[SPOILERS] What did you think about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story?

[electoblaze]

I'm a dedicated Star Wars fan (you can tell by my emblem!) and I actually watched Rogue One 3 times in theaters so far. SPOILER FRIENDLY ZONE. We can discuss spoilers here so if you haven't seen the movie yet, press that back-button. You have been warned.

 

I would rate the movie a solid 4 or 4.5 stars out of 5. It wasn't a flawless Star Wars movie but very well done and, as a lifelong Star Wars fan who has watched all 7 films hundreds of times total, I can say that it was very well researched too. The authors knew their stuff! This movie was a story of love for all Star Wars fans both new and old.

 

SPOILERS - Some of my takeaways

+ The decision to kill off all the main characters was pure brilliance. I'm glad they didn't go all "Disney holding hands singing the circle of life" on us and actually showed the reality of the war: many people died, and the characters less gifted with the force didn't always make it out alive. Before the movie, people were saying that the main characters could stay alive and just "be in the background" of the original films, which I couldn't accept. I'm glad they're dead, as morbid as that sounds.

 

+ Equally brilliant was the last scene where Vader slashes everyone up. I have not seen a single comment saying they didn't like that scene. It was pure badassery and it was much needed. My dad (who is a casual viewer of Star Wars) explained that he never really felt scared of Darth Vader until now. He described Vader as "just a guy in a mask" in the origina;l films. And since he never played any of the video games, he had no idea how much destruction Vader could unleash. I'm glad this movie tapped into the mythos of Vader as this "Terminator" character who, in the backstory, spent years killing hundreds of Jedi in the purge between Episodes 3 and 4.

 

+ CGI Tarkin was good! I had no real complaints but I did get this "uncanny valley" sensation when watching him. Overall, it was very convincing but he almost looked too perfect: like if an android was wearing a Peter Cushing flesh mask and acting his part.

 

- CGI Leia, on the other hand, was a little rough. The part where she is looking away from the character was fine but when she looks at the camera and grins, she honestly looks like she's having a minor stroke or something. I even recall the face slightly shifting when she turns towards the camera, maybe indicating that 30-second scene was rushed. Idk.

 

- The beginning was a tad too slow, disorganized and jarring (but it's growing on me.) I don't think that Guardians of the Galaxy-style planet-hopping was an effective way to begin the movie and I can see how newcomers would be like "wtf?" when watching it with no context.

 

- It's sad to see that Jyn Erso rarely fought in this film, despite being advertised as another Rey-type of character. Compared to Rey (who was slaughtering everyone throughout the film) I think Jyn only kills a couple stormtroopers on Jedha, then maybe a couple of Scarif but hardly anything noteworthy. In addition, I found it disappointing that she never used the twin-swords she had with her on her back on Scarif after taking them from the Imperial Agent. What a wasted opportunity.

 

Other noteworthy mentions:

+ I loved all the small details and callbacks to the original films, and I believe they were necessary, not just fan-service:

Red 5 dies, they meet Mr. Butt-Chin alien on Jedha, the return of Gold and Red Leader, Blue leader and the U-Wings are destroyed on Scarif (so they don't intefere with the original trilogy), the Yavin 4 Tower Guy, etc.

+ Making old Star Wars stories NEW again: Vader's castle and The Guardian of the Whills are now official canon. (Before, they were just concept art but never featured in any of the films.)

 

Overall, I would give Rogue One either 4/5 or 4.5/5 stars.

[DARKB1KE]

Not really brilliant since after Game of Thrones started killing characters, everyone is doing it now. 

[BlindMango]

I actually enjoyed Rogue One a lot more than Episode 7, seemed like Episode 7 played it way too safe basically just repeating things over from past Star Wars movies while this one had a more interesting unique story. It started off a bit abrupt, jumping from planet to planet but eventually slowed down and had a focus - A lot better than Episode 7 which seemingly had no downtime at all

 

9/10

[Skippy]

Loved it, was great to see Vader again and completely agree the scene with him towards the end was awesome. I actually went to watch the movie in a Vader t shirt. For next time, if you want to make a thread for a movie, they have  a separate forum for things like that called the media room. Looking forward to Star Wars episode VIII

 

[30 Year Old Boomer]

I really loved seeing it. Characters were great like K2S0; the Imperial droid, was funny as hell and had some good lines, I liked the blind Force user and his friend, Baze, Jyn, etc. It had a good story and I liked the stuff we saw in it, we get to see some of what the rebels did as well which I thought was pretty good and interesting. I definitely preferred this over The Force Awakens although that still is a pretty good film. But this felt different, I had a lot more enjoyment while watching this. I liked seeing Darth Vader again as well, he was pretty menacing and badass in it.  Overall, I'd give this a 9.5/10, definitely one of my favorite Star Wars movies. Even went to see it again, so I've seen it twice so far. I really enjoyed watching it, that's why I went to rewach it.

Edited December 25, 2016 by Mace Windu

[Red-River13]

On December 21, 2016 at 3:48 PM, DARKB1KE said:

Not really brilliant since after Game of Thrones started killing characters, everyone is doing it now. 

You're right. A television show started the trend of characters dying in films. Every movie until the end of time will copy GoT.

[DARKB1KE]

On 12/25/2016 at 3:31 AM, Red-River13 said:

You're right. A television show started the trend of characters dying in films. Every movie until the end of time will copy GoT.

Pretty much.  Killing off main characters is a recent trend in the film/television industry.  You see it more and more now. 

Edited December 28, 2016 by DARKB1KE

[electoblaze]

On 12/21/2016 at 11:48 AM, DARKB1KE said:

Not really brilliant since after Game of Thrones started killing characters, everyone is doing it now. 

I think you're missing the point. Regardless of whether or not killing off main characters has become the norm, it is definitely a CHANGE for STAR WARS. Star Wars has always been known for being rather kid-friendly and utilizing strong character development - following the stories of the main characters through several episodes/seasons. Even my uncle, who only watches Star Wars occasionally, said, "Wow, THAT was different! Everyone died!" after watching Rogue One. My friends said the same thing, "Everyone died! Didn't see that coming!" It's a brilliant change of pace for Star Wars and their deaths made perfect sense to me.

[DARKB1KE]

30 minutes ago, electoblaze said:

I think you're missing the point. Regardless of whether or not killing off main characters has become the norm, it is definitely a CHANGE for STAR WARS. Star Wars has always been known for being rather kid-friendly and utilizing strong character development - following the stories of the main characters through several episodes/seasons. Even my uncle, who only watches Star Wars occasionally, said, "Wow, THAT was different! Everyone died!" after watching Rogue One. My friends said the same thing, "Everyone died! Didn't see that coming!" It's a brilliant change of pace for Star Wars and their deaths made perfect sense to me.

Yes of course it's new to Star Wars.  I'm just not shocked though, I don't find it brilliant.  I'm entitled to have my own opinion here as are you.   You're shocked, I'm not.  End of discussion. 

Edited December 28, 2016 by DARKB1KE

[Super-Fly Spider-Guy]

The whole thing was just a propaganda piece spewed out by the Rebel Alliance about a few guys who died in a battle to take attention away from Kyle Katarn and the fact that he was the one who actually stole the Death Star plans. 

 

...

 

Legit though it was decent but like, eh. I enjoyed it, and it was perfectly fine, but entirely forgettable, as predicted, best bit was the end with Vader. Holy shit, my erection made a hole in the roof of the cinema.

[BIOHAZARD-R-US]

See I thought they completely butchered the CGI of Christopher Lee and got young Leia right. Maybe cuz he was a more prominent character in this one than Leia was (last 3 seconds pretty much). Christopher Lee looked like he had the same stilted animation attempting to be ultra-realistic but coming off as even more fake, like the chimps from the current lineup of The Plant of the Apes movies. At one point, his animation looked exactly like Davy Jones from Pirates 3. Lee's voice didn't even sound like him either, which bugged me every single time he talked. Like, I get that he had to be in this, but shit man they did up Paul Walker better in 2014 for the remainder of his scenes in Furious 7. 

 

I kept thinking that at the end, when Jyn and Cassian are at the landing pad after everything is all said and done and the Death Star is firing upon the planet, I think they had more than plenty of time to get out if they had found a ship. Sure, not a lot of them were left, but there had to have been at least ONE somewhere. 

 

Saw was made to be this epic warrior or at least just a character with an epic past, and he does little in the movie except earn Forest his paycheck for his extended cameo.

 

K-2 was the highlight of the film BY FAR. The droid was gutbustingly funny, and I was legit sad when he kept getting shot and finally succumbed to the Storm Troopers. 

 

Speaking of Storm Troopers, DAMN THEY WERE ACCURATE AF. It seemed like they had more shots on target here than in all previously 7 released movies combined.

 

The Destroyer battle to take down the shield was epic, more so than the other full-out action scenes, but that was just plain badass when they rammed the Destroyer and floored it into the other.

 

I didn't really like Jyn. I don't know if it was Felicity, the fact that she doesn't reeeeeally do much in this movie when you think about it, or that you knew she was just a throwaway character in a sense by just having seen the other movies and knowing that Jyn was never even MENTIONED in any other Episode.

 

Cassian was all over the place with his character development and arc. He's a rugged criminal at the beginning, then he's lying to Jyn's face about the mission, then he doesn't take the shot when he had like 15 chances to do so (which the movie kiiiiinda made it look like it was The Force keeping him from shooting, the way he kept looking into the scope and then pulling away and then back in, and with cutting back and forth from him to the blind guy, so that was weird), then he's suddenly a good guy and truly on Jyn's side, then KABAM! LOVE INTEREST SECONDS BEFORE DEATH. YEAH, ROMANCE, BITCH!!! Frikkin Hollywood shoehorning in love interests and storylines that make no sense or are not practical.

 

Vader's battle at the end was orgasmic, as @Super-Fly Spider-Guy mentioned.

 

I started falling asleep during the politics scene near the middle, as did a couple of the guys I saw it with. One, that scene was BS. Two, it dragged on too long. Three, it was a weird and out-of-place almost-complete halt to the pace of the film, which up to that point had been pretty fast-paced even in non-action sequences.

 

Other than that, the movie felt like it was a good length, and I don't think any scenes needed to be shortened besides that one scene and some of the scenes with Not-Christopher Lee. Fast-paced, fun and interesting to finally see the bridge between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope finally made.

 

Also, Jyn in that black outfit when they're heading up to the Archives was so damn cute. I mean look at this. Reminds me of Gimli from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when they were about to face the orc army and he can't see over the wall. "Do you want me to get you a box to stand on?"

[Arkthur]

I thought it was ok, the first minutes were kind of confusing, with all that planet hoping. I loved the fact that a lot of it took place in Jeda, and that the Death Star is pretty much a giant-sized light saber. About the characters.....K2 was awesome, all the others were kind of meh. I was amazed as how good the storm troopers were at shooting Guess all the good ones were drafted to that planet (another plot hole covered =P).

 

Now, as the ending, it wasn't really surprising or new. The moment K2 fell, I knew something was up, and at the time the DS fired, it was obvious they were all going to die. 

[RevengeancePrime]

I enjoyed it more than the Force Awakens, but still not as much as the original trilogy. Something I really loved about this Star Wars was the scenery especially the first planet, Lah'mu and the planet for the final battle, Scarif. I really liked Jyn and K-2 and it would be awesome to see them in a future Star Wars film, but I doubt that will happen. Donnie Yen's character was also pretty cool especially the scene where he goes IP Man on the stormtroopers.

 

It was very cool to have a closer look at the destructive capabilities of the Death Star and having the heroes simply accept their fate really added to the effect. 

 

The scene with the destroyers collapsing through the force field was epic. 

 

Vader was brilliant in every scene. He always felt imposing even when he was in the water tank or making a pun while force choking Krennic. That final scene with Vader cutting down those rebels was badass, but I feel like he could have stopped that last rebel from passing the plans over with the force or a throw of his lightsaber. 

 

Overall, this was one of my favourite movies of 2016 and I'll probably re-watch it in the future.

[wafflestomper810]

I'll agree that it was way better than "Force Awakens."  At least Donnie Yen didn't just become an instant force master.  The story felt a lot more original instead of just a rehash.