Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Rogue One is the tale of the group of people who were able to steal the plans for the Death Star from the empire. Starting with the engineer Galen Erso trying to protect his family from being captured by the empire while they try to convince him to build the design a weapon of mass destruction. The focus then switches to his daughter, Jyn Erso.

Jyn’s story consists of a mysterious past leading to being in an Empire prison camp. The Rebellion then captures her from the camp due to her connection with her father and the super weapon he is making for the Empire.
There she meets Cassian Andor, a rebel captain with an uncanny sense for survival, and his robotic companion, K-2SO. They are sent on a mission to find out about the super weapon being made from a pilot who defected from the Empire.
Through a series of many events and meeting new people who tag along with them for the adventure they make an attempt at attacking the Empire’s storage planet in an attempt to steal the plans for the Death Star to find the weakness Galen had made into it.
Although the story is there and they had the potential for an amazing movie Rogue One falls flat on its face. It was not an issue of acting, but rather an issue of timing.
They tried to show an entire story arc of characters in only one movie and it just was not enough to make you truly become invested into the characters. So when all of the characters eventually die, you do not really feel anything. This is because you have known the characters for all of an hour and a half. Another problem with the movie is that if you have not watched the entire first trilogy of Star Wars you do not truly know the weight of the actions taken in Rogue One to retrieve the plans for the Death Star.
One of the appeals of this movie is that it shows a side of the war we had never seen before. It shows a war without the Jedi and the Force. It gives the movie a more human feel and makes the characters more relatable.
It also made the battle scenes more exciting and fun to watch. It was less about one person dominating the battlefield and more about the collective groups fighting.
The special effects were amazing and led to many beautiful scenes and imagery. The CGI did a good job of making the space battle seem real which has been a struggle of the previous films.
In essence the movie was not bad, but it had many glaring flaws. These flaws come about when compared to the expectations that this movie had before its initial release. Despite this I would say it’s worth a 6/10.

Doctor Strange

In recent years Marvel has put its mark onto the movie industry and made superhero movies a staple of the theater. This time around they explored a lesser known Marvel hero, Doctor Strange.
Stephen Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a well known surgeon who, due to distracted driving, gets into a car wreck that leaves his hands with nerve damage. This leads to him no longer being able to practice and leaves him to live without a calling in life.
In the search for a fix, he finds himself in Kathmandu, Nepal. There he comes into the company of sorcerers who begin to teach him their ways.
Initially his progress is slow, but eventually he starts to excel beyond the others and eventually learns about the recent betrayal that took place in the sanctuary.
He spends the rest of the movie defending the sanctuaries from the traitors and Dormammu of the Dark Dimension, a place where time does not exist and they could live forever.
The movie features many trippy scenes and awe inspiring special effects. The fight sequences do not disappoint and the story is fairly well set.
Where this movie fails is the acting. Everyone except Benedict Cumberbatch seemed to have given a performance that just wanted to make me cringe.
Cringey moments aside the movie overall was not bad and it was very enjoyable with moments of good comedy and an Avengers tie in with Chris Hemsworth appearing as Thor in the after credits scene. If I had to put a numeric value to art I’d give Doctor Strange a solid 8/10.