Hope and sacrifice are essential themes in this extension of the Star Wars saga

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2016)

Hope and sacrifice. These are the two themes that run through the veins of this extension of the Star Wars mythos and it is these themes that makes the movie greater than the sum of its parts.
Rogue One is the first installment in what is going to be a (probably endless) series of one off movies within the Star Wars universe and what Rogue One does right, and does so excellently, is build upon what is established and give the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, an added sense of weight by telling the story of what preceded it. It's a prequel of sorts, but not one that going into the characters of the other Star Wars movies, but one that expands upon the sacrifice and struggle that made the Rebel Alliance success possible.
The film is not without fault however. The early sequences jump between settings and characters in a quick progression in order to set up all of the different moving parts. The individual scenes are often well acted but they seem to separated from the overarching theme of the movie, a theme of war, hope and sacrifice. This rush also loses what could have been important moments. There's a scene where a young girl is caught within the crossfire and it's meant to convey a moment in the story where one of the characters start seeing what the war does but some of the weight is lost when the scene plays out too fast without truly giving the audience a sense of the dread and chaos of the battle scene.
The characters in the movie work for the most part. Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen and Riz Ahmed all deliver memorable performances and it's great to see Star Wars embrace diverse and fresh talent. Other performances, Forest Whitakers for instance, fail to sell me on the characters and there's a certain CGI character that falls into the valley of uncanniness for me (even if the CGI passed some by without being noticed).
But Rogue One shines when it does what it does best. Expand upon and give weight to the story of A New Hope and I loved those parts.