- On a related note, I kind of wished they'd had some explanation for why they had extra fighters but not enough pilots in A New Hope...
I was under the impression that some of the men that boarded the stolen shuttle were pilots who volunteered. From some of the prequels and sequels, it's clear all of the rebel pilots are at least armed, if not trained. If they were pilots, then the entirety of them being wiped out on the beach by the death star would explain the mismatched number of ships to pilots.
I've only just watched it this evening, so this is just a top-of-my-head explanation. I need time to process the whole movie. As it stands now, I give it a 3.5 out of 5 Rebel Insignias. Better than The Force Awakens in my book, but not by much. Tarkin was just too...fake-looking, as was Leia. The battle scenes were ok. I did like the direct tie-in to A New Hope at the end, but as others have said, having the plans directly handed to the ships crew was a stretch. Sure, it added suspense as Vader approached the crew member carrying the disk, but that scene lasted about 15-20 seconds longer than it needed to.
And I agree, why the hell didn't Vader just stop that ship with The Force? Maybe he was still weak and recovering from his run-in with Obi-Wan, and the loss of Padme.
I'm probably the only one of my long-time Star Wars geek friends in my age group that was underwhelmed. Everyone I personally know that has seen it has been singing its praises all weekend, and since I hold all of their opinions on the matter in high regard, I went in with high hopes. I don't feel like my hopes were rewarded, no matter if rebellions are built on hope or not.