Very solid and satisfying despite not being as engaging as I might've liked at times

Rating: 8/10 (22 December 2016)

Though I thoroughly enjoyed the original trilogy and liked The Force Awakens, I'm not exactly an obsessive fan of Star Wars; I like it, but I haven't even bothered to watch the films multiple times. But even for someone who lacks that craving for fan service, Rogue One managed to fill the bill for being an enjoyable movie. It's far from perfect, considering the characters aren't THAT compelling and I often found myself simply failing to track with what was happening in the movie and actually losing focus, but honestly, at the end of the day, it's was still very satisfying. They took a pretty small story focus - one small element that went into the events of Episode IV happening - and managed to create an entire movie out of it. Ultimately, I think that small focus is the most intriguing element of the movie and a major reason I liked it so much - because I just found it so interesting that they managed to do so much with one small thing (not saving the galaxy, just one step to saving the galaxy!) and it sort of sent a message of the impact of one's actions. It's not a matter of being THE one to "save the day", but doing something that ensures that other people will be able to continue the fight you started, and how utterly valuable that can be. It's about being brave and doing the right thing, even if you're not the one who will be remembered, because your actions still make a difference. Having a lot of disparate characters thrown in actually helped with this - each character may have not gotten an enormous amount of development or especially deep characterization, but they all were a part of a story that was essential to the salvation of a galaxy. Remarkably, the lack of detailed characterization actually created a feel that served the story's "message", because it showed that even the people we didn't remember for their personalities or who didn't seem particularly special can be part of what it takes to do what needs to be done to impact countless lives.
Maybe this wasn't really an incredibly engrossing film with an immaculately crafted story and characters, but it was still very well done in many regards (with the action scenes, visual impact, and overall sense of intensity and darkness when necessary being particularly excellent highlights) and definitely had that Star Wars feel, and even if it wasn't quite "amazing" overall, it had this amazing kernel of goodness, of a truly heroic story, that I couldn't help but love.