The Force is weak with this one

Rating: 6/10 (24 December 2016)

I went to see this movie with fairly high expectations. I've seen every live-action Star Wars film, starting with the original trilogy on first release. I was disappointed by the prequels, but greatly enjoyed The Force Awakens, so hoped that the momentum would continue with this "anthology" film. I'd also re-watched Episodes IV, V, and VI the week before Rogue One opened, so the saga would be fresh in my memory.
That said, Rogue One did not feel like a Star Wars film to me. The costumes and setting were there, but the spirit was not. Story and charm were sacrificed for action and (admittedly very impressive) visual effects, and what humor was there felt forced. For example, I knew K-2SO was no C-3PO, but he seemed more like an irritable human wearing a robot suit than a droid in his own right, like Marvin the Paranoid Android from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, except far less funny. And the blind Whill-guardian's constant mumbling mantra about the Force, and others' reactions to this, almost made a mockery of the concept.
Other, arguably nitpicky things were immersion-breaking. A species that has evolved to be capable of faster-than-light travel and planet-destroying, asteroid-sized death machines, should not be storing the schematic for said machine on what appears to be a standard desktop computer hard disk. Said schematic should also be stored under a more secure arrangement than a single name consisting only of letters. Also, the same simple pull-lever was the mechanism to perform two crucial tasks during the battle to retrieve the schematic.
Overall, this entry in the franchise is worth seeing, but that is what I feel this series has become: A franchise. The franchise will likely continue to generate billions of dollars in income regardless of the quality of the stories. I just can't help but prefer the classics from the original trilogy, even with the many "director's cut" revisions that have taken place since the 80's.