Rogue One: Star Wars without glowing swords?

Rating: 7/10 (26 December 2016)

Rogue One is an odd creature.
I saw it with a couple of friends not really expecting anything. I love Star Wars and I even partly enjoy the notorious prequel trilogy, but I forced myself to not have too high hopes coming into Rogue One and the result was... decent.
It's annoying that I couldn't really love this film because by all accounts I should. Rogue One offers the audience a more in-depth look into the Star Wars universe, it offers a glance behind the scenes and what happens with normal people, or at least more normal than Jedi and Sith Lords. Jyn Erso, the main character, isn't some 'chosen one' or powerful jedi, she's just a girl who's daddy worked and now works for the Empire.
In fact none of these characters are particularly special in that sense. The other members of Rogue One, although not all delicately expanded, are still relatable and most are good fun, most notably K- 2SO and the rebel member, Cassian. The villain, Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) is also not someone particularly special, just an influential individual in the Empire. It's not the 'Vader Show', an easy trap to fall into.
But despite this there's something about this film that just doesn't do it for me. The character of Jyn Erso is far superior in terms of characterisation to last year's 'Rey' but there's still much left to be desired. These characters, although plentiful, are not all that interesting and when the film tries to make the audience see that in some respects the Rebllion is no better than the Empire I feel it focuses on the wrong aspects and misses the mark.
I feel Rogue One wanted to introduce a moral grey to the Star Wars universe, a sense that although the Empire is bad and Rebels good that the Rebellion doesn't exactly employ totally moral means to always achieve its aims, but I rarely ever felt that. By the end of the film it felt like the same old boring 'good vs bad' with an awfully predictable ending mainly due to the fact that 'A New Hope' exists. There's no tension regarding whether the Death Star plans will be recovered because everyone already knows they will be.
I was originally going to award this film 6 stars but the last five minutes of the film (anyone who's seen it will agree) is so well made I had to give it an extra. It's not as good as the originals in my book, probably not as good as 'Force Awakens' and maybe not even as good as 'Revenge of the Sith' but it's still a pretty fun show with some nice gems here and there. I just wished it could've gone the extra mile and kept the gems coming throughout.