An impressively dark 'Star Wars' story

Rating: 10/10 (10 April 2017)

Everybody who is a fan of 'Star Wars' will know that the rebels had acquired the plans to the Empire's new weapon; the Death Star this film tells the story of just how they acquired those plans and at what cost.
As the film opens Imperial forces order scientist Galen Erso, who had been working as a farmer, to return to work on a new project. His wife is killed but his young daughter, Jyn, manages to escape. Fifteen years later news of the new weapon leaks out when an Imperial pilot defects while carrying a message from Galen. The pilot is held by a particularly radical rebel leader Saw Gerrera, the man who had helped save Jyn all those years ago. Jyn has lost contact with him but other rebels want her to help them get to Gerrera and learn the content of the message. Rebel officer Cassian Andor rescues Jyn from Imperial forces and they, along with K-2SO, a reprogrammed Imperial droid, go to Gerrera. By now the Empire is fully aware that a pilot has defected with a message and they will do anything to stop the rebels using that information. Jyn sees the message and learns that her father built a weakness into the Death Star but to use it the rebels will need to steal the station's blueprints from an Imperial facility. After seeing what the Death Star can do many rebels want to give up but Jyn, Cassian, K-2SO, the pilot and a few others decide that they will do what needs to be done whatever the personal cost and so a single stolen Imperial cargo ship, call sign 'Rogue One' sets off to find the plans.
This is what the original prequel films should have been like. It is the darkest 'Star Wars' film to date; for once we see just how oppressive the Empire is; not just when dealing with rebels but as a brutal power of occupation. It also shows that the rebels are willing to do questionable things for what they see as the greater good of their cause. It might be thought there would be less sense of jeopardy as we've known for almost forty years that the rebels get their hands on the Death Star plans however since we haven't seen these characters before there the lingering question of why that might be is it just because they were doing other things or is it because they don't survive?! This question played on my mind throughout the film. As one would expect from a 'Star Wars' film there are plenty of exciting set pieces on a good variety of planets. The central cast are impressive; these include Felicity Jones, whose performance as Jyn I really enjoyed; Diego Luna who brings some believable ambiguity to the role of Cassian; and Alan Tudyk who provides the voice of K-2SO; one of the films best characters. The rest of the cast were pretty impressive too the only thing I was unsure about was the use of CGI to enable the late Peter Cushing to reappear as Grand Moff Tarkin and a young Carrie Fisher to appear as Princess Leia; the effects were pretty good but there was something of the 'uncanny valley' about them. There are plenty of enjoyably nods to the previous films; most notably some brief appearances from familiar characters; I also liked the nod to 'Zatoichi the blind swordsman' in the form of a blind Jedi played by Donnie Yen. I know that not everybody will like this but I really enjoyed it and would heartily recommend it to any 'Star Wars' fan.