No Star Wars film can ever be anything short of epic for the diehard Star Wars fan. You know the type. The kind who have a few hundred Darth Vader masks and glow-in-the-dark lightbsabers stashed under their beds. For non-fans, some parts of George Lucas’ four decades-and-running-strong franchise have been testing at times.
Rogue One will work for both crowds.
Why? Because it’s linear, simple, straight up, packed with lots of the intergalactic action that the series became a cult for and doesn’t bother with backstories and explanations. Oh and slightly cruel spoiler, but most of these characters won’t be coming back in the 30 odd sequels that LucasFilm possibly has lined up all the way till intergalactic travel actually becomes a thing. But then, you probably know that, seeing as how this is part of the Star Wars Anthology series.
Just to give Rogue One a setting, the movie is chronologically placed between Revenge of the Sith (2005) and the original Star Wars: A New Hope (1977). The handovers are neatly handled - Darth Vader gets more than a little screen space, Princess Leia gets a look in (yayy) and R2D2 and C3PO are in a flash and miss scene, both of which are from footage of the original films.
Rebel fighter Cassian Andor (Diego Luna, who looks and sounds incredibly like a young, young Antonio Banderas) and wildchild Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) are on a quest to find the plans to the Imperial planet killing ship - The Death Star. Jyn’s dad designed the large, round killing machine but left a booby trap inside, for which they need those plans.
Rogue One packs simple but effective plot points to ensure there’s barely a dull moment. There’s also a sensible toning down of any romantic vibes between Jyn and Cassian, because, well, there’s no future there. And we don’t want to burn precious film time on that now, do we?
Another reason why Rogue One works wonders is because it’s packed with wit. Not the cheesy kind. But the kind that really make you laugh. And it sounds great when most of it is coming from a snarky, smooth talking robot droid (who I’m scared may well be revealed as the mechanical daddy of C3PO, if robots are into that sort of thing).
The only downside? There plenty of death and destruction and not too much in the way of a happily ever after, but hey, you’ve been forewarned. There’s still lots for you to cheer for when the credits roll across those moving blue light streaks that ever Star Wars fan sees in his dreams.