Michael Tucker of Lessons from the Screenplay takes a deep dive into the latest Star Wars films to compare and contrast The Force Awakens with Rogue One. It's the difference between telling us a story and showing us a story. Yes, this contains spoilers.
You can definitely see a difference choice in narrative structure, but they makes sense. We left The Force Awakens wanting to see more of Rey and Finn and Kylo Ren as well as the characters from the earlier movies. When we left Rogue One, we feel as if we learned a history lesson that happened long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. -via Digg