A Fantastic Chapter in the Star Wars Series!!!

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2017)

Like most on opening weekend, I went into "Rogue One" fairly blind. It was known that the story took place in between Episodes III and IV, but the characters were all unknown. As such, there was a lot that I was unsure of. How would this fit into the chronology? Would it be a completely standalone film, with no connection to the other movies at all? That was pretty much how the previews made it out to be.
That being said, as it turns out, "Rogue One" is the immediate prequel to Episode IV, the original Star Wars movie, "A New Hope". It absolutely is directly connected to that film, but tells its tale through a cast of characters that are mostly new (Vader and one imperial commander and a couple of reprisals of rebel leaders being the exceptions). And, the story and film are exceptional on the whole. The style is a bit more serious and gritty than the other episodes, and the first half of the film goes by a bit slow at times--but by end it gets very good!
About the only drawback to this movie is its use of what I like to call the "Bourne" camera-work. At points the camera wobbles incessantly as figures are in battle. That was annoying, but not so much that it completely took away from the movie. And so, all things said, I have to give "Rogue One" 9/10 stars. It's fantastic, and falls just short of being a perfect ten. You definitely should see it!