Same Old ‘Wars’

‘ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY’ TRAILER REVIEW

Remember in the original Star Wars trilogy when Princess Leia hides the plans to the Death Star? Yeah, we didn’t either; that’s probably something only die-hard fans would recall. But anyway, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is the behind-the-scenes story of how a group of Rebellion soldiers led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) stole those plans. We’re not really sure how we feel about this. On the one hand, this is kind of exciting just because it’s Star Wars; but on the other hand, it feels a bit redundant. We wonder whether this is a necessary installment in the series or just more of the same. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens in wide release Dec. 16.

JAIMIE: I love Star Wars, but I don’t feel the need to see Rogue One. Like, there are too many storylines being thrown at us that all have to do with the Galactic Empire, and my brain can only handle so much at once. It’s the same reason why I don’t give two craps about the Han Solo movie they’re going to be putting out, too.

NICOLE: I guess I’m not a diehard fan, so this doesn’t seem too appealing to me. Maybe it’s also because only a year separates this one and The Force Awakens. But I guess the near rapid-release that they’re going for is more desirable than letting the anticipation build up (or possibly die).

CHRISTINA: I think for people who are not so up-to-date on Star Wars, this could be a little confusing. I didn’t understand what the plot actually was — or rather, how it fit into the overall Star Wars stories — until someone explained it to me. I would see this, but I hope that it’s not too filled with references from the series that I don’t understand.

PAIGE: I was initially enthused about the idea of Rogue One, but the more I think about it, the less excited I feel. Why are we trying to fill in the pages of history like this? Does it really matter how we got the plans for the Death Star? Was the Rebellion that fundamentally interesting a concept that it deserves its own two-hour, big-budget film? You know what I want to know more about? Why the Empire was so evil. What did they do? Did they go around oppressing people? Were there mass murders (outside of Alderaan)? High taxes? We don’t know. We just got told they were evil, and that’s that. Those are the kinds of stories that would be interesting. This just feels … redundant.

JAIMIE: I agree, everything about it feels redundant. Minus Mads Mikkelsen. Mads can be in whatever movie he likes however many times playing whoever the hell he wants.

CHRISTINA: I’m pretty stoked about the cast overall. I like Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn. And it’s great to see Diego Luna in something new — where has he been? And Riz Ahmed was great in The Night Of and Nightcrawler. Although I am like 99 percent sure he is going to die here, continuing his trend of very unfortunate things happening to his characters.

PAIGE: You know why there are barely any women and minorities in Star Wars? Because they all died in Rogue One. Lest we forget our history, Obi-Wan Kenobi was Princess Leia’s only hope … because the Rebellion was tanking. So all these lovely, brave minority characters are 100 percent going to eat dirt sandwiches. Even if they survive the movie, we can all safely rest assured they went on to be completely nondescript and unimportant in Star Wars history.