Sheer joy except for two small details

Rating: 9/10 (8 April 2017)

Gareth Edwards did everything right. Rogue one is better than most recent biddings; a lot in many ways. This being despite the fact Rogue One doesn't have the benefit of the old characters or the Falcon. To begin with it has a story fitting more into the original saga and not borrowing from other episodes. There are more than a few nods to ep 4-6 and in particular ep 4 since it's ending more or less where A new hope begins. Second, Gareth has continued Abrams ambition of making special effects look real. Of course they use cgi but he really wanted to shoot on location etc. The result is everything I liked about A new hope but way better. As for the characters they are pretty much spot on. Even more so compared to "Force". The actors in TFA did an goodt job but the ones here seem more real or logical. Now, the only two things I can think of are these: Removing the classical intro with the crawling text is a bit like removing the barrel shot from James Bond. It's really a small thing but I feel it´s essential. And why for Gods sake did they alter the masterpiece by John Williams? I mean REALLY?? Why not ad Metallica-ish guitars to Beethoven?? If it hadn't been for those two the movie would have been a 10/10.