Welcome to our Star Wars countdown. We’ve already done the first four movies of the franchise, giving our thoughts on the highlights and lowlights from The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Now, Rogue One is going to get the same treatment.

RELATED: Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: 5 Best And 5 Worst Things

The blockbuster defied all expectations when it released in 2016, taking the box office by storm and also getting plenty of praise from critics. We now take a look at the first-Star Wars spin-off movie ever released and pick out our best, and worst, things about it.

Best: The Magnitude Of The Stakes Feels Real

Star Wars A New Hope: Leia gives Death Star plans to R2

There have always been high stakes when it comes to Star Wars. In the original trilogy, everything people did seemed to be about stopping the villainous Empire from carrying out some dastardly scheme. In the prequels, it was about stopping Sith Lords like Darth Maul and Anakin Skywalker. And, in the sequels, it’s the First Order who are the big, daunting threat.

But Rogue One does the best job of all the movies at making the audience feel like the stakes are ridiculously high. You feel the desperation of the Rebels as they seek to obtain the Death Star plans, with them even resorting to moments of darkness to reach their goal. It’s this that makes it such a thrilling film to watch.

Worst: The CGI Decisions

Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin looking one way in Rogue One

Don’t get us wrong, it was a marvelous surprise seeing Grand Moff Tarkin back in a Star Wars movie, nearly 40 years on from his death in 1977’s A New Hope. And it was also a nice surprise to see Carrie Fisher get the CGI treatment, with Leia Organa de-aged for the movie’s concluding shot.

But the problem is that CGI tends to distort how the characters look. While Tarkin resembled Cushing, some of the animations were a little off. And young Leia looked like Fisher back in the 1970s if she’d injected her face full of Botox. Some movies can carry it out flawlessly but the decision to bring the duo in here ultimately fell a little flat.

Best: Orson Krennic

Orson Krennic and the Death Star in Rogue One.

Grand Moff Tarkin was the first loathsome officer audiences ever meet in Star Wars. General Hux is currently his like-for-like within the First Order, too. But Orson Krennic in Rogue One was a superb character, with Ben Mendelsohn making the character as thoroughly-dislikeable as possible.

Krennic is involved heavily throughout the movie and, given how well his character came across, that’s a good thing. He orders the murder of Jyn Erso’s mother, destroys Jedah using the Death Star and, during the blockbuster’s final act, is the biggest threat to the Rebel Alliance’s aim to achieve their goals. He’s unflinchingly evil and helped the Empire come across as an even more formidable enemy to beat.

RELATED: Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones: 5 Best & 5 Worst Things

Worst: Underused Mads Mikkelson

Galen Erso Looks On at Orson Krennic

Mads Mikkelson is a rather big actor and has been involved in many movies since really turning heads with his performance in Casino Royale back in 2006. And while his character is good in Rogue One, we couldn’t help but feel he was underused.

We understand that Galen Erso had to die at some point but, for the man who deliberately inserted a flaw within the Death Star, he doesn’t get as much screen time as you’d expect. Usually, we can look past that but given how talented Mikkelson is, we reckon he was deserving of a little better. His death is emotional, though, and makes you feel even more sympathetic towards his daughter Jyn and the rest of the Rebel Alliance.

Best: Showing Two Sides To The Rebels

Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Rogue One A Star Wars Story Rebellion Rebel Alliance

Previously, Star Wars movies had been very explicit. There were the good guys - the Rebel Alliance, the Jedi, the Resistance - and then the bad guys - the Empire, the First Order, Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, etc. But Rogue One is the first movie to inject darkness into even the best soldiers at the Rebels’ disposal.

Very early on, Cassian Andor ruthlessly kills an informant to save his own skin. Saw Gerrera is a man fighting a noble fight but he loses his way by subjecting innocent people to Bor Gullet. Rogue One’s magic is that it makes you acknowledge that even the best people have to do some bad things. Especially if it means wiping out a threat as huge and repulsive as the Galactic Empire.

RELATED: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: 5 Best And 5 Worst Things

Worst: Mon Mothma

Mon Mothma, in Return of the Jedi, has the air of a woman you wouldn’t want to cross. She comes across as authoritative and willing to take risks if it means getting the results that she wants. However, while she’s still very much herself in Rogue One, she feels a lot less powerful than she did previously.

That’s partly because when Jyn Erso urges the Rebels into battle - and despite her wanting to agree - Mothma doesn’t. Instead - and perhaps this is a political message - she buckles down to all of the men around the table. This means that we now view her in a slightly different light but, to her credit, she eventually u-turns and gives the Rebels her seal of approval.

Best: Scarif

Before the release of Rogue One, we’d seen snow planets like Hoth, dessert planets like Jakku and Tatooine, and grassy environments like the ones on Takodana and Endor. However, for the first spin-off in Star Wars history, they decided to change things up by introducing Scarif, the first beach planet of its kind.

It’s beautiful to look at and is a worthy setting for the frantic finale, where the Rebels finally succeed in transmitting the Death Star plans to their fleet up above. Its spiraling tower has its own mysteries, containing information that could one day be important. We’re sure we’ve not seen the last of Scarif just yet, even if it was destroyed by the Empire via the Death Star.

Worst: Characters Are Skimmed Over

Rogue One Baze Chirrut Empire featured image

While Jyn Erso is the poster girl of this movie, everybody gets their fair share of the spotlight. Cassian Andor is prominent throughout the blockbuster, as well as his faithful droid K2SO, while Chirrut Imwe, Baze Malbus, and Bodhi Rook also get plenty of screen time.

But the problem is that Jyn is the only character whose backstory is really fleshed out. We can’t help but feel there’s an entire movie's worth of stuff to explore about Chirrut and Baze, while it would be fascinating to see what both Bodhi and K2SO got up to during their days fighting for the Galactic Empire. Cassian is getting his own TV show and we’re hoping more about Rogue One’s talismans is explored further down the line.

RELATED: Star Wars: 10 Worst Things The Empire Did In The Movies

Best: Darth Vader’s Killing Spree

Darth Vader in Rogue One

Sure, we knew that Darth Vader was intimidating during the original trilogy, where he’d go around choking anybody who failed him. But his threat and aura are enhanced in Rogue One when he embarks on a murderous rampage in a desperate bid to stop the Rebels from acquiring the Death Star plans.

Vader, in this moment, is operating at the peak of his powers. Poor Rebel soldiers stand no chance as he slices his way through them, pinning some of their numbers to the ceiling and stripping others of their weapons. It was a last-minute inclusion to the movie and we’re glad it happened: it’s arguably the highlight.

Worst: Darth Vader’s Choke Joke

Darth Vader in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Darth Vader features in just two scenes throughout the entirety of Rogue One. We’ve already mentioned his murder spree of Rebel soldiers at the end of the blockbuster but now we’re going to touch upon his intense conversation with Orson Krennic at his castle on Mustafar.

For the most part, the scene is fine. But when Krennic starts to be a bit cocky, Vader makes a poor joke. While throttling the imperial officer using the force, he says ‘be careful not to choke on your aspirations’. We get it, the movie is dark, it needed humor. Yet the sight of seeing someone as evil as Vader resorting to...a pun? Come off it, the Sith Lord can do better than that.

NEXT: Star Wars: The Best Character From Every Movie