Felicity Jones: Beyonce inspired my Star Wars character

While I was certainly a fan of The Force Awakens, in many ways Rogue One is vastly superior in my estimation. The Force Awakens was an enormous success that proved the series was in good hands, and diehard fans have also been treated to new comics and an exceptional animated series in Star Wars Rebels.

“Edwards shares, “[Lucas] joked a lot about how we should do more in the computer, and not build so much – we didn’t take his advice. These are all viable contenders for the standout among the ensemble, and I haven’t even gotten around to mentioning the showstopping Force-sensitive blind warrior Chirrut Imwe (martial arts master Donnie Yen).

The acting is superb.

Galen designed the Death Star, and he’s yanked from retirement by Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), a ruthless Imperial officer. The rest of the cast shines, too, albeit slightly less brightly. I won’t go into detail on who it is, but they have a couple of human characters you know from the original trilogy in “Rogue One”, although not really. Now that I’ve seen the entire film, these actions take on additional dimensions and potency.

So who are the characters? When you’re going to stop talking about it, it will be definitely be a challenge. I do feel very proud of being part of a project that is making a comment on the world we live in; a necessary comment. He’s the best and people will have worthwhile debates arguing who’s the best droid: K-2SO, BB-8, or R2-D2 (Threepio sucks forever). He has none of the out-of-place slapstick or borderline-racist speech pattern of Jar Jar. No gold bikinis for her. Jyn is the catalyst for much of “Rogue One’s” action but her relationship with her father Galen is the film’s emotional core. The climactic clash between the Rebellion and the Empire will feel similar in scope to anyone who’s seen “Return of the Jedi”, but the powers that be at Lucasfilm have still managed to find plenty of new (and extremely thrilling) tricks up their collective sleeves. This is by far the grittiest entry in the “Star Wars” canon; those with small children who want to see it are reminded that this is a story about war, and those rarely have happy endings.

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” opens in theaters nationwide this Friday, December 16th. That also gives filmmaker Gareth Edwards room make these political statements, while filling the gap between the prequels and the sequels by showing how Princess Leia receives the plans to the Death Star or explaining the moon-sized weapon’s one major flaw-that darn thermal exhaust port.

Darth Vader (voiced yet again by James Earl Jones) appears in a few scenes, and one in particular shows him at his most ruthless. He has mixed great action scenes with an interesting story to make a movie that is created to be a one-shot adventure but will still leave you wishing there could be more. It doesn’t have an opening crawl or even much use for the Force.

Both “The Force Awakens” and “Rogue One” play like a group of fanboys got together and chose to make “Star Wars” great again. Rogue One really is the story of what happened just before Episode IV, to the point where, if Peter Jackson had started the franchise instead of George Lucas, Episode IV would have included it and it would have been four hours long. Not that that necessarily would have been a bad thing. Several people exiting Monday from the Chicago press screening expressed the same three-word sentiment – “not for kids” – though of course millions of preteens will prove that sentiment hapless. All opinions expressed here are my own. He’s a sarcastic robot who tells it like it is but … also with a heart of gold. Special access to video content will be included inside the app.