Unsung Heroes of Star Wars

Rating: 8/10 (26 December 2016)

Well, this is probably the first full length feature Star Wars movie where the main characters of the original series only play bit parts. Okay, you do have Darth Vader making an appearance, as well as R2-D2 and C3PO (among a couple of others), but the main focus of the film is actually on a group of unknowns. Sure, they do have some of the bit part characters in the original film take a more prominent role, but the film itself sort of provides us with a bit of a back story which eventually leads up to the opening of the original film.
Basically, as many of you are probably already aware, this film is about how the rebels managed to steal the plans or the Death Star, which then plays a prominent role in the next (or should I say first) film – namely getting them to the rebel base so that they can use them to launch an attack on the battle station. This film takes a step back and has us looking partially into the construction of the ship, and also how the plans were stolen, and why Luke was actually able to destroy it with relative ease (even though flying through a canyon and lobbing a torpedo into an exhaust vent while being shot at from turrets and tie fighters wouldn't necessarily be considered easy).
The thing is that many of the people dished the prequels, and from what I gathered this was much more well received. However, until the prequels, which turned Star Wars into the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker (which is probably why it wasn't particularly liked because tragedies can take a lot out of you, especially when the main character that you relate to is slipping slowly over to the dark side – well, okay, there was also Jar Jar Binks), this film simply provides a small back story in a much larger picture – in a way it is sort of like the Clone Wars in that it is not so much a part of the major story but rather a side note which provides more explanation to franchise as a whole. It also makes me wonder where they are going to take the next couple of films that aren't going to be apart of the third trilogy.
The question that I raise though is whether this is technically canon, namely because there are quite a few comics out there (Dark Times in particular) that seem to explore the universe during the time of the empire (which didn't last all that long by the way because the empire really only came to fruition around the time that Luke and Leah were born, and collapsed when they were adults, which gives it about thirty to thirty-five years). This sort of made me wonder about the time line in this film, namely because our protagonist was a young girl at the beginning, which was about the time that the Death Star stared being built, and was an adult at the end. Mind you, at the end of the third prequel I do remember a scene where the Death Star was being built.
As for the film, it was quite enjoyable, and fun to see a collection of different characters, though I was hoping that R2D2 would play a larger role in the films (though I suspect that he might not, particularly since we have BB8 taking a major role in the next trilogy I suspect R2D2 might end up taking a back seat). The other thing was being somewhat familiar with the original films, I am starting to prefigure a couple of things in these films – such as working out the Han Solo was going to be killed about ten minutes before he was killed, and also the ultimate fate of the main characters in this film. The thing is that I guess this is inevitable, particularly since I am somewhat a fan of the series.