I agreed with this at first. It felt rushed, and cramped. But then I saw it again (not really by choice, my family had already booked the tickets) and this time

I agreed with this at first. It felt rushed, and cramped. But then I saw it again (not really by choice, my family had already booked the tickets) and this time most of it actually made more sense to me. There's still gratuitous fan service, like bumping in to Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba or putting blue milk in the middle of the shot, but in terms of the scenery and story I think it works. It can be argued that there are too many insignificant characters being introduced and killed off before you have time to start caring, but given it's essentially a war movie that kind of makes sense to me. People largely unknown to one another rally together against a common foe, knowing full well the chance of success is slim and risk of death is great. As there's plenty of peril, characters are killed off unceremoniously all over the place – because it's war and war does that to you. Add to that the Death Star designer with a conciense, some really evil dudes like Krinnic – commenting "oh, it's beautiful" without so much as an inkling of remorse upon wiping out an entire city in an instant – and a great tie-in to ANH, and I think it works really quite well. I liked getting the backstory to why the Death Star has such a crucial flaw, and I buy it. It then also makes sense to me that the Death Star in ROTJ suffers the same fate – it's an iterative design (probably getting rid of exhaust ports) rather than a fundamental fix. I'm hoping there's a directors cut that fixes some of the pacing and adds some more reason to care about Saw Gerrera, but even without I quite enjoyed it – the second time around. I can definitely see how it's very confusing though, for someone not very well versed in the Star Wars saga, or if it's their first movie in the series. I recommend, if you're a fan of the series, that you see Rogue One again. It did the trick for me anyway, maybe it will for you too. One thing that did disappoint me quite a lot is the musical score. It feels entirely different from the established themes, and not in a good way.