Rogue One: A Star Wars Story – Sci-Fi Fun!

I am a fan of the franchise, but I was beginning to wonder whether Disney could keep churning out good Star Wars movies.  The first 40 minutes of "Rogue One" were slow, but this was necessary because it's a stand-alone story and the characters and circumstances needed to be developed.  The last 80 minutes, however, really kicked ass! Did you ever wonder why the Empire's first Death Star - the Ultimate War Weapon (UWW) - had such a glaring vulnerability that allowed the rebels to destroy it?  This movie answers that critical question which had tormented me for over 30 years!  (Now, I can finally get a good night's sleep!) The film is a prequel to Episode IV: "A New Hope."  Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) gets captured by the Empire, and, either voluntarily or via coercion, spends about 20 years making the Death Star battle-ready.  His only child, Jyn (Felicity Jones), escaped when her father was taken by the Empire.  She is now a young woman, although not involved with the Rebels.  The Rebels have just learned that the Empire may have built a super-weapon that can destroy entire planets!  Jyn soon joins the Rebels and a small contingent of them go on a very dangerous mission to try to steal the Death Star construction plans in the hope of discovering some way to defeat it.  Their courage and sacrifice on this mission is the stuff of which legends are made! The film has arguably the best star-ship battles in any of the films, and the plot is an interesting one.  The last 30 minutes are very exciting and emotionally-compelling.  Felicity Jones is terrific as the heroine.  Darth Vader (James Earl Jones' voice) is only in a couple of brief scenes, but he's one mean dude (OMD) when he's on the BS. I'd launch into hyper-space and see it ASAP!