Rogue One has problems which, like TFA, come out the more you watch it and as more time grows between watching it. However, it's a good movie, better than TFA in my opinion. But it's not a great movie. Spoilers ahead, of course.
The Music is subpar because the composer had a month and a half to write it. Of these, though, I like the soft tune of Star Dust.
There's weird elements to 'connect' the movie to the series, as well. Darth Vader was mishandled here for the most part. We did not need to see him humanized and definitely did not need to see him weak, and we definitely did not need to see that he - no, it was better to never make - that he has a damn tower of EVILLLLLLLL on *Mustafar*. We did not need to see him taking a bath, surrounded by guards, and even has some dude he's so trustworthy of to come in while he's bathing who looks like a sith. Hell, we didn't need the force choke. We just needed a terrible dragon, who should had hung around the Imperials, mow down rebels, and that's it. The Doctor and his buddy from the Cantina scene in IV comes up - he must had left quickly, because the city they're in is destroyed a few hours later at most.
The mood was okay. Dark movies are hard to pull off, but Rogue One sort of does it. Saw should had been - and I think he was - a much more greater character. Scenes from the trailer don't make it to the movie, but the movie still works, I just wonder how it would had been if the more morally ambigous, jaded Saw stuck around a bit more. Even just something for Jyn to lament about to Saw, hammering the point down that these guys are considered extremists by the already tense Rebellion; but all we got was the rough handling of a defector, mind-torture by a weird alien, an ambush in the crowded street, and some close 'friendly fire' - these guys aren't the Al Nursa of Star Wars, they're more of the Mujadeen, while the Rebels themselves are some sort of mix of WW2 Partisans, but without the ideological differences, just strategic-tactical impressions. Trust me, it could had been a lot more dark, such as the shooting of prisoners, impressment or abuse of collaborators and loyalists, more wanton destruction without moving civs out of the danger, etc, etc. Even just having the cliche of the 'hero saving the crying baby' could had been cut short by the kid being hit by a bolt and just collapsing in front of Jyn, with the ambiguity of just WHO fired the shot.
The Empire is done a bit well. The infighting, the utter pulling of the rug of each other's feet, the fighting between Tarkin and Krennic - one aspect of Nazism was how the Fuhrer would encourage such infighting, leading to inefficency and problems all due to a warped sense of social darwinism and competition; and here it shows. Tarkin kills thousands of Imperials just to remove the competition, and that's expected; since the Empire is supposed to be this hash of the worst authoritarian, fascist regimes we've had in addition to the Roman parallels. Tip: Fascism, even on paper, does require an outlet for the drive of the state, and at best it could be a arms or technological race; but more often than not it descends into scapegoating, militarism, and all out continous warfare. Can that work? Who knows, but so far we've come to the conclusion that it won't - eventually, someone will be too big and too efficent to topple; there's always a bigger fish, and even just fighting one war is a strain on any nation; much less continious, constant war. And then add infighting and the inefficent economies these regimes find themselves inheriting and making, collapse comes.
The Characters themselves - there might have been too many? They felt undercook. We literally are following these people for a day or two. Not that we can't have fleshed out characters by that time, friendships can be made in hours; but some came out far more well than others. Blaze and Chirruc; K2SO, Jyn and Cassian, Bodhi... I can understand their motives, but the level of connection is weak, but sufficent enough for me to care. Bodhi loved his boss, enough to defect for him, enough to get the word out of this terrible machine the Empire was making. Cassian fighting the long fight; but because of Jyn, starts to mellow out just a bit. Jyn, who just wants to live, but comes to terms that the Empire has crossed a line. Blaze and Chirruc, old buddies of the old ways, who just saw not just their home destroyed but their religion to the Empire, K2S0; who, um, well, he was a funny droid, but he keeps saying 'Because Cassian told me to', but by the end he does respect Jyn and the others because of the constant hardships and struggles they endure. Tarkin and Krennic are literally two snapping dogs around the feet of the Emperor, but we already know Tarkin wins, and he wins just too easily, Krennic is the one who even gets his clothes dirty to defend his office. Galen Erso is the stereotypical good-scientist, bad employer; but he gives a sort of a good reason which fits star wars - "If I didn't do it, someone else would had done it, and they wouldn't had given others a chance to take it down." And he loves his daughter. His wife is the same, and nearly kills Krennic in the beginning, but she, well, dies early on, more of something for Jyn to put in her own portfolio. The Valiant admiral who strikes for the rebellion, damn the politics, the general who wants the job done, the Marshal who wants to do something but is constrained by politics and the bigger picture but doesn't mind if her underlings do something. And Organa, who should have a higher post in the pecking order but just hangs around, doing his best to keep the rebellion alive.
I can see where they were going with the characters, but even a few more lines, a look, a pause could had added a bit more to them. I felt some pangs when they mostly kicked the bucket, even Bodhi - in fact, Bodhi does add a lot with his lines and his eyes; his terror when being jostled around, his urge to help, and then at the end when he does his part and gets a grenade for it. Bodhi worked. K2SO worked on the comic side. There was apparently a thing between Cassian and Jyn, but they both felt the same to me, they have an obligatory fight, suffer, and then make up, but I don't know. Came as a bit too rushed?
On the eye candy side, this movie doesn't disappoint, especially the battle over Scarrif. That was edge-of-the-seat thrilling. The locations feel real, save the damn tower of evil. The bustling, seedy streets of Jedha. The scrambled mess which is Yavin IV. The frantic engineers and techies of the Empire on Scarrif. Stuff like that. It's all in the little details and things, to make the world feel alive.
Random musing: The Death Star should had destroyed a planet just to confirm that it works, but maybe that would had been just too much for us to take in, especially since the only other real place it can blow up that we would care about as an audience is Scarrif.
I liked it. But from a critic standpoint, it'll be a 6/10, while personally I like it a lot, 9/10. I hope the writing at least gets a little better for the next dozen movies Disney is going to crank out.
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