I'll try to write a review today. It was just OK. Only in the last 30 minutes did it find its stride, and that was 30 minutes of awesome, epic popcorn entertainment.

I think the biggest problem, apart from the cringe-worthy digital actors (the human eye can tell when its looking at a cartoon, Gareth), was that the movie focused so much on the mission that it forgot to tell us about it characters.

Just seen it, got to say I'm so glad I chose to read Rogue Catalyst before watching the movie, that way I got a much much better insight into Galen erso, Lyra Erso Orson Krennic on the build up to this movie. The way way orson krennic tricked Galen into making the weapon for the Deathstar was cunning and manipulative but Lyra alway knew something wasn't right. Also you get to read about where Jyn was born while Galen and Lyra were taken captive.

Better than VII easily.

Cons:

-Vader given another terrible, terrible line "Dont choke on your aspirations...blah blah"

-Why was leia just chilling on that ship connected to the battleship? In Episode IV she acts like she had nothing to do with anything, but Vader literally saw her fly away with the plans. It makes the opening segment of IV not make any sense.

-Old AT-ATs were garbage, i know they said they were obsolete off-hand, but those were seriously weak.

-No Porkins

-Seems Saw Gerrera had his screen time cut (lots of lines from the trailers were gone for everyone, though)

Vader never saw she was in the ship.

I disagree about its supremacy vis-a-vis VII, but you hit the nail on the head with those points.

Darth Vader, the most badass villain in cinematic history, using a pun? So bad.

And Leia! A politician who's attempting to hide her connection to the Alliance is just chilling on a ship inside a battleship in the middle of a battle with Imperial forces? Jesus.

Oh, and they totally wasted Whitaker. I wanted to know more about his character.

I felt like it was pretty slow at the character introduction, etc, which made the first hour concerning on whether I'd like the movie or not.

After that it got extremely good.

I did find it a little odd that Darth Vader chooses to live on Mustafar (the place where he got badly disfigured) of all places.

That was bad too. His fortress of solitude? What was that?

Rogue One strayed a little too close to the prequels for my liking. In A New Hope, Vader's kind of an enforcer, just doing the dirty work of the Empire. In the prequels, he's, to quote Plinkett, "space Jesus." 

The fact that he has this evil-looking tower overlooking a lava flow was a bit much. I kind of expected the eye of Sauron to be floating above...

I guess he could be staying there because it is kind of in effect the birthplace of Darth Vader in a lot of ways. Could be some Sith thing too to have to face your pain and whatever. 

I did like the Vader scene though, not going to lie I was grinning ear to ear like the Joker all through out it. It was bad ass. I'm glad it's in the movie. 

It made up for "wussy Anakin" in the prequels. The castle design is from Ralph McQuarrie, it was actually I think supposed to be the Emperor's throne room in ROTJ, but they moved that onto the Death Star. 

I liked the Vader scene at the end, when he's tearing shit up :)

I think the filmmakers had some issues finding a healthy middle ground between homage and winking at the camera. I have to say I cringed at Vader's pun and at the Evazan/Ponda Baba cameo. R2 and 3PO seemed a little forced too. Seemed like Edwards was pausing for applause whenever a familiar face popped up.