I'm still really feelin it.
This film was everything the prequels were supposed to be. THIS is how you take a seemingly innocuous bit of dialogue in a film made in 1977 and make it come to life. Lucas tried to bring the Clone Wars to life and tell the story of Anakin Skywalker, and he failed miserably for two films before giving us a worthy conclusion in Revenge of the Sith.
Garreth Edwards just **** all over those prequels with yet another small bit of dialogue in 1977 and converted that into this epic tale. He went with honoring Lucas and thanking him for letting him play in his backyard and then also added his own touch and vision to the saga. Similar music, but a touch different, the no crawl, the small changes in ship styles while also having the iconic looks as well. All well done and a fitting tribute. He gave us MORE, things we've always wanted, new planets, characters, situations, and used bits and pieces of the OG story so to tie the strings together. Brilliant. And even more impressive, he did so without needless Jedi and barely 20 seconds of lightsabers. AMAZING achievement when you think about it.
I still need a few more viewings to truly grasp everything, but I LOVED what they put together. A fully fleshed out, well planned, well thought, very well acted story that weaves in and out of the 77 film and 2016 technology. A few of us have speculated in here that they could do the Michael Douglas Ant-Man thing with Leia and/or Tarkin given what we knew about the story, and they did exactly that. Clearly Tarkin was a bit of a stretch, because they risked doing extra scenes for him, whereas Leia had one tiny scene and one sentence of dialogue. She clearly looked better. The longer we got to stare at Tarkin, the more you could tell something was different. Still, it worked perfect. It was great to once again see Tarkin onscreen.
Jym, Cassian, K-2, Chirrut, Baze, Saw, Bodhi were all incredible. They gave you all the feels. The desperation, the hopelessness of dealing with the Empire, and yet, still fighting thru it, doing whatever they could. Finding a way. Exactly what the "pathetic band of rebels" should represent. They were awesome. Heroic, brave, sacrificing themselves for the greater good, defiant, even when the leaders did not want to attack and steal the plans, they go and do it anyways. Summed up perfectly by the smirk on Mon Mothma's face when she finds out they went and forced their hand to send the fleet.
The theme of "Hope" throughout the film, obviously leading to "A New Hope" The Force believers, when there are no more Jedi pushing the Force on them. The tyranny of the Empire at its peak. The way they tied in the flaw in the Death Star to Galen and his daughter.
So well done, the tone was perfect throughout, the dialogue was serious and not wasted unlike 88% of the prequel dialogue, these conversations had actual meaning in them. A desperate group trying to find a way to stop an impossible weapon/organization. The only real humor was from the droid and similar to how Lucas wanted Threepio to come across. K2 was outstanding.
Edwards absolutely nailed his Return of the Jedi nod to Lucas with the tri-fold battles taking place simultaneously. The beach battle is amazing, the space battle was well done and some of those camera angles and movements were just jaw dropping, and then of course Jyn going for the hard drive.
Liked Krennic more than I thought I would. I didn't expect to like his character much, I thought of him as a Tarkin knockoff, in fact, I kinda figured he would be the leader of the Empire after Palpatine and Vader, and get himself killed and Tarkin gets promoted, instead it was more of a competition between the two.
The Vader scene......I don't need to say anything there. That was pron. Hardcore, triple X type ****. Somebody please tell me there's a 2 hour film of that layin around somewhere in Disney's vault. Garreth, please?
Those of you that back the prequels, at least we saw Vader kill some kids, right? Oh, no, we didn't even "see" that either, it was just alluded too.
The blue milk, the EU nod to the Hammerhead Corvette, Red/Gold Leaders, Ghost, loved the little Easter Eggs and how properly placed they were.
*minor "gripes"*
Vader's appearance. Did he have red lenses over his eyes? And that neck brace thing looked outta place.
The music was designed to be "different" but I understand wanting the REAL music for this one. Could you imagine this same film with the John L Williams touch?
The Tarkin shots maybe should have been a smidge shorter to protect from us noticing how outta place this is.