The first Star Wars anthology works well

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2016)

To preface I did read Catalyst: A Star Wars story before watching the movie so my opinion is through that eye. This movie for me was amazing. I mean I really loved this film quite a bit. I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I did with Force Awakens, but I still came out with a huge grin on my face when it was all over.
The film starts a little bit slow. It takes time to introduce all the characters and tie up some plot points that were left in the book. The movie is a bit bumpy with the lack of a opening crawl which I felt was a huge issue for me and something this movie could of used to better set the scene and explain to fans where this movie takes place in the Star Wars time line.
But from the second act to the last the movie really ramps up and gets really intense. Characters die at the hands of enemies. Things start to falter very quickly as the rebels fight to make sure that the death star hands don't get back into the hands of the Empire before it is to late for things to change.
The character of Krennic is a really interesting character who you can't help but feel bad for. This is a man who wanted nothing than to be accepted by Darth Vader and Tarkin as a equal, but sadly was never able to do that as the two absolutely shun him away, and never hear him out.
Felicity Jones I thought could of used a bit more depth to her character though. We get some idea of what type of person she is and her back story, but it sadly isn't enough to really make us care about her in the way we do for some of the other characters.
This whole film really is lacking in the character department as it focuses a lot on plot. And that is a little bit of a hindrance and makes it not as fun and vibrant as the Force Awakens, but even so it is still a very strong film that is a much needed add on to the rest of the Star Wars universe.