I loved all the characters but my stand out favourites were K-2SO (Sheldon Cooper teas?
) and Chirrut
The special effects were great but in particular, one of my favourite scenes was when the Death Star struck Jedha, seeing the impact from the ground and the characters fleeing the tidal wave of rock, it was epic. And special effects aside it was just a great scene to have, seeing the destruction from the point of view of the people being hit.
I thought The Force and the power of it was presented really well. Obviously it's been done so many times over the course of the films but the scene where Chirrut is walking towards the switch thing and using the force to get him there safely for example, it's one of my favourite ever force-related scenes.
One thing that I loved which would never have been possible in a normal Star Wars movie was having all of the main characters dying, and I thought all the deaths were executed really well. And to have so many deaths of main characters and not lose interest or have any diminishing emotional impact, and then to even kill off Jyn as well, I thought it was brave and all done superbly, and some of those scenes are up there with the best in the franchise imo. Jyn's dad, K-2SO, Chirrut, Baze, Saw, The Pilot, and of course Jyn and Cassian hugging while they wait to be 'blasted into oblivion'
I found all of their deaths really powerful.
And the bad guy, Orson, was also brilliant. His death scene was definitely one of my favourites from the film, having him lying there and seeing the Death Star appear, the knowing look on his face that he was about to be destroyed by the weapon he created. It was great.
And OMG Darth Vader! He wasn't in it much but he was used perfectly and his scenes are great. His "don't choke on your aspirations" (I think it was) line
but especially the scene where he's cutting through the Rebel troops at the end, just the whole setting of it, the fear of the troops, I loved it and I actually think it's one of the best Darth Vader scenes ever.
Oh and Leia being there in the final scene blew me away, I had no idea that was going to happen and I could have cried
Ugh it was so good.
My only faults... there was no opening crawl
(but yeah I guess maybe it would have been out of place in a spin off?) but something else which was my only real issue with the story, was when Jyn was trying to convince the Rebels to help get the Death Star plans and they decided against it. I know from the films point of view it was best that the Rogue One crew went on their own and have the Rebels join them later, and it was a better film for doing that, I just think they could have written the set up of it better because from a story point of view, it didn't make much sense to me. I thought Jyn had a really strong argument and yeah I just didn't really understand why they were against helping, I get the danger aspect of it for them but still, they're Rebels. And when they eventually decided to help, the woman who was in charge seemed happy about it which suggested that she'd wanted the Rebels to help all along, in which case why didn't she put up any kind of argument for it herself instead of (very quickly) settling on the decision that they wouldn't help out? Maybe I missed something, I don't know, when I watch it again I'm going to pay closer attention to those scenes I think.