Expanded Universe becomes official spin off

Rating: 7/10 (15 December 2016)

The Star Wars canon has been revived (following earlier tangents for the Ewoks), with miscreant Felicity Jones recruited by the rebellion to help locate the Death Star's famous weakness which is the spine to the climax of the original episode A New Hope (ANH). In the Star Wars lineage, Rogue One occurs between Revenge of the Sith and ANH.
Reckon Flick Jones is going to be crowned most feisty/sexy Star Wars female character in the galaxy once this goes viral, such are her cherub-like facial features tempered by the grit and attitude of a space cowboy. She's no princess, but a package of galactic goodness all the same. Aussie Ben Mendelsohn is also inspired casting, a menacing Director Krennic whose tactical positioning in the Empire hierarchy adds another layer to a character that could easily have just become another cliché. The remaining cast has depth and there's a couple of surprises in supporting roles which might evoke some fond memories of the original trilogy, though I'm not too sure the CGI character was such a good idea, despite perhaps being well intentioned.
Overall I was pleased with this retrospective; it wasn't as derivative as TFA, Flick Jones really stands-out from the new breed acting crowd, and was a good balance of homage and originality. Whether the franchise has enough original material to crank these out in annual procession til 2020 is seriously debatable, but Rogue One is a pretty decent benchmark on which to start a new generation of spin-offs.