Oh, it's... beautiful

Rating: 8/10 (30 December 2016)

Rogue One ("How the Death Star plans were stolen") is an entertaining flick with strong moments and a few issues; inferior to the original trilogy and superior to the prequels, I'd rate it higher than The Force Awakens as well because at least it's not a remake of A New Hope.
The film does plenty of things right - the look of it, in particular, is perfect; sets, effects and costumes are great, with a "lived-in" feel which is classic Star Wars. Edwards is a fine visual director, his set-pieces are neat and stylish. Rogue One also features a rare case of clever retcon: the Death Star's fatal structural flaw was implanted as a revenge by a Rebel-sympathizing scientist. Not bad.
Also, the final hallway scene restores in a minute all the sense of menace Darth Vader lost with the Attack of the Clones - the one prequel I completely dislike, as it portrayed Anakin Skywalker as an emo teen.
The main issue is haphazard characterization. Characters are well-cast and competently acted but they are sketchily drawn, missing moments of development which would have made them pop to life.
Felicity Jones's Jyn Erso (Dark Forces reference duly noted) has two father figures but interacts meaningfully with neither, and goes in the space of a few hours (though admittedly eventful hours) from cynical loner to idealistic leader making pep talks about hope. Diego Luna's Cassian has a promising "Han shoots Greedo" scene at the beginning but then we never learn the reason of his devotion to the Rebel Alliance. Forrest Whitaker's interesting Saw Gerrera gets little screen-time after a long build-up.
Donnie Yen has some cool moments but blind monk Chirrut and trigger-happy pal Baze (Wen Jiang) feel more like NPCs with great stats in a role-playing game than fleshed-out characters. The Alan Tudyk-voiced robot (possibly inspired by KOTOR's HK-47) is droll.
Riz Ahmed's pilot is underwritten for such a crucial role; we don't learn what made him desert the Empire, but we do get a confrontation with a lie-detecting octopus (?) which is supposed to drive him insane but just leaves him a bit weird for a couple of scenes. It's a silly moment which sums up the movie's aimless approach to characterization (either cut the scene or give it meaningful consequences).
The lack of arcs and developed relationships make several supposedly emotional moments feel unearned - like Baze calling Jyn "little sister" near the end (I think that was the second time they spoke to each other) and Bodhi's "For you, Galen!" (the two never share a scene).
In fact, the more coherent character is villain Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn): a smug, amoral officer who is way over his head dealing with bigger fishes like Vader and Tarkin.
Speaking of Tarkin, he is played by a CGI version of Peter Cushing; although it looks good as far as these things go - and they don't go THAT far yet, a seamless CGI human is still impossible without the uncanny valley effect - pasting a dead actor's appearance into a movie he didn't choose to be a part of, in a role he had no creative influence over, is creepy. As iconic as Cushing was, just recast the part.
There are also some puzzingly strange narrative choices. The pilot in the final battle should be flying a ship, not plugging cables. To say nothing of Krennic, who (SPOILERS) is shot down not by Jyn, whose family he destroyed, but by Cassian, with whom he has zero connections. Although Krennic's final moments - hoist with his own petard - are fine.
Rogue One was just a few tweaks away from greatness... still, for me it's the best Star Wars movie in thirty years.
8/10