Almost perfect, should have been Episode 3.5

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2016)

Rather than repeat what other reviewers have said, this review focuses on something very special about this film that no one has been mentioning in the right way.
That is, I focus on discussing the degree to which this motion picture achieves the degree of cinematic spectacle for which the original Star Wars films were so famous.
Many people don't remember what it was like to watch Star Wars projected off of a true 70mm print, on a huge, towering screen. Quentin Tarrantino does, so he has been pressing lately for 70mm to make a comeback. JJ Abrams shot part of The Force Awakens on 70mm IMAX film. But most fans haven't seen a good 70mm projection in forever.
It's only recently, with the dawn of 8k movie cameras and 4k projectors, that movies are finally starting to appear close to how they once looked, if you go to the right cinema.
However the problem with the Force Awakens is that JJ's style of cinematography and shot composition does not really take full advantage of the full scale spectacle. He still has a TV director's mentality, so in The Force Awakens the shots focused in on close shots of the actors, with the ongoing battle action mostly relegated to digitally motion blurred background goings-on.
In TFA, almost none of the action scenes involving space ships actually took place in outer space. And almost none of them were much more than highly unrealistic seeming combat with crazy chase cameras and the characters pulling off ridiculous, super-hero level maneuvers on a consistent basis, without even really trying.
The over-the-top-ness of TFA's space scenes and seeming invincibility of friendly pilots honestly detracted from JJ's film as spectacle. All the extra motion blur required for JJ's style also seems to make 4K rather pointless.
On the other hand, the original Star Wars trilogy featured hyper-realistic, high-resolution 70mm projections of extremely detailed hand-made models of Star Destroyers and the Millennium Falcon, etc. Space battles took place mostly in outer space. There were plenty of wide shots showing the whole massive battle in RoTJ's final act, with huge ships colliding and fighters all over the place.
But the key quality of the originals was the hyper-realism of the ships. You felt fully convinced they were REAL. They did not look the slightest bit fake, and the action that played out always had enough good guys dying all around you, that you genuinely felt the main characters were in danger, which made it a truly exciting space battle spectacle to watch.
RoTJ especially did an amazing job of interweaving space battle footage with the goings- on on Endor and in the Death Star, brilliantly portraying various simultaneous plot lines in a way that kept the excitement at a fevered pitch. All that is only possible when the viewer's disbelief is properly suspended, which is contingent upon everything seeming REAL and PLAUSIBLE as opposed to ridiculous and cartoonish.
Enter Rogue One.
Rogue One somehow manages to finally capture the hyper-realism of space battles that made the first trilogy great, while doing it digitally in an almost seamless manner (only the digital characters were a bit of a let down, but it was darn close to fooling me, and it didn't bother me that much). And it does this while cutting between four simultaneous plot lines that dovetail into the most perfect ending ever in a Star Wars film.
This movie is proof that digital effects have now finally become capable of the realism of the originals.
It also handles the "seedy crime-infested spaceport town" better than any of the films. It introduces a bevy of new types of aliens, ships, and bad guys without seeming like it was really trying to. We see a host of various planets, all extremely distinct, including one really awesome scene that was pure fan service for Sith lovers everywhere without feeling like forced fan service.
All in all, this director needs to do more Star Wars, including hopefully the final Episode 9. I felt this flick combined the best qualities of all the Star Wars films and tells a truly tragic and sad tale that had me choked up at the end. And it really puts the "War" back in Star Wars.
The only reason I don't give it 10 out of 10 is the digital actors were obviously digital, and one or two of the supporting cast just did not really pull their weight. But those aspects can be overlooked as the performances were still not bad, they just weren't extraordinarily memorable. But it's still better than the digital characters and supporting cast of the last four Star Wars film releases, so 9/10 feels appropriate to me.