Rogue One

"Star Wars" is my generation's mythology. It's simply ingrained in us. There's something fundamental about the battle between good and evil, in a galaxy far far away, where pure heroes fight dark villains.

"Rogue One" takes a couple of interesting risks with this formula - some of which work, some of which don't as well. For starters, this is a story very much about the soldiers on the sidelines - those whose bodycount forms the background for the other films' heroics. A team assembled just to allow other people to get a chance to end the suffering.

The opening couple of scenes are a bit all-over-the-place - our characters aren't quite focussed on a mission, so much as all out for their own ends, without a clear idea where everything is going. But as the plot develops, everything starts to pull together, until the final half-hour is pure epic heroics with a brutal undercurrent, as we know not all the heroes are going to make it out alive.

Director Gareth Edwards excels at the big stuff - the battles and explosions and space battles. The individual character-level stuff is a bit spottier - the two highlights being Alan Tudyk's sarcastic droid and Donnie Yen's blind monk (paying slight tribute to the saga's samurai roots by basically being Zatoichi). Yes, this is a nostalgia trip, but it's a trip that feels rich in its own right, rather than just picking up reflected glories (or, as some nostalgia trips have done, lessening the impact of the first films).