These stooges at Disney need to get it together and put out something truly original that every Star Wars fan can enjoy.

Like a Max Rebo movie

well, that's not exactly correct now.. no transmissions went to Leia's ship.. she got a physcial disk with that data on it.

This is the main ship of the show, the Ghost






In the film, the ship is seen twice. First time is when Jyn and Andor first arrive on Yavin IV. There's a large overhead sweep shot of the landing pad area and the Ghost can be seen parked in the upper left-hand corner.





Second time is with the arrival of the Rebel fleet at Scarif.






Next is the droid Chopper from the crew:





He is seen to the far left in this screenshot as the Rebel leaders are informed of the action on Scarif.










Lastly, during the scene where Jyn confronts the others about leaving on their mission, a call is overheard through the base comms for a 'General Syndulla' to report to a meeting. This is referring to Hera Syndulla, the pilot and owner of the Ghost




By Season Three of the show, the Rebellion is just beginning to really coalesce and Hera was promoted to command of her own fighter squadron. So by the time of Rogue One, she's been promoted to General.

The new ties between the cartoons and films are really cool and I love that they acknowledge each other. For example, the character of Saw Geurrera first appeared in Season 5 of the Clone Wars cartoon.

Oh boy, that was far more enjoyable than I expected. Light years ahead of the massive disappointments that were episodes I-II-III and the better, but ultimately rather light, episode VII. 

I really enjoyed the concept of Rogue One as a gritty war movie rather than a long video game demo (looking at you, other prequels). I don't know what relied on practical effects and what was due to really well done CGI, but most scenes looked very realistic; especially the amazing planetary environments. And the fight sequences didn't feel like things we had seen before. 

A few things annoyed me, but what are they compared to all the stuff that I thoroughly enjoyed?

- CGI Tarkin and CGI Leia unfortunately looked like characters from a game trailer. It's a paradox that CGI alien creatures end up looking more believable than actual people, but that's because we're far more used to people than to aliens. I wish the people in charge had decided to use old footage from Carrie Fisher and Peter Cushing and spliced it digitally onto the new film; I doubt it would have been more complicated than recreate a virtual face. After all, it's not as if the characters had a lot to do.

- The Death Star's size is all over the place. From the ground it looks massive, really planetary body-sized. In some other shots however you see shuttles departing the station from a very close perspective, and the curvature of the Death Star's horizon is fully visible, making it appear like a sphere a few dozen miles across at most.

- Jeddah (spelling?) looked a litle too much like Tatooine, what with the buildings looking like Jabba the Hutt's palace and the presence of a guy looking very much like the bully from the cantina scene in Star Wars (I assume it was supposed to be him, and now I have to wonder how he had the chance of leaving town just before it blew up).

Small potatoes, though. The film as a whole was really cool, and I appreciated how the rebellion was shown to be more morally ambiguous than in previous films. That it would be plagued by the same problems the Old Republic had been (endlessly debating instead of doing anything) was also logical and realistic.

Many Easter eggs throughout, of course, but few of them were distracting. Say, was that Biggs we briefly saw in the battle at the end? 

It was also high time we saw Darth Vader do something impressive. Killing babies, choking his wife and getting his whiny ass kicked by Obi Wan in episode III really didn't do much for his public image as an awe-inspiring villain.

I had doubts about the stand-alone Star Wars films, but if they're all as good as this, I may just be glad Disney bought the franchise after all!

I just saw it again with one of my kids and it was as awesome as the first time!!!

I was wrong about Biggs: the new guy had the proper mustache but was part of Blue squadron.

Saw Rouge One for the first time a couple of days ago. Superb - what an incredible film! Really enjoyed the OT homages/nods, as well as the dark, grim storyline. Pleasantly surprised that Disney had the ba!!s to kill off so many main characters; this added to the drama/realism of the film. I would have to say this is my 2nd favorite Star Wars film - it's right behind ESB for me; and, I grew up on the OT.

The beach battle with the AT-AT's, etc. was amazing; it had the vibe/feel of a late '80's SW West End Games adventure module - great action, especially the way this was interspersed with the incredible space battle.

It was nice how the film featured a convincing CGI Grand Moff Tarkin, a brief cameo of a young ANH-era Leia, and those X-wing fighter pilots from ANH.

I will post a more detailed review later.

I disagree. My girlfriend wasn't looking for it, but as soon as Tarkin's full face came onto the screen, she looked at me, as if to say, "eh?". A close friend also told me that when he took his 11-year-old son, his face twisted up into a "WTF" expression at the sight of Tarkin too. I wasn't "looking for it" either, by the way, since I had no idea that Tarkin would appear in the film prior to him appearing on screen, but obviously I knew that CGI shenanigans were afoot because I know that Peter Cushing is dead.

I'll say it again, they should've just cast a new actor in the role. Just like they did for Mon Mothma or General Dodonna, or, in fact, the young Tarkin himself in Revenge of the Sith. It's OK, audiences will buy into it -- we've all seen James Bond films, we can accept different actors playing the same roles, if it's done well enough. The CGI Tarkin was so badly done and such a freaky-looking trip to uncanny valley that it totally took me out of the story every time he appeared on the screen.

If anything, the CGI Princess Leia at the end was even worse, with that weird, squinty expression with her eyes...I mean, what the hell kind of facial expression was that supposed to be?! In that particular case, there really was no excuse for showing Carrie Fisher's face at all. As soon as you saw her from the back, you knew exactly who the character was supposed to be and, actually, while I watched, I assumed that they'd not show her face and we'd all knowingly go "a-ha, Princess Leia Organa, I presume." But no, they had to show off and spoil the scene with some crappy CGI.

The CGI Tarkin and Leia were real blots in an otherwise almost perfect Star Wars film. Such a shame.

The real joke of it is that the Galaxy chocolate bar advert, which features a similarly "CGI resurrected" Audrey Hepburn, actually looks more realistic and convincing than either Tarkin or Leia did. A crumby chocolate bar advert, doing a better job than the massed skills of ILM! Not sure if this ad is even shown in the U.S., but if not, take a look here...