Haven't read the whole thread or anyone's reviews, but thoughts:
- Overall, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed. I had high expectations, to be sure.
- Tarkin (and Leia) are as bad as advertised. Really bad CGI. REALLY bad. It will be a huge punchline forever.
- I was afraid of this... way too many callbacks. The Aqualish and his buddy who bother Luke on Tatooine. 3P0 and R2 thrown in where it made nooooo sense; they're crew on the Tantive IV but are randomly in the HQ and commenting on missions?
- The reuse of audio and video clips from ANH was really sloppy and jumped out.
- Hey, we got to see what happened to the previous Red 5! And they felt the need to really repeat it and drive it home. A minor complaint but I think indicative of the sorts of issues they had.
- I felt like the dialog, especially in the second act, was lacking. The best example is when the council is arguing and all making their points about how to deal with the Death Star. It's so mechanical. Nobody seemed genuinely angry or upset or talked over each other. They just said lines.
- I felt the first Vader scene fell flat. Isn't Vader above making puns about choking? That felt 100 percent tacked on.
That's a lot of complaints, but there is a lot of good as well. I'm glad this movie exists.
- I thought Bacta Vader was kickass, and loved him wrecking the Rebels at the end. Plus seeing his fortress on Mustafar and his loyal supplicants was great.
- I thought the space battle ruled.
- I loved all the Rebels references, particularly General Syndulla being called on the comm on Yavin.
- I thought Saw was fantastic. So paranoid and edgy and crazy.
- I love that they killed the whole crew. I REALLY feared the last second bail out.
- K! Money.
- Kassian and Jyn are very worthy Rebel heroes.