See, J.J? It's not THAT hard

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2016)

Now, that is how you do a decent spin-off.
After last year's abomination (ie. The Force Awakens) I was very skeptical about Disney's ability to properly handle George Lucas's legacy, but Rogue One delivers in a major way. The story, the characters (K-2 rules!), the performances, the sets, the costumes etc. are all fine. They're fresh, they show variety and scope. But most importantly, Rogue One is NOT dumbed down to insulting imbecility as TFA was.
It's not perfect, alright. It's mostly underlit. It's slower and longer than it should be. Being deliberately and significantly different, it occasionally loses the Star Wars feel. All in all, it's a little rough around the edges (especially CGI Leia's edges), but it does show a LOT more creativity than TFA did, and pays respect to Lucas instead of trampling on everything he'd built up so meticulously.
It's proof that you CAN be original, you CAN be different, even break with established SW conventions (like the absence of the opening crawl), and still retain the REAL spirit of Star Wars.
Rogue One rarely reaches the epic quality of Lucas's six-part saga, but it's a more than acceptable side story. And the spectacular finale that combines the visual grandeur of classic battle scenes from Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi and the original Star Wars, is truly worthy of the Star Wars name.
I've been a major SW fan since 1979. I'm not anti-Disney, anti- Abrams or whatever, and I'm certainly not a 'hater'. TFA made me sad and angry, but this one, this 'rogue one', I CAN accept as a Star Wars movie. Much, much better than TFA in every way.