Review Roundup: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first good Star Wars prequel

This week will mark the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first Star Wars film to not be a part of the main story with Luke Skywalker, Rey, and the band of heroes we know and love. The film is getting high praise from many reviewers but a few others aren't buying into the hype and see it as a firework show of special effects.

The movie has a strong 84% overall rating on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing this with 54 positive and 10 negative reviews. That's 8% lower than 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens which weighed in at an incredible 92% overall rating. You can view a number of postive and negative excerpts from reviews of the highly anticipated film below.

The Hollywood Reporter

"Rogue One definitely puts the war back into Star Wars. It may call itself rogue, but this first stand-alonefeature in the series officially unconnected with any of the previous entries fits comfortably in the universe George Lucas birthed 40 years ago. Loaded with more battle action than any of its seven predecessors, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story plays like a set-up for the events in the 1977 original and, for the most part, does so quite entertainingly.

So this new entry in the series, stand-alone or not, earns solid middle-to-upper-middle standing in the overall franchise scheme of things. Whether we ever see any of these new characters again remains an open question; some would be welcome, others will not be missed. What fans will get here is loads of action, great effects, good comic relief, stunning locations (Iceland, Jordan and the Maldives) and some intriguing early glimpses of the Galactic Empire as it begins to flex its inter-galactic power."

No score

Forbes

"If not for the fact that I still love Revenge of the Sith, I’d be able to argue that Gareth Edwards' Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the best Star Wars movie in 33 years. This promising spin-off/prequel is absolutely better than The Force Awakens. It still relies on good/distinctive actors and fan-service to paper over thin characters and klutzy plotting. It banks on visual and narrative callbacks to elicit nostalgia-driven approval, and it undercuts its own story in order to make the final product play more like a conventional Star Wars film.

Rogue One is hampered by the past, but not undone by it, and Gareth Edwards again proves himself to be a master of big-scale visuals that emphasize “scale.” Mendelsohn almost singlehandedly grounds the film while being a surprisingly sympathetic heartless villain. Rest assured, he is going to inspire erotic fan fiction among the Snape-loving Harry Potter nerds. And yeah, the “Rebellions are built on hope!” stuff is obviously going to resonate right now. Rogue One is a step in the right direction, and it ends on a ridiculously high note. Most importantly, it provides hope (HOPE!) for a Star Wars franchise less beholden on nostalgia and fan service and more willing to cinematically and narratively embrace its own unique destiny."

6/10

The Guardian

"Rogue One doesn’t really go rogue at any stage, and it isn’t a pop culture event like The Force Awakens, in whose slipstream this appears; part of its charm resides in the eerie, almost dreamlike effect of continually producing familiar elements, reshuffled and reconfigured, a reaching back to the past and hinting at a preordained future. There are some truly spectacular cameos from much-loved personae, involving next-level digital effects — almost creepily exact, so that watching feels at various stages like going into a time machine, back to the 80s and 70s.

If there is anything new in Rogue One, it is that there is much more of an emphasis on the Death Star’s nuclear effect. In other films, we’ve seen this weapon blow up planets, and the calamity was almost abstract; now a prototype is blowing up cities. The implied comparison arguably makes light of a serious subject, but there is a beady-eyed fervency with which Rogue One deploys this catastrophe, and portrays the sacrifice needed to prevent it. Its variations on a theme are muscular and adroit. This is another really entertaining fantasy with fan-fiction energy and attack."

4/5

The Wrap

"“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is for the fans, all right, but in that expression’s worst way. Unless you’re thrilled by the idea of 133 minutes of sideways mentions, shout-outs and straight-up references to the original “Star Wars” (or “Episode IV: A New Hope,” for those born after 1977), there’s not nearly enough excitement going on here, much less character, plot or story. A direct prequel to “A New Hope” — it’s the story of how those blueprints for the Death Star got snuck out and into the hands of the Rebel Alliance — this is less a movie than it is an epic of fan-fiction, laden with “Easter eggs” that super-devotees can congratulate themselves for finding.

Ultimately, however, “Rogue One” seems to want nothing more than for the audience to pat itself on the back because they know what Yavin 4 is: It’s a fun game to play at Comic-Con, but it doesn’t make for much of a movie."

No score

IGN

"Rogue One is a movie crammed with fan service, but when fan service is done this well, there’s little to complain about and much to adore. The film offers a remarkable recreation of the original Star Wars’ world, while exploring this universe from a different, edgier perspective than is the norm. It also expertly delivers thrills, tension and genuine stakes, despite the audience's prior knowledge that the movie’s central mission will be a successful one. Gareth Edwards has shown, with the first “Star Wars Story,” that these spinoffs can have plenty of life in them, adding even more excitement to Star Wars’ huge modern resurgence."

9/10

Metro

"It takes a good while to realize this is a con. Or perhaps everyone gave up. But you can’t blame the big whiff that is “Rogue One” on those breathlessly reported and scary-sounding reshoots — the ones Disney ordered to make a tough and grim space war film more “Star Wars”-y. It’s not the dearth of originality that plagues every pore of “Rogue One,” it’s the lack of inspiration. Clumsily plotted and often flat-out stupid — halfway through, a key MacGuffin is lost simply because someone forgot to grab it, which is just lazy —  “Rogue One” boasts thin characters played by great actors scampering about far too many planets with names that sound like obscure venereal diseases. It’s a “Star Wars” knockoff that happens to look a lot like a “Star Wars” movie.

We’re not allowed — legally, we think — to divulge much of the plot. That’s fine, because it quickly becomes no more than a bunch of stuff happening, as is the style of the time. Things don’t start off so bleak. A harrowing opener introduces us to young Jyn Erso, who will grow up to be played by talented Oscar-nominee Felicity Jones. Before that, she has to watch as her mother is killed by some fascist Imperial stooge (Ben Mendelsohn), who then kidnaps her scientist father (Mads Mikkelsen) to create the Death Star. Actually, the scene isn’t that harrowing. It ticks off all the boxes — dead mom, despairing father, traumatized kid — but as directed it’s curiously flat, lacking the life and humanity of “The Force Awakens.” Or, for that matter, of the 2014 “Godzilla.”

2/5

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story releases December 16th, 2016.