Lights and shadows

Rating: 7/10 (30 December 2016)

I consider rating movies starting from the topmost vote, i.e. 10, and then detracting for each weak spot/issue I think to discover. This movie is a 7/10 and here are the weak spots:
1: CGI - I don't think it was necessary to have Takin and Leia fully featured close to real actors - holographic transmissions could have done better if they didn't want to rewrite the story. The point is, while it looks good, it isn't convincing at all! I think all of this because they 2: desperately want seamless story integration: this is neither feasible, it seems, nor it does make any sense: why do you have to put figures in it that we know already and are not taking any part in this story? Just to "recall" that we're in the Star Wars universe? What's the reason to briefly show the two criminals from the Mos Eisley cantina or R2D2 together with C3PO? Why does the movie end there right where episode IV/I takes off? If there wouldn't be this pressure, a lot of wrong issues could have been avoided: a CGI Leia, a insanely mad Vader (at the beginning of ep IV/I his mood is then different), the story about the death-star plans (did they examined the dialogue between Vader and Leia in the beginning of ep IV/I precisely before writing/shooting Rogue One)? 3: Music ... incredibly, there's no Williams music expect for the ending. Which could have been a good thing IF the music was inspiring and compelling... it isn't. The sad thing: I noticed it somewhere in the first third. It sounds like a disinterested music score, not really amplifying what's going on screen.. as if it was written for another cut of the same movie.
The plus point go to the actors, to the action sequences, to the story (expect for the above aspects) and to photographic shooting. Some shots are astounding.
However, it's Star Wars. I won't watch this one a second time, but will wait for the blu-ray release.