Ken’s Spoiler Free Review of ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’

Less than two hours ago I walked out of the premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  I felt it would be best that I review this while it's fresh in my mind, so here I am up past my bedtime to give you the SPOILER FREE scoop.  I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I can tell you how the movie feels.

It's dark.  Like more dark than the Empire Strikes Back, but at the same time the movie is full of hope.  Hope is the message driven home hard for this movie.  You can tell from the trailers, so this isn't anything new.

This is a different Star Wars movie.   It feels different.  The best way I can describe the movie is the feeling of a gritty World War II movie in the Star Wars Universe.   The battles are more militaristic than any other Star Wars movie before.  It's not a fantasy where one Jedi goes off and saves the universe.  Not yet, that's to come in "A New Hope" (that follows this in the timeline.)  This is heroes fighting selflessly for a greater cause: The Rebellion.

For a good story, you need to have good characters.  The audience needs to care about those characters.  This movie does a great job with the short amount of time to introduce an entire new cast that you care about.

The visuals in this movie may be the best of any Star Wars movie yet.  The fight scenes, the Star Destroyers, and the different worlds are stunning.

But it really comes down to the third act in this movie.  I was a bit worried at the beginning because the set up seemed to take a bit of time to get rolling, but once it does it is a freight train.  The third act just charges through delivering blow after blow without slowing down.

What Rogue One does better than ANY other Star Wars movie is make the fight against The Empire feel real and something you can relate to.

After seeing The Force Awakens, I wanted to see it again.  After seeing Rogue One, I can't wait to see it again.  Some critics have said this movie could be the best Star Wars movie yet.  I'm finding it hard not to agree.