Now, on to more specific points:
1. I can't believe how much reshoots keep plaguing this big-cashing side of the industry. I mean, what kind of bullshit freemasonry is going on there, that all across the big firms - Disney, DC, Marvel - the same thing gets imposed, again and again? For instance, despite my prediction coming true, I don't think I can truly hate Whitaker, because I find that the reshoots have made him look worse. As a blogger I read said, his acting looks stoned and pissy at getting a call to come back and redo everything.
2. I am fairly convinced that this movie's
need to be a tie in with the precise beginning of ANH is what dynamites the entire story.
It limits so much the consequence of R1's narrative to the urgency and immediacy of the Death Plans getting not in rebel hands, generally speaking, but to
Leia. Anything else would have either been a far stealthier rogue infiltration experience (probably better than this?) or a rewrite of the whole original SW narrative into the last 20 minutes of ANH [rebels get plans, ergo they can go destroy the sphere] (which is wtf). So, again, I'm not sure what fixing or alternative this could have used, but it feels strangled by its vain and nerdy idea of "let's make R1 segue right into ANH".
I rewatched the first two trailers (teaser and #1) [in which, btw, 90% of the scenes do no longer exist in the movie]. Mon Mothma to Jyn:
'We've a mission for you. A major weapon test is imminent and we need to know what it is and how to destroy it.' *throws hands in the air* How is
this not the movie?! Where did Galen Erso appear from, afterwards, and how the mission change to
'Please lead us to your father (so we can secretly murder him [although that wouldn't change a thing, since the Death Star is bloody complete??????)'?! The last two minutes of this movie are depressing. What the hell was Leia doing amid that Rebel offensive? Either she was exposed to dying there and basically nothing happening further on, which is illogical, or (hint: true answer) she was hamfisted for the R1 - ANH tie in, but in a way that she is hardly relevant until she appears, which is unlikely given the narrative of the original movies.
3. The big action scene has a lot of "we need to reach A and connect to B and C and D in order to miraculously pull the whole thing off", but two reasons I am not really displeased with this is because: A) the actions scenes were never the big thing in Star War movies and R1 somehow pulls a better sequence than most, if not all of them; B) the actions scenes in the other SW movies were just as plagued by the same thing: ANH was a lot of pew pew pew to achieve one goal (blowing up the Death Star); TPM was a lot of pew pew pew to achieve one goal (blowing up a Federation Ship); RotJ had the same connect-the-dots thing, as far as I remember,
AND a lot of pew pew pew to achieve on goal (blow up the new Death Star); the other prequels were total clusterfucks of pointless pew pew pew. So yeah, not going to roll my eyes at an actual purposeful, if still bloated, action scene.
4. The jump between planets and scenes and people and everything, during the first 10 minutes, gave me a headache. It was literally like watching the beginning of
Suicide Squad all over again. I know such transitions are not unusual for SW movies, but it was, too, boring, and, jumpeeee!!!!
5. Is this a fan film? No question about it.
6. I'll admit I dropped into the uncanny valley for a while, but only until my brain jumped in with question of how can aging or makeup possibly work this way. (Had no idea the actor was deceased). I regard this CGI gimmick as a syndrome, perhaps singular to this franchise, of not wanting to tamper or remove a hairline from the saga's symbols. Surely there were stunt actors for absolutely everyone involved in action scenes, right? And yet they couldn't find a suitable lookalike Tarkin?! Who the f in the world would care about Tarkin looking like in 1977, serious question! And changing Leia for, like, the 20 seconds she's in the movie, for sheer R1 ---------> ANH purposes, would be a sacriledge, I assume? So yeah, what pisses me off here is how much self-importance the producers and writers (and, if they applaud it, the fans as well) must give to their precious lore and iconography.
6b. On the same subject, but with the variation of "omg, only James Earl Jones could possibly voice Darth Vader", please tell me I wasn't the only one who thought his voice was completely OFF in this movie. Like, almost as if he had forgotten half of the inflexions necessary to sound like Vader. Also, the front of the suit was awkwardly wobbling, I nearly chuckled (which, if you'd know me, is basically laughing out loud).
7. I also feel that, like Whitaker, the Chinese Guy with Stick's lines were reduced (or changed) to his worst ones. That being said, his "walk" moment was a thing of majesty and character pay-off. I'm also pretty ok with the bromance with Chinese Guy with Gun not having been too banter heavy. Too bad they were underused, of course.
8. As predicted, the one with the quips was the robot, but ech, I suppose it wasn't too much for my taste. Although if you are fine with a comic relief droid, while you cannot connect with any of the humans one bit, ... pfft