Saw the movie a few hours ago, and took a moment to collect my thoughts.
Overall, I really liked it, BUT, it was also very flawed at times.
Starting with what I liked:
- The whole final act. The space battle was EPIC. Everything you would want from Star Wars
- Darth Vader, his final scene where he kills all those rebels was so, so good. Had a massive nerdgasm. Such a badass.
- The robot was funny (forgot is name :-\)
- Computer Tarkin and Leia were cool. Although I saw through the ruse pretty quickly, it was very well done. The last shot with Leia was fantastic.
- Holy shit Gold and Red leader were in this movie!! The original ones!!! Had a second nerdgasm at this point. Re-using footage from IV was just great.
- Some great locations.
- The movie gave a solid reason as to why the Death Star can be destroyed pretty easy, that was fantastic! It makes IV even better.
- The whole last scene where they manage to get the plans to Leia was great, very tense.
- The movie literally ends where IV begins, really cool.
- Bail Organa was in the movie, cool little nod to episode III!
- Was that ship that pushed that Star Destroyer a KOTOR ship? Sure looked like it!
Now what I did not like...
- The whole first act of this movie was just bad. Like, 10 minutes in and we've seen 4 locations already. That's too much. Characters got introduced really quickly, it felt so rushed and it was messy.
- Why was Forest Whitaker in this movie? His role seemed pointless.
- I saw that a lot of people had problems with this, and me too: I didn't care about these characters at all. Jyn was dull, Cassian was dull and the rest was dull. Who are these people? Why should we care? Why are they fighting? I really needed more from this. It made the drama less impactful. So when they all died I was like, yeah ok that's sad I guess? And come on, Jyn and Cassian could at least have tried to get of the planet but they just gave up? Really wierd.
- The C-3PO and R2-D2 cameo was just put in for the cameo, it was a bit pointless
There is more stuff, but these are my biggest points. I'm absolutely going to watch it again!
One thing I did not understand however:
Wasn't Leia's mission to go to Obi-Wan? Why was she present at the battle in the first place? Nobody knew the plans would be transmitted.