Star Wars Rogue One

I know I'm a little late on this one, but I just watched it last week and that was DBS week, so it kind of took precedence.

Star Wars Rogue One finally answers the question anyone with sense has asked since the original Star Wars, "Why did the Empire build the Death Star with such a simple and obvious weakness?" The answer is that the architect actually did want it destroyed, which, once that fact is revealed, is the only logical explanation.

The movie opens with the architect, Galen Erso, being approached by the Empire demanding that he help them build the Death Star. He is very reluctant, but he has a family he must protect and to do this, he relents so that his daughter, Jyn, can escape. The movie then skips forward to Jyn's adulthood when she gets rescued from prison by the Rebels because they found out that Saw Gerrara, a family friend, got a message from Galen and she may be the only one who can get the inside track on the architect to bring down the Empire. The specific rebels who get her are Cassian Andor and K-2SO, a droid that used to belong to the Empire but got reprogrammed to work for the Rebels and is a bit glitchy, so now he's a sarcastic prick that plays like a more badass C-3PO(who has a cameo). Cassian mostly follows orders and kills without qustion when it suits the mission and is as cold as a droid, but over the course of the movie both he and K-2SO develop more emotion and care for those around them. The Rogue One crew is rounded out by Bodhi Rook, an imperial pilot who defected to deliver Galen's message, and Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, the last guardians of the crystal mines beneath the sacred city of Jedha where the power source of light sabers came from. Chirrut is the resident badass of the movie because he is a blind monk who has learned to use the Force to fight without sight. Chirrut and Baze are just sort of in the wrong place at the wrong time, getting mixed up with the others for no real good reason, but if you're paying attention, you realize they are guardians of something that no longer needs guarding and this is their last chance to be relevant. Also, the moon they're on gets blown up and they survive only beause they get away with the crew, so it's totally worth letting these two badasses tag along.

The message from Galen Erso was meant for Jyn and explains that he worked for the Empire because he knew they would build the Death Star without him but at least if he cooperated he could build in a weakness, and now that it's complete and ready to destroy planets, he needs for the secret weakness to be known to the rebels. From there the movie is pretty predictable, but that's what makes it interesting, you know how it ends, because it ends where the original Star Wars begins, you know the mission succeeds, you just sit back and watch the events unfold. Chirrut and K-2SO are the best for reasons already stated, but there's alos plenty of easter eggs for fans. Dart Vader and Grand Moff Tarkin both make appearances, the latter utilizing CGI to recreate the original face from over forty years ago, so flawless you won't know unless you think to look for it. Other familiar faces who pop up include Mon Mothma and Bail Organna, Leia's adoptive father, who has a sad moment nea the end when he mentions going back to Alderaan and we know how that goes. Also, pay very close attention and you'll see or hear some old minor rebel members, and astute observers will recognize the guys from the Mos Eisley Cantina who had a fight with Luke Skywalker that ended with Obi Wan Kenobi cutting off one guy's arm with a lght saber as they bump into Jyn Erso on the street. And of course there are a few other nods to Star Wars of the past, including catch phrases like "May the Force be with you" and "I have a bad feeling about this" and on an unrelated nerd note, there is a second where you see K-2SO in the cockpit flipping switches overhead the same way Wash did on Firefly, both characters played by Alan Tudyk, and since he did the motion capture I am 99% certain he did the motion as a wink to his fans.

Now that we've settled the question about the Death Star's weakness, can we work on explaining how Luke Skywalker lived on his father's home planet, with his father's step brother under his father's name and was never found in ~20 years?