Rogue One

I love the anticipation of a big blockbuster:  buying a ticket weeks in advance, looking forward to the screening all day, entering the theater with an excited and rowdy crowd, and eating a big tub of popcorn while waiting for the lights to dim.  Since I am a huge fan of the Stars Wars franchise, it is no surprise that I did all of the above for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.  I scored a ticket to an advance screening, a hot commodity in these parts, late last night (early this morning?) and I absolutely loved it!  I have to admit that I was a bit skeptical about a so-called standalone story leading up to the events portrayed in the first trilogy.  Would it live up to the magic of the originals?  Then I saw the first extended trailer and I started getting excited, which is always a bit dangerous because, when you walk into the theater with high expectations, you are sometimes disappointed.  Rogue One actually exceeded my expectations because it is a powerful exploration of what it means to believe in something enough to die for it.  An Imperial scientist with a conscience named Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) is forced back into service to create a powerful weapon for the Empire.  When the Death Star is about to become operational, Galen secretly sends an Imperial pilot with a message for his daughter, Jyn (Felicity Jones), telling her about a weakness that he created in the design.  She along with a band of misfits, including Rebel Officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna, sigh), a reprogrammed straight-talking Imperial droid named K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) the Imperial pilot who defected to the rebellion, Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen) a blind monk with the power of the Force, and Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) a mercenary who doubts the Force, embark on a dangerous mission to recover the plans for the Death Star.  There are a myriad of characters and locations in the beginning and a great deal of exposition but it is worth it to get to the climactic final battle which is exciting, intense, and suspenseful.  The crowd cheered every time a familiar character made an appearance, especially Governor Tarkin, Darth Vader, C-3PO, and R2-D2 and they just about lost their minds over the final scene.  Again, I loved this movie, much more than I thought I would, and I definitely recommend it to fans of the franchise.

Note:  On another Thursday night exactly one year ago, I attended an advance screening of The Force Awakens (in the same theater).  That was an epic, never-to-be-forgotten experience but this movie was a lot of fun, too!