Rogue One Delivers The Audience A Great Star Wars Experience By Arthur Byrd Last year, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released. I was so relieved that the movie was great. As I got the feeling that I had when seeing the original Star Wars as a kid which was total excitement. Then, I found that there would a stand alone Star Wars movie coming up. I like the idea that a new generation will experience the Star Wars stories on the big screen in the theaters instead of at home. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was such an awesome movie not because of its incredible special effects because of the storyline and its cast featuring Felicity Jones and Diego Luna. Rogue One starts off with the familiar blue glow with the passage “In a galaxy, far far away” as it jumped right into the story. Scientist Galen Erso played by Mad Mikkelson has been in hiding with his wife Lyra play by Valerie Kane and daughter Jyn on a farm on a planet. He is found by the Imperial military or the Empire. Krennic played by Ben Mendelsohn is in charge of the unfinished Death Star, a huge space station weapon which is capable of destroying entire planets. Galen was an important part of designing the Death Star, but he defected and went into hiding. Now, Krennic wanted him back to finish the Death Star. Laura and Jenn are hiding nearby in the hills. Lyra gives Jyn a crystal necklace and telling her ‘May The Force Be With You.” She leaves Jyn and goes back to defend her husband with a gun and she is quickly killed. After knowing that Jyn has escaped Galen goes with Krennic and the Empire. Thirteen years later, Bodhi Rook, an Imperial cargo shuttle pilot played by Riz Ahmed defects and smuggles out a holographic message from Galen regarding a design flaw with the Death Star. An adult Jyn who is now a criminal on her way to an Imperial hard labor camp on a transport. The transport is hijacked and she is freed by Cassian Andor, a rebel officer played by Luna and K-2SO, a reprogramed Imperial droid. The Rebels want to use Jyn to track down her father and without her knowing, to kill him to prevent the Death Star from being operational. Rogue One starts slow as it lays down the groundwork for the rest of the movie.
Jyn, Cassian and K-2SO travel to the planet Jedha to find Saw Gerrera who raised Jyn from a child. They find themselves in the middle of an armed uprising of soldiers and people against the Empire. The Empire is on the planet to extract crystals to fuel the Death Star. Jyn and Cassian are helped by a blind warrior Chirrut Imwe played by Donnie Yen and his mercenary friend, Baze Malbus played by Jiang Wen. Jyn finds Gerrera played by Forest Whitaker who is holding Rook. Gerrera shows Jyn the hologram featuring her father revealing the Death Star's vulnerability and where the plans are on the highsecurity database on the planet Scarif. The movie picks up speed as the race to get the plans before the Death Star starts destroying. With Star Wars movies, you can always expect the race against time. There is much more than I would like to write because there are so many tie-ins to the original Star Wars movie. I would like you like to enjoy all the great actions and reveals. All of it works. The audience is given a glimpse of Darth Vader which was super cool. Rogue One works perfectly as a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope. If you are a Star Wars fan, you will run from the theater and watch the original Star Wars again. If you are new Star Wars fan, you will love Rogue One.