The true prequel to Star Wars (1977)

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2017)

More often than not, spin-off and rip-off become distressingly synonymous. Not this one. But then, it is not really a spin-off , something you sense more and more throughout the movie, until you finally realize that by right, "Rogue One" can claim to be more of a prequel to "Star Wars" (1977) than the "Skywalker trilogy" (I coined).
To those of us who have watched the original in 1977 (and probably numerous times on a TV screen since), the one most obvious plot deficiency has become so eroded over the years that it is now all but oblivion. I am talking about the question why would such a meticulously designed, formidable killing machine as The Death Star would have an Achelous's heel that is pivotal to the entire story. "Rogue One" provides a logical answer.
It starts with a family in hiding being sought out by the Empire, resulting in the mother killed and the father and young daughter captured. Some years later, we see grown up Jyn (Felicity Jones) in prison, a little trick the movie makers play on us. She has not been in captivity since the last shot we saw her in, but was in fact rescued by militant resistance Saw (Forest Whitaker) shortly after that. She then turned delinquent and is now in jail for some minor offences, with a false identity. Nobody knows she is the daughter of top Empire scientist Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) whom we saw in the opening scene forced to come out from a quiet rural life to do some more research.
I wouldn't elaborate the plot here. While there are some twists and turns (including what has happened to Galen), it is in fact quite simple. The single most important thing is that Galen knows that if he does not complete the design of the Death Star, somebody else will. What he did was to secretly add a weak point through which the indestructible Death Star can be destroyed. It is quite predictable that before he dies, he tells Jyn where this map containing this vital information is hidden deep in enemy territory. The mission for our heroes is to find the map and transmit it back to the resistance base.
So who are these "heroes"? To make things simple, I'll just say who play them: Diego Luna plays the militant resistant fighter, Donnie Yan and Wen Jiang play an odd couple that embraces The Force – a blind monk and a wild warrior, Riz Ahmen plays a pilot with a conscience defected from the Empire, Alan Tudyk's voice is the most recent addition to the Star Wars robot collection, one K-2SO. Of course, in the grand finale set piece (which by the way is excellent) there is the company of resistance fighter pilots.
"Rouge One" is a slow tease of Star Wars fans that builds up gradually to a satisfying conclusion. You don't get the rousing Star War theme at the opening. Background music initially is only vaguely, but tantalisingly familiar. Then, slowly, all the familiar melodies emerge, one after another. Likewise, the vehicles you see at the start are not entirely familiar but in the end, you would almost believe you are watching the finale of Star Wars (1977). Other familiar hardware that emerge towards the end include the giraffe-legged (two legs only) tanks from the original Star Wars trilogy. Characters? You see a very brief glimpse of C3PO and R2D2 with one line of dialogue (don't think I have to tell you spoken by which one). Chewbacca too, but make sure you don't blink whenever a bar scene starts, or you'll miss him. Then somebody starts throwing around dialogues like "I've got a bad feeling about this". Light sabre too, wielded by Darth Vader, another cameo. And as I alluded to, in the grand finale set piece, you would almost feel that it is Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in the pilot seats – you have finally come home. And then.there is that very last, 5-second shot. I cannot go on any more, as tears are blurring my eyes