I'm with anyone that thinks the first half of the movie was haphazard and roughshod but the second half was a minor masterwork of a genre/war film. I didn't mind Tarkin like some others did, but I think a lot of time was wasted not focusing on this heist specifically.


The throwbacks to previous stuff weren't as blatant but they were still everywhere; it seemed like that whole first hour was just building up to Jyn meeting her mentor and watching someone give a holographic message that gives her a purpose (I also find it bizarre that the hologram was directed right at her rather than to a general audience, since both Jyn and her father presume the other mught be dead, it just felt sloppy) the same as Luke and Obi Wan. Then there were all the homage shots during the dogfight (far less egregious but still there).


I didn't realize going into this movie that there would be so much exposition for why they were going on the heist that, in exploring, failed to explore why any of these characters were all that interesting. Faux Solo was a total waste of time and didn't work for me as either a romantic lead nor an access point to the rebellion for Jyn, he was just an accent, soft body and a beard. I never learned the names of the two coolest characters in the film, The Asian Guys. Somehow the primary villain became a sidekick in almost every scene he was in when he was played by an all-time scene stealer.


Plus I saw someone else say something about Vader felt off in his initial scene; his voice was a little too light, he spoke a little too much and I really don't remember him being a joker in THAT way.


Like I said at the jump, I was on the edge of my seat from the moment they stole that shipping freighter from the rebel base but I wish the hour and change I'd spent in the theater before that had built up the stakes of what was to come because I brought all my own hopes and dreams to that; my girlfriend thought it was a decent spectacle but fell asleep for about 15 minutes while they were all back at the rebel base. Which, to that point - I KNEW I recognized the dude with the woman, but I could have never told you why I did, and I only connected that conversation to Leia through Obi-Wan and the Clone Wars (as in the movies, not the TV show).


It's kind of impressive how often people are defending weird things about this pretty fun movie with "other media will/has answered this" honestly. I think Star Wars is fucking cool but I'm not going to read any books, watch any comics or animated shows about it. I just want to go watch the movies, and if I last saw "Bail Organa" in 2005 I'm likely not gonna remember exactly that that's him, especially in a franchise that's so well cast the same actor plays Palpatine 25 years apart, modern directors can't help but use beautiful cutting edge CGI to bring original actors into the present day untouched by age and I can't tell that they didn't pull the same trick with the Rebel leader woman that they did with Palpatine.


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