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Rogue One

New Hope for a franchise

Basically the tale of the heroics and sacrifices involved in obtaining the “Help me, Obiwan” intelligence on the Death Star’s single vulnerability that was so pivotal to the 1977 Star Wars plot. While it works well enough within the Star Wars mythos to give new hope to fan boys, its stand-alone nature also makes it accessible to SW neophytes. Needless to say, the SFX space battle scenes are jaw-dropping, with one or two rousing “samurai” sequences to keep things on a human scale. Bottom line: It’s the movie you were hoping for when you went to see those misbegotten Episodes 1, 2 & 3. (134 min)