Very Mixed Feelings

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2017)

Now, I'm not an old Star Wars fan. I didn't grow up on the films, and to be honest, I only watched them for the first time a couple of years ago to prep for Episode VII, and never even got around to watching VI all the way through, but I loved them. IV and V were so amazing, and yes, the prequels had problems (a lot of problems), but I understood their place and what they were trying to do. I adored The Force Awakens, and I went into Rogue One (albeit late) with high, high hopes. And then... Well.
The first few minutes were stunning, impactful, and I was eagerly waiting to be sucked right into the storyline. And then we saw Jyn. And I just felt myself drifting further and further away from what this movie was trying to make me feel.
I didn't care about Cassian, and I cared about Jyn even less. It takes so long for her to show any emotion, any motivation, that by the time that she did... I couldn't connect with it at all. I had no reason to feel anything but a vague shadow of sympathy that she lost so much, but then it was so... distanced. It felt as though it were a story that a friend of a friend told me about this one person that they met once, rather than this person that I'm supposed to empathize with and admire as a hero.
That isn't to say that I disliked all of the characters. My heart hurt for Bodhi, and I fell in love with K2 and Chirrut and Baze, and I thought most of the references to the original movies were wonderful, but the fact that I couldn't connect with the two main characters seriously hurt my appreciation of where the film went.
The climax, I thought, was wonderful. As soon as the battles picked up, it was a bit overwhelmingly hectic, but that to an extent served a point, showing the chaos of what they were trying to do. I did expect the ending, to a degree, and it have an effect on me... But to me the real saving grace was the last five or so minutes, when the connection to the first films became clear. The way that they tied things together, the line of emotional connection that they managed to pull with the assumption that you know what happens, after the film ends? Wonderful. But it just doesn't make up for everything wrong with the first 2+ hours.
Overall, this movie could have been a lot worse. It very nearly was. But it could have been so, so much better, at least in my opinion.