The fact that their temple can no longer be guarded highlights that they have in fact failed – that some might see they have already lost. While Jyn struggles to figure out who she is, she’s joined by two former Jedi Temple guards, Chirrut Imwe (the great Donnie Chen), a blind Jedi follower, and his sidekick, Baze (Jiang Wen). Opposite Andor in capacity, but not necessarily in mentality, is Ben Mendelssohn’s Orson Krennic, whose Empire focus has him issue lines about how sometimes the presence of fear must predate freedom. In the present,?Rebellian intelligence officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) makes Han Solo look like Snow White – Andor clearly shoots first, potentially having done worse work on behalf of freedom. While we have a typical Disney “orphaning” process in the first stanza, the next stage flips us forward fifteen years to the full-blown conflict between the Rebel Alliance in its fledgling, pre- New Hope?success and the evil onslaught of “Lord” Vader and his evil Empire. Here, Jyn is the daughter of Galen Erso, research scientist for the Empire who designs the Death Star, and Lyra Erso (Valene Kane), whose one dying wish is that her daughter recognize the Force. In fact, I found myself emotionally more connected to the story of Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and her team of misfit castoffs than I did to any set of characters since…? Return of the Jedi?thirty-plus years ago. But from this lifetime Star Wars fan, that may in fact make it? better?than (some of) its predecessors. Rogue One?is conspicuously “a Star Wars story,” not cut from the same mold as? The Force Awakens.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story free