Star Wars fans have turned their knuckles white awaiting in eager anticipation of this year's franchise offering.

Yet, not without a touch of trepidation; as Rogue One marks the first of Disney's ambitious set of spin-off anthology films, this first entry following a wayward band of Rebel fighters brought together for one improbable mission: steal the plans for the Death Star.

It's been something of a risk for the studio, with the film's self-advertised gritty, war film tone an important step outside of what's come before; a crucial move in expanding the possibilities of what a Star Wars film can be ahead of the likes of the upcoming young Han Solo spin-off.

And it looks as if the studio has (largely) pulled it off; with critics jumping onboard the film's new tone, locations, and characters - though Gareth Edwards' visually stunning world may lack in the emotional impact delivered by last year's The Force Awakens.

Read what the critics thought below.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all entertaining enough, but I sincerely hope the talented directors the Star Wars franchise has lined up for its next instalments are given room to really add to the saga rather than just repeatedly force-feed us what we already love about it.

Rogue One doesn’t really go rogue at any stage, and it isn’t a pop culture event like The Force Awakens, in whose slipstream this appears; part of its charm resides in the eerie, almost dreamlike effect of continually producing familiar elements, reshuffled and reconfigured, a reaching back to the past and hinting at a preordained future.

There’s nothing in Rogue One that would damage or scare most little children, as long as they’re prepared for an on-screen onslaught of the Pantone colors known as Oatmeal and Soot. And while some Donald Trump supporters have vowed to boycott the film—believing, for some tinfoil-helmet reason known only to themselves, that the ending was reshot post-election to incorporate some subliminal, anti-Trump sentiment—looking to Rogue One for any subversive political statement is a fool’s errand. Its politics are numbingly multi-purpose.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Exclusive Launch Event Report

Lobotomized and depersonalized, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the latest entry in the film franchise, is a pure and perfect product that makes last year’s flavor, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, feel like an exemplar of hands-on humanistic warmth and dramatic intimacy.

Rogue One, more so than The Force Awakens, is a Star Wars fanatic’s wet dream. Contained yet expansive, nostalgic yet new, it introduces striking heroes and villains and fills its two hours and 13 minutes with a narrative that fits snugly into canon. But where The Force Awakens leaned on a family-friendly appeal with its innocent do-gooder leads and tantrum-throwing baddie, Rogue One satisfies a darker itch. Its stakes are higher, soaring on the bombastic score of Michael Giacchino, which turns iconic themes into hard-charging new arrangements; its battles are more violent and militaristic.

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.

Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown Show all 7 1 /7 Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown Finally, Mads Mikkelsen's Galen Erso has turned up in a trailer; confirming previous hints that he'd be somehow responsible for the Death Star's construction. However, this new trailer reveals why daughter Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) has become such a rebellious misfit; with Galen having been seized by the Empire when she was a young girl. Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown Which, in turn, illuminates us as to why the Rebellion is so interested in Jyn in the first place; revealing that it's the Empire itself that first arrests her in the film, only to be freed by rebel Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna). Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown This final trailer takes a surprising focus on Galen, who many previously thought would only appear in a minor role. It's interesting to see him here in some kind of Empire garb, which presumes that he may not be an entirely unwillingly prisoner in this situation. Is there a chance Jyn will recover her father, only to discover he's turned to the Dark side? There's definitely a sense in these trailers that Jyn will face some kind of moral struggle in her journey. Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown "They are requesting a call sign." "It's, um, Rogue. Rogue One." OH, THAT'S WHY THEY CALL IT THAT. Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown We've already seen Jyn in her TIE fighter pilot uniform, but this shot at least gives us a better idea of how she got to wearing it. "They've no idea we're coming," Jyn says; as she, Cassian, and K-2SO (an ex-Imperial droid reprogrammed by Cassian) infiltrate enemy territory. Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown Looks like we'll be getting another big space battle. The question is - will this be the film's big finale action sequence? And is this the Death Star under construction? Obviously, we know the Death Star isn't entirely destroyed in the film; but this could somehow connect to the shot from the previous trailer of Jyn coming face-to-face with a TIE fighter. Rogue One final trailer: A shot-by-shot breakdown And, here's some more Darth Vader; now in epic striding mode. Looks like he'll be doing a lot of plotting with Ben Mendelsohn's Orson Krennic.

Taking place just before the events of the first released Star Wars movie in 1977, this spin-off/prequel has the same primitive, lived-in, emotional, loopy, let's-put-on-a-show spirit that made us fall in love with the original trilogy. It's the first stand-alone chapter in the franchise, and not the bridge between then and now that J.J. Abrams cleverly constructed last year with Star Wars: The Force Awakens. As a movie, it can feel alternately slow and rushed, cobbled together out of spare parts, and in need of more time on the drawing board. But the damn thing is alive and bursting with the euphoric joy of discovery that caught us up in the adventurous fun nearly four decades ago.