lightsaber lights up in the shadows. (16.12.2016)

I tried hard to think about how to write this review so as not to spoil the movie. Let me put it this way, Rogue One has a great premise and on top of that, it is shot beautifully. Especially the final war scene is possibly the best war scene I have ever seen in the world of Star Wars. The problem, however, is that Felicity Jones looked unbelievably beautiful in the poster but in fact, her role was one of the worst roles in any huge blockbuster in the last couple of years. Not only did she look as if somebody ate her breakfast, but she also looked offended and conceited in every scene, like a little baby. Maybe she only had a swollen face at the time, but it didn’t improve the final impression. I was really looking forward to her, but in the end, her fed-up approach to the role disappointed me terribly. And similarly, Diego Luna didn’t fit the second main character at all in my eyes. And when the two main actors from the blockbuster from the Star Wars universe don’t sit well with you, it is quite a problem. Fortunately, the set of supporting characters, who were a pleasure to watch, salvaged it and slightly improved the overall impression of the movie. Too bad, I was very disappointed. I haven’t experienced such a disappointing blockbuster in many years. Well, what can you do, maybe the casting of the lead roles will be better next time? (28.06.2017)

Star Wars for me has always been a saga based on adventure, laughable naivety, likable heroes, and fairly one-dimensional but ultimately fun characters. Rogue One has none of that. Nothing against trying to make a darker story, but the attempts to turn the rebels into sort of bastards who aren't afraid to slaughter innocents because "the ends justify the means" are more distracting than interesting, as are all the other attempts at a grittier atmosphere and the efforts to make this sci-fi flick into a war movie. Although it could work, it would just have to have more interesting characters that we know something about. Not two Asians who are teamed up with the heroes because they happened to meet in the city and became best buddies during a scene that probably ended up in the editing room. No one in the bunch is the least bit interesting, failing to evoke any emotion and just being there, either pretending to be a blind halfling or a fat lover of big guns, and that's where all ends. Nobody is funny, nobody is cool, nobody is scary, they're just there, flying from planet to planet and you're supposed to root for them because the director said so. And the more the minutes tick by, the more tedious and annoying the whole thing gets. Fortunately, Rogue One looks great and pulls a truly epic space carnage out of its sleeve in its last half hour, so in the end I left the cinema not satisfied, but certainly not angry – although I did feel more and more embarrassed with each successive reference to Episodes 4 to 6. A moderately entertaining film and a pretty big step off for the entire saga. I hope it's the last one. (15.05.2017)

Das Star Wars-Universum hat noch nie so leer, zweidimensional und nutzlos ausgesehen. Ein Film, der zwei Sätze aus dem Epilog Einer neuen Hoffnung beinhaltet und dessen Rolle vollends mechanisch fungiert, ohne Begeisterung, ohne aufregende Gestalten, jedoch mitsamt vieler rigider Sätze oder Abkürzungen. Wir stoßen hier auf Einweghelden, auf Helden ohne Vergangenheit und Zukunft. Sofern dies auf dem Papier wie ein guter Ausgangspunkt für einen Kriegsfilm aussieht, wird hieraus auf der Leinwand ein inkohärenter Hermafrodit, wobei es bis hin zu physischem Unbehagen führt, diesen zu verfolgen. Dies gilt ebenso für die gemessen am Jahr 2016 unglaublich ekelhaft und unglaubwürdig anmutende digitale Auferstehung zweier Charaktere der ursprünglichen Trilogie. Episode VII - Das Erwachen der Macht hat somit aufgezeigt, dass alte Klischees neues Leben beinhalten können. Rogue One ist die Leiche, welche die beste sowie wohl frostigste Szene für die letzten fünf Minuten bewahrt. Bis dato sehen wir die Zusammenstöße watender und schlecht dargelegter Charaktere im All, welche trotz der Sprünge von einer Stelle zur anderen eher an irgendein beengendes Wohnzimmer erinnern. Enttäuschung galaktischen Ausmaßes, daran gibt´s keine Zweifel. P.S.: Plus-Punkte für die Wiederbelebung Forest Whitakers aus Battlefield Earth – Kampf um die Erde. Dies ist in der Tat eine Meisterleistung für Rezessionsliebhaber. Edit: Angesichts der diesjährigen Weihnachtskonkurrenz bleibt mir nichts anderes übrig, als einen dritten Stern hinzufügen. Hierbei geht´s ums´ gleiche, wie bei Assassin's Creed und die Passengers haben sich das einfach nicht verdient. (14.12.2016)

More mature? Don't let it mess with you, it´s only dirtier and free of childish staff. It is true that the first hour is largely redundant and the movie would probably do without it. There is also no denying that describing characters as one-dimensional means adding one dimension to them. On the other hand, this has always been the case with Star Wars. You can recognize scenes that were shot several times and that's not good. And what they did to poor Cushing will make you turn in the grave for more than a decade. At the same time, however, the final half hour has unprecedented zest for this series, that it goes its own way and that Edwards works impressively with space and scale (at least in Imax, it works great in this respect). Yes, it's nothing more than intense disposable blockbuster. However, it is a pretty successful disposable blockbuster that does not try to be anything else which is nice, not in terms of events let alone in terms of not pop culture idol like other self-centered movies of this universe. PS: Although Giacchin's accompaniment is not as good quality or grateful/suitable for independent listening as Williams's, it is surprisingly better, as it does not draw attention to itself and, in fact, only serves the film. (15.12.2016)

The nostalgia for Star Wars: A New Hope doesn't work, and if anything, Rogue One proves only that I need to experience Star Wars with Skywalker, Solo, Kenobi, and others in order to enjoy them. Just the fact that the least important Vader steals the best scene for himself shows that the screenplay is losing in terms of anchoring new characters. I enjoyed K-2SO and Chirrut, but the whole group too willingly and conveniently marches into the role of some magnificent seven, which doesn't make much sense for some of them. If it wasn't for the action orgy in the last act, I would have left the cinema severely disappointed. I expected a much tighter experience, but looking back on the whole story, it could hardly have turned out otherwise. (19.12.2016)

Edwards filmed this exactly to my taste. A Star Wars fans’ dream come true. Nothing more, nothing less. It doesn’t change anything about the saga; these sideline events aren’t vital to the big story, they “just" expand on it. Rogue One offers a great deal of action and exceptionally (with such little room to develop) layered characters, headed by a cruelly sincere robot. Felicity Jones je excellent, but everyone in the team is indispensible for final result, which forms a founding pillar of Star Wars. Mendelsohn is a dignified baddy. An ambitious villain who is disgusted at the inefficiency of his imperial colleagues and tries to find support in Vader. The fairytale atmosphere is replaced with semi-documentary wartime confusion and excellent action sequences, and the only smear on its beauty are the two digital faces. The demonstrations of power by the Death Star were much more horrific than in the original trilogy (the fifty megaton Tsar Hadra) and if this part of Star Wars had any purpose, it was this demonstration of the Empire’s newly attained power. A more than dignified farewell to Darth Vader. (14.12.2016)

Something is wrong if you have to wait 131 minutes for the first great scene in a film that is 133 minutes long. This film is not made out of love and fondness for Star Wars, it's made for people who will go to see it out of love and fondness for Star Wars, because any billion in profit is good. A woefully ordinary and completely useless film that doesn't fit in with either the old or the new episodes. (16.12.2016)

Mit diesem Film habe ich kein einziges Problem. Von den anderen Filmen unterscheidet er sich zwar durch eine düstere Stimmung, die stellenweise von großartigen Aufnahmen und dem originellen Milieu hervorgezaubert wird, es sind aber immer noch Star Wars mit allem Drum und Dran. Abenteuerlich, mit interessanten Held*innen, einer übersichtlichen Handlung (es ist mir wirklich egal, dass sich die Zuschauer*innen, die sich nicht auskennen, VIELLEICHT nicht ganz zurechtfinden werden), dankbarem Humor (von dem es aber nicht überflüssig zu viel gibt) und mit dem absolut tollen Schuft Orson Krennic. Es macht eigentlich keinen Sinn, die Tricks zu loben. Ich möchte aber hervorheben, auf welch eine sympathische Art und Weise sie der digitalen Rückkehr von manchen Figuren geholfen haben, über die ich mich gefreut habe (eigentlich betrifft das nicht nur die digitalen Figuren; ich denke jetzt an das Paar aus der Bar in Mos Eisley, das diesmal in der Stadt Jedha bummelt). Die Regie ist super (der Western-Anfang!). Der Abschlusskampf und alles, was danach kommt, gehören zu dem Besten überhaupt, was man in Star Wars sehen konnte. Die Musik von Michael Giacchino... Es ist bewundernswert, was er in einem Monat (auch dank sechs oder acht Orchesterkomponisten) komponiert hat. Die Musik ist wirklich schön. Trotzdem würde es mich interessieren, wie ein Soundtrack von Desplat ausgesehen hätte. (16.12.2016)

A full-fledged interlude in the most massive cinematic universe that completely eschews George Lucas's intergalactic soap opera and doesn't even follow its predecessors in the stylistic layout of its scenes, but by the standards of the quality of the script itself, all of the technical and narrative choices are nearly superb. From the actors portraying not very fleshed out characters to the hugely impressive locations to the coldness and increased authenticity of the action sequences when compared to other instalments. We're not watching icons of the silver screen, we're watching authentic and very likeable characters fight against a seemingly invincible enemy, and in the final battle scenes we feel for them and worry about them – and when the undeniable icon, Darth Vader, does appear as expected, his moments are so wonderfully rendered and nostalgic that you could almost shit yourself with excitement (his battle scene is one of the best moments of the entire series). I expected from Edwards perhaps a little more atmospheric action, but otherwise he handled such miniature events in the scope of two hours really impressively, with a considerable amount of fatality and, most importantly, innovation, and once again showed that he is a master of the process of "evil is most terrifying when it is not too visible" (Godzilla last year, now Vader). Plus the excellent music, Williams can retire in peace. (19.12.2016)

Ich mochte die Idee, einen Film zu machen, der Parallelen zur Haupthandlung von Star Wars aufweist, weil ich von Zeit zu Zeit gerne einen Blick in die Galaxis werfe, auch wenn ich kein eingefleischter Fan bin. Trotz eines langsameren Starts bietet Rogue One eine ähnlich rasante Fahrt wie die vorherigen Teile, wobei alles in der letzten halben Stunde in einem atemberaubenden Finale eskaliert. Ich muss sagen, dass mich das etwas unkonventionelle Ende in amerikanischen Filmen durchaus fasziniert hat. Alles in allem ein guter Beitrag, der sich perfekt als Appetitanreger für die Wartezeit auf den nächsten Star-Wars-Filme eignet und gleichzeitig schöne Verbindungen zur vierten Episode herstellt. (14.01.2017)

I’m giving the film two stars, but even then, I think I’m overrating it. It’s practically just for the costumes, which match the original trilogy, and for the characters of Governor Tarkin and Princess Leia, who were very faithful to the originals. The rest was a disaster that deserves a “Boo!”. Apparently, a lame script wasn’t enough for the filmmakers, so they poured in barrels of pathos, and even a blind kung fu hero appears as the proverbial nail in the coffin. I think such endeavors should be abandoned for the sake of humanity. (11.06.2017)