Clone Wars

Rating: 6/10 (16 December 2016)

This is the biggest fan fiction job ever pulled off.
And sometimes it works. I mean, if you're OK for constant self-aware fan jokes and CG people, then this is your movie. Rogue One is wish fulfillment that will carry it for a few weekends at the box office, but will fade more or less as quickly as any of the prequel movies. And let's just say it, if you're going to do a cheezo prequel for Star Wars, this is all you need really. But does it work as it's own movie? Not really. It might as well have been a two hour episode of the Clone Wars TV show.
Aside from the non-stop call outs, the trove of interesting characters and fantastic actors portraying them, are mostly forgotten very quickly in the second half of the movie. We get the perfunctory space and land battle but little else. Wen Jiang and Donnie Yen as the Star Wars Zatoichi were crying for more screen time and I hope someday they get their own deserved movie. While the computer generated actors feel really bad to me, and I cringed every single time they came up on screen, KS the Droid really works. In fact, his physical performance and effervescent humor carry large portions of the film when the actors are going through the motions.
I'm glad if you enjoyed what amounted to two hours of wish fulfillment and curtain calls. But Rogue One was also a missed opportunity for a true Star Wars Gaiden, a side story of it's own.