What's it about?
It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking from a
hidden base, have won their first victory
against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an
armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
What did we think? Stephen Scott says: Where Return of the Jedi was let-down due to 'alleged' toy company requirements, Rogue One seems let down by a meddling committee. Too many cooks dilutes a terrific premise (4 stars) and muddies great characters (3½ stars) thanks to an overly-convoluted introduction (minus 2 stars) and dollops of unnecessary spoon-feeding (minus 7 stars).
But make sure you see it on the big screen for the final battle sequence - it's basically a 21st Century version of the ROTJ final act (5 stars in all its glory - wow it's good).
Epilogue: If you recall, we all loved Star Wars for George's ground-breaking "used universe" and the mythical unanswered questions (Jedi, Clone Wars, why there is no underwear in space). Edwards delivers a gloriously dirty reality, but the committee let the movie down by interrupting him, and providing us with too many answers to questions we didn't ask. A Star Wars movie doesn't require title cards to tell the audience where we are, that's part of the charm. Drop us in and let us swim!
