Red Leader and Gold Leader take part in the battle above Scarif, looking just like they did during their Death Star runs thanks to unused footage from Episode IV. Bail Organa shows up to allude to Leia and Alderaan and allow Mon Mothma to obliquely bring up Obi-Wan. ‘Rogue One’ Is the Best War Movie Since ‘Saving Private Ryan’ĭarth Vader and Mustafar make it into the movie. And the movie’s positive reviews and big box-office opening (on the heels of even stronger showings by last year’s Episode VII) confirms that Disney’s Star Wars formula - new, but not too new - is a winning one. It’s a prologue to Episode IV that goes out of its way to tie itself to the series’ surrounding texts. But both of those omissions only remind us that Rogue One isn’t really an anthology film.

And yes, the obligatory utterance of one of the franchise’s most famous catchphrases - “I have a bad feeling about this” - gets cut off by Cassian and Jyn, as if to suggest that Rogue One is above such self-plagiarism. No, there’s no opening crawl in Rogue One, which is supposed to send the message that this is something different (even though the movie owes its existence to the crawl that sets the stage for Episode IV). It’s also only one of many such moments in Rogue One, despite director Gareth Edwards’s intent to keep the cameos and self-aware winks to a minimum. The encounter is pure fan service, the sort of Easter egg that makes the costumed segment of the opening-night crowd erupt in applause while the casual fans and their indulgent dates wonder what the fuss is about. This time, no limbs are lost, and no character traits are established.

While walking through the dusty streets, Jyn bumps into two familiar figures from the Mos Eisley Cantina - Ponda Baba, the green guy with the scrotum-mouth, and Cornelius Evazan, the doctor with the death sentence in 12 systems who doesn’t like the looks of Luke Skywalker. In one representative scene, Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) are searching for Cassian’s contact on Jedha, the planet that serves as the source of the crystals used in both lightsabers and the Death Star’s superlaser. But last week, we discovered that its links to the trilogies are even tighter than anticipated.

Rogue One could have fought for independence by keeping the crossovers scarce. Ten More ‘Star Wars’ Stories We Want to See

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