The Force Is Still With Them!

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2017)

ROGUE ONE - A STAR WARS STORY (2016) *** Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Alan Tudyk, Donnie Yen, Wen Jiang, Ben Mendelsohn, Guy Henry, Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Mads Mikkelsen, Jimmy Smits, Spencer Wilding (Cameos: Voice of James Earl Jones, Carrie Fisher, Anthony Daniels) Stand-alone prequel to the sci-fi franchise with a creative bent in showcasing new blood talent to the overworked universe - to wit - spunky rebel Jyn Erso (Jones) joins the Alliance against the loom of the Empire's hell-bent destruction of planets with the new Death Star designed by her father (Mikkelsen) against his will but laced with a flaw that will inevitably cripple the galactic baddies if only she can retrieve the files with a ragtag team of fellow like-minded rebels including Luna. While director Gareth Edwards paints a vivid picture with state of the art whimsy and a decidedly darker vein with its epic sequences of battles both in space and on terra firma (with grand locales like a sandy beach planet) the screenplay by Christ Weitz and Tony Gilory (based on a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta) doesn't truly enthrall nor give enough oomph to its new characters to truly care about. Tudyk's K-2SO (think Threepio on steroids) is a hoot in motion-capture brio while it is indeed a giddy thrill to see Darth Vader back and kicking some serious ass. The Force Is Still With Them!