Until now, the good-evil split in Star Wars has been as cleanly cut as well-carved turkey meat: light and dark tidily arranged on opposite sides of the plate. Rogue One gets stuck into the giblets.

This is the first in a potentially endless series of "Star Wars Stories" spun off from the franchise’s humming fulcrum, and it sides with the Rebellion, which is exactly as you’d expect. This time, though, the good guys aren’t tousled rascals but a covert cell of self-described spies, saboteurs and assassins, staining their hands and consciences in the struggle.

As such, in terms of atmosphere and structure, Rogue One is less of a nostalgia bath than The Force Awakens, last Christmas’s two-billion-grossing franchise-reviver.