Really enjoyable and packs an emotional punch.

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2016)

For 40 years, all we've known of the rebels who "managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR" is that they were successful. Now, we finally get to see who they were, what they did, and what became of them. Coming with such a love of Star Wars and a knowledge of it's history, I was very excited to see this and get to meet the characters who provided the catalyst for my favorite and the most influential movies of my life.(I must also point out that I am one of those who will have nothing to do with the prequels...) I was not disappointed. The tone is quite different to the saga movies (the start without an opening crawl seems very abrupt), but the familiar iconography and the fact that we know exactly where this fits in the time line make sure that this is most definitely a Star Wars movie. The introduction of the (many) new characters is necessarily brief and initially makes any emotional attachment to them slight - but by the end of the movie and the final battle scene the viewer finds themselves really caring when their fates are revealed, giving the finale a real emotional punch. There are also so many wonderful familiar moments that tie the movie to the original trilogy - but these are never forced and always sit well within the context of the story being told here. My ten year old kept turning to me and grinning at each one. The action at the end is on par with anything we've seen and there are several showstopping moments that simply have to seen on the big screen. Both times I've seen this movie (so far!) there have been gasps and claps from the audience at several of the big effect moments. If I have a gripe it's a very small one, a related only to a few instances of the CGI of two significant human characters (you'll know who they are, but apart from that I have no complaints about Rogue One. It's not a Star Wars movie, it's a definitely a war movie, but it's most certainly part of the time line and ties in seamlessly with the movies we all know and love. Thoroughly recommended. And the Darth Vader scene at the end? Awesome!