Not a fresh moment in it

Rating: 5/10 (14 January 2017)

If you've seen previous Star Wars films-- almost any of them-- then you've seen this movie. The premise is rather fun: it's a prequel to the original 1977 film, "Episode IV: A New Hope," detailing how rebels acquire the plans to the Death Star that Princess Leia delivers to R2D2, and ultimately to Obi Wan Kenobi, in Episode IV. Unfortunately, the two plots-- this movie and Episode IV-- are virtually identical. In both, rebels plan and execute an invasion of an Empire stronghold. Little effort is made to enliven that old plot with fresh ideas, fresh humor, fresh anything.
Several actors from the 1977 original are digitized in (Peter Cushing, Carrie Fisher), and Darth Vader shows up (James Earl Jones' voice), and I don't expect or want anything new from them. But the rest of the characters are just rehashes of previous ones. We've seen them before. The generic Zen character (Donnie Yen) is part Yoda, part Obi-Wan. The robot K2SO is part Wookie, part C3P0. Bad guy Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelssohn) is Darth Vader but in a white cloak. Jyn (Felicity Jones) and Cassian (Diego Luna) are basically the same character. They're fine actors, but one does wish for the occasional change of pace, even if its just a different facial expression.
I wish I could recommend it. It's not an embarrassing disaster like "Phantom Menace" or "Revenge of the Sith," it's just boring.