I actually think this should have been two films. I think all the exposition they tried to cram in to get you backstory in the first 45 minutes should have been in a separate film, allowing us to jump off with the rescue mission of Erso and the trip to Jedha. Jyn’s childhood just didn’t fit in the film and I think it made it seem like they couldn’t find a better way to tell you how the Erso’s got to this point.
God two films… and here I am just starting to wonder if they ever really gave much of a reason for even the one existing (beyond it being really cool and fun to watch).
See, I agree with this also. I told a friend immediately after seeing it that I loved it but it was also completely pointless. It was so self-contained that it created these new characters and then wiped them away. What it left were people we already had that didn’t need this fleshing out. Yes, it was great to see Tarkin be brilliant but we already knew he was from Cushing’s performance. Yes, it was great to see Vader in his temple and in attacking people but we already knew Vader was badass. It didn’t grow the universe any more than those two hours we saw. It cut off any potential branches it could have.
Although, it did give us a family that now rivals the Skywalker’s as the worst for the galaxy.
But I really did love this film, much more than TFA.