FILM OF THE WEEK
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Cert: 12A. Now showing
The wholesale euphoria that Star Wars: The Force Awakens created around the globe this time last year was only calming down when fever for all things Jedi re-erupted with news of this stand-alone addition to the franchise. Rogue One, we were told, would be set before the events of George Lucas’s 1977 first chapter Episode IV: A New Hope and blend new characters with a peppering of those from the main storyline.
Being genetically related while looking to plough its own furrow works both for and against this instalment from Gareth Edwards (Monsters, Godzilla). Those in search of mystical, light-sabre operatics may not find enough here to be swept away with teary nostalgia as so many were 12 months ago. What they will find is beautiful, bellicose, widescreen sci-fi and agreeable new faces stepping up to help take on the Empire.
From the planet-hopping opening scenes, the pace is breakneck. A young girl is orphaned on a far-off outpost. This is Jyn Erso, whose mother is killed and engineer father (Mads Mikkelsen) taken by Ben Mendelsohn’s nasty Imperial chief to oversee work on the Death Star. Years later, Jyn (Felicity Jones) is co-opted into the Rebel Alliance who want to find her father and get info on this planet-destroying weapon. She is joined on the mission by Diego Luna’s rakish agent, a monastic disciple of the Force (Donnie Yen) and the obligatory comic-relief droid (voiced by Alan Tudyk). They go from one technology puzzle to the next while battles rage in skies and on the ground.
Jones, Mendelsohn and Forest Whitaker (as a militia leader) stand out in a strong cast. Using dead-eyed CGI renderings of 1977 cast members is criminal, however.