'Rogue One' Early Buzz: The 'Star Wars' Spin-Off Exceeds Expectations

Last night, the world premiere of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story hit Los Angeles, and even though the embargo on full reviews won't be lifted until December 13th, the first reactions from those attending the star-studded debut of the movie (including our own Peter Sciretta) have hit the web. The result is tons of praise, many saying that it exceeded their already high expectations with incredible action and some brand new memorable characters that Star Wars fans are going to fall in love with.

Check out all the Rogue One early buzz after the jump.

Now keep in mind that these reactions are coming from the world premiere of Rogue One where excitement is running high and most of the people in attendance were already excited to see the movie. In some ways, that makes them harder to impress, but in other ways, the hype surrounding them may make their praise feel a little hyperbolic.

First up, here's reactions from critics and fellow members of the press:

Here are some reactions that aren't quite as praiseworthy, but still have plenty of nice things to say:

Plus, here are some reactions from some of the actors and filmmakers in attendance last night:

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Man, that's some pretty high praise. I was expecting people to love Rogue One, but I wasn't expecting so many people to say it exceeds expectations. There seems to be plenty of standout praise for both Donnie Yen as Chirrut Imwe and Alan Tudyk as K-2SO, who may become some of our favorite characters. The action is also being praised across the board, which isn't surprising as we've seen from the trailers, even if half the footage we've seen isn't in the movie. It sounds like those reshoots were nothing to be worried about at all.

But for me, the best thing to hear about Rogue One is the twists and turns that shocked people who saw the movie last night. Most of the people above are hardcore Star Wars fans, so the fact that they were surprised by what happened and that Lucasfilm was able to keep them secret has my curiosity piqued.

Finally, it sounds like you're going to want to avoid reading full reviews when they arrive on December 13. We'll round up some praise without spoilers for you when the embargo lifts, and might even have our own spoiler-free review, just so you don't spoil anything for yourself. I couldn't wait to see Rogue One before, but now this week is going to take forever until I'm sitting in the theater waiting for the movie to start.