Rogue One - SPOILERS IN THIS THREAD!!!!

[Medivh]

Just making the room so people can express their emotions/feelings/etc. at the new star wars movie in a secure environment.

[SWSF Hoppus]

Read a very negative review of it today. Not expecting much of a good story at all.

[SWSF Hale]

Things I am excited about potentially seeing:
[ ] Darth Vader cutting down rebel scum. If the red lightsaber comes out and limbs get chopped, I will be happy.
[ ] X-Wings vs Star Destroyers (though it sort of sets a weird precedent if the Rebels actually have a "Fleet" in this movie)
[ ] The Force

Things I am skeptical about:
[ ] A clear line from the plot of this film to Episode IV
[ ] Winks and nods to the fans / the 4th wall getting broken
[ ] Too many small characters being "cheaper by the dozen" rather than one or two strong leads
[ ] Characters from Rogue One showing up in Episode VIII out of nowhere, just because they were "popular"

[Rinny]

Spoilers right?


I dunno.  It just didn't feel like Star Wars to me.  I didn't feel invested in the characters.  Cassian delivered a speech that was so eerily similar to something I wrote on this forum.

And I was right.  I said the day that teaser dropped, ain't no rebels surviving this movie.  And I mean obviously I don't think any of them should have survived, I just wish I had been more affected by it.  I went in there expected to bawl my eyes out and I teared up when Bail showed up... but I dunno, I was disappointed in Bail, disappointed in the flat characters, I hate 3d, especially hate gimmick 3d.  I wanted to fall in love and have my soul crushed and that is not what I got, at all.

[gallpizi]

Oh dear.

I am so sorry you got that.

For me this was the best Star Wars film I have had because it wasn't just a space fantasy. It was darker, it was a war film. So many times I felt myself tear up seeing things we never saw in a Star Wars movie. Kids in the middle of fire fights. Vader going all bad ass. Rebels being seen as more extreme than other rebels. Etc.

[Rinny]

There are 4, I think, very specific things that just took me out of the movie.  The first being Cassian not shooting Jyn's father.  I think the scene is in the wrong order.  We're shown that he's ok doing dirty work, that he's fine murdering his own contact to save the Rebellion, yet he makes the decision not to kill him BEFORE getting the clues that Jyn's probably telling the truth.  From what we're shown of the character up to that point, it just seems out of character to be so easily swayed by only what Jyn says to him on the shuttle.

The second was Bail just STANDING THERE while they're debating disbanding the Rebellion.  This is YOUR Rebellion, Viceroy.  I admit this is probably just the Alderaan fangirl in me being super disappointed, but come on man. :/

I think the majority of deaths were incredibly mechanical.  "Oh, it's time to kill this character."  "Oh gotta kill this one now."  The best death was the droid, omg that was amazing.

And the last was the Vader scene.  TO ME it felt like "Everyone's expecting this, better do it!"  It's great that it's in there, it's what people wanted, but it just wasn't impactful for me.

Watching twitter and reddit apparently I'm the only person who didn't like it.  I think that makes me feel worse because now I feel like I totally missed the boat.

[SWSF Hale]

Based on my checklist -- I am very satisfied.

I was surprised they integrated so much of Episode IV, including Tarkin. I suspected they would not have included Tarkin, or at the very least used Bill Nighy to sub for Peter Cushing, but in some scenes the CGI was extremely lifelike.

I just love the fact that Vader was like "I'm dispatching a boarding party to the Rebel Flagship, and by 'boarding party' - I mean me." Total badass.

Overall, my impression was that you could sit down and view Rogue One and A New Hope back-to-back as a whole film.

[Rinny]

I watched it again tonight and on second viewing I think I appreciated it a bit more.  I still didn't have that impactful emotional response that I wanted.  Oh well.  There's more to come.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Saw once so far 11pm Thurs nite.

I loved it.  Thought was incredible.  I bought in to all chars except asthmatic Whittaker but wasn't too put off by him.  Story could have been slightly tighter in a few areas but overall it was great.  Told an awesome contained story, fed and expanded the mythos, gave Reb alliance more identity.

I felt a lot of elements from various movie archetypes.  007/MI, group heists, rag tag band war movies etc.

Re: Cassian killing contact and having 2nd thoughts on Galen, it fit enough for me. He said he'd been in fight since 6yrs old or something.  He has to be extremely experienced by now as an Intel op, he smart enough to preserve himself and keep helping the cause and a zealot but also can question Orders, also helps when there is a beautiful woman in the mix to sway you!  Ntm the people with him already on to his original plan/orders.

The way it ended feeding immediately in to ANH was perfect for me.  Loved the Krennik v Tarkin tension and how Tarkin finished it.  That competitive Imp Officer nature was full bloom.  Everyone dying was right ending as well.  The unsung Heroes of the Rebellion.

Going to see at least twice more in theater.

[SWSF Eidolon]

Donnie Yen was the shit also.

And the included internal politics dialogue was cool also, the mention of the Senate in a few contexts both by Imps as being made irrelevant and by Rebs as reporting/disclosure on the Death Star, as if to imply the Imperial Senate had the power to meddle or showing the political angle was something still strongly played by anti-imperialists/Republic loyalists.

Cgi didn't bother me.  As soon as I saw Tarkin with it knew that had to be scheme with Leia in end.  Neither bothered me.  Better than actual Fisher at any point post ESB.


Oh, and maybe I'm still riding the thrill high but I feel like in film rankings, this will end up 2nd to ESB for me.


One thing I just remembered though.. how awesome must a Hammerhead Frigates engines be??  I would have made it like 2-3 Frigates myself for the depicted effect they gave us but my astrophysics is limited to what I can garner from Wikipedia soo.. *sherug*

[Bishio]

Saw it last night and really enjoyed the film. 

The action scenes were lets just say it.. over the top.. amazing.. and by god good.  Vader I feel was used perfectly because he didn't take over the movie but got the message across and btw that castle.. interesting.  Over all I feel they nailed environment, casting, and sound (excluding score) which is critical for a Star Wars film.  Over all this was a very enjoyable action flick with war overtones and set in the Star Wars universe.

In the middle on the CGI faces.  Man this tech is really taking off and eventually we won't be able to tell the difference.  But right now I still kind of can.  It was more noticeable because it was the face of someone I knew has been dead, but nontheless this technology is amazing but once in a while it caught me funny.  It didn't ruin the movie or anything but a lot of the times I was looking at it and not noticing but sometimes I was looking and noticing.  It was there so I had to say it.

Its one hang up is less a blunder and rather something I think stand alone movies that fans will have to get used to.  Character development simply won't be as good in a one and done movie.  I mean if we based Vader's whole character off New Hope alone he wouldn't be all that terribly interesting but since we have had him almost for the whole run of Star Wars he has depth and connection.  Random rebel 22 won't ever get that in a stand alone film and not sure if we should get that that.

The only real blunder I saw in the movie was the musical score.  I see Star Wars movies and having already a greatest hits in the collection so it isn't something that needs to recreate itself constantly.  But I think it shows here that these guys only had 4 weeks to really create something for this movie after the original guys got the can.  Not going to say it totally missed because it did play on the classics we know and love enough.  But it certainly lacked a lot of originality and a lot of the themes won't go down as super memorable.

[Rinny]

I really, really liked the "Rebellion" chords.  Those few notes that play when they fly over Yavin and then again in the space battle, I think.  It reminded me quite a bit of the chords that play when the X-Wings fly into Tokanda in TFA which I also really loved.  But yea on the whole the music wasn't on the same level as the rest of the films.

I think you can get attached to characters in solo movies.  When it was pitched they mentioned it in the same vein as Saving Private Ryan.  I BAWLED during that movie.  So that probably helped skew my expectations as what sort of emotional response I expected to get.

[Bishio]

I agree with the Saving Private Ryan thing, but that also holds certain other things over me.  Like my grandfather and his friends experincing that first hand for example.  The fact that it really happened and wasn't just a movie.  But I don't want to say you CANNOT have good characters in stand alone movies.  I think its more it won't ever be on the level of trilogy films for that reason.  At least thats my opinion.

[gallpizi]

I will say I feel that the score was better than TFA. Having listened to both scores quite a bit this one is simply better IMHO.

Also in regards to Cassian's choice not to shoot. I think the decision was made when he saw Galean standing in front of the scientists trying to get Krennic to not shoot them. He made the choice then as he saw him trying to protect people and not let them be killed I think. At least in my mind.

I can't wait to watch this B2B with ANH.

[Medivh]

OK, so much to say.

First of all - I loved the movie.  I thought it was for the most part tight.  I was vested in the characters, certainly enough to be sad when they died.

I loved the incorporation of SW-saga into the film.  Tarkin was the most impressive, having had the most screen-time, but including Red  and Gold Squadrons (including the ill-fated Red-5 who would be replaced by Luke Skywalker) and the character faces and voices from EpIV (including lines cut from the original film), Dr. Evazan and Baba in the market, C-3PO and R2D2 for two-seconds, and the properly aged Bail Organa days before his fateful return to Alderaan.  Even Princess Leia closing the movie out, not withstanding its obvious play on my nastalgia (though my biggest outstanding question is this - why was Leia at the battle to begin with?  She was supposed to be getting Obi-Wan from Tatooine, and she was on a ship that wasn't doing anything in the battle anyways.)

I loved K-2SO.  he brought a mix of comedy, sarcasm, and tactical benefit (C-3PO had little tactical benefit to him).  And K-2's death was possibly the saddest moment in the movie.

I loved Darth Vader's saber attack at the end.  We've seen good guys take down hundreds of bad guys, but have never seen the all-powerful bad guy in his prime, wipe away a squad of good guys. 

I liked that the storyline gave us a reason why firing a proton torpedo at an exhaust port would set off a chain reaction that would destroy the death star.

I will also forgive a number of inconsistencies between Rogue One and Episode IV:
1) In Episode IV, the death star is just made operational.  In Rogue One, it appears as though the station is operational, but not used to its full power until Alderaan.
2) In Episode IV, Vader says to Leia that the plans were beamed aboard the Tantiv IV, when in this movie, it appears they were actually beamed aboard a Mon-Calimari vessel that happened to be holding the Tantiv IV.


I liked seeing Vader in the middle of the film, but Mustafar?  really?  THAT'S where he decided to hang out?  It seems like he would want to stay as far away from that planet as possible.

I didn't understand the importance of Forrest Whitakers character, Saw Gerrerra.  The movie could have cut him out, and saved about 20 minutes.  Maybe.

I've got mixed feelings about the rebel fleet being in battle the way they were.  It didn't seem much like a "spy" mission any more, and also, that battle was devastating for the rebellion, based on the numbers lost.  There is certainly an implication that the fleet was never really organized until they reached the Rendevouz Point, end of ESB.  The ground battle was satisfying, the space battle was ok.

I loved that the Corellian Corvette rammed the star destroyer and pushed it into another destroyer to take down the shield.  I made up that move with Phage, but I'll let them take credit for it.

I missed the crawl and the John Williams score at the beginning, and was glad they had it at the end.