Like the super weapon of the film, it's flawed, yet entertaining

Rating: 5/10 (26 December 2016)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is my most anticipated movie of the year and did it exceed all of my expectations? No, not really. Don't get me wrong, it's still an entertaining film, but it didn't quite felt like a Star Wars film. From the opening, it felt not right. We didn't get the iconic opening scroll as we have gotten with every other Star Wars film. But since this is a stand alone film, I can sort of understand why they did it, but what is a Star Wars film without it's iconic opening scroll?
The rest of the film is kind of a mixed bag of positive and negative things. I'll go on with the positives first. First of, this film looks gorgeous. This might be the best looking Star Wars film yet. I'm generally not a fan of the overuse of CGI, but CGI is near perfection. So that's already a big plus. The action sequences are phenomenal and shot outstandingly. With the two greatest action scenes been the fight between Donnie Yen's character and the group of Stormtroopers, and the final massacre of the Rebelions by Darth Vader.
By that I go straight into my favorite segment of this film, with that been Darth Vader. Vader in this film is purely a badass and the most sinister villain ever created for the big screen. Vader is beyond perfection in this film, so I of course wish we got to see more of him. Another great character in this film that was brought into this film with motion capture, is Grand Moff Tarkin. Originally played by Peter Cushing and brought back to live with motion capture. Unlike Vader, I wish a bit less of Tarkin. Don't get me wrong, I love the character, but after a while, you start to notice that it's a cgi face and not a real human being.
The films biggest flaw is its pacing. Although I found to be every scene interesting and fun to look at, the film felt utterly long. It made me wanna look at my watch for a brief second, but I luckily resisted. The characters also weren't as fleshed out as I wanted them to be. Some characters felt as if they had more story to them, but maybe with the re edits and re shootings, some of the scenes got cut. Therefore making place for other scenes.
So Star Wars: Rogue One is an entertaining film, filled with great scenes stretched throughout the film, but the final product isn't that overwhelming. It's still worth seeing in cinemas if you must, but I'd recommend waiting for it to come out on Blu ray or DVD.