Rogue One Spoiler Thread

[Briar King]

Yeah they both did. Watch the trailers when you can. There's some stuff that didn't show up in final cut which makes me think quite a few things were changed during the reshoot fiasco.

[+Slowswift]

1 hour ago, Sunbird said:

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.

I NOTICED THAT TOO  

Like, it's supposed to be a serious scene where they're literally trying to decide whether or not to start a full-on war, and all I can think is, "Wait... Anderson?!"  

*Note to self: make a "shut up, Anderson" meme out of that scene

Edited December 27, 2016 by Slowswift

[Kaymyth she/her]

1 hour ago, Slowswift said:

I NOTICED THAT TOO  

Like, it's supposed to be a serious scene where they're literally trying to decide whether or not to start a full-on war, and all I can think is, "Wait... Anderson?!"  

*Note to self: make a "shut up, Anderson" meme out of that scene

Also, Jyn's father was the bad guy in Doctor Strange.

[Briar King]

57 minutes ago, Kaymyth said:

Also, Jyn's father was the bad guy in Doctor Strange.

He's a bad guy in most of his roles I think which makes him a cool good guy.

[StormingTexan he/him]

Finally got to see it today. Thought it was good. Agree with a lot of others the beginning jumped around way too much took a while before I really felt like I knew what was going on. I actually thought everyone dying made sense (albeit sad). This was a pretty dark Star Wars movie but also very emotional and a great backstory for New Hope. Makes me want to watch it again. 

Saw some earlier comments about why Leia would be with the fleet in the middle of the battle. Well it was on purpose from what I gathered. There was the scene where Mon Mothma tells Bail Organa they need someone to escape with the Death Star plans. He says "I know just the women" or something like that. So makes sense they sent Leia she was "just the women". 

Edited December 27, 2016 by StormingTexan

[Savanorn he/him]

11 hours ago, Assassin in Burgundy said:

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

Ironic given your username, but pretty cool. 

 

On 12/23/2016 at 4:01 AM, Kaymyth said:

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.

 

Hey Kay,

That's not a terribly good argument. A point that all the characters dying was lazy end tying, since pretty much everyone dies who doesn't appear in ANH, can't be refuted by pointing out cameos by people like the Gold and Red Leaders who aren't characters (for any practical purposes) and who are in a New Hope, so can't have died...yet (RIP Red Leader, circa ANH).  Don't get me wrong,  they were cute cameos and I appreciated them, but it acts against your point.

-as a subpoint, none of the characters really became main characters. They're more or less given to us and introduced in bitesized chunks. It's not like it starts with twenty people who steadily die off like in some disaster movie.

But perhaps I wasn't making myself completely clear when I was saying it didn't feel authentic.  A major element in this is that, not only does everyone die, but they die in a tremendously formulaic way. It basically goes, CHARACTER must to do THING, CHARACTER does THING, CHARACTER dies. Usually with the last two separated by mere moments. Character seem to last just long enough to do their THING and then plot shields fail and they die.  

Putting aside the fact that I'd barely count Saw as a character. Saw was perhaps the worst offender with this (or Chirrut) where he appears just long enough to wave the cast to the next plotpoint before dying pointlessly. You see the same with Chirrut with the switch, the same with with K2SO and the archive, the same with Bodhi and the transmission and the same with Jyn and the message. I think Baze is the only outlier here, since he managed to die doing nothing at all. 

As for continuity issues caused by them surviving, what exactly are people like Baze or Chirrut going to do that'd violate this so much? There's little reason that they'd have to be at the Death Star, and the Rebel Alliance is a galactic resistance, there's pretty much entirely legitimate groundwork they could be doing lightyears away from the action in ANH.  

Finally, for anyone who would like to point out the Everyone Dies is somehow more mature or in keeping with the "grim reality" of warfare...what war are we speaking of? From Cannae to Waterloo, from Pharsalus to Stamford Bridge to the Battle of Britain and on there's pretty much no wars, let alone battles, where everyone dies. Having every named character die, if not done appropriately, is about as bad as having every character live. It wasn't done appropriately here.

[Should be noted that I'm not bashing anyone's opinions, but if people wanna debate, I'm happy to do so]    

[StormingTexan he/him]

I don't really see the issue with everyone dying. I didn't know any of these characters exsisted (besides knowing someone stole the Death Star plans) before this movie. I thought the entire purpose was to show the sacrifice to provide hope for the Alliance.

 

Edit: Although I do agree some of the deaths were forced and convenient. It would have probably been better to see most simply disappear with the flash of the Death Star like we did for  Jyn and Cassian. 

Edited December 27, 2016 by StormingTexan

[Kaymyth she/her]

Carrie Fisher passed away this morning.

[StormingTexan he/him]

So sad. Some celebrity deaths hit me harder than others and this is one. Too soon by far. 

Edited December 27, 2016 by StormingTexan

[Briar King]

I was so rusting overjoyed with the 100% surprise of having her in this. I mean I gasped out loud and got misty eyed hearing "Hope". My next view is going to be emo as hell.

Paul Walkers F&F 7 will have nothing on the emo feels that Ep 8 will unleash on release though.

[Exalted]

"I have a bad feeling about--"

"Shut up!"

 

Absolutely priceless. Also was a fan of the "everyone dies"; sad but powerful. And I appreciated the lack of romance, because too many movies these days go out of their way to shoehorn it in *cough* The Hobbit *cough*. (Additionally, my sentences are feeling alliterative today. And I have no idea why. )

[C. M. Hayden he/him]

Rogue One was exactly what I expected. A fun popcorn flick with some good visuals. It wasn't a masterpiece or anything, but I'll take it over Episodes 1, 2, and 3 any day of the week.

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

A bit late to the party here. Saw Rogue One over the holidays and although I went in knowing that everyone died at the end, I still got a little misty-eyed when it happened. 

The characters were a bit underdeveloped and tropey, but I think the story was, overall, more ambitious and less derivative than that of The Force Awakens. Rogue One showed the kinds of stories that are possible in the Star Wars universe—it wasn't another Chosen One story, but rather the story of a few unsung heroes who paid the ultimate price. I would love more stories like this one, and I think that if we got more stories like this, they'd get better and less tropey over time. 

[ThirdGen]

On 12/16/2016 at 6:55 AM, LeftVash said:

First was when the black extremist rebel just decided to quit and die. That just felt really weird to me. The other was when the rebel assasin decided to not snipe Jen's dad. I don't understand what motivated him to stop.

It was set up earlier that part of the ethos of the really hardline Rebels is that if someone is slowing your escape, let them die.  That's messed up to us, but it's an ethic that comes out of very immediate, desperate struggle for survival.  Forest Whitaker's character was utterly devoted to the destruction of the Empire.  He accepted it in an almost monk-like way.

As for the "everyone dies" aspect, the suicide mission subgenre of war movie hasn't been as prominent as it used to be.  Dirty Dozen, 13 Assassins, that sort of thing.  Constantly giving people movies showing war as a situation where the good guys win gives people a distorted view of war.  The ethics get murky and purpose-specific.  It's why we should be trying to avoid it.

On 12/27/2016 at 7:55 AM, Savanorn said:

But perhaps I wasn't making myself completely clear when I was saying it didn't feel authentic.  A major element in this is that, not only does everyone die, but they die in a tremendously formulaic way. It basically goes, CHARACTER must to do THING, CHARACTER does THING, CHARACTER dies. Usually with the last two separated by mere moments. Character seem to last just long enough to do their THING and then plot shields fail and they die.  

Here's where the formula really stuck out.  As soon as a character was no longer needed to get the plans in Leia's hands, they died.  In a couple places in the finale, this was glaringly obvious.

As for the Tarkin CG, it's extremely clear they got motion capture of an actor's body, but didn't mocap the face.  What they went for here was animated like a game character.  It wasn't even an imitation of Peter Cushing's performance from '77.  Cushing's face in that is remarkably direct.  He looks right at what he's doing.  He has a military and slightly aristocratic air about him.  But for some reason they gave the CG Tarkin constant head bobs and eye moves during his lines.  It was like an Andy Serkis character.  Andy Serkis is great and all, but his mocap acting style always made sure his head movements were broad enough for the tracking of the time to pick up.  It's good for certain types of characters, but not all.  His appearance was also balder and more skull-like than the original.  They went overboard on what they thought was right for the modern style.

Just like Vader's pun.  He, uhh... doesn't speak that way.

I could chalk up the different, more limber movements to Vader having just been rejuvenated by the tank he floated in.  We never saw him do that in the original trilogy.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot.  It was surprisingly realistic in portraying power dynamics within a rebellion.  The old movies presented them as a smaller good-guy military, but here we have hardliners, defeatists, infighting, and wildcat actions done without approval.

That was the one thing I would change about the storyline.  I'd have Mon Mothma take Jin aside and tell her she can't authorize a big show of force, but she can send in a small, stealthy team without letting the council know.

 

[Kaymyth she/her]

43 minutes ago, ThirdGen said:

That was the one thing I would change about the storyline.  I'd have Mon Mothma take Jin aside and tell her she can't authorize a big show of force, but she can send in a small, stealthy team without letting the council know.

But if she'd done that, then how do you get the big battle at the end?  The fleet mobilized because the dominoes started to fall when the team took off.  If it's a semi-legitimate stealth mission, then the fleet stays still (unless you have Mothma deliberately subverting her own command structure to manipulate the fleet into mobilizing).

Without the fleet, the Death Star plans don't make it off the planet.

[ThirdGen]

51 minutes ago, Kaymyth said:

But if she'd done that, then how do you get the big battle at the end?  The fleet mobilized because the dominoes started to fall when the team took off.  If it's a semi-legitimate stealth mission, then the fleet stays still (unless you have Mothma deliberately subverting her own command structure to manipulate the fleet into mobilizing).

Without the fleet, the Death Star plans don't make it off the planet.

The fleet already reacted to realizing an operation was already in progress.  Mothma could have ordered it and maintained deniability, since she would be going around the mostly defeatist council.

[Savanorn he/him]

On 1/4/2017 at 3:09 AM, ThirdGen said:

Here's where the formula really stuck out.  As soon as a character was no longer needed to get the plans in Leia's hands, they died.  In a couple places in the finale, this was glaringly obvious.

As for the Tarkin CG, it's extremely clear they got motion capture of an actor's body, but didn't mocap the face.  What they went for here was animated like a game character.  It wasn't even an imitation of Peter Cushing's performance from '77.  Cushing's face in that is remarkably direct.  He looks right at what he's doing.  He has a military and slightly aristocratic air about him.  But for some reason they gave the CG Tarkin constant head bobs and eye moves during his lines.  It was like an Andy Serkis character.  Andy Serkis is great and all, but his mocap acting style always made sure his head movements were broad enough for the tracking of the time to pick up.  It's good for certain types of characters, but not all.  His appearance was also balder and more skull-like than the original.  They went overboard on what they thought was right for the modern style.

Just like Vader's pun.  He, uhh... doesn't speak that way.

I could chalk up the different, more limber movements to Vader having just been rejuvenated by the tank he floated in.  We never saw him do that in the original trilogy.

Overall, I liked this movie a lot.  It was surprisingly realistic in portraying power dynamics within a rebellion.  The old movies presented them as a smaller good-guy military, but here we have hardliners, defeatists, infighting, and wildcat actions done without approval.

That was the one thing I would change about the storyline.  I'd have Mon Mothma take Jin aside and tell her she can't authorize a big show of force, but she can send in a small, stealthy team without letting the council know.

 

Exactly, and right on with the Vader thing.

 

Thanks for your input
 

[Spoolofwhool]

I found it was better than Star Wars 7, but it wasn't that amazing. There were some nice point, but many holes which I didn't care for, mainly small things which broke the realism.

The big thing: The hyperjump while they were near the planet. That's fairly universe-breaking enough that it killed the moment for me.

List of small things:

Spoiler

1. Incompetent imperals in the prologue. Specifically there to take them alive yet don't have stun blasters, and directly kill one of them. The fact that they didn't have air cover to make sure none of them didn't get away was a bit less annoying, but still somewhat.

2. The recording stopped when the Death Star blasted the city. The only way I see that happening is either a. The equipment was bad enough that the shakes damage it, b. The facility was running on power from the city. Since I don't see either as being likely, the fact we never got to see the recording was annoying.

3. Stormtrooper was inconsistent in strengths, and by all accounts useless. Stormtroopers were getting one shot and the only time I remember a stormtrooper actually seen with blaster bolt damage on the armor was when it was needed to keep a character alive. 

4. Communication while they were in hyperspace. While it's only an in-book canon that you can't do it, it was something I liked and I didn't like not seeing it used.

5. Engineer wasn't killed by the intelligence captain. 

6. C-3PO and R2D2 on Yavin. R2D2 is fine, but no one with half a brain would let C-3PO onto a hidden rebel base. There's a reason why they keep need to wiping him, his metal lips flap harder than hummingbird wings.

7. The imperials didn't close the shield gate until snubfighters started trying to go through it. They established that the rebel fleet had been there for some time, and I find it hard to believe that "close the hole in the planetary shield" isn't part of the operational procedures when a hostile fleet attacks. 

8. The imperials apparently have no sector fleet and Vader was the closest reinforcements. I could be remembering wrong, but I don't recall it being indicated that he was on his way there, which kind of means he only came because the rebels attacked.

9. I don't understand why the Death Star blasted the antenna. Either it was aiming to wipe the facility, in which case it missed, which feels bad, or it just wanted to blast the antenna, in which case there was no need for a laser of that magnitude.

10. Leia's ship docked with the flagship. I don't understand why it was there in the first place and why it was still there at the very end of the battle. Yes, it was there to tie in to IV, but I don't understand why it was there in the first place.