An adequate fan fiction story with a megabudget 70%

Rating: 7/10 (16 December 2016)

Rogue One sits between "A new hope" and "Revenge of the Sith" chronologically. If you're new to the entire Star Wars franchise, where should you begin your viewing? From my point of view, either with this film, Rogue One, or Star Wars: A new hope (episode IV). I came into this franchise at the beginning, with "A new hope" and as a young person I found it exhilarating. Having seen that movie multiple times since (nearing double figures without the ridiculous number of viewings that the hardcore fans are capable of...going into the dozens), I'm confident that "A new hope" would stack up well for modern viewers.
Apart from Episode III of the prequels, that trilogy was very underwhelming. Rogue One isn't as exhilarating as I remember "A new hope" being, but as an adult, I did find a couple of humorous moments in it which made me laugh...from memory the comedy in "A new hope" was pitched to a younger audience. That being said, I suggest starting with the original trilogy (episodes IV-VI) and if you're still keen, see Rogue One next.
What's the story in Rogue One? It comes across as a bit of fan fiction, as in it writes a backstory to things that have happened later chronologically in the world of this franchise, but earlier in the release history of the franchise itself. It could also be accused, perhaps, of justifying one element of "A new hope" which was always subject to some mockery by those who thought a bit too much about the logic of the story. This might be the first Star Wars movie to not open with that iconic scrolling text introducing the story we are about to see, accompanied by John Williams famous score.
Anyway, in Rogue One, an Imperial troop carrier lands on a planet. When we initially see that, it looked to me like it was one of those remote control toy spaceships...it just didn't look believable. Later on, you realise that it's meant to be very large and capable of carrying a troop of soldiers. That was really the only time in the film that the special effects were unconvincing. In Star Wars, the Empire (the Imperial side) is the dominant force in that galaxy and they believe themselves to be upholding order but they're obviously the "bad guys" as they are ruthless in fighting for total control of the galaxy.
The Imperial forces are looking for someone on that planet. In the movie we learn from the Rebels (the Alliance which is opposed to the Empire...regarded as "terrorists" by the Empire, no doubt) that the Empire has a weapon being built which is dubbed the "planet killer". The person on that planet which is being sought by the Empire is someone who can help them build that ultimate weapon.
Early on there's quite a bit of jumping around from one location in the galaxy to another as well as jumping from one time in the chronology to another. This made following what was going on difficult, although eventually one of those chronological jumps did me the favour of letting me know that the girl who I saw earlier on the planet was now the adult woman I was seeing on the screen. Perhaps that could have been made clearer earlier on. Also not clear...I was wondering the family on that planet were somehow related to the most recent Star Wars movie, "The Force awakens". Still not sure about that, but unlikely, in any case.
The rest of Rogue One concerns the attempts of the Rebel Alliance to thwart the Empire's plan to use their weapon with planet destroying capabilities. There's a lot of action, the vistas are impressive, with a painterly look to them and occasionally the 3D images look alright. The film is nowhere near as impressive on the 3D front as Avatar was, and that earlier film's use of 3D was most impressive in the little things that it did, the subtle things. In other words, I don't think that it's extremely important to see Rogue One in 3D.
There are some moments in the film which I suspect will be used in a video game, should a video game be brought out to tie-in with this film. i.e. you will be replaying those scenes from the film in the game and perhaps seeing cutscenes which match the film too.
Random observations:
* There are a lot of English voices in this film, as in the characters sound like they are from England. There's a French sounding voice too. Although I haven't seen the particular Japanese franchise, one of the characters in Rogue One brought to mind the Japanese character Zatoichi. I had to search online for that character's name...by typing in his attributes...you'll know him when you see him, I suspect.
* Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn has a significant role in this movie. I just mention this because recently another Australian actor, Peter Sumner, who was in "A new hope" died. There was an interesting article about Sumner, following his death, which dealt with his Star Wars history (see Sydney Morning Herald, 23/11/2016, "Peter Sumner, Australia's link to the original Star Wars, dies at 74", by Garry Maddox).
* There are some implausible moments in Rogue One, like when the woman who helps the Rebels brings out a weapon in front of her "allies" for the first time.
* You can finally hear John Williams' famous score...a little while into the closing credits.
In summary, this is a decent entry in the Star Wars canon, which doesn't reach great heights but doesn't embarrass the franchise like the first two prequels did. The droid K-2SO was entertaining and reminded me a bit of C3PO...and Marvin, from the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.
There are some familiar faces too and you do get to see them...eventually.