Charles Rampant
Explorer
I just saw this last night. Wonderful film. I'm not really one for ranking stuff, but I'll say that I consider this around as good as IV, V, and VII. The tone was really great, serving as a 'darkest moment before the dawn of a new hope' - I loved moments like Jyn saying, "May the Force be with us" to the low cheer from the troops (and Donnie Chen's character smiling), the bravery of men and women in a desperate, doomed battle, and the irony of Krennic getting to look down the barrel of his own gun. It retrospectively made the events of the original trilogy that much more desperate - we now know just how much was sacrificed so that the farm boy could turn off his targeting computer - and included enough nods to the prequels and the TV shows (that I've not seen) to serve as a good bridge between the two. Of course, the excessively shiny prequel technology remains a binder, but that isn't going away short of re-filming the entire prequel trilogy - which I wouldn't put past Disney. The characters had real presence and personality to me, and I felt every death as it came, especially since they were all so well acted. The capstone to it all was the horrific but exhiliarating corridor scene, with the rebel troops fighting and dying just for a chance that the plans could make it out. The first scene with Vader felt a bit unnecessary, but that one was really excellent to me - and now we know that Leia truly had brass balls, to go and smart-talk Vader the day after he nearly cut his way onto her ship. Also, her line there is now hilarious - "This is a diplomatic ship!", to which Vader clearly should have replied, "Senator, I just saw your ship detach from a Rebellion frigate in the middle of a warzone."
I understand that Disney viewed this film as an experiment - do something Star Wars but not about the Skywalkers, see whether people are interested in just general stories in the universe. Since it is making crazy money, it seems safe to assume that we'll get other spinoff stories; I'm hoping that they stay away from other 'gapfilling' exercises (Young Han! Young Lando! What happened between II and III!) but instead branch outwards.
I understand that Disney viewed this film as an experiment - do something Star Wars but not about the Skywalkers, see whether people are interested in just general stories in the universe. Since it is making crazy money, it seems safe to assume that we'll get other spinoff stories; I'm hoping that they stay away from other 'gapfilling' exercises (Young Han! Young Lando! What happened between II and III!) but instead branch outwards.