Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the second Star Wars movie to come out in the 2010s and takes place right before Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope. It all starts when a former scientist, Galen Erso, who used to work for the Empire, is discovered working on a farm by the evil Orson Krennic, who is currently working for the emperor. Galen gets stripped from his family and is forced to work for the vicious Empire, or it will be the end of everything that he holds dear. After many years later, Galen becomes the top engineer for the project and gets put in charge of a project that involves building a destructive weapon called the Death Star. However, because Galen knows how powerful his weapon is and how it will be used, he created a minor flaw in the system that could destroy the entire weapon with one shot. The scientist informs an old friend about this flaw, and this friend informs Galen's daughter, Jyn. Jyn, who after a slew of events finds her self helping out the Rebel Alliance, decides to become a spy, and together with a few recently friended acquaintances, she finds herself trying to send the rebels the blueprint to destroying the Death Star, but because the Empire knows about this, this precious information may be the downfall of everyone. 
 

Although the movie certainly isn't perfect, it manages to become a somewhat enjoyable and entertaining movie that serves as a brilliant prequel. The transition between the end of this movie and the beginning of Episode IV could not have been smoother and is one of the main highlights of the movie, because it manages to accomplish the movie's main goal: providing a fun prequel that can explain how things come to be in later movies. The movie manages to provide a sufficient explanation for how the Death Star can have so many faults, in a manner that provides some excitement, but more than that, it serves as away to connect Episodes I-III with Episodes IV-VI.  

 The beginning of the movie isn't the greatest; it introduces a lot of characters way too fast, and because of all of the introductions, they aren't able to shine in their own right. The middle of the movie starts to get a little better, and there are a few witty scenes and enjoyable one-liners throughout this part. However, by the end of the movie, the characters are able to shine the most, and during this part, there's the most intensity and suspension by far. The ending connects incredibly with the rest of the franchise and is definitely the best aspect of the movie. 
 

Although the movie is decent and certainly is watchable, it is definitely not the best in the series, and that could be due to the lead character in the movie, Jyn. The actress plays the role with little to no emotion, and most of her lines are monologues instead of perfectly timed, powerful quotes. Even though the lead should be the best character to watch, she is by far one of the worst characters on the screen. One of the androids in the movie has more emotion than the lead. If the lead of the movie had been someone like Chirrut, a relatable, blind man with an obsession of the force, the movie would be much more entertaining and could definitely reach the next level of success. 

 Even though the tone of the movie starts off very frolic-like and light, the tone quickly changes by the end and becomes similar to a dark, war movie. And although this isn't necessarily a bad thing, if the tone of the movie had been on the darker side throughout, the story would be more cohesive and would be all that much better. The vividly pleasing visual effects are fairly good, and the super special effects are able to get the job done and then some when they're needed. 
 

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has a few faults, but critics and viewers seemed to be satisfied with the movie. Rotten Tomatoes gave the movie a fairly high 85%, which is actually higher than Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi. A whopping 89% of Google users liked the movie, which could be because fans were ecstatic that the movie wasn't as bad or as unhelpful to the franchise as Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is worth watching for people who have already invested lots of time into the Star Wars franchise, but for those who haven't seen the other movies, this isn't the best movie to start with to dive into this spectacular franchise.