Rogue One

[philby]

I think the movie fits in between Ep 3 and 4 well, leading straight into Ep 4... making me want to go watch it. But it is ultimately a sad movie.... and I guess it should have been obvious while watching it that all these new major characters had to die before the end of the movie, or else, where were they in Eps 4 to 6. That would make it harder to generate too many fans of those characters or sell as many toys.
I would have liked more involvement by pre-existing characters, but understand why it was difficult or impossible.
It was a little too slow for me during much of the first half, but it was the first time we got a good look at how vast and powerful the Empire really was. (We didn't really see any Imperial strongholds or occupied worlds in Eps 4 to 6 other than the two Death Stars and Tatooine).

i think you might be the only person complaining it was too slow in the first half! i think the consensus among critics was that it jumped around way too much. it is the first 'spin-off' star wars movie so having more pre-existing characters imo would have made it worse. i really liked the new characters and their journey, i think it would have detracted from it having too many of the old ones in there as they aren't the focus.

I hope Ezra and Kanan gets a good reason to explain why they weren't somewhere in the background with Hera.

they were sitting in the ghost ready for battle? you see the ship 3 times or something as well as hearing general syndulla called over the P/A and chopper rolling past too.