Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first of numerous planned spin-off films based on the iconic Star Wars universe. Rogue One was directed by Godzilla filmmaker, Gareth Edwards, and stars Felicity Jones (Theory of Everything), Diego Luna, Forest Whitaker, and Mads Mikkelsen among many others. The movie takes place before the events of Episode IV and is about how the Rebels acquired the plans to the original Death Star. The movie follows a ragtag group of Rebels, led by Jones’ Jyn Erso, who are tasked with finding these plans in order to save the Rebellion and stop the Empire’s super weapon. The film’s major flaws are the first half and the score. The first half of the film is slowly paced and is good but it pales in comparison to the all-time great final half of the movie. Composer Michael Giacchino (Incredibles, Star Trek) is extremely talented and has been dubbed as the next “John Williams” (Williams is inarguably the greatest film composer of all-time) for a reason. However, the score that he turned into for this film does not feel like Star Wars at all and takes the viewer out of the movie. (Understandably Giacchino was only given 3 weeks to write the score because original composer Alexandre Desplat left the movie and as a result of this, Giacchino must be given a pass on this film) The movie’s core strengths, on the other hand, are the outstanding cast and the unbelievable third-act. Everybody in the cast is outstanding, with the exception being Forest Whitaker whose over-the-top performance falls in between love and hate, as the standouts of the film are Alan Tudyk’s droid K-2SO and Donnie Yen’s Chirrut Imwe. K-2SO has a great dry sense of humor and immediately jumps to the top of the most iconic droids in Star Wars history. Chirrut Imwe is a worshipper of the Force and, even though he’s blind, is extremely exciting to watch fight. The thing that makes this movie an all-time great Star-Wars movie, however, is the third act of the film. Once the main characters land on the planet Scariff, the film jumps into another gear and becomes the Star Wars version of the famous Saving Private Ryan D-Day opening sequence. This part of the film is one of the greatest third acts in movie history and is just so exciting to watch. Characters that are beloved by Star Wars fans like Darth Vader appear, but there are so many great surprising character appearances and Easter Eggs for fans to find. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is fun for Star Wars fans and non-fans to enjoy and marks a successful launch for Disney’s quest to make standalone Star Wars movies that do not revolve around the Star Wars family.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story: 8.75 out of 10
Photo Credit: http://www.starwars.com/films/rogue-one