Dark Star

We went to see Rogue One. It was that or Eddie Redmayne in the HP spin off, and I said I would prefer the Star Wars saga. This is [if I have got my head round it] the 4th one, chronologically - set immediately before the original Star Wars - A New Hope [1977]
Vue Cinemas Norwich is an excellent venue , you can buy tickets, and prebook seats online, and you get free parking.
You pick up tickets very quickly from the machine on arrival - BUT then you have to join the massive regular ticket queue to get your car park ticket stamped and qualify for free parking. Bad planning imho!
But back to the film - good points

1. good acting, great special effects
2. lots of reference, obvious and oblique, to the other films in the SW oeuvre.

weak points

1. very dark - both in terms of the way the set was lit - in places it was gloomier than BBC's Jamaica Inn!! - and also in terms of plot.
2. Unnecessarily high body count, I thought
3. That CGI Peter Cushing was rather strange

two other things

WHY haven't we got more females in important roles this film? There were 5 females who had speaking parts in the entire film, and possibly [not sure, their hoods were up] a few peasants in the market who were not blokes. I guess that they would have to redesign the Storm Trooper Uniform to accommodate boobs, if there were going to be 'bad' girls. But we could certainly do with more feisty rebel 'good' girls.

FINALLY I spent a lot of the film feeling sad about Carrie Fisher. 

I thought it was infinitely better than Revenge of the Sith.

But I will not give 5 stars without either Harrison Ford, Euan McGregor or Alec Guinness on the cast list

I cannot give 3½stars out of five, so will be generous and say ****

... HOPE is a good an appropriate theme, for the film, and for this New Year