Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016
**½
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Jiang Wen, Forest Whitaker, Jimmy Smits
This is the first movie in the Star Wars Anthology series, a standalone feature set in a serialised universe. The events take place just before Episode IV - A New Hope. The Rebel Alliance learns that the Galactic Empire has built a weapon capable of destroying entire planets. Jyn Erso, a criminal turned rebel, ends up leading a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star. Anyone who is potentially going to watch this movie knows what happened, so why do we need to see it? 130 minutes to explain why Death Star was so easy to destroy? If the story is irrelevant and the characters rather forgettable, is it at least entertaining? While Episode VII - The Force Awakens brought the fun back to the franchise, Rogue One is the grimmest and most grown-up feature in the franchise. K-2SO is just about the only source of humour.
