It was a bit slow to start with but by the end, it really gets there. It felt like watching one of the novels, one of the better ones, not Crystal Star.

Mads Mikkelsen was good as Qwi Xux

After the first scene with Tarkin, I settled in for it. I think my problem with cgi faces in these movies is something Boter said: it's a tad too...smooth. Like people's faces have tiny herky-jerky tics when we talk. It's not even something you could point at and say "That's it!" but we can tell when it's not there. There were moments it worked better than others, but in this movie full of CGI that didn't scream "I'm CGI!" (everything about the space battles) I'll forgive it.

The fanservice in this movie didn't bug me because it was either A) Super brief (although yeah, R2 and 3PO should have been on the Tantive) or B) relevant to the action (of course Red and Gold leaders would be there). They didn't allout copy Star Wars '77 like TFA felt. It could have been left out, but at least it didn't undermine the climax because we knew how it was going to play out.

Rogue One also felt way less "OMG LOOK AT THAT" in its pacing. Scenes played out nicely.

I was looking forward to seeing Donnie Yen kick ass, and it was really cool to see the Force-aided Kung-Fu, especially after TFA so badly wasted the guys from The Raid.

The blockade runner sequence was awesome. Watching those guys crash into the destroyer and then pushing it into the other and THEN the gate was amazing, and I really liked the unexpected solution to the problem. Instead of "Hey let's find the Gate's weak spot and hit it with a torpedo" it was "LET'S SMASH TWO FREAKING STAR DESTROYERS INTO THE WHOLE DAMN THING!" It was wonderful.

I do agree that Vader's first scene was a bit weird, and unnecessary. It would have been much better if his appearance at the battle was the first time we saw him. And seeing him wreak havoc was so cool.

Finally, I can't tell you how happy it made me that everyone died at the end. I mean, it was sad. But as a story that's EXACTLY what needed to happen, and it was great. Poignant.

I liked this movie. I liked it a lot. And it made me so excited to watch Star Wars '77 again, which I'm now signing off to do.

TL;DR I think Edwards' Star Wars is less frenetic than Abrams', and though it had cheese, I felt it was no more cheesy than the original installments had. I approve.

PS One thing they didn't do that disappointed me was show the Death Star coming out of hyperspace. They even had a line 'Something massive coming out of hyperspace' and then cut to it already there. I would love to see that monster just BOOMING into sight. Oh well. And speaking of the Death Star, it was cool to see it dialed down and the secondary destruction cause by the planet's mantle breaking through like a megavolcano. Awesome.

I was more distracted by the fact that Vader had quips. That's just not his style. Also that scene would have been so much more badass if he hadn't been doing the pinchy thing. No hand motions, just choking.

Yeah, Vaders line there didn't bug me at all, worked fine. Though I do agree about the hand motion, would have worked better without it.

Oh BS he'd keep him cooling his heels just to make him sweat. Brush some invisible ash off the shoulder... take your time with it

Yeah, it was delivered a bit too punny. You're right in that he's had quips - "Apology accepted," "The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am," - but never puns and never with essentially a wink.