Best Star Wars movie

Rating: 10/10 (14 May 2020)

I was surprised to see the rating of this movie is not as good as the original trilogy, let alone The Force Awakens. This movie This one fits perfectly between Episode III and IV and fills at least one major plot hole in the latter. This movie introduces lovable characters which I would've loved to explore more and this all happens without any forced cringeworthy love interests (looking at you casual incest and Episode IX). Yes it does benefit
a little from the nostalgia bonus but not far as much as the original trilogy and the sequels do, despite including some original characters. Including those is a necessity for continuity and it isn't what makes this movie great.
The story revolves around Jyn Erso and the tragedy of her family, the conflict between that, the empire, the rebels and the blueprints of the Death Star. Eventually they are lead to Scarif, which is the final destination of our main characters who are once not (as heavily and obviously) guarded by plot armor. The atmosphere created in this whole segment is simply mesmerizing (not only limited to Scarif) with great visuals and the characters sacrificing themselves one by one for the greater cause. When recognizing the rebels' plans, the empire has the great solution to simply destroy the whole planet literally firing all hard working people without notice. They were successful at that but so were Jyn and Cassian, managing to finish the necessary deed before. As the Death Star's ray hit the planet, they were down by the seaside. Knowing that this is the end, they just hugged (not kissed (!)) one last time as the light eventually swallowed them. This was a tragically beautiful end for the remaining characters of this story (while not overdoing it) and what happens next simply serves as a direct transition to Episode IV.