Disney isn't done making money from Star Wars on the big screen. Star Wars Episode VIII will arrive in this galaxy this time next year. So in the meantime, it goes back, "a long time ago, in that galaxy far, far away" for a prequel, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. It's a prequel destined to be remembered for the right reasons.
Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) was a farm girl until the Galactic Empire came knocking. The evil Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) killed her mother, Lyra, and seized her father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen). She was found and raised by extremist Rebel Saw Gerrera (Forest Whittaker). Years later, Jyn is a career criminal in Imperial Custody. The Rebel Alliance bails her out in the hopes she can help them find her father, the chief scientist of the Death Star. An Imperial deserter, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), exposed the base's existence.
Jyn finds herself paired up with Rebel officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and his reprogrammed Imperial Droid, K-2SO (Alan Tudyk). They later meet Rook, blind monk Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) and his soldier friend Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen). The Rebel Alliance plans to disrupt the Death Star by killing Galen. Our heroes discover that Galen hid an explosive surprise in the Death Star for the Rebels to exploit. They just need to tell them somehow; perhaps they can steal the plans for the station.
Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla) keeps it going for a nicely paced 133 minutes. His four writers, including Tony Gilroy and Chris Weitz, populate the story with memorable new characters. Jyn is as capable a lead as Rey from The Force Awakens. K-2SO provides great, dry comic relief. Chirrut gets the best action scenes and some of the best lines. Krennic is a good, slimy villain. The most high-profile returning character is Darth Vader, voiced again by James Earl Jones, who gets two scenes to show off brutal villainy. The tragic ending is alleviated by the fact we know how it all goes down. It all leads just inches away from A New Hope.
The crew is most impressive once again. K-2SO and a few other creatures are visualized with great motion capture work. Guy Henry pulls off a pretty good digitally-assisted impersonation of the late Peter Cushing to play Grand Moff Tarkin. The set makers an exceptional job recreating sets from A New Hope for the film. The Death Star firing scenes recreate the original film's so flawlessly it looked like stock footage. The action looked and sounded great. Michael Giacchino provides a new great score mixed with John Williams' classic themes.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a strong side story to the Star Wars universe. It's a great space opera and war movie. It's a great way to pass the time before Episode VIII finally appears. It's a prequel that fits pretty good with its established lore. It's a lot of things. So what is it not? A disappointment.
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