The big thing for me is the spy aspect of RO since it’s played up with several references in ANH, especially in the omniscient crawl. I (and I’m sure others) were hoping for and even expecting a spy thriller set in the Star Wars universe, whereas what we got was more of a disaster/war movie with several large military engagements and several attacks from a weapon that is only fully complete in the next film.

I remember in the lead-up to release people were talking about how the plans would be stolen, going through scenarios such as infiltrating Imperial social functions or even getting close to a high-ranking official with a female spy. Star Wars in my opinion is great when it works in different genres, such as ESB having a more horror aspect, ROTS being operatic tragedy, or AOTC having elements of Rebel Without a Cause mixed with detective noir. RO had the potential to push the envelope again into Spy Thriller territory, and when we got more boilerplate Star Wars with only a minor twist it felt like a missed opportunity.

None of this is to take away from the many great things about RO, by the way, or to say that anyone’s wrong for liking the film as-is. I’m happy with so many of the things we got, but I can’t help but feel like there was a more clear and daring choice.