Rogue one has some cool scenes, but overall, it's a bit of a mess. It's behind the OT for sure, and muddled somewhere in with the prequels.
I'm with you - personally, I don't understand why it's ranked so highly on people's lists. I think it has a lot of storytelling concerns (too many characters, plot holes, too much technical explanation and planet-hopping, and there are some themes that could've played into the larger universe that didn't get time to develop.) It's also just a big fat downer.
When I first heard Rogue One was coming out years ago, I thought it was a Netflix series. I still think it would've been much better in this format.
How can you critique Rogue One for plot holes and too many characters when New Hope has the exact same issues? Without Rogue One, we would've never known one of the biggest plot holes in movie history of something so small and ridiculous would be the achilles heel of the Death Star.
There are several reasons why I loved Rogue One over the original Star Wars movies, not that those were bad but its shocking that some people are just oblivious to recognize that some people would like a newer Star Wars movie over the old ones and that the old movies are just untouchable and perfect.
What I really loved about Rogue One is the darker tone it presented itself throughout the whole movie, I enjoyed that along with the cinematography of the film with that depth of field look a lot of the shots had, it made me feel more immersed in the movie as if I was there. On a whole its just beautiful to look at and admire and the CGI was outstanding when it was needed. Here's some prime examples of the what I'm talking about and that I appreciate stuff like this in movies. Does it mean that it makes the movie better, no but I love when movies are presented in this way and I appreciate it that much more.
Who knew that highly trained Stormtroopers could hit their targets. That's one thing that has been a running joke for how many decades and we finally get to see Stormtroopers who are indeed capable of being a threat to the Rebellion. We finally got the Darth Vader we've been waiting for. I never got the impression from watching the original movies that you should fear Darth Vader. We were always told to fear Darth Vader but were never shown anything to make us believe in that. The hallway clip at the end of Rogue One destroys any and every clip of Darth Vader from the original movies, it literally gave me a nerdgasm
The last 45 minutes was a joy to watch not that the first and second acts were terrible cause they weren't but because I enjoyed the epic battle, something that I've been craving to see in a Star Wars movie. The battles in the Clone Wars and Return of the Jedi don't even hold a candle to the battle scene in Rogue One. We also got a glimpse that the Rebellion are not made out to be squeaky clean innocent who play by the rules and will make decisions that may not be considered honorable.
I liked majority of the characters but I loved Jyn, Chirrut Imwe (blind dude) and K-2S0
The more I watched this movie the more I enjoy it. I saw it in the theaters and thought that it was ok but watched again, picked up on some things I missed and enjoyed it even more. There have been several movies where I thought were just ok but upon watching it for a second time, I tend to enjoy it a lot more. I know that there are some issues with Rogue One and to slam Rogue One for having plot holes while ignoring several plot holes from the originals is kind of laughable, because honestly has there ever been a perfect film?
Heres a Rogue One spoiler review by one of my favorite Youtube movie reviewer and he brings up some valid points on why Rogue One was pretty good