Star Wars: Rogue One

[JohnD]

Yeah like any SW movie, you can nit it to death. Let's take Rogue One out of it, you could nit EpIV, why didn't the TantiveIV just jump directly to Yavin IV? We already know that Leia was in possession of the plans at the beginning of the movie. Maybe she didn't want to lead the Empire directly there with a Star Destroyer on its tail. What was the purpose of finding Kenobi to begin with? We get that Leia had to go with Plan B or Plan Z by inserting the plans into Artoo and the droid finding Kenobi at all costs but that was only after the Tantive IV was captured by the SD.

 

[flynnibus]

Just please tell me this film doesn't achieve a darker tone by over-using jump scares. Those are (imo) cheap, lazy, cliched, and distract from the overall mood at hand.

No.. think more 'war movie'. Sequences of persistent, direct, relentless killing. Instead of just 'fight with laser beams and people fall' think more deliberate, violent, spiteful movements. Instead of fantasy killing.. its more like gritty 'gonna kill them all!' type of attack. Instead of killing to get through.. it projects more anger and evil. Hence the more darker tones

 

[flynnibus]

(stuff)

Fleeing from a battle doesn't get you labeled as a 'spy' smuggling plans.. that's the lack of continuity that rubbed me. Ok, maybe their hyperdrive fails and then they have to run and the Empire sniffs them out and catches up to them. That would work for me as for why they didn't just go right to the Rebel base. AFAIK they can't trace where people hyperspace jump to in Star Wars (and why its always the 'escape' means). But it doesn't cover why they didn't just transmit them once they were out in space. They explain why they can't transmit them from the planet.. but not why they can't do it from space. Or someone will say "their long range transmitters were damaged in the escape"

My read of this story from New Hope was this was conveyed as a spy smuggles out details and the empire is trying to chase down the leak and reclaim the info before it can be relayed to the rebels. "many bothans died..." to basically keep this secret and get it out. But Rogue One clashes with that in several ways.. because there is no secretive angle to it at all.. it's a full on battle that BOTH sides know about. I just think it goes very counter to the whole death star being some big secret and revealed in A New Hope.

The pilot plot line worked for me fitting into the New Hope story far more than the climax of the film. And that transition to the final mission.. That was another very disjointed point for me..

Spoiler

It didn't make sense to me how the girl goes from being told about the fuse that makes the whole thing go up from her father's dying breath.. to knowing they need to go steal the plans so they know how to exploit it?? That whole transition after her father dies was very.. disjointed.. to me. Plus, i was fighting to stay awake during this time.. so my take could be a bit cloudy Basically just how they get to her advocating this mission and the rogues getting behind her.. didn't work for me. And at that point, the 'info' is really just knowing what the girl can relay in two sentances.. why is she worth anything at that point? Get on the radio to yavin4.. info shared

 

[JohnD]

Fleeing from a battle doesn't get you labeled as a 'spy' smuggling plans.. that's the lack of continuity that rubbed me. Ok, maybe their hyperdrive fails and then they have to run and the Empire sniffs them out and catches up to them. That would work for me as for why they didn't just go right to the Rebel base. AFAIK they can't trace where people hyperspace jump to in Star Wars (and why its always the 'escape' means). But it doesn't cover why they didn't just transmit them once they were out in space. They explain why they can't transmit them from the planet.. but not why they can't do it from space. Or someone will say "their long range transmitters were damaged in the escape"

My read of this story from New Hope was this was conveyed as a spy smuggles out details and the empire is trying to chase down the leak and reclaim the info before it can be relayed to the rebels. "many bothans died..." to basically keep this secret and get it out. But Rogue One clashes with that in several ways.. because there is no secretive angle to it at all.. it's a full on battle that BOTH sides know about. I just think it goes very counter to the whole death star being some big secret and revealed in A New Hope.

The pilot plot line worked for me fitting into the New Hope story far more than the climax of the film. And that transition to the final mission.. That was another very disjointed point for me..

Spoiler

It didn't make sense to me how the girl goes from being told about the fuse that makes the whole thing go up from her father's dying breath.. to knowing they need to go steal the plans so they know how to exploit it?? That whole transition after her father dies was very.. disjointed.. to me. Plus, i was fighting to stay awake during this time.. so my take could be a bit cloudy Basically just how they get to her advocating this mission and the rogues getting behind her.. didn't work for me. And at that point, the 'info' is really just knowing what the girl can relay in two sentances.. why is she worth anything at that point? Get on the radio to yavin4.. info shared

No Bothans died to get the plans for the first Death Star. That was the second DS.

 

[JohnD]

Fleeing from a battle doesn't get you labeled as a 'spy' smuggling plans.. that's the lack of continuity that rubbed me. Ok, maybe their hyperdrive fails and then they have to run and the Empire sniffs them out and catches up to them. That would work for me as for why they didn't just go right to the Rebel base. AFAIK they can't trace where people hyperspace jump to in Star Wars (and why its always the 'escape' means). But it doesn't cover why they didn't just transmit them once they were out in space. They explain why they can't transmit them from the planet.. but not why they can't do it from space. Or someone will say "their long range transmitters were damaged in the escape"

My read of this story from New Hope was this was conveyed as a spy smuggles out details and the empire is trying to chase down the leak and reclaim the info before it can be relayed to the rebels. "many bothans died..." to basically keep this secret and get it out. But Rogue One clashes with that in several ways.. because there is no secretive angle to it at all.. it's a full on battle that BOTH sides know about. I just think it goes very counter to the whole death star being some big secret and revealed in A New Hope.

The pilot plot line worked for me fitting into the New Hope story far more than the climax of the film. And that transition to the final mission.. That was another very disjointed point for me..

Spoiler

It didn't make sense to me how the girl goes from being told about the fuse that makes the whole thing go up from her father's dying breath.. to knowing they need to go steal the plans so they know how to exploit it?? That whole transition after her father dies was very.. disjointed.. to me. Plus, i was fighting to stay awake during this time.. so my take could be a bit cloudy Basically just how they get to her advocating this mission and the rogues getting behind her.. didn't work for me. And at that point, the 'info' is really just knowing what the girl can relay in two sentances.. why is she worth anything at that point? Get on the radio to yavin4.. info shared

The Rebels struck from a hidden base (Yavin IV). The EpIV crawl doesn't mention a secret battle.

It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon

 

[flynnibus]

No Bothans died to get the plans for the first Death Star. That was the second DS.

ok, bad on me. But I don't think it changes the tone of how the info is presented in A New Hope

Yes, as you said.. why is she going with finding Ben.. etc. I've not read any of the EU books, etc.. so my take is purely based on Lucas' and now Disney's films. Maybe there should have been more bridge work at the tail of Rogue One. But they certainly pull alot of the original films in

 

[JohnD]

ok, bad on me. But I don't think it changes the tone of how the info is presented in A New Hope

Yes, as you said.. why is she going with finding Ben.. etc. I've not read any of the EU books, etc.. so my take is purely based on Lucas' and now Disney's films. Maybe there should have been more bridge work at the tail of Rogue One. But they certainly pull alot of the original films in

The only thing I can think of is (and Bail knows this): That boy Kenobi's been watching over is 20 now. Time to drum him into service and see if he can do something about Vader.

 

[Princess Leia]

Rogue One set the Thursday box office record for 2016 with $29 million, eclipsing Batman v. Superman and Captain America: Civil War. However, it didn't come close to setting a new record, which The Force Awakens did last year ($57 million).

 

[flynnibus]

The Rebels struck from a hidden base (Yavin IV). The EpIV crawl doesn't mention a secret battle.

It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon

Thx for that. I stand by my comments tho..

Spoiler

the purpose of the battle (and victory.. if you call it that.. I wouldn't) is well understood by both sides.. and the output of it. I think that clashes with the tone and approach towards the info in A New Hope.

.. during the battle they steal plans? No, in Rogue One it's a commando force attacks, rebel fleet comes as backup... and gets annihilated and during the battle the objective is courier'd out. The crawl seems a bit inverted to that story in Rogue one IMO.

Like I said.. mostly there but seems disjointed. Obviously dealing with A New Hope's 'moment in time' writing.. but didn't all line up for me fully.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

When I saw The Force Awakens last year I liked it, but not as much as the first two movies that were made in the Star Wars series. Having now seen Rogue One, I can safely say this is my favourite. Regardless of its flaws, the change in tonal approach while still being true to the visuals of the original trilogy worked perfectly for me. The universe felt lived in and real, the action exciting, the consequences serious and the comic relief/moments were funny without being overly cute or obnoxious. I really want to see the original cut, but like the one for The Black Cauldron I doubt Disney will ever release it.

I have mixed feelings though about the CGI Peter Cushing. On one hand, it's really cool to have one of my favourite actors brought back to life (and who better to receieve the treatment than Dr. Frankenstein himself?), but while computers can create realistic sill images of humans, the subtleties in the mouth and eye movements are much harder to capture. I found it worked better in some scenes than in others. The voice was a decent impression, but as someone familiar with his Hammer catalogue it too wasn't exactly right. I guess all things considered it was good enough for what it was and I am glad in the end they tried instead of just ignoring the character altogether.

 

[flynnibus]

I was fine with all the characters (CGI or impersonated).. it served the purpose IMO

Spoiler: question

has any other star wars movie used titles like this to introduce the location?

 

[JohnD]

I was fine with all the characters (CGI or impersonated).. it served the purpose IMO

Spoiler: question

has any other star wars movie used titles like this to introduce the location?

Spoiler

No. Most of the time we have to find out later from backup material or if mentioned in the movie. For example, I knew about Jakku because it was mentioned so often prior to TFA. Had no clue the names of the other planets in that movie.

 

[flynnibus]

Spoiler

No. Most of the time we have to find out later from backup material or if mentioned in the movie. For example, I knew about Jakku because it was mentioned so often prior to TFA. Had no clue the names of the other planets in that movie.

For some reason it immediately felt like the star trek reboots..

I also noted what felt like a real effort to put in shots that panned or showed the surroundings. Lots of vista/grandiose planet shots.

Spoiler

I don't know how I feel about the inclusion of the 'in a galaxy far far away' image.. but no crawl. I know they are trying to split it from the trilogy films.. but it was an interesting twist.

I found the 3D in the film to be rather lackluster overall.

 

[JohnD]

For some reason it immediately felt like the star trek reboots..

I also noted what felt like a real effort to put in shots that panned or showed the surroundings. Lots of vista/grandiose planet shots.

Spoiler

I don't know how I feel about the inclusion of the 'in a galaxy far far away' image.. but no crawl. I know they are trying to split it from the trilogy films.. but it was an interesting twist.

I found the 3D in the film to be rather lackluster overall.

Spoiler

Maybe they could have split the difference like in the LOTR movies. After "A Long Time Ago", show "Star Wars" big and fading away as usual, then cut to the prologue without the crawl. With the prologue over, show "Rogue One" as they already did.

 

[21stamps]

Yay!!!

. Not quite sure why Kylo Ren was there..lol

 

[Princess Leia]

Spoiler

Holy "Kill All of the Main Characters", Batman!

Okay, so nobody else in the theatre laughed at Vader's pun. There was absolutely no reaction to it, and I felt a little disappointed with every person there for that.

I wasn't impressed with the CGI on a couple of the ships or

Spoiler: Return of 1977 faces

Tarkin and Leia. The eyes were wrong, IMO, and Tarkin in particular looked like that food critic from Ratatouille.

One thing I did think was interesting was how Cassian acted in certain scenarios. If he was allowed to act like that, then there's no excuse for Disney to not fix A New Hope and get him to shoot first again.

I think it'll take another viewing for me to decide whether or not I liked it more than TFA. Empire is still my favorite by far though.

 

[21stamps]

Okay, so nobody else in the theatre laughed at Vader's pun. There was absolutely no reaction to it, and I felt a little disappointed with every person there for that.

I wasn't impressed with the CGI on a couple of the ships or

Spoiler: Return of 1977 faces

Tarkin and Leia. The eyes were wrong, IMO, and Tarkin in particular looked like that good from Ratatouille.

One thing I did think was interesting was how Cassian acted in certain scenarios. If he was allowed to act like that, then there's no excuse for Disney to not fix A New Hope and get him to shoot first again.

I think it'll take another viewing for me to decide whether or not I liked it more than TFA.

I was so embarrassed.. when they first show the young girl running.. my son yells "that's Ray!" Then later he asked about Poe.. I don't think I prepped him enough for this movie. We were running so late that I couldn't even show him the YouTube videos. I think he gets it now..kind of.lol

I'll say this, this movie made me realize how little I know about the Star Wars universe. There was a clone wars reference that I didn't understand.. and I have no clue who or what the guy from the beginning is. I can't say too much without giving spoilers.. but can someone tell me if he is in other stories? Or was the character created for this movie alone?

 

[Princess Leia]

I was so embarrassed.. when they first show the young girl running.. my son yells "that's Ray!" Then later he asked about Poe.. I don't think I prepped him enough for this movie. We were running so late that I couldn't even show him the YouTube videos. I think he gets it now..kind of.lol

I'll say this, this movie made me realize how little I know about the Star Wars universe. There was a clone wars reference that I didn't understand.. and I have no clue who or what the guy from the beginning is. I can't say too much without giving spoilers.. but can someone tell me if he is in other stories? Or was the character created for this movie alone?

Um, which guy lol. The series is pretty male dominant.

 

[21stamps]

Um, which guy lol. The series is pretty male dominant.

Lol yeah.. the one with the breathing thing. I don't remember his name.

 

[Princess Leia]

Lol yeah.. the one with the breathing thing. I don't remember his name.

Saw Gerrera. And yes, he was in the Clone Wars show, making him the first tv character to make the leap to the big screen (I think).