Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Scott F said:
I did not know there was computer trickery with the moff Tarkin character. The whole time I was like "wow, this guy really looks like Peter Cushing".
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Really? I thought it was a painfully obvious digital effect. The illusion worked with Leia, but mostly because her face was only on screen for like three seconds. But overall, this movie bodes well for the spin-off movies. Freeing themselves from the shackles of the serial films was just the invigorating shot in the arm the franchise needed.
 
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^ haha, yeah, i've never professed to be the sharpest knife in the kit.

The real thing I can't believe I didn't pick up on (cuz I must have seen all those trailers dozens and dozens of times) was that Danny from Bloodline played the part of Krennic! He can play anything from a disheveled junkie to an Imperial lieutenant.
 
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Yeah, this is the best Star Wars film since Empire. It surpasses Empire in some ways, but only because it had access to a bigger budget and CGI.

It's so much better than The Force Awakens, you can't even describe the feeling in English; you need to go 11-syllable German words.

That's not to say I didn't have nits - I did - but at the moment I find them unimportant.

SPOILER:

The final battle recalls something which always bugged me about the battle on Hoth: they had X-Wings at the Hoth base, which would have been a lot more effective against the AT-ATs than the snowspeeders were. Why didn't they use them?
 
David Jimerson said:
The final battle recalls something which always bugged me about the battle on Hoth: they had X-Wings at the Hoth base, which would have been a lot more effective against the AT-ATs than the snowspeeders were. Why didn't they use them?
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Maybe they didn't want to waste their best ships? The speeders weren't supposed to defeat them, just hold them off long enough to escape. The X-WINGS were escape ships. The speeders probably weren't capable of going off world...Or maybe we just put more thought into it than anyone who made the movie?
 
Batutta said:
Maybe they didn't want to waste their best ships? The speeders weren't supposed to defeat them, just hold them off long enough to escape. The X-WINGS were escape ships. The speeders probably weren't capable of going off world...Or maybe we just put more thought into it than anyone who made the movie?
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I dunno. It just bugged me ever since I was a kid. Why fly a snowspeeder around and then hop out to get into your X-Wing, when you could just take some shots from the X-Wing, hold them off for a little while, then take off?

(And why does a society which doesn't use the Roman alphabet name its ships after it, because they look like the letters? Probably for the same reason they use Arabic numerals! But that's a discussion for another day.)
 
Watched it on IMAX in 3D. Holy cow.

I loved everything about this movie. Not sure what all the re-shoots were about, but whatever they did worked. It was the most exciting Star Wars movie since Empire Strikes Back, and the last 5 minutes were some of the most thrilling of any movie I've ever seen.

Damn. Can you imagine what Disney would have done with Episodes 1-3?!
 
My son really liked it (he's 12). But it didn't blow me away unlike when I saw The Force Awakens.
I'll have to see it again. I think it may grow on me more over time. I liked the style of it, costumes, etc.
Hated the CGI actors. Horrible choice.
 
The Force Awakens thread went on far longer than this one, both before and after.

Before is understandable.

Perhaps it's already the onset of the Star Wars oversaturation that Disney is in the beginning stages of.
 
Okay, I'll chime in a little more.

+1 for sets and overall appearance. Looks good and looks fresh while still looking like Star Wars.
+1 for Michael Giacchino's score. Sounds good and sounds fresh while still sounding like Star Wars. I like that didgeridoo.
+1 again for several of the actors (but not all)

Script: Here's my take. I think it has a lot of things going for it. I like the idea: imperial scientist has change of heart, the hero is his daughter (Star Wars was built on a parent-child drama --- but, like the Death Star, I think it would be okay to have an episode without it). I also liked where the movie ends, but I'm not sure it perfectly matches up with the beginning of Episode IV ("We are on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan." Did Leia and others aboard her blockade runner not know that Vader was right behind them when they jettisoned from the frigate in the battle above Scarif? Either way, why doesn't Vader then mention it?).

I can think of other ways it could have been better. There are couple of times where a pair of characters could have been merged into one. It seems merciless (why not the more the merrier?) but my current theory is that, just like every scene must move the plot forward, if two characters mostly agree with each other or aren't much different than each other, then they should be merged. Makes for a leaner, tighter story, more acceleration (I think).

I think set design is metaphorical for drama. If it's a big scene dramatically it should have grand action or a grand set or both. The inside of the archive tower, when they were getting the tape, was small (despite its bottomless pit) and static. This is one of the most important actions of the movie. Imagine instead something like this: a long, dark, labyrinthine data center that Jyn and Cassian have to run, crawl, and climb through while dodging stormtroopers, all sorts of cool new droid guards, and the like, then grab the tape. Instead we have Cassian fumbling with fiddly joysticks, while the two just stand there. The part afterward is cool though, at the top of the tower where they do the transmission.

Camera angles and editing: Like many modern movies, Gareth Edwards adopted a camerawork style that's not bad per se but I think is kind of bland. Basically a lot of handheld singles, and very cutty. George Lucas's simple tripod-based camerawork in Star Wars looks more old fashioned, but I would rather have that than this. I like scenes with one or two (or maybe three) well-chosen shots. For example: The Graduate, Klute, Jaws, The Sixth Sense, a few scenes in The Hunt for Red October. They're long takes, but they don't have lots of winding and dollying that draws attention to themselves as long takes (like, for example, Atonement's Dunkirk scene). Instead, they are often static shots with sometimes clever compositions.
 
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I thought the ending was a bit incongruous compared to the beginning of Ep IV, but I didn't really mind.

I think what appealed to me about it most is something I've appreciated in a number of other genre films -- this was a WWII commando movie set in the SW universe. It was plotted and shot like that, as opposed to being an overtly "Star Warsy" movie. Yeah, it did go a little too far with the "nods" here and there, but for the most part, they kept that under control.
 
In general, I have a feeling that Disney is going to feel that building an entire "Star Wars World Land" at Disneyland was a very bad business decision. I think that they may have missed the window. No doubt the current set of films will make money, but by 2019, I don't know.
 
cyclone said:
In general, I have a feeling that Disney is going to feel that building an entire "Star Wars World Land" at Disneyland was a very bad business decision. I think that they may have missed the window. No doubt the current set of films will make money, but by 2019, I don't know.
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Don't understand the logic. People don't pay to get into Star Wars Land, they pay to get into Disneyland, and people will keep going to Disneyland for a very long time. New lands, rides, etc, gives people who have gone recently an incentive to return. It will certainly bring more people in than what it was replacing "Big Thunder Ranch".
 
I just saw this today and really loved it. Although it's a war movie, it felt more like Star Wars to me than Episode VII (which I really didn't care for). Even though I knew they would succeed in their mission, I still felt the suspense and a possibility they might fail. Seeing what these Rebels went through gives so much more impact to Episode IV now, like watching them hand off the plans like a baton with Vader on their heels. Wow! I felt the seriousness of their mission.

I hate to say it, but for me, this is probably my favorite Star Wars movie, with Empire Strikes Back as a close second. Well done Gareth.
 
Yeah lol that server storage pillar was cool but impractical. I'm sure their IT people would have a fit.

My general rule of thumb with movie computers is to keep it simple and practical. At least think though the usability rather than just how cool it looks. Computers aren't new mysterious devices anymore. Most of us use them on a daily basis and have for well over a decade if not most of our lives. So you're not fooling us anymore.

1. No crazy VR interfaces (Johnny Mnemonic) because IT people and hackers will probably mostly use command lines to do complex stuff like that.
2. If your character is pounding away on a keyboard, don't show a GUI with fancy graphics and no text input. Most operations done with a GUI are with a mouse or touch screen. So use a mouse every once in a while.
3. Computer servers need to be accessible without jumping through hoops because real people who aren't action stars have to work on them (S.W. R.O.)
4. Not every computer in the future should have a blue transparent interface.(every sci-fi movie since the early 00s) I don't usually want to see-through my monitor. I like nice full color opaque images.
5. Keep the GUI interface simple and user friendly. What the hell are all those other geometric shaped boxes with numbers and letters and things happening? Way too much going on on every movie computer screen.
6. If the hologram is all see-through and glitchy then you got ripped off. You should take it back to the store and buy a full-color flat panel display until they figure that technology out.
 
Just saw it last night in Imax 3D. Loved it! The first Star Wars film since Return of the Jedi that's managed to move me in any way. The world felt real, and the consequences felt real. A superb effort all round.
 
This may contain spoilers.

We just went to see it last night, and loved it.

roxics said:
Computers aren't new mysterious devices anymore.

3. Computer servers need to be accessible without jumping through hoops because real people who aren't action stars have to work on them (S.W. R.O.)
4. Not every computer in the future should have a blue transparent interface.(every sci-fi movie since the early 00s) I don't usually want to see-through my monitor. I like nice full color opaque images.
5. Keep the GUI interface simple and user friendly. What the hell are all those other geometric shaped boxes with numbers and letters and things happening? Way too much going on on every movie computer screen.
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While one can easily write this off as being a different galaxy in a different time that had a much different chronology of technological innovation...

The reality is that this film literally leads right up to the front door of Episode IV. With that, I feel much of the production design was better served by being in line with the original trilogy, right down to the Grass Valley switcher on the Death Star.

I agree that the Uncanny Valley effect on Governor Tarkin was a bit obvious, and prosthetics may have been a bit better served, but it was cool to see him in the story.

They hammered on the word "hope" a bit too much. Yeah, we get it: this leads up to "A New Hope". No need to be so on-the-nose.

Vader was not as menacing as in Episode IV. I know it's a different actor in the suit, but his gate had more swagger than the original, which felt out-of-place. And his light saber moves were too fluid. The guy is 66% machine. He's supposed to have movements that are a little more stiff and mechanical. Part of what made Vader so frightening in the original was the "oh sh*t factor" of having this threatening almost-machine marching straight at you. And in terms of wardrobe, the helmet and mask assembly had too loose a fit at the shoulder that gave the overall character a feeling of being just a bit off.

That said, I loved the film, and I agree it's the best since Empire. It definitely rounds out the top three of the franchise. Of course, since Rogue One addressed some of the holes in the original (both figurative and literal), the Family Guy episodes aren't quite as relevant... but still worth watching again and are my favorite parodies out there.
 
Alex H. said:
his gate had more swagger than the original [...] And his light saber moves were too fluid.
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Yeah, I noticed that too, especially the swagger in his gait when he first appears and walks up to Krennic.

I hate to make such nitpicks, when they got so much right. Then again, they had a crew of hundreds and a budget of millions, and continuity details like that should have been considered.
 
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