I like the Star Wars franchise, but I don’t revere it the way some do.  I’ve actually met people who claim to have seen the first one (A New Hope) fifty or more times.  Now you can’t even see the original as it was first released, unless you have a VHS tape or first generation laserdisc — all others have been tweaked, the later versions quite a bit.  Has George Lucas improved it, and the others, by tinkering, eliminating the black boxes around the flying spaceships and such (which I never noticed anyway)?  Probably, but you will also probably never see any of the films as they were originally made back in 1977, 1980, 1983, and so on.  Just so you know.

This new story, Rogue One, takes place just before A New Hope, with a cast of mostly new characters.  A few familiar faces pop up — some human, some robotic — and the film ends on a high note, with a perfect segue into A New Hope.  Interestingly, hope is the theme of Rogue One, because without the heroism and sacrifice of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), Chirrut Imwe (Donnie Yen), Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), robot K2-SO (Alan Tudyk) and others, the Skywalker saga would never have come to fruition.

Gareth Edwards’ film is faithful to the Star Wars universe but is not beholden to all of its conventions.  It is of a slightly different style and scope, with fewer old-fashioned cinematic transitions and a different music score (by Michael Giacchino, who integrates John Williams’ famous themes into his own music from time to time).  It is a much more diverse cast, headed by a spunky woman (Jyn Erso) and, as Diego Luna recently put it, the first Chicanos in space.  Just about every nationality and alien species makes an appearance at some point, as George Lucas’ universe becomes finally, truly, universal.

The story takes some time to gel, partly because it bounces around a great deal from world to world, and partly because it wants to save its most important, and familiar, plot points for the big finale, when they deliver the greatest impact.  And while the Rebel leaders could use some coaching on how to most effectively fight the Empire, the film delivers what it promises once it gets going.  Small things still don’t make sense (the “master switch” is on a beach where anyone could alter it?) but generally the script hits the right notes on the big stuff.  Just don’t expect to follow most of these new characters through new adventures; heroic sacrifice is the order of the day.

George Lucas protected his Star Wars universe for a quarter of a century before finally selling out to the Disney conglomerate, which plans to release a new Star Wars-related movie every year from now until we all grow tired of them.  This will reduce the frantic anticipation of the most ardent fans, but as long as these new adventures are as good as last year’s The Force Awakens or Rogue One, I think most fans will be happy.  Lucas may not be, but he also foisted The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith upon us, so he has used up all of his good will.  The new caretakers are doing all right.  ☆ ☆ ☆.  27 December 2016.