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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story |OT| They rebel - SPOILERS

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I thought that Rogue One had managed to top even RotS in how many planets/locations it had due to all the planet hopping, but after reviewing it RotS still holds that record.

SITH
-Coruscant
-Utapau
-Kashyyyk
-Mygeeto
-Saleucami
-Cato Neimoidia
-Felucia
-Mustafar
-Polis Massa
-Death Star (sort of, technically Geonosis offscreen)
-Naboo
-Alderaan
-Tatooine

ROGUE
-Lah'mu
-Rings of Kafrene
-Wobani
-Yavin IV
-Jedha
-Eadu
-Coruscant
-Mustafar
-Death Star
-Scarif
 
sphagnum said:
I thought that Rogue One had managed to top even RotS in how many planets/locations it had due to all the planet hopping, but after reviewing it RotS still holds that record.

SITH
-Coruscant
-Utapau
-Kashyyyk
-Mygeeto
-Saleucami
-Cato Neimoidia
-Felucia
-Mustafar
-Polis Massa
-Death Star (sort of, technically Geonosis offscreen)
-Naboo
-Alderaan
-Tatooine

ROGUE
-Lah'mu
-Rings of Kafrene
-Wobani
-Yavin IV
-Jedha
-Eadu
-Coruscant
-Mustafar
-Death Star
-Scarif
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Wait what?

When?
 
GhaleonEB said:
I went in with pretty tempered expectations, but I ended up liking this much more than I expected. My main critiques are centered on the climax, which relied way too heavily on drama around pressing buttons, flipping levers and connecting cables. Once is fine, but this did it like, four times. This came to a head with Donne Yen and his friend's death, which was about flipping a lever, and then the heavy having a very cliche death scene. Same kind of one we got in Magnificent Seven remake. I get that it's a trope, but it didn't work for me at all.
Click to expand...

Bugged me a lot as well, not to mention most of that switch toggling and what not was to tell the rebel's outside the planet something they were already trying to do. "Really, we are suppose to take the shield down? Thanks for the info, we were just going to look at it".

But even with that kind of stuff I enjoyed the movie.
 
Great point Ghaleon on the Empire's linear hierarchy based on terror contrasted against the republic. It's obvious that that's how an authoritarian, fascist regime would work, but I had never thought about how well it was portrayed in Rogue One.

Another example of my favourite thing about the film: seeing the Empire's true scale and inner/outer workings at their peak.
 
There was a kid beside me in the theatre. During a quiet part of the third act, he leaned over and asked "Daddy, when are there gonna be any light saber duels!"

It was at that moment that I realized this movie really is for adult, hardcore Star Wars fans, first and foremost. I could totally see the content and pacing being tough for kids to endure.
 
Anth0ny said:
There was a kid beside me in the theatre. During a quiet part of the third act, he leaned over and asked "Daddy, when are there gonna be any light saber duels!"

It was at that moment that I realized this movie really is for adult, hardcore Star Wars fans, first and foremost. I could totally see the content and pacing being tough for kids to endure.
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It's tough for adults to endure, too. Like, I was leaning over asking when we were going to have a cool story for all these characters.

It takes too long for them to feel like a team working together to accomplish something. And then when they finally do, they start dropping like flies. Magnificent 7 was a better film.
 
Just saw it! VERY very good, finally a nice story with beginning middle and END.
My biggest gripe with last year's TFA was all the setup with no payoff.
Only problem was all the jumping around in the first 20 minutes, highly enjoyable after that and the last scene with Vader... holy shit that was something special :D
 
sphagnum said:
There's a brief flashback to Jyn's childhood where Krennic is over having drinks with Galen. It's actually in the house on Coruscant that Krennic secured for them in the book Catalyst. You can see the cityscape out the windows.
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There's no way I could've noticed.

Now I want to read Catalyst lol
 
I cared more about those 6 characters than any in the entire of the prequel trilogy and now they are all gone. Suuuuuuuuuuuucks.


Maybe I will tear it apart down the road, but in the moment I love love love it. So good.

But not zombie Peter Cushing. <Vader>Noooooooooooooo</Vader> Uncanny valley deeper than the Mariana Trench. I get why they did it, but too distracting.
 
DavidDesu said:
My god TFA looks terrible!

https://media.giphy.com/media/3ornjPtEmC8iR8FuLe/giphy.gif

(fail)..
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The movie looks fine. I'm more talking about the attention to incidental detail and design. Seems great care and attention was paid to the sets and creatures in this versus TFA. It felt like an 80s Ridley Scott production in that way. Every frame of this movie was just packed with visual information and it made a tangible difference for me.
 
Saw it tonight. This movie was way, way better than I ever thought it would be. It has excellent visuals and it's probably the best yet in that regard. It nails the 'SW street level' feel, until it blows up in the final act... and it nails that too. The big space fights were even better than anything in ROTJ, which is the biggest ace this movie had up its sleeve. Was not expecting that.

The final minutes were pure fan service, but who cares, it was awesome. The red saber appearing in pitch black... man.
 
Okay.

So I got the soundtrack today, and while I do remember some of this in the movie, I have to say that listening to it standalone has made me actually appreciate it much more. There are some killer themes here that I felt like weren't represented well during the film, or it could just be that I was trying to take everything in all at once and couldn't give enough of an "ear" to the score.

The new Imperial theme is fantastic, Jyn's theme is pretty good, and the Guardians of the Whills track is downright beautiful. I wonder if this is why I frequently disagree with opinions about a soundtrack; I thought all the Star Wars scores have been great and have been confused as to why some felt like Episode VII's wasn't that great, but again I wonder if it's because of simple exposure. I'd heard VII's new themes before seeing the film and was immediately able to recognize and appreciate them in the movie. With Rogue One I hadn't heard it standalone, which was a first, and it didn't do anything for me during the movie.

I'm seeing it again on Tuesday, so hopefully I can warm up to it as I have the score. That being said, it shouldn't take a soundtrack to get me into the characters and drama more. It can certainly help, but I'm disappointed that I couldn't give a shit about the characters and what's going on. But with the musical familiarity that I have now, we'll see if I'm able to, in a way, piece it all together better and find more of an appreciation. My criticisms will likely stick as for example the music isn't going to add character development or take away from instances of jarring CGI, but here's hoping I can find a turnaround with this movie. I do have a tag to uphold, after all.
 
Bobby Roberts said:
Now you see my wisdom, Brandon.
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Bobby Roberts was right.

Seriously, I hope to warm up to the movie. I definitely love this soundtrack more, it just didn't do anything for me while actually watching it.

I doubt there's a complete 180 in my future, but despite my issues, and I find them profound, it's possible that I can at least eventually find it to be... decent.
 
So, how do most soundtrack enthusiasts (is that what you call them?) go about the soundtrack to a movie, play, show, etc.

Listen to it on its own first, or see it organically as you consume the media it's a part of?

I usually like to see how the score is used in the film first before going through it again by itself. That way, there aren't any expectations set for where the music is going to crop up or even what to expect it to sound like unless you're familiar with the composer to begin with.
 
RyanW said:
So after seeing this does this change anyone's feelings on the Han Solo standalone? Or really just the standalone idea in general?
Click to expand...

From day one I've not thought the Han Solo movie was a bad idea, especially as they announced who would be making it, so Rogue One just fills me with even more confidence.
 
Toa TAK said:
I usually like to see how the score is used in the film first before going through it again by itself. That way, there aren't any expectations set for where the music is going to crop up or even what to expect it to sound like unless you're familiar with the composer to begin with.
Click to expand...

I'm actually the opposite. I like to listen to a score first to get familiar with themes as I find it easy to not be able to fully take it in while watching a movie, especially the first time as I'm dissecting the story and characters. When I hear it first, I have the themes in my head, so when they appear in the movie I'm immediately like okay yeah I know this. With Rogue One many of the themes just weren't there, seemingly, so while I was out running errands a bit ago I had it playing in my car and was like, what the fuck this is amazing lol

Like I said, this is probably along the lines of why some don't think that highly of a score simply taking it as-is during the movie. Sometimes the movie will handle it well enough to where it stands out, but I didn't get that here-- only at a few key moments, particularly during the climax.
 
shira said:
Mine was full of kids. Most fell asleep. It's not for kids
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We had a funny/not-funny happening during our theater experience Thursday night. During one of the climatic scenes near the end (I believe the Jyn/Krennic confrontation in the comm tower), a dude came walking down our row of seats. This was a reserve seating theater. The guy, looking fresh on the scene with soda and popcorn in tow, stopped at one of the seats close to us, looked at the person in the seat and only slightly hushed said "I believe you are in my seat." I don't think the person in the seat responded. The guy who walked up looked at his ticket, and again at the row and said, "Wait, I don't think this is my seat." And walked away.

Afterwards, my brother and I were thinking the guy maybe arrived very early for the next screening and was wanting to set-up shop asap. Maybe he thought there was just a preview of another movie showing? I dunno, but I was truly about to look around for Candid Camera/Punk'd-type crew or something ...

As I said way early in this thread, my brother and I enjoyed the movie but afterwards, ended up talking about the poor CGI and that dude more than anything else involving the flick haha.
 
So are the Deathtroopers alien? They weren't speaking English, right? Seemed alien, and anyone who owns any figures of them know they're taller than Stormtroopers and lanky. It would explain why we never see them again as they appear to be Krennic's team and only six of them exist I believe.
 
Toa TAK said:
Listen to it on its own first, or see it organically as you consume the media it's a part of?
Click to expand...

I listen to it first if I get the opportunity, because I like to get a sense of the music as music, see what emotions it can evoke, what feelings it can elicit on its own, without the context.

I've found that what happens is when I get sorta familiar with the music itself (even if I only spin it once because I'm not really feeling it, which has happened) when I go to the movie, and that music kicks in, the feeling of the scene is amplified - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

It's basically the same principle by which pop songs getting laid in a soundtrack end up working. The song works for the scene perfectly, but your own history and emotional attachment to the song also comes into play, and builds on what's coming off the screen.

So I try to listen to the soundtrack before I see the movie most times, partially just because I just love film scores, and partially because I've found in my own experience that being familiar with the music before I see the movie only helps me connect to the movie when it plays.
 
Very entertaining. I appreciated the fan service nods.

That ending was brutal. I'm kinda glad that most of the characters didn't get fleshed out more in hindsight. I don't think I could have handled it. As it was Chirrut and K2 kinda rekt me. Pretty grim.

Vader ass kicking scene alone would have made this worth the ticket.
 
I liked this a whole lot better than The Force Awakens. It didn't have the most memorable characterization, but I thought the rest of the production, from the music, the locations, the cinematography, CG, etc. were better.

It's a tad grim but the second half of the film more than makes up for it.
 
Speevy said:
I liked this a whole lot better than The Force Awakens. It didn't have the most memorable characterization, but I thought the rest of the production, from the music, the locations, the cinematography, CG, etc.

It's a tad grim but the second half of the film more than makes up for it.
Click to expand...
Characters are more important for me in SW movies. Its the reason why I think TFA is the better movie.
 
Speevy said:
It's a tad grim but the second half of the film more than makes up for it.
Click to expand...

You always hear how something is going to be dark and grim and then you watch the film and it doesn't feel dark at all, Rogue One is the opposite of that, this movie is dark as fuuuuck.
 
I read Catalyst before the movie and while I honesty didn't think it was a great book or anything, the one thing it did was make Jyn's motivations a lot clearer. She is very close with her mom and dad and her mom especially instills in her a respect for the force. I think that once she learns the truth about her dad everything she's gone through up to that point doesn't matter anymore and she's sort of returned to that part of her life where her family's principles guided them. You see her looking at the kyber crystal in the movie, thinking about the force.

But yeah, having that backstory in a book is bad.
 
World SkiFree said:
I've seen this mentioned a few times. Instead of buying an Xbone and Battlefront for my Star Wars/Rogue One fix, I may just go the poor man's route and finish playing my freebie GwG version of Reach on the 360.
Click to expand...

That reminds me, what's the Rogue One content for Battlefront? Might just buy the Ultimate Edition (if it's ever on sale again).
 
brandonh83 said:
I'm actually the opposite. I like to listen to a score first to get familiar with themes as I find it easy to not be able to fully take it in while watching a movie, especially the first time as I'm dissecting the story and characters. When I hear it first, I have the themes in my head, so when they appear in the movie I'm immediately like okay yeah I know this. With Rogue One many of the themes just weren't there, seemingly, so while I was out running errands a bit ago I had it playing in my car and was like, what the fuck this is amazing lol

Like I said, this is probably along the lines of why some don't think that highly of a score simply taking it as-is during the movie. Sometimes the movie will handle it well enough to where it stands out, but I didn't get that here-- only at a few key moments, particularly during the climax.
Click to expand...

Bobby Roberts said:
I listen to it first if I get the opportunity, because I like to get a sense of the music as music, see what emotions it can evoke, what feelings it can elicit on its own, without the context.

I've found that what happens is when I get sorta familiar with the music itself (even if I only spin it once because I'm not really feeling it, which has happened) when I go to the movie, and that music kicks in, the feeling of the scene is amplified - sometimes a little, sometimes a lot.

It's basically the same principle by which pop songs getting laid in a soundtrack end up working. The song works for the scene perfectly, but your own history and emotional attachment to the song also comes into play, and builds on what's coming off the screen.

So I try to listen to the soundtrack before I see the movie most times, partially just because I just love film scores, and partially because I've found in my own experience that being familiar with the music before I see the movie only helps me connect to the movie when it plays.
Click to expand...

Guess I'm the odd man out on this.

I used to go about listening to the scores first whenever I got the chance, but for me I would hear the music on its own and when I went to see its use in the film I was usually pretty underwhelmed. Usually I was underwhelmed by it's conjunction of the visuals on screen, or whatever scenario or emotion the music had on its own ended up having more of an impact than it's role in the film, and that kinda bites. I don't know if that makes any sense or if I should just go back to this way of doing it.
 
Awesome movie! After it ended a kid behind us immediately said, "So everyone died?" I laughed.

The first two acts are a little sluggish, but the third act is worth the wait. Jedi's climax is better for the emotional stakes in the throne room and great moments like when Wedge and Lando start heading to the core, amplified by Williams' score. Rogue One's strength is definitely the ground battle, which felt like the they captured and expanded upon the visceral intensity of the Hoth battle. You can probably give the space battle effects edge to Rogue One, but that Jedi battle still has some great shots. By a small but certain margin, Jedi is still the king of high stakes climaxes!

Jyn was likable with a predictable but well-executed arc. Cassian worked as the hardass who's all in for the cause. I liked how Jyn and Cassian first challenged then inspired each other. K2 was fun and his death was genuinely saddening. Chirrut was awesome but it felt like they went overboard with him saying, "I am one with the Force. The Force is with me," over and over. Baze was probably my favorite of the group, since he went out in a 'Baze' of glory. Bodhi didn't get as much development but his heroism in enabling the transmission was great. I really liked Krennic as a sort of bureaucratic ladder climber who wants to prove his worth to Tarkin, Vader, and the Emperor.

There was certainly no shortage of
R9WFDTg.jpg
try to make you feel warm and fuzzy when you recognize things like blue milk or know what the Whills are. It was neat seeing Gold and Red Leader, but if we got that Red 5 line why couldn't Edwards fit in Red Leader's best moment?

4dk96fE.gif


For example, that could have been used right before the battle starts: "Get your piss hot, everyone. YEEEAAAAAHH!"

CGI Tarkin... it's jarring at first, but the longer the shots of him held the more I settled into it. I can't put my finger on what was off - perhaps the movement of the muscles in his cheeks. Still, overall very impressive. He did seem quite tall, like he was 6'3" or 6'4". Then again my main perception of Cushing's height comes from seeing him so often with Christopher Lee (or David Prowse). Internet says 6'0", but Mendelsohn is 5'11" and I could swear they had him looking up at Tarkin like there was a six inch difference.

Anyway, very good movie. The Force Awakens flows better, has better characters, and is more entertaining from start to finish, but Rogue One is a pretty strong start for the spinoffs and builds to one hell of a third act. Now give me The Adventures of Ponda and Evazan.
 
Just saw it.
There were a couple things that bummed me out a tiny bit but didn't ruin anything, a few things that I disliked, and a couple things I thought were great. All in all I loved the movie.

Minor dislikes that didn't ruin anything for me:
-The TIE Striker not having more screen time. I just bought my TIE Striker for the X-Wing Miniatures Game yesterday and it is a fantastic looking ship up close. I really wanted to see it kick ass and they only made brief appearances near the very end.
-The "Jyn walking away from the camera on the catwalk when a TIE Fighter slowly rises in front of her" scene from the trailers not being in the movie. Just a pet-peeve of mine, especially after people on the X-Wing forums were complaining about the scale when that trailer first dropped; I wanted to see if it was fixed or just something from the trailer that looked off.
-The VCX-100 "Ghost" cameos. I read that there were two very fast cameos of the ship and I missed one. Completely my bad, not a fault of the movie, but it must have happened very quick. I wish they had shown it closer to the screen or dwelled a bit longer on it. They made sure that the "General Syndulla" Easter egg line from the PA system was repeated twice while nothing else else was making much noise so as to drive it home but couldn't show off the Ghost more?

Bigger dislikes that possibly took away from the movie a bit:
-James Earl Jones. I thought he sounded very off as Vader. I know he is quite a bit older than he was during the OT, but he sounded awful.
-To go along with the above, Vader's "quip" about Krennic choking on his words. If I were the type of person always cringing at stuff, it would have made me cringe. I get too many quips from Marvel movies as it is already, as soon as it happened I thought 'Yep, Disney was definitely in charge of this film.'

Things I loved
-Chirrut Îmwe and K-2SO. Both were fantastic and funny without feeling forced to me. We'll probably never see HK-47 again but K-2SO was smarmy enough to remind me of him. I didn't even realize it was Alan Tudyk, which is blowing me away right now (surely I must have read that at some point prior but I had to have forgotten it if I did in fact know it). Chirrut Îmwe might be my favorite Hollywood Donnie Yen role now. He was a badass (unlike in Blade 2, where he goes down like a chump). I didn't really have an issue with any of the Rogue One crew though, I guess. I enjoyed each one of them and wanted to know more about them, especially Baze Malbus.

Like I said, I thought it was great. I guess I would say I loved it. My negatives weren't anything huge, just things that rubbed me wrong. Something I thought was weird was that Tarkin didn't look that good, while I thought the CGI for Leia was perfect. Maybe because Tarkin's CGI had a lot more screentime so there was more of a chance to notice it wasn't real?
Now to wait for the home release and to hope for more ships from the movie to be added to the X-Wing Miniatures game. We need Partisan X-Wings for the Scum & Villiany faction, because they will probably include a regular T-65 fix for the Rebels!
 
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