Too much content for a single movie

Rating: 9/10 (25 December 2016)

...but the movie was good enough in spite of its shortcomings.
As far as I'm concerned, this movie was excellent because it offers a fresh perspective on the Star Wars universe.
To get the negative aspects out of the way - almost every downside is a consequence of the amount of content presented in a very short time frame (2h15m~). In my opinion, the only way to present this content while keeping overall quality would be to make it a series of roughly 10 episodes.
I'm not gonna start breaking this movie down to would-be episodes but I'll mention one thing:
The most important issue - the lack of character depth - is directly related to the length of the movie and the amount of events. If the characters were properly developed we'd be reviewing a Star Wars version of "The young and the restless". The action and events would have to be "implied".
As it stands, the characters would easily evolve between Galen's "abduction" and his death (in a series). Once the characters would be properly developed, nothing would stand in the way of the rapid succession of events.
Now here's what I did like about the movie.
Unlike every other Star Wars episode, it didn't have that feeling of a PG12 rated film due to embarrassing dialogue and behavior and most importantly - it offered us a new perspective - that of non-force sensitive people.
The action is largely comprised of blaster shootouts, space battles and a few melee encounters (mostly Chirrut and K-2SO).
Those hoping to see some lightsaber action would be disappointed (mostly). Otherwise this movie offers great insight into Star Wars' background as a whole.
While the ending scene was truly masterfully done, it wouldn't mean anything without the rest of the movie. The entire action and the whole perspective I mentioned earlier lead up to this final moment. Vader shows up and cuts through the ranks of the rebels like an unstoppable force. There's no escape and there's nobody there to challenge him. There's only his presence and an overwhelming sense of doom.
If you're a fan looking to learn more about the Star Wars universe then this is right up your alley.
If you're in it just to see some lightsaber duels - that's not what's going on here. But you might wanna give it a shot anyway.