The opening crawl at the beginning of Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope mentions the first victory of the Rebel Alliance against the Galactic Empire. Almost forty years later the latest Star Wars film Rogue One finally tells the story of what happened.
The movie tells the story of Jyn Erso. At a young age she lost her parents when her father, a brilliant scientist, was abducted by the Empire and her mother got killed in the process. Now the Rebel Alliance desperately needs Jyn’s help to search for her lost father. Over the past decades he has been forced to work on the Empire’s new super weapon, the Death Star. And finding him might help to somehow stop the Death Star before it can bring about the end of the rebellion
Rogue One is quite different from other Star Wars films. It is not a fairy tail, but rather a war movie. The lines between good and evil are more blurred than usual. After a slow start the film turns into a fulminant action spectacle with an all-out battle between the Empire and the Rebellion.
Rogue One is a movie for existing Star Wars fans. It makes much more sense watching it when you already know Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope although the latter is strictly speaking the sequel. I definitely enjoyed watching this latest Star Wars film, in particular due to the well placed references to the earlier movies.