A Geeky Viewpoint

There is a scene in the 1977 release of Star Wars, later renamed Star Wars: A New Hope, in which Alex Guinness as Obi One Kenobi use the force to manipulate the thoughts of multiple Storm Troopers.   With a wave of his hand and stating "These are not the droids you are looking for." the Stormtroopers allow the heroes to move along.
In many ways that is an adept trick that LucasFilms played on the audience with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.   This is not the film you were expecting regardless of how many times you watched the trailers, scoured the Internet, or read everything released by LucasFilms.   That's a good thing.   There are many surprises in the film and you have to wonder for a couple of them how on earth LucasFilms and one of the most scrutinized films in history kept them a secret.

Your enjoyment of this film will be dictated by how much you know about the Star Wars universe.   Have you memorized every episode of Droids, read Cataclysm, have a signed copy of Splinter of the minds Eye, binged every episode of Star Wars: Rebels and know who Saw Gerrea is?   If you answered yes to all those questions than you will think this Film is Oscar worthy, the more you said no the more likely you will say "It's an okay movie I don't get what all the hubbub is about."

There are several flaws in this film.
The film opens without a crawl.   "In a Galaxy Far Far away."  And away you go.   There is no short background statement about what is going on.   This was a novelty that many take for granted in the other Star Wars films, Kathleen Kennedy announced this months ago, and you know what it fails.   If any of the Star Wars Films need that opening crawl, this was it.   The less of a hard-core fan you are them more confused about whats happening in the beginning of the movie you will be.   It really puts the casual fans behind the eight ball in understanding what is going on.

Michael Giacchino score needed more work.  That's not saying it is a bad score by any means, it is just not as solid as John Williams work on the previous films.   Considering he only had 4 weeks to get it done it was already a Herculean effort.   Given another four weeks it probably would have melded into the film a lot better.

There are some problems with the script, particularly in the second (of three) acts.   The middle part of the film slows down.  This is a you love it or hate it kind of situation.   Many will like the effort that the films writers, Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy, put into the developing the story, but it is the pacing that has me concerned.   The first act and the third act move along at fairly robust pace it makes the slower second act seem to drag on and on.
You are going to here many viewers questioning the lack of character development or rather the lack of explanation on character motivations.  I'm one of those, but I understand the problem here.   The movie is two hours and thirteen minutes long, to start bringing in that development and motivation for many of these characters you have to either replace something from this film or simply add to the length of the film.   There are many people complaining about the length of the film already adding five more minutes to the second act won't set well with anyone.

Their are some minor issues with the CGI.   There is caveat to this, no one has ever tried to do what they did with this film let alone at this scale.   If what people are doing in say Jungle Book which many thought was shoe in for the Oscar this year is a 10 for difficulty and 10 for execution, than what is occurring in several scenes for Rogue One is 25 for difficulty and 8 or 9 for execution.

This film needs to be seen on a big screen.  Your typical movie screen of yesteryear is 25 to 30 feet in width, big screens today are 30 to 40 feet wide and bigger for large format and iMax.   You want to see this film on as big of screen as you can find.   It doesn't need to be in 3D, but a 35 foot wide screen just makes this film "pop" more than a 25 foot screen.

What the film makers got right!
This films like a prequel to Star Wars:A New Hope.   It feels like if they showed the 1977 Star Wars film immediately after the credits you would honestly have a hard time telling the movies were almost 30 years apart.   That was something Gareth Edwards strove for when creating this film and he succeeded.

I really like the acting.  I'm not suggesting Oscar worth, but they are multifaceted characters brought to life by the actors.  You can tell these characters are fleshed out, you may not know why a character is doing what they are doing but you totally believe the characters.

The script is full of surprises.  There are half-a-dozen times you will be asking if that just happened and Two times, at least, you will exclaim "holy sheets".   It one of those things you have to experience to appreciate, and if you know it is going to happen it takes away from the film.

The final act, well if it wasn't bad form you'd be standing to watch it rather than sitting in your seat, honestly.   Think of a great play at sports events and how the audience jumps to their feet to watch, same thing for 30 minutes.   The audience will cheer and oww and ahh the first time they see it.

When this film is done, you may truly want to visit Star Wars land when it opens.   You feel like you have been immersed into the universe and now you want to touch and feel and...

A few following thoughts
This is an adult version of Star Wars.   While the original trilogy, more so the second (prequel) trilogy were accessible to your younger audience, this film is not.   It is not Deadpool, but it is a dark war film more akin to Das Boot, Full Metal Jacket, The Dirty Dozen and the opening scenes to Saving Private Ryan than the feel good stories of Star Wars.   There is sadness and lots of gray area in this film.   Younger children may not be ready for it and if you take them bring the Kleenex.  Heck you might be the one to need Kleenex.

Overall I gave this film 3 1/2 stars out of 4.