Stands On its Own, as well as Being a Great Prequel & Spin Off,

Rating: 8/10 (20 December 2016)

Rogue One is a great movie with a very well developed plot and a stellar cast. It is the first of Disney & Lucasfilm's planned Star Wars spin off movies, and I think it kicks it all off terrifically, telling a story I believe any fan of the series would want to see, as a group of Rebels try to stop the development of the Death Star. It works out well as a movie that beloved fans of the series will enjoy, as well as being a great standalone science fiction film, I believe people who have not seen Star Wars can still enjoy this and certainly understand it.
As a fan of the Star Wars films myself, I can not help but point out its flaws, mainly that it is a very slow moving film, the first hour and a bit is somewhat tedious, dragging on with character development and heavy dialogue when we are dying to get some action. I also found Jyn to be a very boring character, she was unengaging on screen and her backstory never managed to intrigue me. I do not blame Felicity Jones for this, whom I really enjoy as an actress, but the writers for trying to shove so much information about her down our throats, instead of naturally allowing the character to develop, that I began to resent Jyn being in this movie at all.
Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen also felt wasted here, they did their very best with these characters but they were simply poor roles. Their dialogue was cheesy and, once again, only used to develop Jyn, so they never felt like fully rounded characters themselves.
The highlight of the film, for me, was Cassian and K-250, Diege Luna portrays the character with excellent depth, and Alan Tudyk delivers the voice of yet another very lovable android for the franchise, they had a sort of Han Solo & Chewbacca quality to them that made me smile whenever they were on screen, not to mention plenty of dialogue that had me in stitches.
Although the very best moments that make this film a huge recommendation for fans of the franchise have to be the return of a particular villain. All his scenes had me in chills, suspense and by the end in tears as I felt so much genuine joy to see him on the big screen.
It stands on its own, and maybe in some cases, works out better when not comparing to other Star Wars films, it has no opening scroll which clarifies that it wanted to be its own thing, which I think it achieved. Action packed, well acted and developed, Rogue One is not without its flaws, but I would still certainly recommend it to any fan of Star Wars and Sci-Fi.
A group of rebels come together in order to put a hault to the development of the Death Star.
Best Performance: Diego Luna