Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

By George M. Thomas

Felicity Jones and Diego Luna in ROGUE ONE: A STAR

WARS STORY.

Whether a standalone flick free of the Skywalker Chronicles could satisfy the hunger of rabid STAR WARS fans has been a question of debate since the first trilogy wrapped way back when.

It’s been answered with ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY.

If you combine reasonably compelling characters, rip-roaring action, and spectacular special effects, the STAR WARS crowd will flock.  

Witness the second trilogy, after all.

There was never any doubt that there would be other films in the Star Wars Universe after Disney shelled out a reported $4 billion for George Lucas’ little baby that grew from that first set of films – just as there will be more Indiana Jones films. 

Coventry hosts a Star Wars appreciation day, August 6

You would think that a place like hippie-influenced Coventry Road, in Cleveland Heights at a place called P.E.A.C.E. Park, a movie with a title like "Star Wars," mostly oriented around fiendish space weapons and fighting, would get even less of a warm welcome than the Republican Convention. But it's Cleveland, go figure. Originally Coventry Village this year had planned a gala three-day consecutive series of Star Wars nights, showing each entry in the original 1977-1983 trilogy for free in the open air, Thursday-Friday-Saturday. 

But then came a cease-and-desist from the distributor. Nothing personal, just business; you can't do that. The original films are sort of retired from circulation (Disney - now owner of the franchise - pulls that sort of thing a lot). 

But, in a bit of compensation, Coventry Village has fallen back on a booking of 2015's followup STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS for a free public screening Saturday night at 9 p.m. And surrounded it with a day-long mini-festival of Star Wars-y goodness.

Okay, best thing ever: Star Wars nights at local karate/kenpo dojo, February 12 and 26

It’s just like a Star Wars movie, live, happening right in front of you! Only with better acting and dialogue, probably.

Strongsville’s AA Kenpo Karate Studios, following the lead of various similar classes and cosplayers nationwide, now offers “Jedi Lightsaber” classes, a sort of modified form of Japanese swordsmanship tied in with the Star Wars film series.

It’s actually pretty clever, really; arguably one of the best ideas George Lucas had in all of Star Wars was to tap into the Asian martial-arts traditions and conflicts of good master/bad master, an Eastern vibe that most mainstream movie critics didn’t even take very seriously as drama at all until CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON came along. Lucas was way ahead of mainstream tastemakers on that score.

Jedi Junkies (now on home video)

[JEDI JUNKIES is now available on home video.]

Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: a documentary feature on the weirdest, most extreme, way-out and nerd-tastic "Star Wars" fans. Actually, you HAVE heard this before. In fact, there exists a veritable, um, TARDIS-load of documentaries about extreme-fantasy/sci-fi devotees, consumed by their hobbies. There's the TREKKIES series, of course, not to mention RINGERS: LORD OF THE FANS, DARKON and Morgan Spurlock's COMIC CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE. And in that league of extraordinary gentlemen-with-no-girlfriends, there have already been a handful devoted strictly to LucasFilm nuts - 2001's A GALAXY FAR FAR AWAY probably being the best of the lot.

Finished in 2010 but only now showing up on video (as Master yoda might say, beware outdated websites, you must) JEDI JUNKIES doesn't bring much more to the Mos Eisley Cantina table, but it entertains the home viewer with its parade of dweeb-gasmic fans, each vying to outdo the other in a can-you-top-this fashion.