Better Than Empire?

Rating: 4/10 (16 December 2016)

Rogue One is...good. Not great, not bad, just a point or two over "meh." While the action is sure to entertain most (except for the lull in the second act), the screen writing is just not on par with the likes of the Original Trilogy or The Force Awakens. On walking out of the movie, I turned to my girlfriend and asked: "Can you name all of the main characters in the film?", to which she could not. While all of the characters are likable, (especially K2, the droid, voiced by Steve the Pirate!) the film fails to delve any deeper into the characters. All we know of the characters is their basic backgrounds: who they are, and one or two character traits. Instead of getting rich, developed characters, i.e. Empire Strikes Back, we as an audience receive more of the "Suicide Squad" treatment: characters are clunkily introduced and not treated with the screen time and care to create a new memorable cast of adventurers. The fan-service was welcomed in my theater, however I couldn't help thinking that that time spent was time that could have been spent on fleshing out characters. If you are any kind of Star Wars fan, you will enjoy this movie.
May the Force be with you.