Pyrrhic Victory: Regarding Rogue One

Outside of The Clone Wars, we hadn't really seen any Star Wars movies set out outside of the main story and without the episodic numbering; The Clone Wars is not a good comparative precedent to have. And with the first anthology Star Wars film being a prequel showing how the Rebel Alliance secured the Death Star plans immediately before the events of Episode IV was something else to be tentatively cautious about. You'll note that none of the major marketing labeled Rogue One as a "prequel", the word effectively becoming terminology non grata with the franchise.
The lack of opening text crawl is always jarring to me as we immediately jump right into the action and something that strikes me right away is that Rogue One very much has its one distinctive cinematographic style visually; existing outside of the main story, it has more freedom to break from the house visual style.

Rogue One is the darkest, most cynical we've ever seen the Star Wars Universe and, as a reminder, there was an installment where the protagonist cuts through a room of innocent children with his laser sword. Most of the main characters have been so worn down by life under the Galactic Empire that they believe the audacity of hope is a hang-up for dreamers and madmen. A lot of that comes from leads Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor who lead a gang of misfits and loners even disassociated by the Rebel Alliance at their most desperate. The movie is about finding hope in a hopeless place; learning how to believe in the fight again rather than just fighting for the sake of it.
What Rogue One does well is its unflinching action and especially its final act; that climactic battle on Scarif and in the space above it is everything I love action-wise about Star Wars in a solid, concentrated dose. Star Wars always works best with that scrappy, underdog spirit; it's why the prequels don't connect as well (among other reasons) and why the sequel trilogy took out the Senate so quickly. With characters having their backs against the wall constantly, the stakes get raised and the sense of peril and investment along with it.
Evil Space Liberace.
What Rogue One doesn't quite get right is the pacing: After the prologue, the movie starts and stops in fits zipping from location to location and set piece to set piece. We never get much of a chance to sympathize with Jyn because her development is choppy; she goes from cynical to inspirational within the span of fifteen minutes virtually in the same scene. It isn't until the film gears up for its endgame that everything evens out.
But damn, what a finale with the best space battle this side of Return of the Jedi, a Dirty Dozen-style running gun battle on the planet, and the best fan service sequence in the entire franchise as Darth Vader reminds everyone why he's the most iconic villain in all of Star Wars. I know some people were put off by Vader taunting chief antagonist Orson Krennic when the Death Star director gets some face time with the Sith lord but I never felt it out of character; the former Anakin Skywalker always had that swarmy swagger to him ever since he was a child slave on Tatooine.
This entire sequence plays like a horror movie.
While I don't think it superior to The Force Awakens, Rogue One has always been a fun addition to the Star Wars canon which impressive considering just about all its major characters don't survive to the end credits. It's that freewheeling outlaw spirit of Star Wars that had been lacking in the franchise for decades...even if it takes its sweet time to get there.

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