Gives me a new hope for the Star Wars franchise (pun intended)

Rating: 8/10 (21 January 2017)

I went into this movie with no expectations. Having been left utterly dismayed by the abysmal Episode VII (which I'm apparently in the minority in opinion) I was worried that this would also be a quick cash-grab for Disney. Instead, I was amazed by the leeway that this director was given and by the respect that he showed the original series given that this film is a prequel to Episode IV.
The story - nothing too complex here but it's an entertaining story that pulls you in and keeps you interested to find out what happens next. The intro sequence felt a little forced (not sure what the mom was thinking when the storm troopers showed up). The first few scenes jump around a bit too much for my taste, they're meant to introduce characters quickly but it takes a few scenes with each of them before you start to get immersed in their world and struggles. Once the movie hits its pace the characters do a great job playing off of each other and making you care for them.
Alan Tudyk's robot was the highlight of the character reel for me, and his jokes were well-timed and provided a welcome comic relief without being overbearing or forced (a la Jar Jar). Donnie Yen did a very strong job in his role as well with a few nice action scenes. His side-kick Wen Jiang also did a nice job in a supporting role. Felicity Jones did admirably as the lead. The "main" villain, a high up Imperial official was a little over-played and never felt very imposing. Diego Luna's character was just OK, I felt that some of his character development was forced (not necessarily the actor's fault on that).
Pacing - the movie is fast paced and action focused and seemed to jump around a little too quickly. I think it could have used a few more slow character development scenes to break up some of the action.
Being primarily an action movie this had its share of battle scenes and I was very happy to see someone finally do some homage to the original trilogy's great space battles. Donnie got a scene or two to show off his martial arts abilities, but it fit into the mythos well. All the ground battle scenes were typical star wars fare, but done well with some tense blaster fights.
A few mixed bag items. The director used quite a few real sets, which I always appreciate and I think should be used more often than relying on CGI backgrounds as default (my personal preference there). However, while he did this for some of his backgrounds he decided that for some Episode IV characters he wanted to show in his movie he would just bring them back as fully CGI characters. Moff Tarkin is back as a fairly main character and very painful to see, it was a shame they couldn't have just done him as a hologram recording when needed as every time he came on scene I cringed. There's many "easter eggs" in the movie or overt references to things from the original trilogy. Some felt organic or at least humorously done (like two characters from the bar scene in episode IV), but then others felt forced like when the "main" villain reports to one of the higher ups because he wants credit for the death star being built.
All in all, this is a wonderful homage to Star Wars and a worthy prequel to Episode IV. If you were scared that Disney would ruin star wars after seeing VII, then this should assure you that there may still be some gems to come out.