Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Movie Discussion

[KShine]

33 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Every time I watch a cartoon, I think the same thing. Bugs Bunny fools me every time.

 

14 minutes ago, BrickLegacy said:

The repetition of that quote throughout the movie actually annoyed me.

That's what I thought about Bugs Bunny's "What's up Doc?" - Okay Bugs, we get it.

Edited December 17, 2016 by KShine

[KShine]

I really loved this movie though - I hope that when they release it, they include the alternate versions, deleted scenes, etc.

[Bold-Arrow]

2 minutes ago, KShine said:

 

That's what I thought about Bugs Bunny's "What's up Doc?" - Okay Bugs, we get it.

* since this is a hidden group I guess it is ok 

[TANV]

Well, I started typing and this basically just wouldn't stop. So it's a full on review.  Apologies for the length!

PROS

Cinematography - Gareth Edwards knows how to shoot films and make them visually stunning, like the AT-AT emerging from the jungle, the shuttle flyby of the Erso' homestead, the set-up for the space battles, and even more.  You felt as if you were apart of the action and fighting for your life or fleeing from terror from the devil himself.  The man knows his visual set-ups.

Special Effects - There was a seamless blend of both the CGI and the physical in many respects.  The first reveal of the Death Star from the bow of a Star Destroyer, the battle at the Shield Gate with the Star Destroyers ramming into it, and even the resurrection of Tarkin and Leia.  It was bold and an ambitious scope of effects work so that's definitely something to note.  There were times where it felt a bit much and other times it was done perfectly.

Music - Now, the pinnacle will always be John Williams.  Hands down. However, I have to give mad props to Michael Giacchino for scoring and arranging the music from scratch in four weeks. There are elements which remind me of the work he's done on Star Trek and Doctor Strange as well as other music from his previous work.  However, he managed to make new sounds that sounded similar to John Williams and could fit in the Star Wars universe but didn't necessarily ape them in their entirety.  You can hear snippets of leitmotifs during scenes of the Rebel Alliance and Vader's appearances.  He understands emotion and can convey it.  The new themes and songs are quite good given the effort and time.  However, his best work will always be the opening score of Up.  A story for another time.

Action - The action sequences in this film are the best ever seen in Star Wars. Period.  First, it was just gritty and realistic enough to show you what war actually is like, whether it's being attacked in urban cities while you're on patrol or trying to survive a fire-fight.  You start to get the "Wars" in "Star Wars" with this film unlike any other.  You see the desperation of the Rebels and the lengths that they'll go to for what they're fighting for, whether to murder in cold blood or engage in a suicide mission based on a sliver of hope.  Second, the space battles were great set pieces. It reminded a lot of what we see in the original trilogy but was just done well enough not to wholly be nostalgic.  Finally, the deaths of the characters.  There are no heroes or villains in wars: just survivors.  Not all your friends come home from war and this reinforced the point well. I applaud Disney for taking this towards a darker tone and killing off the characters.

Casting - The casting in so many ways was excellent.  You could see the beginning of the camaraderie among the characters being formed. I loved Alan Tudyk as K2-S0.  He was snarky and serious as a droid.  He most definitely was not like the other-CGI-character-who-must-not-be-named. I loved how his motions were almost human but still robotic as well as the dialogue and loyalty to Cassian Andor. There was excellent chemistry between Donnie Yen and Jian Wen, with equal parts of gravity and humor.  There was brotherhood between those two and also trust in each other.   There was depth and pure villainy from Ben Mendolsohn.  He wasn't a one-dimensional, bad-guy-of-the-week, but an arrogant, ruthless, and somewhat ambitious Imperial officer. You could sense his desperation to prove himself as well as his contempt for the condescension of Tarkin and the incompetence of his subordinates.  There was a certain poetry watching him meet his demise at the hands of his own creation.

Nostalgia - Where to start? There was just the right amount of nostalgia.  I loved seeing Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa again, with actually decent and serious dialogue rather than the drivel from the prequels. Plus, the references to SW Rebeles with Chopper, the Ghost, and the Syndullas. Seeing Red Leader and Gold Leader again was wholly unexpected especially with their archival footage or re-using the shots.  Plus, there's something to be said for seeing X-Wings and Y-Wings in action again on a scale of space battles alongside all the Rebel ships that we've seen before like the Corvettes, the Nebulon Frigates, the transports, and even the Mon Calamari cruiser.  Seeing Peter Cushing brought back was a huge nostalgic throwback.  You could sense how he he embodied detachment even ordering the destruction of Jeddha City and Scarif itself.  

Darth Vader - Enough said.  This is the Sith Lord you have been waiting for. The nightmares that go bump in the night.  He straight up murders the Rebel troopers, slicing and dicing through them like paper.

CONS

Character Development - Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen are such phenomenal actors.  However, their roles were too short and felt almost like an afterthought. I wanted to see how Saw Guerrera evolved further into the extremist who was disavowed by the Alliance.  Most importantly, what were the circumstances that led to Jyn being abandoned by him? Don't just talk about it but show some of it.  Mads as Galen felt a bit of an afterthought in someways. They needed him to be the one to lay the trap in the Death Star Plans but didn't show more about his time working for the Imperials or develop a bit more of his family life and relationship with his daughter.  He didn't seem to convey enough depth, despite the fact that his wife is dead and his daughter has been missing or presumed dead for so many years.  You wear being teased with cake with icing on it but it turns out it was just really a loaf of bread underneath.  A flashback or two would've helped this out and also show more of his cleverness working for the Imperials.  Finally, Jyn and Cassian needed more screen time to show their respective youths.  Cassian talks of losing everything when he was 6 but doesn't go into further detail than that. There is a ruthless streak to him especially when he kills his informant but it doesn't reveal as much as you hope.  Jyn herself needs more fleshing out.  How has she survived for all these years and what has she done in her time leading up to this?  What motivates her rather than her apathy? I wanted to feel a bit more emotion especially at the end but it wasn't as poignant as seeing K2S0 or Baze and Chirrut die.  They all need just a bit more screen time.  The actors were very good but their talents were underused.

Pacing - The first third of the film kept jumping multiple locations. I understand that the intent was to give a sense of world-building as well as how wide-ranging these events were all taking places.  The beginning transitioned it a bit quickly from Jyn as a young girl to her as someone over a decade older, leaving you wondering what happened in between.  Worlds and locations jumped quite a bit.  This could've been a bit longer. I would've been willing to sit through 2.5 hours or even close to 3 hours just to slow down the pacing and develop some of the characters more.  The third act was well done with Scarif but the lead up could've been slowed down a bit more to develop character relationships further.  That way, the ending would've been more meaning with the bonds they developed.  I will admit there's only so much you can do with film versus expanding it via books or television. But it is possible to pull it off.

Special Effects - CGI Tarkin was well done but there were times that i was just freaked out by the uncanny valley.  He was so bony and so unnerving when he had dialogue, even though there was definite gravitas.  Leia was surprisingly well done just for her brief cameo.

Darth Vader - Not enough Vader. More dead bodies. More explosions.  I wanted to watch him rip up a ship further.  Just like 1-2 more minutes worth of that. That's all i wanted.

OVERALL GRADE

I give it 4 out of 5 bricks.  Definitely worthy of a 10221 Super Star Destroyer but not quite a 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon.  Congratulations if you read it this far!

[Frank Brickowski]

6 hours ago, jaisonline said:

Too bad 10188 won't see a bump

all the other OT Saga UCS sets will see a bump especially the Blockade Runner. 

I always ask myself how it is seen to be given that exactly those sets that are represented in a new movie will see a rise in value? I mean is there actual data to supoort that assumption? What if the B-Wing played a prominent role in a new movie?...

[MinifigW]

Just saw the movie. Absolutely blown away. You should have heard the applause when the credits started rolling, easily my favorite SW film.

That ending scene was incredible. If you saw it, you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't see it yet, what on earth are you waiting for!

[richardcore]

Saw it Wednesday night and was disappointed to say the least. I'm gutted and will see it again sometime in the morning soon to hopefully change my opinion.

[Val-E]

39 minutes ago, richardcore said:

Saw it Wednesday night and was disappointed to say the least. I'm gutted and will see it again sometime in the morning soon to hopefully change my opinion.

Disney will be delighted with that! Ching ching.

Hopefully many other people will be so disappointed that they will watch the film 10 times and then buy turdloads of retired  Lego Star Wars sets for their kids, themselves and their dog.

[jaisonline]

2 hours ago, richardcore said:

Saw it Wednesday night and was disappointed to say the least. I'm gutted and will see it again sometime in the morning soon to hopefully change my opinion.

Humbug

[KShine]

7 hours ago, TANV said:

CONS

Character Development - Forest Whitaker and Mads Mikkelsen are such phenomenal actors.  However, their roles were too short and felt almost like an afterthought. I wanted to see how Saw Guerrera evolved further into the extremist who was disavowed by the Alliance.  Most importantly, what were the circumstances that led to Jyn being abandoned by him? Don't just talk about it but show some of it.  Mads as Galen felt a bit of an afterthought in someways. They needed him to be the one to lay the trap in the Death Star Plans but didn't show more about his time working for the Imperials or develop a bit more of his family life and relationship with his daughter.  He didn't seem to convey enough depth, despite the fact that his wife is dead and his daughter has been missing or presumed dead for so many years.  You wear being teased with cake with icing on it but it turns out it was just really a loaf of bread underneath.  A flashback or two would've helped this out and also show more of his cleverness working for the Imperials.  Finally, Jyn and Cassian needed more screen time to show their respective youths.  Cassian talks of losing everything when he was 6 but doesn't go into further detail than that. There is a ruthless streak to him especially when he kills his informant but it doesn't reveal as much as you hope.  Jyn herself needs more fleshing out.  How has she survived for all these years and what has she done in her time leading up to this?  What motivates her rather than her apathy? I wanted to feel a bit more emotion especially at the end but it wasn't as poignant as seeing K2S0 or Baze and Chirrut die.  They all need just a bit more screen time.  The actors were very good but their talents were underused.

Excellent review, and I mostly agree.

While I agree that Forest Whitaker felt a bit wasted. I think the decision to remove (or not include) much of the back stories worked. They were all broken - they had all done things, or failed to do things in their lives (it was easy enough to fill in the blanks, and anyway, sometimes the mystery just works better).

I really enjoyed how in the end, they each died somewhat at peace, accepting of their fate.

[TANV]

6 minutes ago, KShine said:

Excellent review, and I mostly agree.

While I agree that Forest Whitaker felt a bit wasted. I think the decision to remove (or not include) much of the back stories worked. They were all broken - they had all done things, or failed to do things in their lives (it was easy enough to fill in the blanks, and anyway, sometimes the mystery just works better).

I really enjoyed how in the end, they each died somewhat at peace, accepting of their fate.

You definitely do get the sense of how broken all of them where on the inside but in terms of development, I didn't sense that there was enough time for that to properly percolate since you ended up jumping from A to B to C just to keep up with the pace of action. An extra 15-30 minutes of screen time would've mitigated that to an extent.

Props to Disney for the fates of the characters. Talk about dying in a blaze of glory.  It was more realistic than a storybook ending.

[asharerin]

16 hours ago, Ed Mack said:

I see a nice bump for the 10240 as well.

I hope you still have some Red 5s left...

Resellers on Amazon are making sure that bump does not happen anytime soon. They are falling over themselves to move inventory before Feb and pricing well below ebay. Ouch. If their repricers get to $200 I may have to help them out and start buying their stock. Fear always makes money for us.

Have to wait for the usual names to donk off their stock for nothing and then it is time to cash in. Maybe 2018?

[Voltron]

7 hours ago, richardcore said:

Saw it Wednesday night and was disappointed to say the least. I'm gutted and will see it again sometime in the morning soon to hopefully change my opinion.

What did you not like about the film?

Personally this is my 2nd favourite star wars film after empire strikes back

[richardcore]

I can't explain into detail without mentioning spoilers so I won't. But the fact I didn't feel anything for the new characters is the main issue. All were introduced in a rush. The first half of the movie was chaotic. Apart from the obvious plot the story was bad. I fell asleep.

[Bold-Arrow]

Just now, richardcore said:

I can't explain into detail without mentioning spoilers so I won't. But the fact I didn't feel anything for the new characters is the main issue. All were introduced in a rush. The first half of the movie was chaotic. Apart from the obvious plot the story was bad. I fell asleep.

Join the spoiler thread and fire at the ready . 

[Loghamel]

1 hour ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Join the spoiler thread and fire at the ready . 

How does one do that?

[Bold-Arrow]

3 minutes ago, Loghamel said:

How does one do that?

There is a link on top of the page 

[kahuka]

32 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

There is a link on top of the page 

But that link isn't active until you request to join the group. Find the link for the spoiler forum at the bottom of the main forum home page.

[Alpinemaps]

What the Rogue One Missing Trailer Footage Tell Us About the Reshoots

http://www.slashfilm.com/rogue-one-missing-trailer-footage/

Good read. I was wondering about what was missing.

[Bold-Arrow]

Anyone took their kids yet ? 5 to 7 years range ? Taking mine tomorrow and wondering if they will have a hard time following the story and if the lack of Jedi would be a cause of disappointment . 

[BrickLegacy]

48 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

Anyone took their kids yet ? 5 to 7 years range ? Taking mine tomorrow and wondering if they will have a hard time following the story and if the lack of Jedi would be a cause of disappointment . 

 

I took my son, age 6. He isn't a huge Star Wars fan. Asked him just now and he gives Rogue One a "9.5" and Force Awakens a "5". He did seem a little restless in the beginning. I tried whispering a few things to him so he knew what was going on. He loved the lines from K2...actually repeated a few during the movie.

 

[nolanfan34]

I'm not sure anyone has mentioned this, but one thing I thought was clever was the way they weaved into the core part of the story the fact that the Death Star being easy to blow up was intentional! I thought that was genius, since it's always a bit of a running joke. Now, the fact they didn't fix that for Ep 6 though....

I liked it the more I thought about it. I actually thought Jyn and Cassian were the weak links - should have felt some emotion for them dying at the end, and I didn't really care.

I completely missed the Rebels references (minus the Hammerhead). 

When Sen Organa talks at one point about having a Jedi from the Clone Wars he trusts, I thought I heard him say "she"? Did I mishear that? I thought perhaps we were going to see Asohka.

[MarleyMoose]

26 minutes ago, nolanfan34 said:

I'm not sure anyone has mentioned this, but one thing I thought was clever was the way they weaved into the core part of the story the fact that the Death Star being easy to blow up was intentional! I thought that was genius, since it's always a bit of a running joke. Now, the fact they didn't fix that for Ep 6 though....

I liked it the more I thought about it. I actually thought Jyn and Cassian were the weak links - should have felt some emotion for them dying at the end, and I didn't really care.

I completely missed the Rebels references (minus the Hammerhead). 

When Sen Organa talks at one point about having a Jedi from the Clone Wars he trusts, I thought I heard him say "she"? Did I mishear that? I thought perhaps we were going to see Asohka.

I believe he meant he trusted Leia to contact Ben.

[Bold-Arrow]

Just now, MarleyMoose said:

I believe he meant he trusted Leia to contact Ben.

thats what I got too 

[nolanfan34]

7 hours ago, MarleyMoose said:

I believe he meant he trusted Leia to contact Ben.

Gotcha. Thx, that makes sense.