Felicity Jones joins ranks of classic of Star Wars heroines

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set in the time period preceding Star Wars: A New Hope (a.k.a. the original Star Wars movie) and following the prequels that were made afterwards.

There’s no Jar Jar Binks or Ewoks in Rogue One, because, although all Star Wars films have a battle for peace at the heart of them, Rogue One is truly a war film.

After J.J. Abrams breathed new life in the Star Wars universe with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, many have had visions what the standalone films would do to the franchise with the stories we have all grown to love.

Disney’s “Rogue One” centers on new lead Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), daughter of a weapons specialist for the villainous Darth Vader’s Imperial Army.

That reassuring callback, as well as several others, is present and accounted for in “Rogue One”, which centers on the story of Jyn (Felicity Jones), a young woman pressed into service by a militant splinter group of the Rebel Alliance to perform crucial espionage against the tyrannical Galactic Empire, which is in the process of inventing a superweapon called the Death Star. There’s also a pair of surprise cameos (I won’t spoil who) realized through fully-CGI characters (integrated into scenes with the other human performers) because their respective actors have either passed away or aged considerably and the effect is… well, uncanny in the bad way.

When we first meet Jyn, she’s forced to flee when Stormtroopers essentially kidnap her father Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) and then kill her mother (Vlene Kane) after finding the remote planet where her father, a scientific genius, has hidden and taken up farming. And while most Star Wars fans will likely be satisfied with the movie, which is now garnering fairly positive (if not gushing) reviews, the consensus is noting several glaring flaws. But “Rogue One” is a more-than-worthy prequel.

The hype has not quite reached the pitch of past year for “The Force Awakens” – which came a decade after the end of the last Star Wars trilogy – but is still likely to be one of the top box office hits of 2016. “The first audience was on Saturday and it was reassuring particularly that the true die-hard “Star Wars” fans have given it their seal of approval”, Jones said.

If you’re anxious about spoilers for Rogue One, then don’t, as we won’t copy and paste each critic’s detailed description.

But with “Star Wars”, the opposite seems to have happened.

Star Wars fans around the world and across generations are use to the movies starting in that distinct Star Wars way. Rogue One does so much right when it comes to filling in the gaps before Episode IV that it’s easy to overlook some of its flaws.

“As a kid, I used to watch the films for hours and would sleep in “Star Wars” pajamas, on “Star Wars” bedsheets”.

He was turning 2 years old when the original “Star Wars” hit theaters in 1977 – a ideal age to experience the mania that followed as the first trilogy unfolded.

Going back and forth between Empire and Rebel Alliance – with gorgeous space cinematography and location shots – we see the Empire start to panic as it realizes their secret might be out. The Star Wars universe is vast and ever expanding. Fan fears that Rogue One would be grim and mirthless, prompted by whispers of late reshoots and script doctoring, evaporate whenever K-2 is on the screen.

Rogue One, freed from the shackles of an episode number, doesn’t even try to evoke that same level of verisimilitude.