Given what happened five weeks ago you really couldn’t call for better timing of this movie. It’s called Rogue One but the everlasting theme is Hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a world free of oppression. Hope for the resistance. You can’t tell me the writers saw this coming. But it came.

While .01 percent will boycott the movie, take that message of hope and wrap it up in your head.
Jyn (Felicity Jones) steals the plans for the Death Star and fights the Empire. Not with Jedi mind tricks. Not with The Force. It’s just her and her misfits. That’s it. There is something so beautiful is saying, if you just fight hard enough, even though you’re not anointed like Anakin, you can can take down the man that became Vader.

I’m going to tell you right now that this is Jyn’s story. She is the leader of the Rebellion and we haven’t had a bad ass female fighter since Leia. No, Natalie Portman can go home and never come back, and Daisey Ridley was too young to be our grown ass woman. But Jyn. Jyn has zero figs to give and she is all about the fight. Think, Xena Warrior Princess. There is a beautiful b-plot about her father and I feel like we’ll get more of him in upcoming episodes.

As good as Jyn is, she can’t have this fight without Cassian (Luna). In earlier episodes of Star Wars some characters are too flimsy written. Think Lando Calrissian, who I hear is getting a proper rewrite come Episode 8. What they did with Cassian and realize that he’s not a sidekick but the next episode which is genius to plant that plot now. He is the foundation to her slight radicalness.

I talk about the Snowman in Frozen and the Chicken in Moana because they are absolutely genius characters that steal the show. Same thing happens here with Chirrut and K-2SO. There are scenes where they are the whole God damn movie. Chirrut is the hype man that will get any ant ready for a fight. His battle scene were unbelievable choreography. Stunning.

You could tell the whole cast took time to be the rebellion. I mean it. They came together to say, we have to been the misfits in real life if this movie is going to work.

There’s a good amount of scenes from the trailer that I’m telling you right now, don’t make it in the film. I think that’s a good thing. It reminds me of Mad Men trailers. Where you watch the episode and the trailer was so vague you get a nice surprise.

This is a fight movie. This is the all heart Rebellion vs the Empire who is more powerful, better funded, and in all honestly has no reason to lose to a bunch of nobodies. And then something happens. To Darth Vader. To Mister Invincible.

Expect to watch an extension of the Empire Strikes back where the Force Awakens was a follow up to New Hope. Expect something you haven’t seen before really in Star Wars. There are no special powers in this fight. It’s all grit. Like Rocky.

Rating: 10/10
Who is going to see this: Star Wars fans first. Laymans will make it in the theater by week three.