Superb. Absolutely, brilliantly superb. I loved it. I came out of the cinema with a smile from ear to ear.
The main cast was fantastic and I'm genuinely sorry we won't get to see any of them again. I mean that - each member of the Rogue team was great. Cassian and Krennic in particular were faves, as well as K2-SO (imagine that, the new droid character being a stand out
) and I almost cried when he bit the dust/console. The background/minor Rebels were also great as there were so many Seventies sideburns and moustaches! Each scene on Yavin felt like it was a deleted scene from ANH. And how great is Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma?!
Something I wasn't prepared for was the return of Governor Tarkin. Whomever they got for his voice was amazing, and the effects for his face seemed to get better throughout the movie (the same can't be said for Leia, I'd have been happy for a shot from behind as she said her line. That was a little let-down. Maybe a late addition?). When he was revealed I felt a chill! I was tempted to start a #PeterCushingLives hashtag on Twitter!
And Vader....wow. The bacta tank scene was pretty cool, as were his choke-the-underlings scenes, but WOW was his bit on the Rebel ship stunning to watch! I felt the dread of the Rebels he was mowing down and the menace he projected. I thought they would cut the scene when he ignited his sabre but I'm so, so glad they didn't. I was hoping he would say something like "Follow that blockade runner" as the Tantive IV departed stage-right, but oh well - that's about my only gripe with him. I'm so glad James Earl Jones came back, and whomever they had in the suit was very David Prowse-esque!
The new ship and vehicle designs (and sounds) were a lot more impressive than the toys and models had led me to expect. So often they had the appearance of practical models without making me think "this isn't real". The SDs in particular gave me massive grins each time they appeared.
And the battle scenes...man, the battle scenes. It's hard to explain how much I enjoyed them. The dogfights in particular were great (so many lady pilots!) with the on-board, Go-Pro-style shots being a particular highlight. The destruction wrought by the Death Star's single-reactor firings, too, were stupendously done.
So many cameos and references. I honestly never even thought of the idea of Ponda Baba and Dr Evazan showing up in a movie ever again.
The only negative I have is (some of) the music - a
lot of it was great and very Williamsy, but some pieces had the feeling of being last minute rush-jobs, like with Peter Jackson's
King Kong. I'd have loved to hear the Desplat score.
I want to see it again. My wife chose not to go last night and said she's keen to go maybe in a week or two. I'm not sure I can wait that long...