Saw it tonight. Thought it was SOLID, maybe a notch above Force Awakens for me. The first act was really well paced and I was really engaged (probably my favorite part of the movie), the middle lags quite a bit, but the finale picks it back up and is pretty suitably chaotic
probably would go something like:
New Hope/Empire >>>>> Jedi > Sith > Rogue One > Force Awakens >>>>>>>>>>> Phantom Menace > Clones
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LIKED:
- The main CREW were all pretty likable, even if none of them were really well-developed. My favorites were probably Captain Andor and that guy with the machine gun. Oh and the droid ofc
- The tone was pretty different and fitting, definitely felt more gritty and war-like than the main series. I was half-expecting them to pull out a deus ex machina for Jyn/Andor to escape at the end, but I'm glad they stuck to their guns. Made the sacrifice much more impactful and the ending of New Hope more powerful
- Whitaker's character was pretty fucking weird. I liked it though. He wasn't just some stock "wise mentor" like I thought he might be
- Just like in Godzilla (and Monsters I assume, never saw it though), Gareth Edwards is really good at conveying a sense of scale. The Death Star felt as foreboding as ever. Waaay better here than in Jedi or Force Awakens (though I guess the fact that it finally didn't blow up in a movie helps)
DIDN'T LIKE:
- The Tarkin and Leia CGI. It wasn't...glaring I guess but it was definitely noticeable. I really had a hard time paying attention in Tarkin's scenes because of it. THERE WERE SO MANY TOO. And because of that I was really hoping Leia wouldn't turn around at the end (: Wasn't GREAT that the movie ended on that shot
- Like the Force Awakens, I think they went a bit overboard with the fan service. Some of it was organic, but a lot of it seemed very forced. There's a lot of examples but one that comes to mind was Jyn happening to bump into the guys that Obi/Luke meet at the cantina in A New Hope, even though they're on a COMPLETELY different planet. Like I can understand putting that in there if they were in Mos Eisley at least. And then there's stuff like even more "The odds of escaping are ____!" and "I have a bad feeling about this" lines. LET IT BE! Why can't they make their own, new memorable lines rather than constantly lifting things from the originals
- Did Barristan Selmy even have a line?? I can't believe they got that actor just to stand in the background. I was pretty excited when he showed up at first
- Darth Vader dropping puns. GOOD GOD that was stupid! His massacre scene later somewhat made up for it though
- This is sort of a nitpick, but I would've liked to see the Stormtroopers and TIE Fighters be more effective. Like they're so useless in the original trilogy (and Force Awakens), since obviously they're not gonna kill the main characters, but this time we pretty much KNOW the main characters are gonna die. Would've made them seem more threatening (in other movies and this one) if they showed that actually CAN shoot and weren't hapless, but in the end the Death Star accounted for most of the casualties
Full Rogue One spoilers in this thread from this point forward. When a movie like this comes out we should put a disclaimer and everyone should probably just not check the thread if they haven't seen it yet and don't wanna be spoiled. FAIR?? fair!
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I LIKED IT. Quite a bit, especially the entire third act. I thought that was by far the best
I will say they really need to do something about these trailers. They give SO much away. They reveal all the major set pieces and you can see who is involved and get an idea of where characters are picked up and lost along the way. It's so easy to fill in the gaps sometimes. Adam Driver says he thinks Episode 8 should have nothing beyond a teaser. It would neverrrrrr ever happen but it would be so cool to go into a huge movie blind like that
ANYWAY. I really liked it. I enjoyed all the new characters a lot. Best thing about the movie was how focused the mission was. I think these side movies will be great if they follow that mold a bit. The main movies are perfect for capturing the grand scheme of the entire saga, but these narrowed stories have the potential to be really fun. And the fact that this was a pretty crucial moment between 3 and 4 really made me appreciate just the entire Star Wars universe a lot more which is a pretty big achievement. I kinda got chills at the end when the gaps were bridged
Cart how could you dislike the Tarkin scenes!!! U negative nancy, I thought it was reall well done considering how hard the task is and how shitty past attempts have been. There are little facial ticks where you can tell it's CGI but STILL, I thought it was an impressive job. I enjoyed watching the Tarkin scenes just because of it
Selmy was playing a dude from A New Hope. I thought it was weird that he didn't have a line either but it makes a bit more sense why he's there when you know he's playing someone we've seen. ANDERSON from Sherlock was there too. I lol'd. And the photographer dude from House of Cards
The Vader massacre scene was easily my favorite part of the movie. That was amazing. I loved the shot of his lightsaber lighting up the hallway, and everything that followed was really quite horrific. It's cool to see Vader absolutely destroying people
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- This is sort of a nitpick, but I would've liked to see the Stormtroopers and TIE Fighters be more effective. Like they're so useless in the original trilogy (and Force Awakens), since obviously they're not gonna kill the main characters, but this time we pretty much KNOW the main characters are gonna die. Would've made them seem more threatening (in other movies and this one) if they showed that actually CAN shoot and weren't hapless, but in the end the Death Star accounted for most of the casualties
To be fair they killed Chirrut, Bodhi, Baze, and K230...so four of the six quad members. I do wish the deaths had more variety though. Bodhi/Baze/Saw's deaths are all so similar and are filmed in the same sorta way. Actually Krennic/Jyn/Andor all die from an explosion overtaking them too. TOO MANY! And Chirrut and Galen each have a similar death. Actually....every single human main character dies from an explosion. A bit lame. I wish they upped the war/grittiness vibe a bit and had some brutal deaths that sorta recall WWI/II a bit. Like if one character died after some brutal hand to hand combat with a stormtrooper or something, that would be cool to see. I guess the PG-13 rating restricted it a bit to just unseen explosion/succumb from wound deaths. A bit of a shame, they could've been more creative
BUT ya it was all really fun. None of the humor made me wanna gauge out my eyes like in Marvel movies or other big blockbusters. Really there was nothing throughout the movie that wasn't working for me
Oh and although Krennic having the Death Star stolen from him and then killed by it from Tarkin, I really thought/hoped he would fail Vader and be killed by him. It would've been really cool if we follow Krennic throughout the movie and he's very villainous and seems very capable, but by the end he's just another one of those random officers who Vader dispatches when they fuck up. I would've loved that
You think so? Personally I didn't find any of the score that memorable. Especially for it being a Star Wars movie, where the score is kind of a huge piece
