Good but not great (Spoiler warning)

Rating: 7/10 (24 March 2017)

People can say what they want about Ep 7 but I enjoyed it far more than Rogue One. While I liked the darker aspect of Rogue One, I wish we could have seen it before all the reshoots were forced (heh) upon it.
Ep 7 was more fun and developed it's new characters better, and there was some great humor in the movie. By comparison, there is very little humor in Rogue One, save for the new droid (probably the most entertaining character to me).
In terms of this movie, I personally didn't care about not seeing the opening crawl, but more jarring to me was the use of titles explaining the planets/locations, which I didn't need (it was never done in any previous Star Wars movies - why start now?).
The music didn't feel like Star Wars at all (I understand it had to be composed rather quickly, but sorry - not my problem). There was very little use of the main themes and even when they did appear it was like "hey, you know it's Star Wars - here's the music to say so".
The CG actors were OK but still not 100% convincing enough for me. They could have been referred to in the story and I would have been fine with that. At best they should have been shown from afar or as one of them is first shown in a window reflection and left it at that.
In terms of new characters, I liked Jyn but the other lead actor with her had too thick of an accent to be that much in the foreground. His voice should have been dubbed, and his character was generally unlikable to begin with. It seemed like there may have been a subplot to show him turning around (character-wise) or at least being morally ambiguous, but the final cut makes it clear that any potential for this will never see the light of day. The other characters were all throwaways and was no point in getting attached to them. Watching them get killed off later on has basically zero emotional impact because of this. Also, there is no Han Solo type of character, and all the fun interplay between them (like in Empire Strikes Back) does not exist here whatsoever.
I did like the rebels vs rebels idea, and the new Droid was fun without overdoing it. The new villain was good, though indirectly undermined by including two old characters along with him. One neat idea that did work was that you get to see the Death Star's weaponry being used and it's not perfect off the bat.
There is little combat to be found for the first two thirds of the film, so the battle in the last part by far has the most action and felt the most "Star Wars"-ish. However, the combat is all shot in that completely overused and overblown shaky cam style that is just revolting to watch at this point, and it felt completely out of place for a Star Wars movie.
The scenes with Vader were the highlight of the film by far, as short lived as they were. I found his last scenes to be the most entertaining....And then the film basically just ends. A rip off if you ask me. There was a perfect opportunity to have him appear sooner, more often, or even just make him the main villain again - none of which happened sadly.
Overall, it really didn't feel that much like Star Wars, but more like a war film disguised as Star Wars with just enough fan service to get by. I really didn't expect much, but there really was no point in this movie being made in the first place. In the long run, it serves no real purpose in the story line considering you will never see these characters ever again in any other movies. Personally, I'm getting tired of Hollywood feeling some need to explain backstories to characters or story events (stop doing it, we need some mystery in our lives), only to be done so in a completely lackluster way. That, combined with boring characters that ultimately serve no story purpose. Had this been a short film, or done in a short episodic format like the Clone Wars cartoon was years ago it would have worked far better.
In the end, it's not a horrid film, but it will be the first Star Wars movie in 40 years that I will not buy a physical copy of. As a result, I have no faith in the upcoming Han Solo movie.
Nice try Disney, but you better step it up if you intend to milk the Star Wars cow for all it's worth.