Rogue One was a fun movie. Yes, there were guys who could dispose of armored Stormtroopers with their elbows and wooden sticks, but those last five minutes were bonkers! But even though the entire third act was an enormous battle, the first stand-alone Star Wars movies had quite a few storytelling flaws.
This becomes immediately clear when you compare the writing to the last two Star Wars movies, as Lessons From the Screenplay did in their newest video. Part of the problem is with Jyn Erso's character development in Rogue One. There's little to create empathy for the character—what drives her? What hurts her? What's holding her back? Meanwhile, in The Force Awakens, the entire opening scene is dedicated to creating sympathy for Rey. As LFTS points out, this creates an "active protagonist." Jyn on the other hand is a "passive protagonist," one who has things happen to her rather than causes things to happen.
These issues go beyond Jyn as a character as well. While the third act of Rogue One is dedicated to battle, the first and second act are unnecessarily complicated, and events unfold that have little to no impact on the greater plot or character development. For example, why does Forest Whitaker's Saw torture Riz Ahmed's Bodhi? Thankfully, though, that battle scene in the third act makes up for some of the clunky storytelling.
