Next “Star Wars” film hits theaters this weekend
The Rebellion rises again and intends to steal plans for the infamous Death Star in the latest film in the “Star Wars” saga, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in theaters this weekend.
In this film, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones, “Inferno” and “The Theory of Everything”), who is a Rebellion soldier and criminal, is charged with the mission of stealing plans for the Death Star.
Along the way, she is helped by other rebels, non-allied forces and a swordsman.
Other characters in the film include Cassian Andor (Diego Luna, “Milk” and “The Terminal”), K-2SO (Alan Tudyk, “I,Robot” and “Serenity”) and Chirrut Îmwe (Donnie Yen, “Ip Man” and “Blade II”).
Gareth Edwards, the director of the film, cites George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as his biggest influences.
At a special press conference held for the media last week, according to SlashFilm.com, Edwards explained how “Rogue One” was different from other “Star Wars” films.
Jacob Hall of slashfilm.com wrote, “When we started this whole process, one of the things Kathy (Kathleen Kennedy, Lucasfilm president) would be asking the whole time was ‘How is this going to be different? We need to differentiate ourselves from the saga.’ We started playing around and experimenting and one of the things we did was we took real war photography like photographs from Vietnam and World War II and the Gulf and we used (Photoshop) and put Rebel helmets on the soldiers and Rebel guns and some X-wings in the background instead of fighter jets. So we looked at this stuff and it was really engaging. Everyone who came and looked around the building and we showed them things and they’d get to these images and they’d go, ‘Oh my God, wow. I really want to see that film.’ The studio loved it, and everybody loved it, and they’d say just go make that. That’s kind of what we went off and did.”
Critics were also treated to a 28 minute preview of the film,
Mostly reviews of the snippet of the film that was shown have been positive.
“Kids are going to love it but ‘Rogue One’ seems to be aiming squarely at kidults. The film has a gritty look, one that is more reminiscent of a war film than a polished sci-fi epic. The action is also visceral and uncompromising, particularly in scenes where Andor kills an informant and rebels attack a squad of Stormtroppers. Edwards shoots the scenes up close, letting us hear the bones crunch,” wrote Mark Daniell of the Toronto Sun.
The film is rated PG-13 for extended sequences of sci-fi violence and action.
Other films in theaters this weekend include:
n “Neruda” starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Gnecco and Alfredo Castro and directed by Pablo Larraín in this biographic drama about an inspector who is searching for Nobel Prize poet, Pablo Neruda who joined the Communist Party in the 1940s and is now a fugitive in his country.
The film is rated R for sexuality/nudity and some language.
n “Solace” starring Anthony Hopkins, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Abbie Cornish and directed by Afonso Poyart in this crime drama about a psychic and the FBI joining forces to hunt a serial killer.
The film is rated R for violence and bloody images throughout, sexuality, nudity and language.
N “Collateral Beauty” starring Will Smith, Edward Norton and Kate Winslet and directed by David Frankel in this dramatic film about a man, who is suffering after a tragedy, who writes letters to Love, Time and Death. He receives unexpected answers and begins to see the world in a different light.
The film is rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language.