Whoa, what? Force Awakens is a much better movie than Rogue One. Fine, it basically borrowed A New Hope's story, but at least there was good character development, and it's a decent story framework to begin with. Rogue One didn't explore anybody's character, and it took forever to build the story to a captivating point. That said, the last half hour was solid when it came to action and overall plot. But I didn't care about a single character, and almost every character basically just fits their role for that plot, however strange their decisions are as a result. When everybody's favorite character coming out of that movie is a literal robot, there might be a problem.
That's being a little harsh on it, because there are definitely really good parts. I really enjoy the concept of the movie. Everything about why it exists is a great idea. I just think they didn't execute it very well.
I've honestly given up on getting deep characters out of movies as a whole, or even really deep plots. They're just too short for me to become attached to a character. So, yeah, while the characters weren't great, they weren't terrible.
Why did I say it was better than 7? Well, the end of 7 left a really bad taste in my mouth. Everything that happened on Starkiller base felt very rushed, like the movie refused to take it's time at all. The final lightsaber duel came off as forced, and had the ending we knew was coming, but never felt like it earned it's victory at all. Don't even get me started on the whole Luke Skywalker thing at the end. That felt tacked on, rushed and too drawn out, and the worst sequel bait I've seen in a long time.
Rouge One, on the other hand, had a very rushed opening. Up until they reach steampunk gangster, it's all a mush. After that, however, it gets much more satisfying. As forced as
those two character's relations may have been, it led very, very well into what was A New Hope. It left me with a much more satisfied feel than 7 ever did. And that's why I liked it much more.
