Saw it, really liked it. Truly thoroughly entertaining throughout.
Not a lot of complaints. The beginning jumps around way too much (I’m sure most will agree), they easily could have cut Cassian and Bodhi’s first scenes which would have really simplified it. CG Tarkin (and Leia) weren’t as bad as I expected but also weren’t perfect. Pretty close though honestly (especially when they’re not talking). Red and Gold leader were really fun too and the only cameos I wasn’t expecting (well besides Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba but I wasn’t too crazy about that one). The bits with Vader were kinda fan servicey. I’ll say I’m okay with the second because it was pretty cool but the first was sort of pointless (and shot poorly as well). The fact that everyone died was kind of nice, a luxury that the other films don’t have. Made for some powerful moments. Still, it kind of teetered on feeling contrived with each character being ticked off one by one (with some of the deaths less graceful than others). Finally, and those were mainly nitpicks, my main beef with the film is how close it comes to greatness but doesn’t quite reach it. It was all set up perfectly - the first real war movie in the franchise, gritty, etc., all about the Rebel alliance and the different methods of the different factions within it. They just about scratch the surface, but don’t quite get to saying much interesting on the nature of morality in war/revolution. And the new characters, I do like them all, but I don’t care as much about their suffering as I think I should. I wanted more from them. I didn’t feel nearly sad enough when Galen died, and I read Catalyst (I can only imagine how I’d have felt if I hadn’t). Honestly at the very least I’d have loved to see that father/daughter dynamic expanded upon. And Krennic? What happened there? A true standout in Catalyst and really not much more than another Imperial here, honestly. Too bad.
Ultimately it’s just sort of a blockbuster, which is okay, that is exactly what it is, but I do believe it could have been a bit more. I hate to say that the stylistic change it made from the saga films was to just become a bit more generic sic-fi action movie, but, I think that might be sort of true. Still, it was really fun to see a movie in my the universe without the usual feel. And damn, my review is starting to sound pretty negative but I pretty much had a grin on my face the full runtime. This is one fun movie, with some fantastic visuals and action sequences. Pretty excited to see it again tomorrow night.
Not as good as TFA, though.
On another note, super fascinating to watch the trailers after the fact. Seriously wow. Watching the movie I occasionally wonder what might’ve been reshoots but it was all pretty seamless. But having seen the trailers, there were definitely some big changes made, especially in regards in Jyn and Cassian’s characterizations. You can sort of get a sense of how things might have played out from them but I’d love a full explanation as to what got changed during the reshoots.
