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Movie Review: 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

By Bill Wine
KYW Newsradio 1060

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Not only is the Force still with us, it's growing.

Hey, maybe that galaxy wasn't so far, far away after all.

The one depicted in Star Wars, that is, nearly forty years ago.

After all, we're into our third trilogy of Star Wars flicks and the beloved science fiction franchise now seems to be starting over.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first stand-alone adventure to grow out of the franchise, the first installment in the Star Wars Anthology Series.

It's a prequel following in the commercially impressive footsteps of Star Wars: The Force Awakens that will perhaps launch a parade of spinoffs in the coming years.

In Rogue One, a team of Rebels attempts to steal the plans from the Galactic Empire that will – see if your pop-culture memory is working at all – be passed from Princess Leia (remember her?) to R2-D2 (remember it?) and help Luke Skywalker (remember him?) blow up the Death Star (remember that?), the Empire's ultimate weapon of destruction.

Felicity Jones stars as street-hoodlum-turned-rebel protagonist Jyn Erso, with Diego Luna as veteran espionage agent Captain Cassian Andor and (the voice of) Alan Tudyk as a K2-SO droid called Kaytoo.

They pull off the impactful theft, aided by characters played by Forest Whitaker, Riz Ahmed, Jiang Wen, and Donnie Yen.

These outsiders are rising up and taking on the bigger, badder Empire, where Darth Vader will eventually make his presence felt, but that is now being run by Imperial special weapons director Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn, who at one point sponsored research conducted by Jyn's scientist father, Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), the expert in kyber crystals who designed the Death Star.

3
(3 stars out of 4)

And while hope and courage may be on the side of the Rebels, resources would seem to favor their adversaries.

Director Gareth Edwards (Godzilla, Monsters) works from a screenplay by Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy that's based on a story by John Knoll and Gary Whitta that is situated between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

Edwards adopts a style that's as gritty as it is glossy, with routinely spectacular special effects. More often than not, Rogue One resembles a generic World War II film, with extensive – sometimes too extensive – action, complete with hand-held camera shots and a soldier's point of view during battle.

Let's just say that it takes the wars component of the subtitle very seriously indeed.

Needless to say, all that time devoted to armed conflict means that we don't get as emotionally engaged with well-developed characters as we would like to.

But the combat footage is expertly staged, shot, and edited; the cinematography, production design, and all other technical production values are expertly handled; and Felicity Jones and Diego Luna turn out to be persuasive, easy-to-root-for action stars.

Rogue One keeps its plot on the straightforward side, so you needn't be a Star Wars aficionado to appreciate the clarity of the narrative. But it still mostly rewards those familiar with at least some of what has gone before.

Both longtime, appreciative fans and curious, let's-give-it-a-try newcomers to the series – but especially those who crave and thrive on pure action – should appreciate this solid, eye-popping thriller.

So let's call it 3 stars out of 4 for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which easily holds its own as a dark, muscular, admirable addition to the franchise, one that would appear to be the first of many more worthwhile, audience-friendly stories to emerge.

Yep, here we are four decades later, and Star Wars derivatives remain a Force to be reckoned with.

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