I took my 5y/o to the noon show on Friday. As a dad/SW dork, I wanted to experience this in the theater for the first time with him. After reading all of the "it's PG-13 for a reason", "it's the darkest SW film yet", and "there are a few 'cover the kids' eyes moments' reviews, I finally decided that if he could handle watching all other SW films at home, he could handle this one.
He did fine for the first 20 minutes, then got bored until the Scarif battle began. From there, he loved it. And that gave me the fun ''Dad/Son experience that I'd wanted. I hope he'll remember it enough down the road. Can't wait to take him to see Episode VIII when he's just that much older.
I stayed away from most articles about this film, because I wanted to genuinely be surprised.
Likes:
- Tarkin getting a big role. (The CGI wasn't perfect, but damn, picking apart the minor visuals in a fantasy/sci-fi movie always makes me

).
- Loved seeing Red & Gold leaders. They were great surprises and IMO, the most under-credited tie-ins to ANH. Their presence (same actors & all) give this film that extra touch to relate it to ANH. I may have liked seeing them on screen more so than Tarkin & Leia, and to me, were the biggest "holy crap" surprises.
- The "war/conflict" tone. Showing the name of each planet. The rebel grunts on Scarif wearing Vietnam-era helmets was nice, as was their 'deer in the headlights' expressions before they entered the battle. The street ambush scene, and the secrecy involved in bringing the pilot to see Saw. It went for a totally different feel that all of the other films, & pulled it off.
- The helpless, desperate terror in the rebel faces as Vader took them down, one by one.
- I was caught off guard in seeing Leia's face, and dug that they threw her in.
- The countless TIE fighters being launched during the space battle. The Empire is still the Galactic Empire. Try us, rebel #####es.
Dislikes:
- No opening crawl. C'mon, this is still "a Star Wars story".
- The score. The music did not add anything to the scenes for me. Hell, even TPM had Darth Maul's epic "Duel of the Fates" track.
- Where was the Jyn/TIE face off on the catwalk? Such a powerful shot to not have made it into the film. Heck, just the symbolism alone was nice to see in the preview.
- And probably the biggest, I didn't feel a connection with Jyn. I was surprised that she didn't make it, but didn't care that she died. To me, K2SO, the pilot, and even Krennic's deaths were more tragic.
8/10 for me upon first viewing.