Are we talking Rogue One here?
It was phenomenal, and the issues I had with it were less signficant than the ones I had with TFA. Mainly the Tarkin CGI. They nailed the voice and mannerisms, but I still don't think CGI is good enough to try and pull off something like this.
I really loved the references to the other films (Ep. 4 especially, I guess)...the line about the T-15 was great, as was the cameo by Cornelius Evazan. Even little things like the way Vader wagged his finger at Krennic.
Using unused footage from Ep. 4 for Red and Gold Leaders was perfect. The whole plot and execution was perfect, and I absolutely loved how it tied in directly and immediately to Ep. 4. I'm a geek about stuff like that; for all of it's faults I really liked all of the stuff at the end of Ep. 3 that set up Ep. 4.
Spoilers below...
For real...
Stop reading or close your eyes and scroll down to avoid spoilers:
The film was pretty great. It had some pacing issues but overall it was excellent. Beautifully shot, memorable and striking cinematography, and some awesome nods to A New Hope (heck it directly leads into it) and Star Wars - Rebels, as well as retroactively fixing (retconning) the plot hole of the exhaust port being an open flaw in the plans in first place (when watching ANH before this movie existed), and allowing any such obvious flaw. Rogue One establishes that Galen Erso did it on purpose but covertly to give the Rebels some small chance. I'll buy it, especially after the opening scene of the film hinted at the events of Catalyst and the evolution between his and Krennic's "friendship". It had an almost protective and brotherly type friendship early on and it became an antagonistic relationship (covered in the Catalyst--the prequel novel), especially after opening scene of movie and his wife getting burned down by the Stormtroopers on Krennic's orders. Galen's passive aggressiveness ultimately helped save the galaxy from the Empire, though, lol.
Some really cool tie ins to ANH, both with Leia and Tarkin CGIed in, and some fan service cameos from C-3PO and R2-D2, Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, Dodonna, and mention of Hera Syndulla and shot of Ghost ship as well as Chopper being seen on Yavin at Rebel Base (from Star Wars - Rebels), mention of Obi-Wan by Bail. I totally forgot to mention Evizan, but E reminded me.
Really cool fan service universe rebuilding. It all makes sense though. They tied it all directly into A New Hope in terms of reasons for being there and leading directly into opening of that film.
I know some will complain about the CGI they used for Tarkin and Leia, but whatever. Yes, it was obviously CGI, but it was awesome. Not because the CGI was believable, though it really is as good as can be done when you're literally trying to mimic an existing and quite well known fictional character/actor's appearance. That is still incredibly hard to do but they went for it. Granted they could've been more elusive and just used them less and feature no direct facial shots (limiting them to shots from behind/side angle or with heavy shadow/darkness to somewhat obscure their features). That would've worked, but been far less satisfying. Those CGI shots also seemed like an announcement from Disney that they weren't going to let the passage of time or death (in Cushing's case) to deter them from occasionally reusing those characters in the future. And as they do so CGI will improve to point it'll look far more real, maybe even indistinguishable from real thing. And that alone is exciting. Not the good CGI in future, but the fact these characters possibly will reappear in small roles (or larger when technology allows for it) in future films. That's fantastic. The voice acting/patterning, the character facial tics, etc were all great. And I had no idea they used unused footage from Ep IV for some of the pilot shots. That's awesome.
Plus, it was literally a WAR film. Little bit of a heist and suspense genre elements as well, but definitely a hard edged war film that carefully laid out the sacrifice for those plans, which gives A New Hope so much more weight.
And that's the brilliance of Rogue One. It serves as a prequel that actually improves the film that comes after by answering a plot hole and showing the sacrifice necessary to get those plans, the insurmountable odds overcome to pull it off, etc.
It simply adds more weight to events of A New Hope. It literally managed to make A Nee Hope a better movie by simultaneously fixing that plot hole and offering a great story of sacrifice against insurmountable odds. It's a darker corner of the Star Wars Universe that's really been reserved for The Clone Wars show in the new canon. It was great seeing that applied to the small but rambunctious Rebellion leading up to ANH.
Plus the Vader scenes were fantastic. He was used sparingly but to full effect. That scene towards end where he was just wrecking house with his Lightsaber and force on the Rebel soldiers on the Mon Calamari mother ship was perfect. It truly showed him as the unstoppable force he really was at that time. Them handing off the plans at last moment. The Tantive IV taking off from mother ship and Vader looking onwards as it jumps away, leading into ANH.
Simply epic.
Fantastic movie on its own but so much better due to the building it did for ANH.
