Romantic without a love story. Thrilling, in the classical sense.

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2016)

You're going to want to see this. If you have children, take them. If you have partners, take them too. Even for the greatest Star Wars hater, there is a character that is likable, a story that is worth sympathising or an action scene that will exhilarate.
Felicity Jones and Diego Luna lead the line supremely with a chemistry that simply put, works. The supporting cast is the perfect foundation and includes a team of different personalities that all seem genuine.
Script-wise, it does the job well. Fans will be pleased that much of the original costumes, characters, themes and sub-plots are introduced also.
The pace of Rogue 1 is a stand-out feature of the film. Without entering montage territory, Gareth Edwards manages to find a way to fast-track through different moments and planet in a quite comfortable fashion, easily digested.
The dog fights and battles retain an original Star Wars trademark to them. LucasArts of old. Our cinema audience applauded multiple times and introductions to these moments and to the finale, a testament to how thrilling these were.
Where perhaps the film is let down, is in the score. When the standards set by John Williams has been so high with iconic scores previously written (Rogue 1's score is not a Williams produce), it is easy to understand that this will be so.
In short, there is truly hope with this anthology series if more of the same follows. Meanwhile, I'm merely excited to re-watch this one.