Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

From the opening "crawl" of Star Wars Episode IV:

"Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire. 

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet."

Essentially, George Lucas & Co. wanted to extend the theatrical Star Wars saga and saw fit to make a movie out of the success of the aforementioned rebel spies. It's every bit the "Star Wars Episode 3.5" that everyone expresses in shorthand, with the plot leading directly up to the opening events of A New Hope. What makes it a little different than the main saga is the relatively small amount of character overlap. There's cameos here and there, but by and large we're focusing on a completely new set of people.

Without giving away too much, the plot focuses on Jyn Erso, a woman whose father, Galen, is one of the chief architects of the Death Star against his will (sort of). Early in the film, Jyn gets rescued by rebels who intend to use her as a means to get to Galen. What follows is an action-packed adventure as Jyn and various allies she encounters along the way combine forces to recover the Death Star schematics, hoping to later use them to exploit a flaw in the superweapon.

I suppose this is because this isn't an "official" episode of Star Wars, but I was a little let down that the opening didn't employ John Williams' original score. Despite that blip, Rogue One was entertaining and a worthwhile experience. I didn't find it as much fun as last winter's The Force Awakens, but it was certainly a more original story. All of the other Star Wars installments are Jedi-focused and it was interesting to see a story of heroes in this universe who lacked Jedi powers.

Anyway, my thoughts on this movie are a bit scattered, so I'll finish this off in bullet point format.

• K-2SO is probably the best droid of the Star Wars saga. Imagine C-3PO if he wasn't humorless, a wuss, or terrible. Definitely one of the film's highlights.

• The scene near the end of the movie in which the Death Star slowly emerges on the horizon as Krennic looks on was very well-shot.

• Despite playing a character that couldn't have been more different, Mads Mikkelsen will always be Le Chiffre to me.

• The dialogue and writing style were similar to that of The Force Awakens, and that's a good thing. These elements were very problematic in Episodes I, II, and III.

• I don't think that the film did a very good job with character work. This isn't a knock on the actors, who were generally good. The heroes could've been fleshed out significantly better, particularly Cassian, who was pretty damn nondescript for the person with the second-most screen time in the film. Chirrut and Baze will be remembered for their unique combat abilities, but little else.

Overall, it was a movie that held my interest and entertained me. However, outside of Jyn, it was hard to get too invested in any of the new characters. It's probably for the best that this was a one-and-done.

Film Grade: B-