Puts the war in Star Wars

Rating: 8/10 (14 December 2016)

Firstly, this movie is very enjoyable. I wouldn't say it's a great movie because the story and characters are second to the action. The story is as follows, get the Death Star plans. That's it. It's a prequel so we all know how that turns out, but the ride is very enjoyable.
The first 1/3 of the film is the worst. It's a lot of new characters jammed in to a very small section. It's rushed, the characters remain underdeveloped and it ultimately is pointless. There's a lot of switching between story lines and planets that detracts from what's going on. One minute they're on Jedha, the next they're on Yavin IV, the next some prison planet, some rain planet, a floating asteroid city... they could have cut the prison planet out entirely, they could have cut the asteroid city out entirely and it still would have been the same movie. Forrest Whittaker's Saw Gerrera didn't need to be in the film, none of his scenes are important. They could have given his storyline to the blind guy (names are weird, complicated and easily forgettable in this film). We see some good action from the rebels in the cramped city streets, we see the Death Star, it's good! We also see CGI Tarkin, it's not good! Don't know why he was included, really distracting and detracts from the good Krennic scenes.
The second 1/3 is better, we get K2SO more, he's the toy every kid (and adult sized kids) will want. We're not jumping from planet to planet as much. We get some great TIE vs X- wing battles. Not much in the way of character development but it wasn't detrimental to the story. We do get the Rogue 1 team together for the first time. We see Vader, it's very good! All in all, very solid middle section sets up the finale.
The final 1/3 is FANTASTIC! It's everything about Star Wars that's great. Stormtroopers, AT-ATs, X-Wings, Y-Wings, the new U-Wings, TIE fighters, Star Destroyers, Mon Calamari fleet, the Death Star. THIS PUTS THE WAR IN STAR WARS! It's fantastically brutal, it's frenetic, it's BRILLIANT!!!!! We see Vader on a tear up. We see CGI Leia which is v.good. This saves what would have been a pretty mediocre film.
Pros: Scarif, K2SO. blind guy and his mate, VADER
Cons: CGI Tarkin, Too many planets, poor character development, pointless scenes, CGI Tarkin, Not enough Scarif, CGI Tarkin.