Rogue One is an utter triumph and will take your breath away with a smattering of unexpected treats

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (12A) 143 mins

SITTING in the busiest screening I’ve been to all year, I pondered the expectations on Gareth Edwards’ shoulders.

Not only has he leaped from a Godzilla reboot into the Star Wars franchise, he’s been set the task of delivering the first spin-off from the main saga series.

New characters, no real remit other than make it absolutely awesome and whatever you do, DON’T COCK IT UP. No pressure!

Advance details were thin on the ground.

We knew it was set at some point between Episodes III and IV and, based on a snippet of info in the opening crawl sequence of A New Hope, hinting at the tale of rebels who had given everything in order to steal blueprints of the Death Star, opening the door for a young man named Skywalker . . .

But that was kind of it.

All we knew was this was to be a quite different Star Wars adventure — grittier and more of a war film than a look at The Force.

I wanted dogfights, courage, Guns of Navarone, The Dam Busters, Apocalypse Now, Vader, Boba Fett, a glimpse of Wookie (also the name of my new band), blue milk, X-wings, Tie Fighters, cliffhangers, Force chokes, Jedi.

Does it deliver those things?

Roughly 85 per cent.

It leaves some out, but completely takes your breath away with a smattering of unexpected treats.

Edwards has steered this space juggernaut wisely through nostalgia.

It’s not quite the middle-aged weep fest that The Force Awakens was, but everything is as familiar as your childhood bedroom.

Edwards and Disney’s genius here is in how intrinsically entwined Rogue One is to the movies set after it.

I would estimate that Rogue One ends about ten minutes before A New Hope begins, and the way that is revealed will give you goosebumps on your goosebumps.

All bar a smattering of characters are new.

We have Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of Galen (Mads Mikkelsen), a man in hiding after being forced against his will to complete the Empire’s new weapons project.

As destiny plays heavily in all these films, Jyn finds herself in the midst of the rebellion, buddying up with Diego Luna’s Captain Cassian Andor and Alan Tudyk’s wonderful droid, K-2SO.

Out of these three leads the standout performance is easily our CGI friend.

The withering cynicism of Tudyk’s performance steals every single scene — arguably the best character on screen this year.

While there is nothing particularly wrong with Felicity Jones or any others (with the exception of Forest Whitaker who is quite dreadful), the soggy Lucas-esque script doesn’t allow anyone much scope for anything special.

There are glimmers of wonder in Donnie Chun’s blind warrior Chirrut Îmwe, sprinkling a bit of Obi Wan on proceedings.

And Riz Ahmed grows into his role as a defective imperial pilot.

But it’s clear these lot aren’t here to pontificate, they’re here to unleash a merry hell of whoop-ass on the Imperial Army — and after a sludgy middle-act, Rogue One goes utterly, completely bats**t amazing.

The final 30-minute battle has scale, ambition, personal sacrifices, effects, peril — it’s all there.

It doffs its cap to all the classics and kept every single person spellbound.

It is quite a sight to see and its bittersweet conclusion felt properly Star Wars.

There are some shonky words, some shonky acting and I sadly counted no more than half a dozen women with speaking roles (all but one of them white) — but that aside this is an utter triumph.

A seriously great film, possibly even in Star Wars’ top three.

★★★★☆