It's what it is

Rating: 6/10 (17 December 2016)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first in a line of probably many Star Wars spin off movies, that the people don't really need, but still somehow want. With that being said it's absolutely going the same way as the Marvel cinematic universe and taking something with a large fan base, then hiring competent enough writers, that can write around the franchises core and come up with a product, that doesn't seem like complete fan pandering shlock. None of the movies of such calibre are really worth a spot in a movie canon, but since all entertainment is audience pandering to some degree, we might as well look at it and evaluate it's worth. With that out of the way; Rogue One is fine overall. The movie is kind of pointless. We know it's outcome and where the story goes afterwards and you can easily predict the outcome. It's up to you to decide, whether you'll just take the information you get in "A New Hope" or whether you'd rather have this 2 hour movie do that for you. By taking the long road, you get a cast of characters, that while interesting on paper, still lack some interaction and chemistry for it to eventually lead into a satisfying climax, a plot that doesn't feel like rehashing the originals, some of the original's style of immersive world to get surrounded by, some good action scenes, bunch of cameos, you might have wanted or maybe didn't and the obvious fan service, that matters the most to some; Darth Vader. If that's the stuff, you'd want to spend your 2 hours of free time on, then you might just have a blast with it.