The darker, more realistic version of A New Hope

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2016)

So, I watched Rogue One, and it was a rehash for A New Hope again! Isn't it ironic how Disney threw to the bin whatever ideas George Lukas had for the new trilogy, only to reuse the old ideas again and again? The Force Awakens was more of a remake that a sequel, and the same applies for Rogue One as a prequel. Only difference, it's bloody amazing.
For me, the worst thing in the Star Wars universe was always the plot convenience of the force. It doesn't play a role in this movie. They talk about it, Darth Vader uses it a few times but it otherwise doesn't conveniently control the plot in any way the author likes. Major positive.
A silly thing about the classic Star Wars movies is how black and white they were presenting the characters. In this movie there are imperial agents who don't act like 1 dimensional villains and help out the rebellion, as there are rebels who are doing some really nasty things for the sake of defeating the empire. Without the mystical bull of the force separating everything into good or bad, the characters are acting more realistically by default. And I love it.
Another positive is the risk/reward ratio. The reason many consider The Empire Strikes Back to be the best of the old trilogy is because the good guys suffer great loses without scoring a big victory at the end. I personally don't like as much because it was riddled with force nonsense, which is absent in this movie, yet still feels like it's the same situation of great losses / small victories that helps the tragedy of war to feel far more significant than it ever was before.
They even made the destruction caused by the Death Star to feel more impactful despite causing a fraction of the damage it does in A New Hope. It doesn't just fire a laser at something, makes it blow up, and that's it. It causes such a shock wave that is forcing the character to run away from it before it envelops them. And you even see the cloud of debris it causes for an extended period of time, which was brilliant.
They even fix one of the nonsense of old movies. Remember how silly it felt for Death Star to have a little hole as its weak spot? This movie explains it as a booby trapped position that the creator of the whole contraption placed there which then recorded it in the specific schematics the rebels are supposed to use. A very positive retcon.
There are also a ton of references, cameos, and Easter eggs from the old trilogy, which in this case they are not that much fan service, as they are foreshadowing things to come. It's not like they were out of context, the events in the time line are taking place a few months before A New Hope, so every familiar face and catchphrase was supposed to be there.
In the negatives of the film, I would say the characters were very forgettable, which is to be expected since they are all essentially small fry members of both factions. The second a cameo appears, they are instantly overshadowed. It also has to do with the fact that none of them survives in the end so we can see them for 2 more movies and get to like them more.
Another negative is the slow having a mostly empty first half. The buildup is not engaging but when the climax arrives, it is totally worth it. In the long run, it's even a positive, since it keeps your expectation low, only to surprise you with how much more entertaining and tragic it becomes later on.
By the way, I kept hearing complains about some characters being CGI instead of using look-alikes. I didn't have an issue with that, they looked OK, mouth motions were meh but whatever.
So as a whole, The Force Awakens is the boring kid friendly version of A New Hope, whereas Rogue One is the darker more realistic version, and I loved it.