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[Rogue One] A Spoiler Filled Thread
Burnage
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Registered User regular
So Rogue One: A Star Wars Story has released internationally. If you don't know what Star Wars is, you are a terrible person who has probably literally been living under a rock for the past half century. Rogue One, however, is a tale set apart from the main Star Wars films, telling us how a group of rebels stole the plans for the evil Empire's Death Star.
Let us talk of it in this thread, filled with spoilers.
Okay? You've been warned. Here be spoilers.
I just got back from seeing it, and I liked it, but didn't think it was great. It felt different enough from the other films in the series that it very clearly wasn't a "standard" Star Wars film, and I appreciated the injection of grey morality into what's usually a set of stories that has a pretty black-and-white perspective. I also think the film improved substantially in the second half of the film (especially for the horror movie scene with Vader, fucking yes that was exactly what I wanted).
I definitely had some issues with it, though. At first I liked the CGI for young Tarkin and Leia, but it was juuuust unrealistic enough that it left me in the uncanny valley when they were on screen. That we sort of... knew how the film was going to end also reduced a lot of the tension for me. Gosh, are the rebels actually going to be able to transmit the data? Well, yeah, of course they are. I also think they overused the "random ceasefire while cradling a dying person" thing, but that might have just been me.
Initial, slightly drunk reaction summarised; it's not perfect, but it's a far better prequel than the prequels.
One question that seemed to go unanswered, unless I missed it; when Bail Organa's talking about getting help, it sounded like he's talking about a female jedi who helped him during the Clone Wars. At first I thought he meant Obi Wan (but he's obviously not female), and then possibly Leia (but she wasn't around during the Clone Wars), so did I horribly mishear that conversation or was there a hint towards a new character being introduced at some point?
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She needs to be in the movies.
Going to see it again tomorrow during not vampire hours.
My take on Tarkin and Leia was that, no, they weren't 100% percent perfect. But they were close enough (and better than any similar attempt I've ever seen before). And either way, it was bold as hell to put them as up front as they did.
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Well yeah she does,
but Bail was talking about Obi-wan, the 'she' he refers to is Leia going to see him.
*which may be after i've watched A New Hope, still contemplating that. :biggrin:
I just popped on the first ten minutes or so of ANH, just for continuity's sake
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Artoo and Threepio are just going there separate ways. Just couldn't resist.
- Red Leader and Gold Leader, not sure if they were Tarkin or Leia type CGI or cleverly used archive footage because quick cuts and action, but still kind of made my jaw drop
- Red 5 getting shot down, so Luke would later become his replacement in the group
- Vader getting his slaughter on at the end, kind of explains why he might be a bit angrier in ANH's opening scenes than the more controlled menace we're used to seeing the rest of the time
- The late, legendary Peter Cushing (the original Tarkin) getting no less than two mentions in the credits
- Clever positioning of Star Destroyers in different scenes to be able to use them for a sense of scale
- The multitude of ways we see the AT-ACTs get taken down
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Don't take good reviews this early as too credible. The PT, Green Lantern, and Batman vs Superman all had fantastic reception at this stage.
Well, my mistake! It really sounded to me like he was talking about a single person, but that makes zero sense.
I want to get a good seat but the usual reviews for 3D quality haven't hit yet so i'm in the dark. I'm leaning towards 3D though as TFA was alright in the format.
@DasUberEdward I saw it 2D, however didn't notice any shots that would've benefited from being in 3D
the CGI used for Tarkin and Leia has been mentioned and i've gotta say it didn't bother me that much. yes it was firmly on the side of being noticeable, but i think the disconnect was lessened somewhat for me by accepting what they were doing and why. obviously everyone will have a different reaction to it. i do think it was least jarring in the last couple of shots it was used in, most likely because these were close-ups of Tarkin and Leia respectively. while the scenes with Tarkin tried to limit what else was going on around him, there was enough there to cause a bit of a disconnect. the close-ups however, especially Leia's, were much more forgiving. i will say this though, i'm amazed at just how close to seamless and perfect it was. still clearly not real sure, but the tech is much further on than i would have imagined. both interested and a little weary of how this kind of thing gets used in the future.
saying that though, there is one CGI face that i was less impressed with. well, face isn't entirely accurate. Vader's helmet and face plate. those were more jarring to me than either Tarkin or Leia and watching ANH immediately after only made the contrast all the more stark. now, this could be the point were someone tells me those weren't CGI, that they were real, but honestly they looked fake. they had none of the lived in feel of the head gear in ANH, the way the light hit and reflected and refracted off them didn't match up, and i think the helmet was missing the crease/ridge that runs up and over the centre line. it was a small thing, pretty insignificant by any standards, but it hit me right away and after that i couldn't shake it. thankfully Vader was used sparingly though, and his presence wasn't missed in the rest of the film so ultimately it'll come down to just a niggle on my part.
that lack of an opening crawl was a little disappointing, evening knowing going in it wouldn't have one. the opening shot was stunning however. The Force Awakens was the first Star Wars movie i got to see on the big screen and the opening shot of that blew me away. it was such a great twist on the OTs tradition of panning down to a planet and revealing a Star Destroyer. it was striking and grabbed your attention. the opening of Rogue One blows it away in my opinion. starting simple and then panning towards the rings around a planet, seeing them stop dead, cleanly cut. it was an amazing visual and was executed beautifully. i look forward to seeing how different directors play with the tropes of opening a Star Wars movie.
for quite a while now Gareth Edwards and the folks at Lucasfilm have been saying that Rogue One would be a war movie, more so than any Star Wars film that's come before it and boy were they not kidding. the ground fights both small and large had a gritty feel to them and a sense of physicality that the Star Wars movies sometimes lack, instead often opting for a sense of awe and adventure. both are valid approaches and both can be used to great effect in the Star Wars universe.
Jazz, mentioned the numerous ways the AT-ACTs were taken down and that was a great sequence. one that also informs us on the Battle of Hoth, we now know why they didn't just go straight to using the tow cables. they were used to taking them on and taking them down in fighters, with blaster fire. it was a nice touch that didn't have to be there. but more than than, what really impressed me was how they were introduced. that was Gareth Edwards showing his monster movie roots. seeing them emerge from the smoke and trees, the ground level shots of troops running and being crushed underfoot. the missile shot to the head/cockpit of one, the pause and then the recovery with its mechanical roar. again, i come back to the ground battles having a sense of physicality as everything about the AT-ACTs conveyed a sense of bulk and weight. not that the AT-ATs from Empire seemed slight or weak, but i'd certainly say there's a difference in how their presence is conveyed.
the aerial and space battle was another stand out point though most of it i feel will be overshadowed by one moment**. the Hammerhead cruiser ramming the disabled Star Destroyer and pushing it into another, knocking the 2nd into the shield gate. we've seen Star Destroyers bump against each other and trade some paint before, but nothing like this. the sheer scale of the destruction caused was, i think, unprecedented. and while it was undoubtedly CGI it again gave the battle a sense of physicality that the Star Wars movies tend to shy away from.
there's still a lot more that i could talk about but i think that's quite enough for now. there will be plenty of time to get into everything as more folks see it and the thread progresses past the first page. :P
*well, a little bit at least. more time and repeat viewings could always change or solidify my initial thoughts.
**moment might be a stretch there, more of a collection of moments, a sequence broken up amid the larger battle.
I've just got back from a 2D showing. Honestly I preferred it; the 3D last night got distracting at times. Doctor Strange remains the only movie I've genuinely, honestly liked and even preferred the 3D in.
And Tarkin and Leia seemed better served by the 2D version as well, I thought. It is eerie how good they were, even if they weren't absolutely perfect. In five years or so I think we might be seeing a lot more of this. That'll be both good and bad.
I really, really hope there's an outtake paying homage to Peter Cushing's footwear from ANH. His boots famously were very uncomfortable, so he wore slippers instead for all the closer-up shots. One of two reasons Carrie Fisher found those scenes so hard, having to be intimidated by a man in slippers; the other being just how incredibly nice Cushing actually was. He was apparently the loveliest guy you could ever hope to meet.
Can't believe he's been gone 22 years now. I could watch him in anything. It was pretty incredible to me to have him back in this way. I really hope he would've liked it.
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Chills.
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I cannot disagree more strongly with this. His appearances were the highlight of the film for me.
I mean. . .I just don't see why it was needed at all. What did it add? We know exactly where this film is situated. The other cameos were more than enough to establish placement in the movie. This was fan service at its most obvious.
Its a fun entertaining ride like Godzilla but lacks the character writing it needs to make it a great film except for two exceptions.
Krennic was great as the sort of underappreciated impotent power player thats forced to linger in guys like Tarkin and Vader's shadow as it drives him mad. K-2SO also did well as the comic relief and injected abit more personality into the film.
Baze and Chirrut could have probably been amazing characters under a different writer and or director. Overall, its not a bad film, especially if you're a star wars geek that can appreciate the fanservice and backstory it adds to some of the events of ANH but its hard not to see the missed potential in it aswell.
CG Tarkin and Leia weren't perfect, but not as bad as I'd been led to expect.
Vader sounded fine, and it was interesting to see him wade through a bunch of ordinary soldiers. It's my understanding that one of the modern comic series is pretty much about that. It was hilarious how much his fortress was just Barad-dûr, though.
Jyn's transformation from cynical loner to gung-ho rebel was a bit sudden but not totally unbelievable.
The final battle felt a bit artificial the way almost all the main characters were killed immediately after fulfilling their vital missions. And every reviewer who said it felt video gamey was spot-on; no cover-based shooter designer could have better placed chest-high walls around the base; Jyn has to climb through a portal that opens and closes at intervals for no reason other than to present a timing obstacle; and the whole thing is oddly reminiscent of a certain Titanfall 2 story mission.
The ground, air, and space-fighting in the climax was excellent, and Rogue One did a better job showing off cool new fighter designs than TFA. It's a bit weird that the Mon Calamari have apparently been stereotyped as "the admiral race", but I suppose there are worse fates.
My first reaction to seeing him was "holy shit".
Kept looking for signs that made him stick out in a bad way and ruining the illusion but I was completely into it the whole way.
And it was awesome.
Though it's weird that
I'm sitting here and I realize that I just don't want any more of these characters or this story. There's just nothing in it that really sticks to me outside of Vader kicking ass at the end, and well, I already get more Vader. Hell, Jyn is the only new character who's names I even remember. You have blind guy and scruffy guy and pilot dude and guy with a light repeating blaster fighting with Jyn. Oh, and K-something droid.
Welp, I've officially depressed myself. I'm gonna get some sleep.
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But thats just me. James Earl Jones sounded abit off with Vader coming off oddly casual sounding with Krennic but other than that, he's great.
The CGI was really noticeable at first for me with Tarkin, but after that it seemed fine.
I almost would have rather Vader not appeared at all until the Scarif battle. Just have the line be "The fleet is taken care of" instead of mentioning Vader at all, and then just SURPRISE VADER lightsabering all the grunts on the ship.
Goddamn.
"You really look like you could use a hand, son."
It was an indication that the Death Star wasn't the only major threat from the Empire. Tarkin and Krennic weren't, in the grand scheme of things, that personally menacing or powerful as villains.
But Vader? He's making shitty jokes because he gives zero fucks. He's casually murdering a room full of people. There is nothing and nobody in this film which can threaten him or worry him at all, and that retroactively makes Obi Wan returning and Luke appearing in episode 4 even more hopeful.
The Great:
- the final battle. best battle since ROTJ, maybe even better.
- K-2S0 as the british version of HK-47
- Vader in the corridor at the end, wrecking everyone's shit and then wrecking it twice ('tis the season)
The Very Good:
- Donnie Yen bringing the laughs! Did not expect that. Also, my headcanon says that he was totally a jedi but couldn't be open about it, hence why he carries a wooden stick (with a saber pommel!) instead of a lightsaber.
- Wen Jiang as the DPS tank
- the great set design and art direction. it deserves an oscar.
- a score that managed to be familiar while also being totally its own thing
- Tarkin? Holy shit, Tarkin! Lots of Tarkin!
The Meh:
- I kept hearing about how awesome Riz Ahmed is in stuff. Didn't see it here. Also I totally didn't buy him as a brilliant engineer/pilot, especially since we never really see his greasy unkempt yoga instructor character do anything to demonstrate that.
- Ben Mendolson's Krennic. He's kind of a foppish dandy, the only executive officer on Death Star duty wearing both all-white and a full-flowing cape. It seems like he commissioned it himself and everyone was too embarrassed for to say anything.
- the camera style. endless extreme medium shots in cramped sets propel the tension and urgency, but never let the story breath or allow the characters to feel like they're much more beyond plot devices.
- the script sometimes just clunks its exposition in big jagged pieces
The Bad:
- Forrest Whitaker. What the hell, man. You are too damn weird for your own good sometimes.
Was Vader badass? I hope Vader was badass.
I haven't seen A New Hope in forever. Will my enjoyment/appreciation for the movie be enhanced by watching A New Hope just beforehand?
Vader is a sledgehammer of horror and awesomeness.
And I would suggest watching it after.
- Journal of the Whills
- Kyber crystals
- Vader's castle
- ancient Jedi temples
I was pretty impressed those got worked in there
Was there an after credits scene? Could anyone detail it if so?
(edit: i'm reading no but those are all dated pretty early.)