Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
2016
***½
Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Ben Mendelsohn, Donnie Yen, Mads Mikkelsen, Alan Tudyk, Wen Jiang, Forest Whitaker, Jimmy Smits, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Genevieve O'Reilly
The Rebel Alliance discovers that the Empire has built a planet-destroying weapon. Jyn Erso, whose father secretly built a fatal flaw in its design, joins Cassian Andor and a ragtag group of rebels to steal the Death Star plans and give the galaxy a fighting chance. This is the first movie in the Star Wars Anthology Series, a standalone feature set in a serialised universe. While Episode VII - The Force Awakens brought the fun back to the franchise, this is the grimmest and most grown-up installment; K-2SO droid provides the only real comic relief. The result is engaging, though it raises the question: did we need a full feature to explain why the Death Star was so easy to destroy? The story leads directly into Episode IV - A New Hope, with creepy, digitally recreated appearances by Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. Followed by Andor (2022-2025), a Disney+ series that covers Cassian Andor's backstory.
