Rebels are out in full Force...
ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY (12A)
DARTH Vader, Princess Leia and even C-3PO all return for the latest Star Wars adventure – but it’s the resurrection of the series’ meanest villains that makes Rogue One such fun.
Striding onto the battle deck of the Death Star, Grand Moff Tarkin cements his status as one of cinema’s most odious baddies.
And the real shock is that although the actor who played him, Peter Cushing, died in 1994 he’s been brought back to life through cutting edge special effects.
Make no mistake, it beats every other piece of CGI on display in this $200million (£157million) sci-fi extravaganza, from the sight of Star Destroyers colliding to X-wings screaming across remote planets, to a city being destroyed by the Death Star’s tractor beam.
In a prequel to 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope, we arrive on a remote planet where scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) is forced at gunpoint to abandon his wife and young daughter, Jyn, and return to the evil Empire to help them build the Death Star.
Fast forward 13 years, and Jyn (Felicity Jones) is recruited by the freedom-loving Rebel Alliance.
But being wilful and headstrong, she goes rogue with a group of soldiers and an insecure droid called K-2SO to steal the plans for the Death Star which, her father tells her via a hologram, has a fatal weak spot at its core.
Fans of the Star Wars universe delight in ranking the movies from best to worst and I’d put this in joint fourth place with last year’s The Force Awakens. It isn’t quite in the same league as the original trilogy (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi) but it’s miles above the prequels (The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith) and the animated spin-off, The Clone Wars.
Director Gareth Edwards’ new film thrills thanks to a heroine in the shape of Jyn who we can all root for, a storyline that never fails to grip and those wondrous special effects.
A final battle between rebels and Stormtroopers on an Empire-controlled planet is a highlight, as are the sight of those gigantic, wedge-shaped Star Destroyers floating through the darkness like great white sharks.
The Force is strong with this one.