I liked:
-A new crew to get behind that worked well together, even if they didn't have much development. Likeable characters you're rooting for (or the lack of them) is the backbone of what made Star Wars great, and why the prequels flopped the way they did.
-That they all died. It was the only way this story could be told. Anything else would have been unacceptable.
-Vader was used just the right amount. Would have been really easy for them to mess that up. Hell they even gave us something to stop the 'Kylo is so powerful he stopped a laser blast in mid-air, Vader didn't do anything that cool'
-Similarly, only one light sabre and its use was less than a minute of screen time.
-Glimpse at the Imperial power structure, a few more egos and people with ambition that such a system would be ripe with. Also the Rebel politics since it would also have a pretty tumultuous set-up as well.
-The cheesy lines from the trailers weren't there (particularly "I rebel.")
-No crawl. Leave that for the saga, a good choice.
-The convenience of the weakness in ANH is explained, is plausible, and done well.
I didn't like
-We didn't really get to learn who Jyn was. Nothing is built of her 'world'. This is where TFA blew this out of the park. The 5 minutes of 'a day in the life of Rey' taught us a lot. We even see this better in the Marvel universe and other stories. Goes from a cell to a transport and that's about it. Sure she's a prisoner, but some glimpse at how hopeless she may be could have used just a minute or two more of story building IMO.
-Similarly I would have liked to see more about Cassian and his 'day'. Talk to a couple more people, how he gets recruits and informants, then go talk to the guy who sets off the mission. Basically a bit more about how the Rebellion worked at his level
-That Leia's ship was attached to the cruiser. I it was the end of a cool scene, but I think it could have happened anyway if the race was to just transmit the plans to her ship. How could she claim it is a diplomatic vessel when it's effectively the lifeboat for the Rebel flagship? Stupid.
-The music. I get they don't want to use the saga score when they can, but this seemed a lot like the bland Marvel Universe scores that are just so forgettable. Star Wars music shouldn't be forgettable.
I absolutely hated
-R2 and 3PO on Yavin 4. What is this. Don't try to make this some kind of Stan Lee thing that they need to be shoehorned into every Star Wars movie. What the hell were they doing there?
All in all it's like a Marvel movie. Which is basically what I expected. Weak start (after the first scene anyway), but got it back together for the end. A good, safe, money making property for the Star Wars universe. But doesn't have the same allure as the saga does for me.
The trailer for Dunkirk was absolutely amazing.
It definitely doesn't need to be seen in 3D (which makes sense because TFA didn't either). Hate that this is a thing for these movies, but money is money I suppose.
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