No war is won without sacrifice

Rating: 8/10 (24 December 2016)

After the disappointing experience with Episode VII (that I consider the worst SW movie ever, even worse than EpI) I had low expectations for Rogue One but I must admit I was pleasantly surprised.
Of course in this case 95% of the story was drawn by Lucas in EpIII and EpIV, they just had to connect the two dots, but at least in this case they made it right. The plot is quite simple : 10 years before the battle of Yavin a brilliant scientist refused to work on the creation of the Death Star, his boss tracked him down, killed his wife while his daughter was successful hidden by a Resistance member. Fast forwarding to the present time of EpIV, the daughter is captured by the Resistance and convinced to collaborate in finding her old associate who received a message from his father by a Imperial pilot who deserted. Around her and a captain of the Intelligence a cluster of different characters will assemble to try to win the first battle for the Alliance.
One of the strengths of this movie is that it deals with more or less "normal" people, not Jedis or heroes bigger than life like Han Solo, even if the protagonist suffers a little of Rei syndrome (also known as Mary Sue condition)...it is evident that Disney is actively chasing the young girls' market as probably the boys' one is already filled. After all they are a greedy corporation looking to get more money, right? The fans will appreciate the presence of old characters like Senator Organa from EpII, Mon Mothma, a younger CGI version of Leia Organa and Grand Moff Tarkin from EpIII who actually makes a good job impersonating Peter Cushing....all of them in smaller roles in comparison to the "little people" who take the main scenes.
In general the retro approach to FX gives its fruits, the movie has a nice 70s feel to it, there are few innovations like the U wing and the atmosphere variant of the TIE fighter, from a photography point of view nothing to complain.
What I didn't like? Well, first the inclusion of Darth Vader is totally unnecessary plot wise and must be interpreted as the usual fan service, the excessive role of the protagonist good to do everything is another one, but minor in comparison to the Rei aberration. The movie should be around the story of the Death Star but it doesn't deal with three fundamental aspects: one is the Geonosis' origin of the weapon, the second one is that it never explains the delays of the development of the Death Star (they are just mentioned), the third and final is that it never deals with the second Death Star from Endor: as the first Death Star takes almost twenty years of R&D it would be reasonable to assume the construction of the second one should have started in parallel with the former, and it might also give a good reason of the long development of two pharaonic constructions at the same time.
Having said that, they are minor, I enjoyed the movie and I would give it a 8 over 10. The best thing of the movie overall is its message:without spoiling much most of the people should already understand the end, and while in the main episodes the good guys always win easily, Rogue One teaches that victory can be achieve without heavy sacrifice.