A Good Filler-Episode for Fans

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2016)

If there ever was a need to show how the construction plans of the Death Star were retrieved by the rebel forces, than this movie finally satisfied the eagerness of every Star Wars fan.
I, for my part, think that some things should be left for one's own imagination and not every little side note mentioned in the old Episodes needs to get its own movie, it doesn't bring the saga forward, it doesn't tell a really developed story, it's simply an account of the efforts made and the losses suffered at a particular moment during a war in space, so that Rogue One lacks the epic feeling and the ability to give wings to your own imagination.
It has a great battle scene in the end and that's it. I was looking forward to see Darth Vader back in business and got maybe three minutes of his bad-assness. They hired Academy award winner Forest Whitaker to wheeze a bit into the camera and than die. Mads Mikkelsen, whose handsome, masculine features make him perfect for long, moody close-up shots, had a few lines, gazing seriously into the air and than died. There was this cool blind warrior with his cool buddy and they died too. Felicity Jones, whom I adore, played the not so special, kind of outlaw heroine who kind of fell in love with this unknown male hero before they died, Oh and no Star Wars would be recognizable as such without a witty robot character providing some comical relief, only that this one got broken in the end; not exactly what you would describe as an uplifting prelude to A New Hope. And what stayed with me after the curtains closed, was this traumatizing image of a soulless CGI version of young Princess Leia.
Yes, finally we got shown how she gained the plans, they simply were handed to her, surprise, surprise!
Rogue One is a redundant money grabber, a spin-off with some good action scenes carrying the Star Wars brand, yet it at least isn't as corny as the George Lucas movies.