A Christmas cracker of a movie

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2016)

Walt Disney Productions clearly knew what it was doing when it purchased the rights to the "Star Wars" franchise from its creator George Lucas. "Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens" was a major success and the idea of having stand-alone spin-off movies looks like satisfying both the fans and the investors. The first of these oddities - appropriately called "Rogue One" - is a real crowd-pleaser that is set in the period between "Star Wars III: Revenge Of The Sith" and "Star Wars IV: A New Hope" with the conclusion fitting into start of the first film to be released like a piece of a jigsaw. It does this mainly through a narrative, inspired by visual effects supervisor John Knoll and crafted by Chris Wietz and Tony Gilroy, that explains how the plans to the Death Star were acquired but additionally we have glimpses of some of the characters that will appear later in the saga, in two cases using CGI eerily to create characters played by actors who are now either much older or dead.
We've has plucky heroines in previous "Star Wars" outings (Princess Leia and Rey), but this time we have a female character at the heart of the adventure in the form of the reluctant leader Jyn Erso played by the talented British actress Felicty Jones who was so good in "The Theory Of Everything". She is supported by an ethnically diverse team including rebel fighter Cassian Andor (the Mexican Diego Luna), renegade Empire pilot Bodhi Rook (British Asian actor Riz Ahmed), blind swordsman Chirrut Imwe (Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen), and Chirrut's partner Baze Malbus (the Chinese Wen Jiang) This is a "Star Wars" episode with no Jedi, no light sabres, and essentially no Force which makes the whole escapade more realistic. Also, although the movie has some humorous lines, essentially it takes itself seriously so there is nothing like Jar Jar Binks, who was generally derided, or even the Ewoks, whom some found just too cute. Instead we just have a reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) who is darkly droll. In past "Star Wars" episodes, our heroes have often found it too easy to escape from a threatening situation with the storm troopers rightly charged with very poor shooting skills but, in this anthology film, not all the rebels are going to survive.
The special effects are excellent and there are some striking locations utilising Iceland, Jordan and The Maldives. I was fortunate enough to see the movie on an IMAX screen in 3D which meant that the third-act battle scenes of X-Wing and TIE fighters were especially exciting. We Brits should take special pleasure in that the work was shot at Pinewood Studios and the director is British Gareth Edwards.