It takes a while to get going, but eventually everything comes together for the action-packed climax. The main characters are all new, and time must be spent establishing enough about a half dozen or so of them for the audience to care about them. Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso is introduced first, and is the focus throughout. She is a nice addition to the Star Wars universe and has the most profound character arc. The rest of the group are good in their support roles, but don’t have much opportunity to be fleshed-out. However, it’s the Alan Tudyk voiced droid K-2SO that has the film’s best and funniest lines. The new villain Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn, does just enough to keep things moving, but really doesn’t add all that much to the latter half of the story. The story itself seems a bit lost at times near the midpoint of the film, but sets up an exciting final act. The special effects are excellent. The space battles and aliens are topnotch. But the trickiest stuff is bringing to life two major digitally created characters: A droid, and even more difficult, a human that is already well known to the audience. While the film stands up well on its own, there are plenty of nods to the first “Star Wars.” Some are important plot points, others are just fun references.
**** out of *****