Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards) - 2016

This is the movie that answers two nagging syfy questions: 1. How did Princess Leia get that copy of the Death Star plans? and (more importantly), 2. How can we squeeze one more prequel out of the Star Wars franchise?  A more accurate film title would be "Star Wars Episode 3.5: Disney Strikes Again".  This story takes place approximately the same time as Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith when Anakin Skywalker was getting all Darth Vadery.  Felicity Jones stars as a semi-orphan who leads a ragtag bunch of rebels against the massive forces of The Empire.  It sound familiar but lets go with it.  There is a lot of special effects fighting here and an enormous amount of bullet/laser dodging (being force-ful helps) but not nearly enough alien creatures.  And, there is not one new character who will appear in a future episode.  If this had been the first or only "Star Wars" movie, everybody would be saying: "What was that all about?"  [JAM 1/26/2017]