The action and nostalgia help cover a weak narrative and under-developed/used characters (SPOILERS)

Rating: Null/10 (29 March 2017)

The power of the Star Wars brand is significant to say the least, and it is this that carries this film, although to say it does it alone is to do it a disservice – although it is a prequel to the original trilogy, this is not 'the' prequels in terms of quality. Unlike those films, this one gets the action and impact right. It has been said it has been made for adult, and it has in so much that it is not aimed at children – although those are not the same thing.
The plot dovetails into the original film nicely. There is a lot of nostalgic pleasure to be had seeing the various links to the original film, and there are plenty of direct references as well as 'easter eggs' in there to be had. This is different from the plot being good though, because mostly it isn't great. The action and movement covers for it, but mostly it seems to be a bit contrived in making scenes happen, and it doesn't really produce an organic feel to the end. In terms of tone it does have a good 'war movie' element – and the fact that pretty much everyone in it dies adds to this, but yet it didn't feel as dark as the content suggested.
Partly this is down to the plot not being as compelling or tight as it could have been, but it is also down to the characters not really winning me over. In some cases this is because they feel really undeveloped (Jyn, Andor) or just underused (almost everyone else). The action is great, and has plenty of effects while still managing to stay out of 'cartoonish' territory. The recreation of characters from the original film is also impressive – still ever so slightly 'uncanny valley' but impressive nonetheless. Credit to the sets, costumes, and casting too – it really has the look and feel of the original film; not just in the recreation of the sets, but in smaller things like the abundance of British actors (and in particular the use of generally older British men in the Empire's crews).
I did enjoy Rogue One for what it was, however at the same time I know that the nostalgia, branding, and big budget action did a lot to keep me entertained, even while the writing, characters, and narrative were all short of what they could have been. It is much better than the other prequels, but it is certainly not the Empire equivalent that some claim.