Entertaining, looked & sounded good, good addition to Star Wars franchise.

Rating: 8/10 (21 December 2016)

(Originally published on my blog site, whingewood.wordpress.com)
I had mixed feelings going to watch this; I like Star Wars but I really did not like The Force Awakens. However, I try to keep an open mind, so despite some 'meh' trailers for the film, I went to watch it. Any fan of Star Wars will already know the outcome of this film, but the journey is important.
The film looked and sounded great. There have been mixed opinions regarding the characters of Tarkin and Leia; I think they looked excellent, particularly Tarkin, but I know there are those out there that disagree. Based on my own brief research into non-Star Wars fans seeing Tarkin, a lot of them didn't realize that it was CGI.
The overall story was known to everyone going in (get the Death Star plans), but the story around Galen Erso (played by Mads Mikkelsen) and his role in the Death Star was good, and made episode four make a bit more sense (I know it's basically a retcon, but it works).
There's been a fair amount of criticism about lack of character depth for the characters that we are introduced to, and yeah, they don't have much depth, but do they really need to? Sure, you're never really going to feel much when waves of faceless Stormtroopers are mowed down (except maybe FN-2199, more popularly known as TR- 8R), but when that fella whose only contribution all film has been throwing out witty one-liners, and they gets shot to bits, you might be a little sad. Ultimately, this film is more story-driven than character-driven, which is fine.
So, what did it all add up to? Rogue One was entertaining, with great visual effects and a decent storyline. It gives more context to A New Hope, and is definitely a positive addition to the Star Wars franchise.