The movie takes place just before the events of the Original Trilogy, with the start of Episode 4 serving as the climax of Rogue One.
Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso is the main lead and she does a good job. It takes some time for her to actually click into the movie but towards the end she holds up pretty well.
Diego Luna as Cassian was ok but never really gels in with the other cast. Being somewhat close to the second lead, they should have cast someone with a little bit more charisma.
Donnie Yen as the blind Chirrut and Alan Tudyk as K2SO the droid were brilliant and provided much of the movie’s best moments! K2SO provided the best comic moments of the movie and his climax scenes provided much more powerful emotional impact.
Riz Ahmed as the Imperial pilot Bodhi and Wen Jiang as Chirrut’s friend and Mads Mikkelsen as Jyn’s father were wonderful in the scenes they were given.
Ben Mendelsohn played the villain of the movie Krennic, and he was good, but not exactly an imposing one. The true villain has very little time in the movie and when he’s on screen he does manage to send a chill up the spine. I’m talking about the most iconic villain Darth Vader who is voiced by James Earl Jones.
The story for Rogue One is a small one if you think about it from the Star Wars point of view. It answers the small question of how did Leia get the plans for the Deathstar. But John Knoll and Gary Whitta have provided a full-fledged story that gives a lot of depth to each character and event and gives so much life in to this movie.
The action sequences were brilliant and the climax battle itself is a very long and felt a bit stretched at times. But whenever the action level dips, the movie brings out a new attack which again recharges the sequence. The visual effects were beautiful and the music by Michael Giacchino was fitting.
Direction by Gareth Edwards was very good. The pace of the movie was a bit slow at the start but quickly begins to pick up speed and towards the end its fast and action paced.
The movie claims to be a stand alone amongst the Star Wars series, but I felt that knowledge of Episode 4 is very important before watching Rogue One.
While very few characters come in the future series, Rogue One doesn’t waste time spoon feeding the audience, the universe its set in.
Overall, I loved Rogue One, and personally it’s my favourite of the entire Star Wars series.