Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, along with last year's spectacular The Force Awakens, is setting a dangerous, if lovely, precedent for future Star Wars movies. Gone are the days of praying and hoping for the best, now stroll boldly into the multiplex knowing the latest in the expanding saga will blow your head off.

Rogue One doesn't disappoint in these stakes; perfectly contextualising some of the more frustrating and loose aspects of A New Hope as well as telling a brand new story.

No spoilers here but, if you're a fan, prepare for some delicious (and well-hidden from the trailers) Easter Eggs and throwbacks to the original and, indeed, prequel trilogies.

This plays like a more straight ahead action-er than TFA focusing on a ragtag bunch of rebels and mercenaries rather than Jedi or more traditionally 'important' characters. As such, you get a real sense of 'anyone is expendable' more akin to a TV show which is a real rarity in blockbuster cinema.

The lack of a title crawl and John Williams' score adds to the sense of difference and Director Gareth Edwards chooses to do away with the old-skool, George Lucas screen wipes in favour of more dynamic and picturesque cinematography (some of the scene-setters you'll have spied in the trailers are stunning and the shot of the Death Star eclipsing the sun spine-tingling.)

Wholly satisfying, gritty, dark and fan-pleasing it's another knock out of the park from Disney.

Is it better than The Force Awakens? That's a tough one and, to this writer, just ranks marginally below it but the fact that we can even realistically debate the question is a miracle in itself. Spectacular.

5 stars *****