Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

[WaylanderToo]

More important spoiler impressions:

Spoiler

I actually thought the Moff Tarkin CGI was pretty good. But I don't know why they had to make him taller than Peter Cushing. However, I found the Leia closeup to look like nothing if not a wax doll. Spooky.

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spot on with that observation!

 

[Culhwch]

Spoiler: Spoiler

I thought Tarkin was great... I actually just thought it was a similar-looking actor until my buddy told me after. They used that CGI trick on the squadron leaders too.

Spoiler

Not exactly - they actually used unused footage shot for Star Wars for the squadron leaders. Apparently they found a bunch just lying around the Lucasfilm archives!

 

[WilliamDavey627]

Overall I liked it. But did anyone else find the first have just a little unengaging? I couldn't really follow what was going on so I think that affected how much I enjoyed it. I did think the 2nd half was amazing though. The CGI of the final planet and battles were incredible. Good ending I thought as well. Acting was great throughtout especially from Felicity Jones and Ben Mendelsohn.

 

[Mister_Oy]

Yeah it was a slow burner for sure - then WHAM! I'd say the first 1/3rd didn't really get me. It was a little better with a 2nd viewing.

Overall though - despite minor gripes - I LOVED IT!

 

[Cli-Fi]

I didn't really care for it. Unlike the IV and V, all of the other movies have this ridiculous sentimentality that just drags the shock out of this alien galaxy. The original two movies had charred bodies and deaths that affected the other characters for only the briefest amount of time before they got back to business. The blind guy and his heavily armed lover made it like watching Twilight with their nonsense. Even Chewie and Han would have been grossed out by their bro-love.

And, like Prometheus, Rogue One attempted to pack a ten pound ham in the plot space of a hot dog. New Hope made it clear that Leia's ship received transmissions from spies with the Death Star plans, and Rogue One takes that information and grossly expands it into an enormous space battle over an Empire controlled planet? WTF? And then 4 days after all those squadrons and major ships were destroyed, it's business as usual back on Yavin when the Falcon arrives with the Princess. Does that make any sense that her ship jumped to hyperspace at the end of Rogue One and ended up getting chased down around Tatooine on the way to Aldaraan? Why didn't they just go to Yavin with the tech data?


The CGI versions of old characters were creepy, and in the case of the actor that was long deceased; disrespectful.

And why did Darth Vader look so weird? Did they rent his costume at a Halloween store?


The original Star Wars was not a triumph of world building, it was an aesthetic triumph. IV and V had a level of dystopia and horror that seized the world's attention 40 years ago. By Return of the Jedi this was pretty much gone, but at least we got to see how things came out for Luke, Leia, Han and Vader. Everything else has been the equivalent of weak fan fiction rather than the grisly, immediate and shocking aesthetic of the first two films. The uncomfortably alien worlds and unsettling prop design that made the Hoth scenes so good have given way to "AT-AT, the Disney Ride".

I'm so tired of these sniveling characters living their uninteresting lives in these watered down impressions of the Star Wars galaxy. Blah.

I rather agree with this, and if you thought about this while watching Rouge One, which was albeit a much better yet sloppier movie than The Force Awakens, you would probably hate that one! You pointed out a couple of things that I didn't think about while watching the movie like the blind guy and his um partner? These characters are receiving little in the way of buzz so I have no idea if they are supposed to be gay or not., but there is some talk that that is what is supposed to be. Despite introduction of these types of characters in both star wars and star trek, movie studios have refused to let them actually be somewhat romantic towards each other, other than holding hands. So I was generally surprised by the lack of romance in Rouge One.

I liked the ending for the most part how they were able to get it on Leia's ship. IDK if they needed to show her but I guess it would help and/or confuse newer fans with the connection to a New Hope, which they really, really wanted us all to understand by saying hope a thousand times! Honest Trailers better put that in their rip once they do it!

The movie was sloppy, but way better that TFA. Honestly it could have been an hour long and it would have been great! I didn't really need to know jyn's backstory, because they kept on repeating how important her father was to the Empire, and to the Alliance. I need to stop expecting Star Wars to be made for adults, the last star wars that attempted to act adult were the prequels and it's a shame everyone always makes fun of them. Is that because in the prequels Star Wars attempted to grow up?

Star Wars is a movie that is made for children of all ages. Yes, adult can enjoy it too, but we need to stop acting like it was made for us and that it has great themes, great plots, and great ideas. That's not being said that some of the other material to come out of the Star Wars universe can't be made for adults. Some of the novels were really deep and intense, and yet Disney refuses to accept this material as canon. Preferring to make lighter and witty Star Wars movies.

With Rouge One and Han Solo coming out, Disney has so far not shown any interest in moving away from the characters from the first trilogy and any characters that they do focus on for a main film, end up dying? They have not shown any interest in moving away from the Death Star, and they do not seem to want to come up with new ideas and technology. I think you are right about the shock feature being long gone from Star Wars and now that Disney owns the franchise, they have the free range to do with it what they want! Yet they keep playing it safe I want to be wowed by Star Wars, but my expectations have not been met with these two new movies. You know it's bad when they have to reshoot and use old footage. It's one thing to make a franchise, its another to rehash the same stuff! Star Wars has much more potential than this.

 

[Parson]

@Cli-Fi --- I, for one, thought the back story on Jyn was about the best part of the movie. When it came to action parts it became a prequel you knew how the situation would end, just not what that would mean to the main characters. And if you want to think about the science parts, some of that was a tad more unbelievable than what I usually care for.

 

[Cli-Fi]

@Cli-Fi --- I, for one, thought the back story on Jyn was about the best part of the movie. When it came to action parts it became a prequel you knew how the situation would end, just not what that would mean to the main characters. And if you want to think about the science parts, some of that was a tad more unbelievable than what I usually care for.

There were big gaping holes in there though. Especially from when she was down in the hatch and Gerrera rescues her. I feel like parts of what happened next got cut so we could understand what the point he had being in the rest of the movie.

When she woke up on that ship in the next scene I really thought we would see him, and they would have a big fight or something, but no. Nothing. They go straight to the mission. It made no sense. Then they seem to hate each other later, and we still don't know what happened between them. She's yelling at him for things he did that we never see in the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy did it way better with star-lord getting abducted and then fighting with Yandu and his people on the ship in which he lived.

 

[Parson]

Didn't see Guardians of the Galaxy so can't compare. But I felt the part for Gerrera's rescue to the resumption was because it would be hard to do justice to 20? years of development. The movie once in a while referred to what she had done, but I was speaking of those childhood scenes.

 

[Mr Orange]

Spoiler

I actually thought the Moff Tarkin CGI was pretty good. But I don't know why they had to make him taller than Peter Cushing. However, I found the Leia closeup to look like nothing if not a wax doll. Spooky

Spoiler

i guess Tarkin was taller because Guy Henry (Cushing's stand-in) is taller than Cushing was. of course, they could have done it so it wasn't obvious. mind you, it wasn't obvious to me...

 

[kythe]

I finally saw this movie yesterday and loved it. I had intentionally stayed away from all knowledge of it ahead of time, so I had no expectations.

I didn't realize until reading reviews afterwards that Tarkin and Leia were CGI characters. I thought they recast the roles. I found the cameos tasteful and fun, not like being beaten over the head with them like the other prequels. I appreciate how the story and technology fit seemlessly into the world of the original trilogy.

 

[Boneman]

I loved it. Thought it was way better than The Force Awakens (though I now think 'the Franchise Awakens' with a grin, thanks Hanabi!). The sense of threat and real danger was so much better than TFA, the players had way more grit, and yes it was darker. Going to see it again tomorrow.

 

[RX-79G]

I didn't realize until reading reviews afterwards that Tarkin and Leia were CGI characters. I thought they recast the roles.

I frankly do not understand how this is possible.

The more of these kind of posts I read, the more confounded I am about the extreme variability of human perception.

 

[Dan Jones]

I loved it. Thought it was way better than The Force Awakens (though I now think 'the Franchise Awakens' with a grin, thanks Hanabi!). The sense of threat and real danger was so much better than TFA, the players had way more grit, and yes it was darker. Going to see it again tomorrow.

Yes, I agree. I thought it very good indeed. The Rebel Alliance seemed more realistic (squabbling, infighting, a "rainbow coalition"), and because of the nature of the film, there was a genuine sense of threat with respect to the main characters, which clearly wasn't there in TFA, because by this point, and with Cli-Fi's point above in mind, we all know which characters are going to survive in the main series, because they are the characters Disney wants to survive to better manage the franchise.

I can't help feel that the other films will not be as good as Rogue One, and I thought it 3rd best of the whole lot, behind Ep IV and V (which, thinking about it, isn't really saying a great deal).

 

[Boneman]

I frankly do not understand how this is possible.

The more of these kind of posts I read, the more confounded I am about the extreme variability of human perception.

That's the beauty of cinema - suspend disbelief, immerse yourself completely in the experience!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

I finally got to see it, and as usual, I had little idea what was happening for the first half of the movie. It could easily have been an hour shorter and still been good (apportioning that cut throughout, not just cutting off the first hour). It was good, despite that -- but not as great as I'd been led to believe by reviews I've seen.

Did anyone else (it's probably just me) have the problem that

Spoiler: Spoiler

it seemed like they were saying that Guerrero (sp?) was Vader, with his look and his oxygen thingie noises, so it was quite confusing to me that he wasn't. What was up with that?

 

[Culhwch]

Did anyone else (it's probably just me) have the problem that

Spoiler: Spoiler

it seemed like they were saying that Guerrero (sp?) was Vader, with his look and his oxygen thingie noises, so it was quite confusing to me that he wasn't. What was up with that?

I never thought that they were saying that, but I definitely think they were drawing intentional parallels.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Saw Gerrera was a character in The Clone Wars with his twin sister (who died in the CW series). I thought there was a parallel with DV but only inasmuch as battle scars lead to prosthetics. In the CW his eyes are two different colours - one blue and one green - yet in R1 both his eyes were brown. I thought this was quite cool, actually, even though fanboys have been complaining about continuity, but bearing in mind Forrest Whitaker's own odd eyes, I thought it was consistent.

And that's how to answer a question that hasn't been asked

pH

 

[BAYLOR]

That's the beauty of cinema - suspend disbelief, immerse yourself completely in the experience!

Agree 100 percent with this sentiment. The CGI of both Tarkin and Leia was impressive and the best I've seen to date.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Saw Gerrera was a character in The Clone Wars with his twin sister (who died in the CW series). I thought there was a parallel with DV but only inasmuch as battle scars lead to prosthetics. In the CW his eyes are two different colours - one blue and one green - yet in R1 both his eyes were brown. I thought this was quite cool, actually, even though fanboys have been complaining about continuity, but bearing in mind Forrest Whitaker's own odd eyes, I thought it was consistent.

And that's how to answer a question that hasn't been asked

pH

Ahh... I'm probably the only person who saw this one who hasn't seen the 1-2-3 episodes. That would explain why I was totally lost and thinking stupid things.

 

[RX-79G]

Ahh... I'm probably the only person who saw this one who hasn't seen the 1-2-3 episodes. That would explain why I was totally lost and thinking stupid things.

They aren't from the movies. They are cartoon characters.