The frequent scene shifting at the start of the movie seemed unnecessary.
There is a strange interrogation scene where the leader of the rebel splinter cell (the old black dude) extracts information from the defecting imperial pilot. This is intended to establish that the black dude is a creepy extremist, showing that the rebellion is complex, I guess (his men also had a habit of shooting into crowds). However, this scene makes little sense because the defecting pilot has a hologram that he was sent to deliver and conveys all the necessary info. The stated purpose of the mind-probe is to prove that the pilot isn't
lying -- but that doesn't really mean much, if you think about it. Worse, it is heavily implied that the interrogation will cause permanent damage, but then the pilot makes a full recovery within hours. Weird.
CG Peter Cushing looks horrible in most shots, really no better than CG characters in video game cutscenes. Partly this was due to the material not looking quite right -- there was an odd glint on his skin, for example, which made it look like he had just taken an oil bath. But mostly it was due to the
animation. I will not give them a pass on this because it could have been done better. Rather than make a CG Tarkin from scratch, they could have found an actor who looked a lot like him, and then done CG modifications to the actor's face. The result would have looked like a human.
The film tries too hard to tie in to the other films. A good example of this is that we see the Blockade Runner from episode 4 fleeing from the imperials at the end of Rogue One. But that makes the confrontation between Vader and the crew of the Blockade Runner in episode 4 kind of silly:
Quote
What Darth Vader says: If this is a consulate ship, where is the ambassador?
What Darth Vader means: Bitch, I saw this ship leaving Scarif like ten minutes ago.
What Darth Vader says: You are part of the rebel alliance and a traitor.
What Darth Vader means: BITCH I SAW YOU TEN MINUTES AGO