For Carrie Fisher

Rating: 8/10 (28 December 2016)

I watched Rogue One today, the day after Carrie Fisher died, so of course my thoughts were of her as I watched it and I hoped she'd be included in the film in some way - suffice to say the final scene and the word 'Hope' made the movie for me and will forever cement Rogue One in Star Wars lore.
The film itself is a prequel of sorts to the Original Star Wars Film - A New Hope - I thought the film stumbled at the start with an unfocused story and unfamiliar characters, but as the story continued the film gains its footing as a small band of rebels goes in search of the blue prints of the dreaded Death Star - the best part being it finally puts to rest the reason the Death Star had a rather large design flaw - the film has a darker, grittier look than the other Star Wars films and the battles have the look of a WWII movie, especially with the colorful band of characters in the rebel band.
One of the problems I had with the film was that the lead character, Jyn, was to much like a pale imitation of Rey in The Force Awakens, but as with the movie as a whole she grew on me as it went along until I was really rooting for her by the end - but while Rogue One held up well as its own movie, my favorite parts of it were the call backs to previous Star Wars films - from Darth Vader (Thank the maker that James Earl Jones is still with us) to Death Star Commander Tarkin (his digital recreation was impressive, but must be a little disconcerting to working actors) to Jimmy Smits return as Organa and of course a brief cameo by R2D2 and C3PO - the only characters to be in every Star Wars film.
Even with a darker grittier look, the climatic battle was pure Star Wars with battles on multiple fronts and was thrilling to watch - and the way everything tied together in the end to the beginning of A New Hope was brilliantly done - so while not perfect and a notch below The Force Awakens - Rogue One is must viewing for any Star Wars fan and is a worthy addition to the franchise - also I can't say how much fun it is that after starting to believe Star Wars would be just a wonderful but distant memory - we now can look forward to a new Star Wars movie as a glorious yearly event.