Rogue One is so good it improves the entire trilogy (SPOILERS)

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I wonder if there is a segment of people who dislike TFA and RO as a response to the initial positive reception to The Phantom Menance and the prequel trilogy in general. An overcompensation of sorts.

Eh, TFA got worse the more I thought about it. I left pretty OK with it, then I realized over time it made not a lick of sense. I left Rogue One pretty high on it, though there were several problems I had while watching it. My opinion of it hasn't changed. It's a stronger film, with a lot more verisimilitude in its characters and story. While I could have done without half of the shoehorned in cameos, and wish we had a little more early time with Jyn's backstory, the film still holds up.

TPMs positive response soured VERY quickly, and it was the only prequel which had it, The honeymoon period only really lasted a couple of weeks at best. It also made a bit of sense in that TPM is the only one of the prequels which is a straight up adventure movie, it has the strongest climax of any of the prequels, but was also the most self contained. People were shitting on AotC and RotS from the second they came out.

Both Rogue One and TFA are better films than any of the prequels. TFA specifically is less interesting story wise than any of the prequels, but has better acting, more charismatic actors, and a strong, if shallow climax. It's also competently directed and acted, and has few scenes that take you out of the movie. Rogue One is the similar, but better, and in my opinion much stronger than TFA.
 
A bit off topic but I liked Ren until he took the mask off. ROTFL.

Vader without his mask was still intimidating as hell.
He's supposed to be seen that way though, an extremely dangerous kid. It's not that JJ at one point said "Holy shit he too the mask out, now what do we do?".
He is a character that will follow an arc, and at least now we're sure he's going to have a big scar on his face.
 
R1 was a pretty decent movie but it failed at the most important thing for a Star Wars movie to do IMO, which is introducing characters that will make a lasting impact. No one is going to care about Saw Gerrera and Jyn Erso in a few years the way people care about Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, or even Rey and Finn.
 
R1 was a pretty decent movie but it failed at the most important thing for a Star Wars movie to do IMO, which is introducing characters that will make a lasting impact. No one is going to care about Saw Gerrera and Jyn Erso in a few years the way people care about Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, or even Rey and Finn.

To be fair all the characters you mentioned were in more then one movie. Still though Maul is remembered and he was in one movie. Characters in this movie not so much. They will be forgotten in no time.
 
I'm inclined to agree, even if I didn't enjoy the film as much as I hoped.

The bland characters and that first hour took me out of the experience. The only characters I cared about were the robot and the blind man.

When everyone started dying towards the end I wasn't invested enough to stimulate emotional reaction out of me. It all felt contrived.

That Darth Vader scene was excellent though.
 
Honestly the weakness of death star wasn't even that much of a weakness.
It needed a suicide mission, a Jedi initiate and the assistance of the force and a force ghost to blow up the first death star.

Well the other option was complete unobstructed obliteration at will of any planet.

I'm inclined to agree, even if I didn't enjoy the film as much as I hoped.

The bland characters and that first hour took me out of the experience. The only characters I cared about were the robot and the blind man.

When everyone started dying towards the end I wasn't invested enough to stimulate emotional reaction out of me. It all felt contrived.

That Darth Vader scene was excellent though.

I agree about the first acts; the story was pedestrian enough to lose my attention. But by the second and third acts, when they were able to focus the story a bit more and the characters were developed, I found that I started to care more about each character.
I think they made it pretty obvious that everyone was going to die. Where I disagree is that I genuinely felt something when each of them did. By the end of the movie, they had given me just enough to mourn their loss and the ending of the movie made me feel amped up enough to watch ANH right away.
 
I loved it.

The film had a great ending in my opinion. Showing Vader as such a bad ass. Showing the rebels dying to get the plans away...

Loved the film.
 
What's with the complaints of two dimensional characters? It's not like any of the films had particularly deep characters. They're basically just fun, pulpy adventure stories after all.

I had my share of issues with Rogue One but still really enjoyed it (a Star Wars heist movie is cool in my book). I do hope that future films try to surprise us a little more though.
 
Really enjoyed:
- the final set piece, watching each character take one chance and the next chance until all their chances were spent.
- Vader coming out of lightspeed and the rebel ships smashing into him.
- The levity. It would've been too earnest, otherwise.
- The strong female protagonist. My 7yo daughter loves the fuck out of Jyn Erso.

Really questioned:
- Jyn Erso is a quiet achiever driven by revenge and can face anything alone... except death. For death, she needs to hug it out with the asshole who tried to kill her father.
- Cassian Andor coming back from the dead to save Jyn, as though she couldn't have pulled through herself.
- Saw Gerrera's scenes seem to have been majorly cut short. He is a terrifying father figure who, reading between thr lines, is meant to inspire Jyn to fight for the rebellion (because remember, beforehand she didn't care for it. Then after fleeing Jedah, she was suddenly inspired). He was also, clearly, a foil for Darth Vader; of the monster you can become when you invest too deeply in the cause.

Rogue One isn't perfect, but it does make it a little easier to watch ANH. As many have said, ANH was a product of its time, and the thought of good guys fighting in a rebellion against an evil empire is as anachronistic as films like True Lies and Rambo 3. After 9-11, they're just a bit naive and on-the-nose. Rogue One gives ANH a little more context.
 
I liked the themes more than the execution. The idealism of the Jedi from the Prequels has been replaced by pragmatism and the line between good, bad and evil is more blurred, which I found interesting. Edwards' direction was pretty bland overall though.

The villains were actually menacing, which was a huge improvement over The Force Awakens. Vader, Krennic and Tarkin vs Kylo Ren, Hux lol no contest here. I know Ren is a on a journey but it all felt like emo angst in comparison.

In contrast, Jyn Erso et al were all largely bland and forgettable and lacked the kinetic energy of Rey, Finn and Poe.

I'd put about even with TFA overall.
 
Rogue One isn't perfect, but it does make it a little easier to watch ANH. As many have said, ANH was a product of its time, and the thought of good guys fighting in a rebellion against an evil empire is as anachronistic as films like True Lies and Rambo 3. After 9-11, they're just a bit naive and on-the-nose. Rogue One gives ANH a little more context.


A now classic film designed to be a love letter to classic science fiction serials does not need context from a soulless cash grab with the modern obligatory grim dark horseshit everyone wants to ram into everything.
 
Rogue One isn't perfect, but it does make it a little easier to watch ANH. As many have said, ANH was a product of its time, and the thought of good guys fighting in a rebellion against an evil empire is as anachronistic as films like True Lies and Rambo 3. After 9-11, they're just a bit naive and on-the-nose. Rogue One gives ANH a little more context.
You mean post-Vietnam? Because that's ANH's time. Star Wars was refreshing because it came out during a time where everything else was gritty and cynical. Trashy 80's action schlock like Rambo 3 is steeped in the chest-beating nationalism of the cold war. Star Wars is not, and it never has been.
 
It added nothing except muddling the introduction of leia in ANH. Movie was completely bland.
Yeah pretty much
I was hoping for a small insulated story of a band of rebels that no one really knew about, but they tried to blow it up to be way bigger than the story ever should have been. An all out last ditch rebel battle right before anh starts? Vader and taking being involved? It's all feel shoehorned in at the expense of actually writing an interesting story about what could have happened. So disappointed.
 

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Rogue One actually adopts a number of concepts from the old EU. That alone makes it great for me on top of being an unexpectedly awesome stand-alone film.

I should have more faith in the director of Godzilla 2014. He really understands the spirit of the franchises he inherits. I'm sure he finds my lack of faith disturbing.
 
Rogue One has done the impossible. It's made a Star Wars movie that some people love and others despise.

It's impossible to love the prequels even if you like certain parts. It's impossible to hate The Force Awakens even if you find it disappointing.

Well done Rogue One.
 
Yeah pretty much
I was hoping for a small insulated story of a band of rebels that no one really knew about, but they tried to blow it up to be way bigger than the story ever should have been. An all out last ditch rebel battle right before anh starts? Vader and taking being involved? It's all feel shoehorned in at the expense of actually writing an interesting story about what could have happened. So disappointed.
In the ANH opening crawl it says "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire."

Vader also says "There'll be no one to stop us this time" when he schemes to retrieve the Death Star plans. It's not as if Rogue One contradicts anything.
 
Rogue One has done the impossible. It's made a Star Wars movie that some people love and others despise.

It's impossible to love the prequels even if you like certain parts. It's impossible to hate The Force Awakens even if you find it disappointing.

Well done Rogue One.

I love Revenge of the Sith.

I don't hate movies because I'm not that big on them but I do think TFA is largely trash.

It looks even worse in light of Rogue One seeing as it no longer has the bonus of being the only modern looking Star Wars.
 
In the ANH opening crawl it says "Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire."

Vader also says "There'll be no one to stop us this time" when he schemes to retrieve the Death Star plans. It's not as if Rogue One contradicts anything.
I'm not saying it contradicts anything. I'm saying this was presented as an all-out last ditch effort of the rebels. Just not the story id have liked, felt like they were trying to make it way more grand in scope than necessary, which bugs me when the film lacked in so many other areas.
And the film's also mentioned bothans, so we know it doesn't really matter what the film says, they're just making what they want.
 
I'm not saying it contradicts anything. I'm saying this was presented as an all-out last ditch effort of the rebels. Just not the story id have liked, felt like they were trying to make it way more grand in scope than necessary, which bugs me when the film lacked in so many other areas.
And the film's also mentioned bothans, so we know it doesn't really matter what the film says, they're just making what they want.
Yeah, it shows how the Alliance is on the verge of collapse and makes Rogue One's mission feel even more important. This added more weight to their sacrifice for me.

As for the Bothans, wrong film. That was Return of the Jedi and the second Death Star.
 
Really? While I found the movie to be decent, it was still an un-needed prequel IMHO. If anything, it ruined the beginning of SW: ANH because why was Vader not like "Diplomatic mission? Biatch I JUST saw you!"

Vader's line there still makes perfect sense, there's no way the guy knew that Vader was there when the Tantive IV escaped at the end of Rogue One so he was just giving his bullshit line and Vader responded with a bullshit answer. I don't think this is a retcon at all, you can't magically pursue ships through hyperspace and for all we know the Tantive IV was found approaching Tatooine many days later after first jumping to other systems to lose the Imperials.

It does beg the question of why Leia would stop at Tatooine first instead of delivering the Death Star plans right away because of you know how important they are but oh well.

Yeah, it shows how the Alliance is on the verge of collapse and makes Rogue One's mission feel even more important. This added more weight to their sacrifice for me.

As for the Bothans, wrong film. That was Return of the Jedi and the second Death Star.

The Alliance reminds me of the Democrats and the Empire the Republicans in this movie. The Alliance are busy arguing with each other about if something can be done and maybe it's better just to surrender while the Empire kicks their asses. Sometimes I think the Empire was right, maybe New Order rule would have actually made the galaxy less chaotic and at least the government would pay attention to the citizens instead of whatever it was the Republic did. I mean all the Republic could do was have a useless Senate that argues about stupid shit and does nothing while the Clone Wars engulfed the galaxy.
 
Saw it this past Friday. Good movie. I thought Force Awakens was much better. Both Rey and Finn were so much more engaging characters to me. In this one the support was very good though. K-2 was really good and also the dude with the big mini-gun.

I'm not a prequel hater but it was better than the prequels in that it had no really bad parts.

It had a few memorable scenes, the obvious one with Vader which was great. Ultimately it was just cool action and nostalgia though.

The only really bad scene I can think of was the blind monk's slow motion walk across the field. I thought that was pretty terrible.

Overall the movie had a very strictly defined area to work in. You knew they'd succeed, and you knew they'd all probably die. I think they did a good job but again, it's hard to do a lot with a prequel because people know the outcomes already.
 
He's supposed to be seen that way though, an extremely dangerous kid. It's not that JJ at one point said "Holy shit he too the mask out, now what do we do?".
He is a character that will follow an arc, and at least now we're sure he's going to have a big scar on his face.
The handful of people who show up on cue to misunderstand Kylo's character is the gift that keeps on giving. Every thread where TFA comes up has its share of posters who are eager to display their poverty of critical thought.

"He's just a Vader fanboy!" "When he took off his helmet he looked like some lame kid!" "Terrible Vader replacement, he doesn't live up to him at all!"

Well... yeah.
 
The handful of people who show up on cue to misunderstand Kylo's character is the gift that keeps on giving. Every thread where TFA comes up has its share of posters who are eager to display their poverty of critical thought.

"He's just a Vader fanboy!" "When he took off his helmet he looked like some lame kid!" "Terrible Vader replacement, he doesn't live up to him at all!"

Well... yeah.

Oh I understand what they were going for. It doesn't make it any less shit. Horrible villain, horrible journey, and the fact that his supposed "Draw to the light" is done via shitty monologue is bad too. I do wonder if people understand that he's a grown ass man. Many don't and think he's a teen. The guy is 30 years old and acts like a middle schooler.
 
Yeah, you've got to be kidding me. Dividing the RT rating /2 is more like it. If I was a huge SW fan I'd be more critical than the average consumer, not fucking less.
TFA and RO are mediocre movies that solely exist to milk the nostalgia of Star Wars fans, and people are lapping them up. As long as Disney continues to remind fans how great the original trilogy was, they can continue making unoriginal and uninspired Star Wars movies.
 
Star Wars fans are very easy to please.

It's kind of sad, really.

A lot of people will love it by default just because it's Star Wars. A couple of guys in the back of my cinema shouted when C-3PO and R2D2 showed up in quite possibly the most forced, ridiculous fanwankery moment I've seen in the entire franchise.

People lap references and call backs up like they are dying of thirst and will love anything Disney shits out with the Star Wars name on it from here until they eventually stop making them.
 
R1 was a pretty decent movie but it failed at the most important thing for a Star Wars movie to do IMO, which is introducing characters that will make a lasting impact. No one is going to care about Saw Gerrera and Jyn Erso in a few years the way people care about Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker, or even Rey and Finn.

I don't think I'd care about Luke/Han Solo as much if I only saw them for one movie, tbh. ANH establishes them, but their journey throughout Star Wars is what made me love them.

Yeah pretty much
I was hoping for a small insulated story of a band of rebels that no one really knew about, but they tried to blow it up to be way bigger than the story ever should have been. An all out last ditch rebel battle right before anh starts? Vader and taking being involved? It's all feel shoehorned in at the expense of actually writing an interesting story about what could have happened. So disappointed.

Rogue One takes place right before ANH. Considering Tarkin was in the Death Star during ANH and Vader spent most of the movie in the Death Star, and Vader is seen at the beginning of ANH chasing down the plans that were stolen in Rogue One, I see no reason why they wouldn't be in the movie. None whatsoever.
 
You mean post-Vietnam? Because that's ANH's time. Star Wars was refreshing because it came out during a time where everything else was gritty and cynical. Trashy 80's action schlock like Rambo 3 is steeped in the chest-beating nationalism of the cold war. Star Wars is not, and it never has been.

I dunno, that medal ceremony played out to a military march at the end of ANH seemed pretty chest-beaty and nationalistic to me.
 
So in ANH Tarkin comments in the meeting room with the other imperial officers that Vader will provide the empire with the location of the rebel base "by the time this station is operational." That's a pretty BIG problem in the story now knowing that the station was used twice in Rogue One
 
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