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Posted

I had really low expectations for this movie, as someone who did not enjoy The Force Awakens and who has been a huge Legends fan since I was a kid. And I was very pleasantly surprised. As a whole, I really enjoyed the movie, and the way it reframed the narrative of the Rebellion. It had flaws, of course; CGI Tarkin was really bad, and it looks like they'll never be able to come up with planets as imaginative as George Lucas's, but the movie had a soul, which is more than I can say for TFA and the Star Trek reboot.

This is the founding of the Rebel Alliance. You have all these disparate groups just kinda resisting, they've been puttering around for 19 years building secret alliances and collecting warships, I'm pretty sure there are some Separatist forces mixed in with our Rebel heroes (Cassian has been a rebel since his family was killed when he was 6, and the visual guide establishes that he was 26 at his death, so he must have first become a rebel (lowercase-r) in the Clone Wars.) But they haven't had an identity yet. When the rubber meets the road, some people bail, and some people (Bail) step up in a big way. The entire black ops wing of the Rebellion, which has been killing their own allies the whole movie, willingly lay down their own lives instead to grant the Rebellion their first victory against the Empire. They pare down the Rebellion to those who actually believe in 'the cause,' and sacrifice themselves to achieve a better galaxy for everyone else. That left them at Yavin with 4 fighters; they literally gave everything. The next 3 years, they needed to rebuild, and that's why they needed Han to stick around for as long as he did; everyone else with actual military training had been killed. It's why they were running away for all of Episode V; they were assembling forces for another big strike, they couldn't sustain a large offensive. It paints a very different picture of the galaxy, why the Empire was able to cement its rule for almost two decades before the Rebellion we saw forming at the end of Episode III actually took off. They were bogged down with people who weren't willing to fight and people who weren't willing to fight differently than the Empire did.

So, it fit really well into the existing narrative of the saga, and added new nuances without completely changing it. That's why killing everyone at the end was also a good sign in my mind; the filmmakers needed to fit with the saga, and if any of them had survived, they would have been very influential in the Rebellion. So, despite the impact it could have on toy sales (where Star Wars has always made most of its money) and sequel plans, they killed off the entire team. Because it's what the saga needed. Episode VII didn't fit with the saga; it had to twist the Empire back into power and the Rebellion back to being underdogs to replicate the feel of Episode IV. A natural progression of the galaxy would have been much more in-line with Episode II, where the good guys are in power but the bad guys are working behind the scenes. But that doesn't 'feel' like the original Star Wars, so we didn't get it.

Me and my brother really liked the Hammerhead in Scarif battle, a neat call-out to Legends fans and a ship that fits well in the Rebel fleet (an antique that gets pressed into service). But I think they could have gone farther, since they drew on some obvious Legends influences. Jedha was obviously Ossus, the ancient Jedi fortress world. Scarif, the archive world, could have very easily been Obroa-skai. The Mon Cal admiral filled the role of Garm Bel Iblis; while I understand why they wanted to use a Mon Cal in that role, I think it's a shame they didn't bring in the third founder of the Rebellion to share scenes with Mon Mothma and Bail Organa. With some minor backstory changes, Chirrut could have been Rahm Kota. The Dark Troopers are probably actual Dark Troopers, though.

Oh, and I couldn't picture the droid as a droid, since I knew his actor so well from Firefly. I think he was way too human, in a way that HK-47 and C-3PO aren't. I think he should have been an alien instead of a droid, like maybe a Givin, but it looks like they're moving away from alien Imperials being a thing.

So, yeah, good movie, but it doesn't really give me much anticipation for future movies. But, then again, isn't that the point of Anthology films?

Posted
1 hour ago, Pagerunner said:

...and it looks like they'll never be able to come up with planets as imaginative as George Lucas's...

 

To be honest, George's planets were never really that inventive. They were all planets that had only one geological feature. Forest planet. Desert planet. Water planet. I love Star Wars, but I would not point out the planets themselves as exceptional in most ways.

Posted (edited)
42 minutes ago, The Invested Beard said:

To be honest, George's planets were never really that inventive. They were all planets that had only one geological feature. Forest planet. Desert planet. Water planet. I love Star Wars, but I would not point out the planets themselves as exceptional in most ways.

Fine, the settings aren't as inventive. Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, those get the imagination going. The prequels had that in spades; Theed's architecture, the Gungan city, Coruscant, Kaminoan floating cities, the Geonosis arena, all the Order 66 flashes in RotS like Felucia, Mygeeto, and Utapau... really cool-looking, stuff that would never exist on Earth. The new Disney worlds just haven't seemed as interesting to me, and have just seemed like Earth locations.

Edited by Pagerunner
Posted

Quick question, am I the only one who thought of Battlestar Galactic when the Fleet jumped into orbit over Scarif?

Posted (edited)
57 minutes ago, Pagerunner said:

Fine, the settings aren't as inventive. Cloud City, Jabba's Palace, those get the imagination going. The prequels had that in spades; Theed's architecture, the Gungan city, Coruscant, Kaminoan floating cities, the Geonosis arena, all the Order 66 flashes in RotS like Felucia, Mygeeto, and Utapau... really cool-looking, stuff that would never exist on Earth. The new Disney worlds just haven't seemed as interesting to me, and have just seemed like Earth locations.

That's fair. Although some may have the opposite opinion in that the prequels seemed too green-screeny and fake in their locales and prefer the fact that the film makers are now trying to skew more toward practical sets and locations while still using subtle touches here and there to make things feel "alien".

Edited by The Invested Beard
Posted

I feel ashamed I honestly didn't notice Tarkin was full CGI O.O Leia also looked good IMO. More reactions tomorrow :P

Posted
2 hours ago, Mestiv said:

I feel ashamed I honestly didn't notice Tarkin was full CGI O.O Leia also looked good IMO. More reactions tomorrow :P

Same, actually. I figured he must be CG, or something, but I didn't notice any obvious signs. :huh: 

Leia, on the other hand, I could tell had a storm-ton of makeup and/or CGI. :P 

Posted

I thought the cgi was a great tribute. Yes it was very obv but you also saw it on a giant screen. It will be much more less obv once you watch it on tv. My only real complaint and one I can live with is I personally that Vader voice was off tone. I'm sure it has much to do with JEJs age now, but it was noticeable imo. I'm fine with it considering that fact.

i do wish that Vader was more Jr to Tarkin like he appeared to be in ANH. Tarkin bossed him around a few times in ep 4. I need to watch it again but they seemed much more equal in RO

Posted

I saw it today and liked it. Much more than Force Awakens (which as basically ep. 4 A New Hope, but with better graphics). I'm still confused how the stormtroopers, who were cloned from one of the best mercenaries in the galaxy (Jango Fett) can be so incompetent and inaccurate, but thats a discussion for another day. I'm happy Disney decided to end it with everyone dying rather than another implausible escape. I'm also happy we get a explanation for the Death Stars fatal flaw...that has bugged me ever since I saw ep. 4. 

Posted
5 hours ago, Ammanas said:

I'm still confused how the stormtroopers, who were cloned from one of the best mercenaries in the galaxy (Jango Fett) can be so incompetent and inaccurate, but thats a discussion for another day.

Stormtroopers != clonetroopers. By the time of Rogue 1 and New Hope, clones were too old to serve the empire (they aged much faster than normal humans). They were replaced by regular soldiers, inferior to clones in every aspect.

 

I enjoyed the movie far more than Force Awakens. The beginning wasn't too good, that's true, but once they left Jedha, the ride was amazing. The emotions during this movie were far stronger than when watching TFA. Each death hurt, each small victory gave satisfaction. Space battle was hundred times better than what we had in TFA. Somehow, I felt that stakes were really high, and despite knowing that the mission will be successful, that they will manage to get those plans, I felt the tension far more than in Ep. 7. 

Generally, this is one of my favourite Star Wars movies now!

Posted (edited)
On Sunday, December 18, 2016 at 2:36 PM, Voidus said:

I feel really confused about reviews of Rogue One, I'm kind of used to defending star wars movies from criticism, I really don't think the prequels were as bad as everyones always making them out to be, yes they changed the tone quite a bit and there were a few silly things in them but why is it that the thing people always complain about is midichlorians? Explaining the science in a sci-fi saga is pretty standard for the course and is barely worth mentioning let alone going into some huge rant about.
(Someone ranty review below, spoilered for those who just want to discuss their enjoyment for others)

 

  Hide contents


And yet this time I find people to be giving mostly positive reviews for what I find to be probably the worst Star wars movie I've seen. CGI Tarkin was incredibly distracting and annoying, it was set up well as a small cameo where the bad cgi was obscured by the fact that we could only see him as a reflection, then he turns face to camera and becomes a main character for the whole movie. CGI leia was better and kep on screen for a sufficiently brief period of time that the cgi wasn't too noticeable or distracting, so they clearly knew how to do it right and yet they still chose to keep Tarkin in scene after scene. The constant cameos felt incredibly forced (Seriously why the heck did they include the two guys from the mos-eisley cantina on Jedha? They were just there for a half a day before immediately evacuating to tatooine to go visit a cantina in time for ep IV?) Darth Vader had both a suit-upgrade (Which makes no sense since this is immediately before ep-IV) and an incredibly stupid pun (Which is incredibly out of character), although he was at least redeemed with an awesomely bad-chull fight scene at the end.

The whole plot kind of annoys me too, it makes no sense that the imperials would be so confident in the death star when they know specifically that there was a traitor who was the chief engineer, that the secret plans were obtained and sent to the rebels immediately after the daughter of said traitor found out about them, and that the rebels knew specifically that there was some kind of weakness in those designs. But no, they drive the death star right into the rebels so that it can be blown up along with a ton of important imperial officers and very nearly Vader himself.

Also, if they were just going to blow the entire base up with the death star, was there really a need to give each of the characters their own, separate, depressingly heroic death scenes

 

Finally, I saw the film in 3D so this last point may have been an issue with the cinema I went to or something but the quality was pretty terrible, the focus seemed to randomly shift from background to foreground mid conversation, and characters faces went out of focus while they were still talking as the focal point of the scene. Now again this might have been the cinema and I'm usually forgiving of cinematography faults like that since they don't really impact your enjoyment of the story but this was a freaking star wars moving funded by Disney, how could they not have the money to make sure it looked decent?

Now again this is a rather awkward position for me, I love star wars, I love it even with its faults and I am very excited for all the new star wars movies but this was just terrible, maybe it will be better the second watch through but I am not sure I could even do that, I certainly wouldn't pay admission to see it again at the cinemas and even when its available through some streaming service or another I'm still not sure I'll ever rewatch it. I'm also just really confused at how positive a reaction its gotten, I feel like maybe I'm missing something so I hope I can find out what it was by reading the reviews of others but until then I am very disappointed in this installment.

 

 

Throwing a few other things out here Void. 

I totally agree with your feelings as to cameos.

As for character deaths. . .

I felt like the issue was, more for me, that it reached a point where the production staff were like "okay, main team characters start dying now" I don't mind them all dying after a deathstar shot. Adequately directed they could make it work. I don't mind them all dying across a movie. It is just that at five minutes to midnight the plot armour stops working. 

The 3D was awful in my cinema as well. But is was a small and dodgy one.

 

On Monday, December 19, 2016 at 4:06 PM, Kaymyth said:

Just got back home from seeing this.  My thoughts/replies/caveats:

4)  Which brings us to Everyone Dies.  I disagree strongly with the idea that this was lazy storytelling.  I think we're so used to seeing the heroes beat the odds and win the day that a choice like this hits us hard in the feels, but I think the ending is far more authentic than "the heroes magically escape in the nick of time!"  And it gives the ending of A New Hope weight that it never had before, putting faces and (in some cases, heh) names to the people who sacrificed their lives to make that victory possible.  Heroes don't always survive.  That's the nature of war.

At the very least the way they handled it was lazy. As I said above, it feels like at some point the plot armour fails. It doesn't feel genuine. It doesn't feel grim. It feels forced.

Especially because pretty much everyone dies in the movie. Not just the mainline heroes. Pretty much everyone who isn't in ANH bites the dust. Everyone dies can be a bold choice, a fitting choice, especially if paced right. It wasn't here. It felt more like...tying up loose ends. 

Basically it felt like theywanted to explain why none of these guys were in ANH in the quickest and easiest way: they were dead.

It would haved worked better if some few, minor characters, had survived. 

 

Edited by Savanorn
Posted

Oh, man, I forgot to mention Tarkin. I went with my brother's Star Wars roleplaying group, and we all agreed that Tarkin didn't work, especially when he was standing next to a real actor. (We called him Polar Express Tarkin.) The way his face moved made me think of Yoda in Episodes II and III, but it's fine if Yoda's facial movements aren't entirely human, since he's an alien and all that. But we all agreed that Lucasfilm did a good move by taking one for the team; this technology has been talked about for years (like self-driving cars), but someone needs to actually pull the trigger and get it done. This didn't work, but they probably learned a lot for the next time they try it. The original trilogy made a ton of practical effect breakthroughs. It's a very Star Wars thing to do to push the envelope on technology, and once CGI recreation works, it will be a huge game-changer, an order of magnitude larger than when James Cameron developed new 3D cameras for Avatar.

Posted

I know I'm not the most observant guy, also probably in the minority, but I didn't notice any problems with Tarkin. I know some think its a big deal and looks fake, but he looked real to me.

Posted
On 12/22/2016 at 7:12 AM, Savanorn said:

As for character deaths. . .

I felt like the issue was, more for me, that it reached a point where the production staff were like "okay, main team characters start dying now" I don't mind them all dying after a deathstar shot. Adequately directed they could make it work. I don't mind them all dying across a movie. It is just that at five minutes to midnight the plot armour stops working. 

The 3D was awful in my cinema as well. But is was a small and dodgy one.

 

At the very least the way they handled it was lazy. As I said above, it feels like at some point the plot armour fails. It doesn't feel genuine. It doesn't feel grim. It feels forced.

Especially because pretty much everyone dies in the movie. Not just the mainline heroes. Pretty much everyone who isn't in ANH bites the dust. Everyone dies can be a bold choice, a fitting choice, especially if paced right. It wasn't here. It felt more like...tying up loose ends. 

Basically it felt like theywanted to explain why none of these guys were in ANH in the quickest and easiest way: they were dead.

It would haved worked better if some few, minor characters, had survived. 

 

Except that I don't think this entirely tracks.  I mean, you had Saw (yeah, I finally found the correct spelling of that guy's name) died pretty early on, and he was arguably someone who could have been a main character.  Except that he died early in the movie, so he didn't become one.  A couple of the other mains became main characters specifically by surviving long enough to connect up with the two leads.  Plus, at least one of those characters was Force-sensitive; that does tend to stack the deck in favor of you when you're facing overwhelming odds.

And some minor characters did survive.  Did you notice that the Red and Gold Leader cameos were footage straight out of A New Hope?  So definitely some of the X-Wing and Y-Wing pilots made it out.  I think a bunch of the capital ships did, too, or else there wouldn't have been a fleet to take on the Death Star in Episode IV, whose showdown battle takes place literally days after this one.  Vader swooped in and targeted the Rebel flagship because it was the one that had the plans; Leia squeaked out of there by the skin of her teeth only because she had a secondary ship.  But with Vader focused on the flagship, many of the others should have been able to implement a hyperspace jump.

On 12/22/2016 at 10:09 AM, Ammanas said:

I know I'm not the most observant guy, also probably in the minority, but I didn't notice any problems with Tarkin. I know some think its a big deal and looks fake, but he looked real to me.

I really think it depends on how your brain processes faces.  I could see the differences because the microexpressions didn't move right.  They were too fluid; you couldn't see the muscles working in the appropriate places.  But I am, admittedly, extremely face-oriented, to the point where heavy facial hair is enough to obscure someone's identity to me.

In contrast, my husband has some mild face-blindness and didn't notice anything off about Tarkin at all noticed something was off about Tarkin, but couldn't really tell what it was..  There's going to be a very large range of people with differing opinions on this simply because we don't all process facial features the same way.

Posted

I liked this movie. I liked it so much, I wrote a poem about it:

 

Rogue One, Rogue One, you had a good run.

Rogue One, Rogue One, I can tell you had fun.

Rogue One, Rogue One, you wrote it so everyone died.

Rogue One, Rogue One, well at least you tried.

 

I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek here. :P I really did enjoy it. I spent a while confused about what was happening or who anyone was, but it had some cool concepts and some seriously epic action scenes, and overall I enjoyed my time in the theater today. If anything... I just feel like it tried to be too big.

In some ways, if you're doing a movie about a planet-destroying space station you've pretty much got to go big or go home. But the pace was so quick, the characters so numerous, and the exposition so heavy that I never felt the ability to connect with anything that was happening. I think more attention should have been given to a smaller cast of characters, whose backstories and motivations could then have been more sufficiently explored.

You see, what I expected was something more like this: there's a cast of characters on a variety of Imperial-controlled worlds, who witness daily injustices committed by the Empire and ultimately decide to join the Rebellion, all in their own ways. They all have their own unique skills that are vital to the cause, and all wind up on one of the most important missions the Rebellion has ever orchestrated. I expected, or at least hoped, for a film that explored more of the day-to-day realities of living in a galaxy dominated by the Empire, and an exploration of what it takes to push good, moral people to take up arms against their government and join an organized terrorist group. (This review is putting me on a watchlist, by the way.)

Instead, what we got was a lot of characters about whom we know very little, engaging in tasks that are important, but to which we only see the payoff in a movie that came out decades ago. Aside from the concepts for the characters, which are admittedly pretty cool and I'd have loved to see explored in more detail, and a few battle scenes that admittedly got my adrenaline and testosterone pumping, there's not a lot to remember about this movie, and its attempt at being as huge and fast-paced as possible ultimately brought it down.

Conclusion: Rogue One choked on its aspirations, but it's still well worth a watch.

Posted
16 minutes ago, Kobold King said:

 Rogue One choked on its aspirations,

I see what you did there! I disagree with the assessment, but well played!

Posted

Rogue One borrowed heavily from WWII and I loved it. 

Seriously - the Polish resistance fighters ambushing a nazi convoy in an occupied city. Can't trust anyone because the Gestapo are after the resistance leader. Fragmented Allies, trying to work together to stop a terrible threat. And then the Dieppe landings; a military disaster where the entire force was wiped out/captured, but the information gathered led to a brilliant victory some time later. 

 

More than anything, this was a Star Wars movie about what it's like to be in a war and be losing. It felt like a real war in a way that no other Star Wars movie had. Especially at the end; the brutal ground battle where normal, average people (with faces, and personalities, not cookie cutter clones or droids) did heroic, brave things and died doing them. 

I'm not talking about the heroes, or their friends, I'm talking about the random soldier, clearly terrified, seeing something that needs to be done and yelling 'I'll do it' before being shot down. I'm talking about the tough rebel fighter, who only has a handful of lines, but clearly shows in his expressions and actions that he has done awful things for a cause he believes in; and is willing to die for that cause. 

 

This is movie was fantastic. 

 

Other, good notes: characters worked well, droid was charming and leads were believable. I really liked that they didn't spend too much time showing all the characters backgrounds: got the feel that 'these are people with lives, loves and motivations - you are watching the end of their lives' (a touch that's very WWII movie-esque. It allows the people to fill in their own backgrounds and identify with the people, makes them very believable).

Off notes: what was Leia doing attached to the capital ship in a fleet engagement? And then for them to brazenly say hours later that theirs is a consular ship on a diplomatic mission? Should have been hovering in short-comm range but out of the battle, and have the capital ship beam the info to her, or send it on a pod. 

Tarkin face was reasonable, but not great. Borderline of the uncanny valley - almost out, but not quite. 

Posted (edited)

I heard about Carrie Fisher's heart attack. :( Here's hoping she makes a full recovery.

I just saw Rogue One this afternoon, and I think it might be my new favorite Star Wars film. (Previously it was Return of the Jedi.)

On the topic of Tarkin--I definitely noticed that some CG work had been done on his face, but I didn't realize until reading through this thread that the entire onscreen character was computer generated. I don't think it looked as bad as some of y'all do, but as Kaymyth said, different people have different levels of sensitivity to people's facial features. I didn't notice anything weird at all about Princess Leia's appearance. (Side note: I wonder if Tarkin might have looked more realistic if they'd used motion capture a la James Cameron's Avatar with someone who bears a resemblance to the late Peter Cushing and then applied the CG to make the character look more like the original Tarkin of Episode IV.)

I'll admit the characterization in this film was a little lacking, but only a little. Although I liked Cassian, he could have been more developed. Same with the Imperial pilot defector, Bodhi. (Yes, I had to look up Bodhi's name, but mainly because I couldn't tell exactly what the other characters were calling him or guess how to spell it.) Chirrut (Blind Force Guy, as someone in this thread called him XD) was a totally AWESOME badchull IMO. His faith in the Force was inspiring to me, and of course I had to LOL when they put the bag over his head and he said, "Are you kidding? I'm blind!" Also, did his uncanny awareness of his surroundings remind anyone else of Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender? K-2 reminded me a lot of a certain depressed robot, and a couple times I was expecting Cassian to respond to his dire warnings about their chances with the classic Han Solo line "Never tell me the odds!" or something similar. (I also loved the "I've got a bad feeling about this" nod to the other Star Wars movies.) I found Jyn's sudden investment in the Rebel cause highly believable, given that her father had just died in her arms with a plea to destroy the Death Star on his lips.

I think Everyone Dies was a good choice--the only logical choice, really. I saw it coming about as soon as Jyn & Co. landed on Scarif and the shield-gate closed and I realized, "Oh... None of these characters are in Episode IV, and there's gotta be a really good reason for that, since this mission is the instigating plot event of Episode IV." It was very well done IMO. I was having all the feels during the last portion of the movie and even started crying in the theater. To respond to some of y'all's criticisms of the ending... I definitely agree with Kaymyth in feeling that the deaths of all the major characters felt more authentic than a miraculous escape would have, and it really hammered home that this is a war, so not all the heroes are going to make it home when the battle is over. Showing their individual deaths was a smart choice as well. If we'd just seen the base exploding and been expected to infer that the entire Rogue One team had perished in the blast, I would have been like, "What?? You make us care about these characters who are going on what's essentially a suicide mission to save the galaxy, and you're just going to write them off all at once in a Death Star holocaust?? NO. NOT COOL." I would have felt soooo cheated. I much prefer the ending that wrenched on my emotions and had me in tears. (Does that make me a masochist?)

Anyway, I thought it was overall a fan-storming-tastic movie. Definitely one I will want to buy once it's available.

Oh, just wanted to add a random side note: did anyone else notice that one of the guys on the rebel council was the same actor who plays Anderson on Sherlock? The actor's name is Jonathan Aris.

Edited by Sunbird
Posted
28 minutes ago, Assassin in Burgundy said:

This was pretty good. I just wish that literally everyone didn't die at the end. 

Why? It shows how costly it was and how huge a sacrifice it was to an organization that can't afford even one loss of life without serious setbacks to their manpower. This route just lets us know the true lvl of hopelessness the galaxy is facing. I'd even go so far as to say that if someone did survive it could have felt to forced potentially. I think some prob did survive but the reshoots did away with it. Looking forward to DVD features to see if that happened.

Posted
10 minutes ago, Briar King said:

Why? It shows how costly it was and how huge a sacrifice it was to an organization that can't afford even one loss of life without serious setbacks to their manpower. This route just lets us know the true lvl of hopelessness the galaxy is facing. I'd even go so far as to say that if someone did survive it could have felt to forced potentially. I think some prob did survive but the reshoots did away with it. Looking forward to DVD features to see if that happened.

I understand that, and also that there would be loose ends that were never mentioned again, but I really liked some of the characters. 

Posted
4 minutes ago, Assassin in Burgundy said:

I understand that, and also that there would be loose ends that were never mentioned again, but I really liked some of the characters. 

I think Jyn survived originally and possibly rescued Cassan. The scene with her on catwalk and the Tie fighter Rising up wasn't in final cut. Like I said the DVD features could prove interesting if they get into the reshoots issue.

Posted
2 minutes ago, Briar King said:

I think Jyn survived originally and possibly rescued Cassan. The scene with her on catwalk and the Tie fighter Rising up wasn't in final cut. Like I said the DVD features could prove interesting if they get into the reshoots issue.

Didn't 

Spoiler

Jyn and Cassian both die? Like it had that scene with the Death Star explosion and all  

 

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