Rogue one is true awakening in The Force

Rating: 10/10 (30 December 2016)

No spoilers. Rogue 1 is the true awakening of the force. While last year's cash grab made all 6 previous movies pointless, all our favorite heroes dirty and all their sacrifices and struggle irrelevant Rogue 1 only makes original trilogy better by explaining some important plot holes (boy how many hours did we spend with friends laughing about how stupid constructor of a Death Star must have been to build so vulnerable station – well Rogue 1 has the last laugh!). It must have been made by true fans of everything that made original Star Wars great and not by some childish pretender who can only see the surface and doesn't understand the essence. This movie is with The Force and The Force is with the Rogue 1.
Beginning may be a bit slow for some people used to today's action movies in which plot is only an excuse for some pointless combat but I myself prefer this kind of film structure in which first you have to learn why people do things they do. Finale on the other hand has no equal. And I'm not only referring to other Star Wars movies. It was so spectacular that I couldn't sleep that night when I came back from the cinema. When I close my eyes I see magnificent scenes from Rogue 1. I watched original trilogy dozens of times, some scenes hundreds of times , I watched flawed prequel trilogy a lot too and it also had some good scenes, and while I will maybe never watch Force Awakens again I know that I will be rewinding Rogue 1 and watching some moments over and over again.
There is nostalgia in this movie but it's not there just to trick you into liking this movie. It's there because it truly is real original great Star Wars movie in it's very core, you could literally make smooth transition between last scene of Rogue 1 and first scene of New Hope and you almost wouldn't notice that another film just started (and that's what I'm intending to do when Rogue 1 comes out!). It's also great standalone film. You don't have to know anything about other Star Wars movies to enjoy it and it makes it even better for Star Wars fan. When someday I will show my child Star Wars I would now have to decide if just maybe I should start with Rogue 1.
It really pains me to watch most of action movies, as often it seems that screenwriter was the worst payed person in whole crew. In Rogue 1 I would really have to search hole in whole to attack a plot. Story was really solid and could stand on its own even if it wasn't set in Star Wars universe. As I mentioned above movie explains some questions concerning New Hope and some quite familiar characters (one in particular), we can also see even more of how tyrannical Imperial regime really was, we learn that Rebellion also isn't a monolith but quite interesting group of people with different approaches. Humor was well placed and paced and unconstrained. It wasn't one liner fest. I feel that every dialogue had sense and it was there for some reason. There was even one inspiring speech which actually inspired me! Usually in moments like these I go in my head "oh come on stop", but when Jyn was delivering her speech she was making sense and her arguments were convincing.
Soundtrack was OK it did its job and I know it was there which I couldn't really say about previous movie. For me Star Wars was literally a space Opera or rather space symphony. I was watching beautiful scenes with no dialogue enjoying music and sights. And Rogue 1 has that quality too. Sights are magnificent, when spaceship is flying, even in battle you can see it clearly, camera doesn't fly like crazy, you can really see what's going on. I don't know if it was just me but I also really liked ship's landing scenes or when the ship flies by I find it very aesthetic and majestic and Rogue 1 has plenty of this awe inspiring moments and also plenty of action packed fight scenes.
Actors do a very good job, I really liked main cast a lot. Forest Whitaker was a bit overplayed, but on the other how do you not overplay a madman? Diego Luna was excellent as ruthless rebel driven by revenge, Donnie Yen was adorable human Yoda and like no other he showed us The Force really exists. After watching trailers I had many doubts to Felicity Jones as her character seemed too audacious and disrespectful with all this "I rebel!" etc. and I really want my heroes to care for what they do and be afraid to die, because if they don't care why should I? But I was wrong, she was simply great. And she wasn't some MaRey Sue either. I also had doubts about main villain but he was just repulsive enough to be believable and not some child's vision of how mad space nazi would behave. CGI characters could have been made better, I was a bit put off but I my fiancé who didn't grow up with Tarkins face said she didn't notice he was CGI character.
I can't wait for more movies by the authors of Rogue 1 it is without a doubt the best movie of this year and I couldn't honestly say that any of the original trilogy films is better that Rogue 1.