The first Star Wars film to take place outside the main 7 episode saga had a discernibly difficult task of following up J.J. Abrams Force Awakens that rejuvenated the franchise. Further, the aim was to take a tonal detour from the norm of Star Wars and introduce a more mature edge to the series. Directing duties were handed to Godzilla and Monsters overseer Gareth Edwards – known for his ability to capture the scope of the enormous – who was tasked with applying his know how to the “wars” part of Star Wars. The premise was, in fact, presented way back in the opening crawl of Star War Episode IV that quickly mentions a group of rebels stealing the plans for the Death Star and getting them to Princess Leia. Not to be confused with the “many Bothan’s who died to bring the information” in Episode VI – this film would serve as a direct prequel to the original trilogy. A risky proposition for Disney to take as the word “prequel” has become synonymous with a drastically different quality of Star Wars film. Nevertheless, a diverse assortment of talents was banded together to represent the galaxy against the returning Empire. Felicity Jones leads the film as brigand Jyn Urso, Donny Yen and Wen Jiang as blind force sensitive guru and heavy arms specialist respectively, Diego Luna as veteran rebel leader and Alan Tudyk cast as a robot again in the form of re-purposed Imperial Droid, K-2SO.

Rogue One enjoyed an enthusiastic response upon the release of its trailer from the fandom but top Disney/Lucasarts brass were concerned with the grim tone and narrative choices, enforcing what were rumoured to be significant re-shoots and re-cuts of the film. As such, a great deal of that shown in the trailer simple never materialises on screen. From small individual lines – “it’s a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel” - to much larger action set-pieces and even whole characters seem to have been entirely reduced to cameos. As such, some small pacing issues are felt in the opening act but it settles in to a rhythm by the final act.

First, let’s put on deck the short comings of this film. The single biggest flaw with Rogue One is the two de facto lead characters in Jyn and Cassian Andor are uninspired and hollow characters. Cassian bears more character in the early goings but slowly seems to lose the edge as proceedings move along. Anything that could be described as a character trait in Jyn is vague at best, seeming more a passive participant that events happen around than a driving force. A similar effect happened to Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Edwards’ Godzilla, Johnson became a blank, unflinching character that simply wandered in to the way of whatever set piece was next. The final act has a nice balance of the character’s responsibilities towards the ultimate goal but the preamble comes across very paint by numbers. Its imperceptible as to whether the flatness comes from direction or acting choices but it’s clear that Jones is not on the form that garnered her so much Oscar attention in Theory of Everything. The film also feels as though the massive set pieces were constructed first with the story then written around them to link them together. Again, the similarities to Godzilla are unavoidable; huge set piece action scenes that are thoroughly enthralling held together by the thinnest of character relations in-between. A weakness to be sure, but the degree to which that disrupts enjoyment of the overall film is hard to measure.

That being said, the film goes out of its way to appeal to the die-hard fan base with more Easter eggs than can be caught in even 2 viewings and some subtle world building for the upcoming main-line films. Obviously, the big draw for many in this film is in the teased appearance of one (SPOILER WARNING for the 6 people who don’t yet know) Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader. The much-ballyhooed return of the space’s baddest dad does provide arguably the film’s most impressive stand-alone scene, truly capturing the terror that Vader sowed amongst his enemies for decades. There are also two other high profile returns to the series, both resurrected through the impressive talents of motion capture/CGI hybrid gurus of Lucasarts and ILM. The first we see if surely the best recreation of a person in computer form thus far in film history, applying a new level to the uncanny valley experience.

The final moments do elevate the film with several brave creative decisions giving the film a better glow retrospectively. Star Wars fans will feel almost obligated to go straight home and start watching a New Hope to inspect how strong the links the between the two are, most likely with great glee. Whilst not going to exceptional lengths in originality, there is enough here to entertain both die-hards and the casual film fans alike. But maybe leave the toddlers at home for this one.