Note: Rogue One spoilers will be discussed in full!
That moment when I walked into the theater knowing I was about to see a new Star Wars movie… few theater experiences give me chills like these moments. Rogue One made me laugh, made me cry, made me sit enraptured in my seat, theater snacks forgotten, until the end of the film. Chirrut particularly appealed to me as a character, and his death was extremely impactful, as were Jyn’s and Cassian’s death, in each others’ arms. Dang, I was teary-eyed for essentially the last act of the film.
As a bit of a fan of Star Wars now that Rogue One is finally available on Blu-ray I wanted to see it in our home theater, and I wanted especially to check out some of the special features that came with it. Does it have the same impact as when I saw it over and over again in theaters? Do the special features give us enough to be satisfied with? Was the visual and audio quality good? My short review would be yes, the blu-ray is definitely worth it, but there were a few disappointing elements.
This version had the following features:
- A Rogue Idea
- Jyn: the Rebel
- Cassian: the Spy
- K-2SO: the Droid
- Baze and Chirrut: Guardians of the Whills
- Bodhi and Saw: the Pilot & the Revolutionary
- The Empire
- Visions of Hope: the Look of Rogue One
- The Princess and the Governor
- Epilogue: The Story Continues
Pros:
- The quality alone is worth the purchase. Everyone knows Star Wars fans own all the films in some format or other (if not multiple formats). This particular format for Rogue One suits it. The battles, the sound and music, the beach, the space visuals… all these benefit and are enhanced by the format.
- The special features are straight forward and easily digested, included on a separate disk.
- The film itself is included in a no frills disk with no ads, etc., which I think is pretty nice. When I put a Star Wars film on, I’m not there to watch all the ads and trailers.
- All of the features mentioned above do a good job of giving us a base level of information about the topics discussed. They provide great overviews, and some new information for the viewer, especially if you didn’t follow the film too closely during production and following its release.
Cons:
- While some may appreciate that the features didn’t take too much time (less than two hours), I really would want a lot more from a film release with ‘features’ like this, especially a saga film that everyone knew would be watched by a significant portion of the world’s population. Simply put, there just isn’t enough. Oh for the days when the Return of the King special edition came out and had nearly TWELVE hours of bonus content!
- The features are very… clean. That may seem odd to say, but bear with me for a minute (which you should have because those features went by very quickly). No controversy is discussed, no cut scenes are shown, no discussion about the reshoots…. All of these things, the nitty gritty and dirty process of making a film, are missing. Instead, this reminds me of promos for the film. This is fine, because it is indeed a film with promoting, and I love any information about films I love. But Disney I promise that if you show some things that went wrong or talk about reshoots I won’t judge! I just like knowing more about the film making process itself… and the ‘what ifs’ of former story ideas and abandoned deleted scenes.
Conclusion: Buy the blu-ray! You won’t regret the pristine quality of this in your home theater! The visuals and sounds of any Star Wars movie deserve to be experienced in formats that can best show them off. But, please oh Great Mouse, would you mind giving us another edition with more features in the future? We love Star Wars, and we loved Rogue One, and the more the better.
