Better than expected, Possibly the best SW movie since Empire (some spoilers)

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2016)

Warning: Some spoilers ahead, including what I would say is the biggest possible spoiler. Yet I don't focus on the spoilers a lot, this is more of an even keeled review.
My background: Pretty avid Star Wars fan. More than most, but not as extreme as some. I've seen all of the movies many times, have read a number of SW extended universe books (when I was a teen). Have played many of the video games.
My exposure to the movie prior to watching: Minimal. I hate spoilers and actively avoided watching trailers or reading anything about the movie. I heard it was about finding the plans to the death star and that is about all I knew.
Overall: I like the direction Disney took this. This is a fantastic add to the SW universe and I'm pumped for more.
What I liked: - The movie had a fair amount of grit to it. Some of the elements reminded me of WW2 movies.

This movie felt like a war movie. Probably the most of any SW's movie I've seen.

No Jedi. (Unless you count Vader). I thought this was awesome. Past installments have focused way too much on the Jedi, especially the prequels. I felt like that focus destroyed the mythos and reverence of the Jedi. I was so glad to get a look at the SW universe without a Jedi main character. It was really awesome.

The overall story made more sense and felt less contrived than parts of Episode VII. Some exceptions to the ending though.

Everyone dies. I think this is the first western Hollywood produced movies where all of the main cast dies. This blew my mind. This is more common in foreign films. I did NOT expect that to happen at all. I actually thought this was pretty awesome. It hopefully helps to set expectations of mortality and fear in future movies.

Reminded me of Game of Thrones due to the grit and the main cast deaths. But RO doesn't have Game of Thrones nudity or political maneuvering.

Decent plot. Some may argue against this due to the audience largely knowing the outcome if they know SW. Again, I knew nothing about the movie going in, and I found the back story and the way the movie evolved all very interested and not predictable. I largely don't care for predictable movies, and I was surprised up the the very ending of the movie by what was occurring. At one point I was actually upset that it wouldn't end and sync with other SW canon, but it played out true to form at the end.

The droid was awesome, whatever it's name was. Wow. C3-P0 move over. Great humor and for me - a very likable member of the cast. I was shocked by his death. I should have seen that as a precursor of what was to come but I didn't think Disney had it in them.

The cast. I liked them all and their performances were well done and pulled you into the story.

Tarkin and Leia faces. Tarkin was for sure CG (boy is CG getting good). Leia was really well done. I couldn't tell for sure if it was CG or not.

The clips from Ep IV that they put in. As a deep fan, I loved this callback.

Some of the action scenes were great.

I'm glad they didn't contrive some love scene / serious romance at the end. That would have been lame and really forced. The way it was done was in good taste and it ended perfectly from my point of view.

Neutral: Vader combat scenes. Was probably fan service, but at the same time - Vader was a badass, so it was nice to see him cut a swath through some rebels. Helps give context / background to folks who aren't as up on the lore.
What I didn't like: - I missed the opening main crawl. Not a big ding, but still sad to part ways from tradition in that manner. Also the opening to the asteroid belt was a bit on the lame side. Definitely the weakest opening of all SW movies that I can think of (talking about the first 30 seconds or so). Ep 4 killed it here of course.

Soundtrack really wasn't great. I had higher hopes. Probably on the same level as Ep 7. Nothing that really stood out to me too much. Not really a con, but a con because it didn't meet my expectations. This isn't to say the soundtrack is bad. It's just not remarkable.

A few parts did feel contrived or forced for two reasons: 1. Fan service. 2. To make everything fit canon.

Vader choking the director. Felt like fan service and not necessary.

I still am confused as to how convenient it was that Leia's ship just happened to be docked with the main Rebel capital ship. I can't think of a logical reason other than it being contrived for plot. Not a huge ding, but does break the immersion a bit for me.

They focused too much on fighter combat (X-wings, Y-wings) than I would have liked. I actually would love to see some more capital ship on capital ship combat (like episode 3 did). Not a huge complaint, but something that would have been nice. Because they didn't do this, I feel that the audience doesn't have a good grasp of the seriousness of the space battle happening.