After Disney’s largely successful revival of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the studio is now seeking to replicate its success by creating various spinoffs. The first of these films is entitled “Rogue One.” The film, directed by Gareth Edwards, features stars Felicity Jones, Diego Lunna and Mads Mikkelson. The film follows the story of the covert rebel mission to steal the plans for the Death Star from the first Star Wars movie – the 1977 movie and not the crappy prequels that featured the altogether objectionable Jar Jar Binks.

One thing that is noticeable right off the bat in “Rogue One” is how different in tone it is from the other “Star Wars” films. Gone are the days of fun action and adventure, as it has been replaced with a gritty war movie that holds a notable edge and “boots on the ground” approach to the rebel’s struggle against the empire.

However, despite its initial attempts to differentiate itself from the previous movies, it does still rely on tried-and-true elements of a traditional “Star Wars” movie, mostly manifesting in a number of unnecessary and forced cameos from everyone from Darth Vader to a CGI rendering of Princes Leia. These felt out of place and diluted the already overly busy movie.

Another notable element of “Rogue One” is it’s absolutely stunning action scenes. Edwards renders the epic battles of the “Star Wars” universe with impeccable detail. His skills at portraying the large scale of objects greatly contributes to the battle scenes as you greatly feel the size of the giant sci-fi vehicles.

One of the major problems in the film is a lack of character development. The characters portrayed feel shallow and underdeveloped, especially the two main leads who seem to have no notable personality outside of “slightly edgy hero guy,” which is a sharp contrast from the deeply likable and interesting leads of “Force Awakens.” This is a major issue as “Rogue One” is a very character focused movie, but unfortunately their lack of personality made some scenes, which should have been tense and emotional, dull and left the audience feel disconnected.

Rogue One is ultimately a fun and engaging movie and it mostly succeeds in differentiating itself from the main trilogy. However, un-engaging characters and a boring story keep it from being any more than an entertaining distraction. 7/10.