Disclaimer: I very much wanted to love this movie. I was so hyped to see it. I am a full on SW fan and have been since I was about 5.

My take is that it was pretty good, but not great. Here's why. The first reason is not the film's fault.

1. I figured out the entire plot from the previews - there were literally no surprises (I didn't know HOW some things would happen - like why they couldn't escape, but...). I had heard Vader was gonna be in it, and I wondered if Tarkin was gonna be in it. The way they did him instead of re-casting him was a mild surprise I guess. Anyway, the trailers give too much away if you are at all observant/invested in the universe and lore. And I told at least a dozen people 6 mos ago that they were gonna close the plot hole from A New Hope (which they did very well, I must admit - though in exactly the way I suspected).

2. Thin characterization. It was a dirty dozen movie, which is the risk, but there was no character I identified with or fully invested in. Just too thin on their backstories, and I didn't really like Diego Luna (the actor, not the character). I love Alan Tudyk, and he made me chuckle a couple of times. However, his death was probably the saddest, probably even moreso than the Force Wills it guy (Chirrut?). Felicity Jones is a good actress, but she didn't have quite enough to work with either. The others just didn't matter. I really liked Riz Ahmed in The Night Of, and he did a passing job in this movie, but again had very little to work with.

3. Movie was missing any character with the charisma of Han Solo (Harrison Ford made Solo great with his own input to his lines, etc). This has been a much bigger issue for the series than anyone wants to admit. There hasn't been a great Star Wars film that Ford wasn't in, and it becomes more painfully apparent every movie they make without him. He was the surprise of the first series' casting of nobodies (the Tom Brady in the 7th round of the franchise). Lucas got lucky and found a superstar in his casting call, and while everyone else played their roles well, Han (along with the force) was the hook.

4. Bad guys were paper thin too. I was really disappointed with the Director. He could have been a more interestingly flawed character but we only get his character flaw late in the movie and no motivation for it. Of course, Tarkin does steal his thunder which would tick anyone off, but there were hints that he had deeper issues. What were they?

5. Missing John Williams. Oh how he made those original movies with his iconic scores. Even the prequels are magic in that regard (easy to miss because of the trash on screen). Just listen to his prequel scores without the movies and you'll realize that the guy is one of the absolute heroes of the franchise.

6. Banter. All the best lines came from a robot. That's a little problematic if you really think about it. Shouldn't humans be more interesting (and funnier?) characters?

7. The Force - missing the jedi story. The movie could succeed without this one, with the proper execution of the above. However, I thought there was going to be more of an unseen hand of the force guiding this one. Chirrut would have been a great conduit for this aspect of the movie, as a sage force sensitive (??) but not capable of wielding (?) character. As one of the guardians of the Temple of Whills (someone clued me in this is what its called/how spelled), he would be the plausible example of such a being.

8, And this didn't ruin the movie, but Mads Mikkelson was underutilized. He has a gravitas and charisma that few of the other actors possess. He could have been better used to enhance any of the above issues or story points.

Though it sounds like I have ripped this film and hated it... I didn't dislike it. I just found it coming up a little short. It's a B/B+ movie for me and a solid holdover 'til Episode 8, which I can only hope takes the franchise to its greatest heights since Empire.