I love the channel but I've stopped watching their reviews of blockbuster movies, their cynicism is just too much for my liking.
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Rogue One Reviews & Impressions (Spoiler Tags Required)
- Thread starter Cross-Section
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What kind of risks are you expecting in a movie directly preceding ANH?
Trigonometrize.
Member
Their cynicism comes and goes. Mike really liked Cowboys and Aliens, Jurassic World, and even that "corporate hellspawn" The Force Awakens, yet they completely turned on Rogue One. Can never tell what to expect.
Fixed2BeBroken
Member
something on the level of citizen cane of course!
Salty Rice
Member
Thats exactly it.
The fact that they took a story that is literally the beginning of ANH is the most safe you can do story wise.
SolicitorPirate
Member
I'm confused. I keep seeing Rogue One described as a divisive movie with mixed reviews, but isn't it like in the mid 80s on Rotton Tomatoes?
Yes, Disney chose to make a film with a pretty familiar 'Star Wars' aesthetic. That's not really an issue considering everything else it tries to do. The next Captain America movie likely isn't going to be about him turning into a werewolf. I'm not going to hold that against it.
Lifejumper
Member
Everything concerning star wars gets blown out of proportion. See the reshoot rumors.
I wonder what gets a fresh tomato. Like I didn't hate RO, but I didn't like it much either and would give it like a 6/10. I'm guessing that would be fresh?
Lifejumper
Member
The one who submits the review decides if its rotten or fresh. So a 6/10 can be considered rotten by the reviewer.
Salty Rice
Member
Its just that there was too much "Hey look do you remember this?!" while they did nothing with the new characters what made them boring and just in the movie without much development.
Cut some fan service and introduce less new character for more developed characters and a focused story.
I agree that the characters, particularly early on, are really underdeveloped. But I find the "risk" complaint completely misguided. Rogue One doesn't feel the same as Force Awakens, nor is it likely to feel the same way as the Han Solo movie.
I'm far from a Star Wars fan. I've watched all of the movies so far but don't hold any of them in particular high regard (first one I saw was The Return of the Jedi in 1999 when I was 8).
I thought it was ok, I liked some of the characters but really wanted more out of Donnie Yen, I wish they did a movie with him as a main character...
The last 40 minutes or so really felt like a setup from a videogame, I'm not bothered by it in games because I'm usually entertained by the gameplay, but here it really bothered me, kind of soured me on the whole experience.
Still ok though.
I thought it was ok, I liked some of the characters but really wanted more out of Donnie Yen, I wish they did a movie with him as a main character...
The last 40 minutes or so really felt like a setup from a videogame, I'm not bothered by it in games because I'm usually entertained by the gameplay, but here it really bothered me, kind of soured me on the whole experience.
Still ok though.
oh my lord that opening bit
I couldn't even make it through 3 minutes of this. I thought their Episode 1 review was funny but come on.
dragonyeuw
Member
Just got back, loved it for the most part. I see the characters being weak as a constant criticism, they were fine for me for the most part. The third act took me back to watching ANH as a 5 year old in the early 80's. First impresson is I Ieft this movie feeling like I had seen a Star Wars movie even moreso than Force Awakens, but the experience is completely fresh so I need another viewing so it can settle in.
These are Fresh reviews.
"Imitation, they say, is the highest form of flattery. If so, the makers of "Rogue One" flatter the heck out of its predecessors."
Score: C+
"Gareth Edwards tries to generate suspense by using well-worn movie cliches that display a lack of imagination and point to the flaws of telling this tale in the first place."
Score: 3/5
Chezzymann
Member
Its averaging a 7.5/10 on rotten tomatoes which is pretty good
Comfort Jones
Banned
I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to take from this seeing how he is not the main character or w/e of this movie.
I don't know, I don't think the original Star Wars cared all that much about casualties, I mean yeah, there's this one line there, but billions of people die, pretty much everyone and everything that Leia known and loved is gone, but it's still a happy ending, let's celebrate that we blew this one station! Medals for everyone!
Now mind you, I don't think that's a flaw in the original film, in fact, I think that's a good thing. You want to establish the empire as super evil space nazis, but you don't want to make it a holocaust movie, right?
That is not to say that a more somber Star Wars story can't work, but I think The Force Awakens' decision to not dwell on the actual "realistic" and horrific results of a death star attack did not hurt the movie.
I think people keep forgetting RT isn't the average critical score, but the average of positive reviews to negatives, regardless of score.
StopMakingSense
Member
The 7.5 is the average critical score on RT.
bigboss370
Member
unless you care about the characters. Rogue One didn't do that for me unfortunately.
No I'm saying I think people think 80% on RT means it had a critical rating average of 80% when all it really means is that 80% of the reviewers gave it a "7.5(+)/10".
March of the Crabs
Member
Agreed. Was very surprised at how much I liked this and all the characters.
The Vader scene at the end gave me chills too
Comfort Jones
Banned
"ESB levels of good" I don't know how to read that as a metric. It's clearly a different film in terms of tone and what the plot is about so in what way does it equal a film with totally different things going on?
I might as well go "Pulp Fiction levels of good" talking about Django Unchained. They're entirely different movies, you might like one and dislike the other.
Edit-
My feelings exactly. Some really weak nit picky shit saying a film had more of a moral core regarding death due to literally a single line of dialogue. People reach so hard in their attempts to look smart when criticizing a film it's starting to physically hurt my brain.
dragonyeuw
Member
What do you think of Vader's voice? Something about the delivery of line sounded a bit off, perhaps due to JEJ's age? It still sounded like Vader but I did notice a difference.
huh. after seeing the trailers i didnt really expect much from this but i've just come back from the cinema and actually really enjoyed myself.
the first act seemed super messy and awkward but after that the film definitely found its feet. plenty of great scenes, surprisingly gorgeous cinematography with some evocative (if not arguably exploitative) imagery. i really appreciated the difference in tone and what that helped bring to the film.
i'm not crazy for not really liking the score though right? something seemed... off about it. i appreciate that they were doing something a little different but it sometimes didn't really fit the scene or musical cues would emphasise odd unecessary things. not terrible, but probably my biggest criticism alongside what i thought was a sloppy first act.
the first act seemed super messy and awkward but after that the film definitely found its feet. plenty of great scenes, surprisingly gorgeous cinematography with some evocative (if not arguably exploitative) imagery. i really appreciated the difference in tone and what that helped bring to the film.
i'm not crazy for not really liking the score though right? something seemed... off about it. i appreciate that they were doing something a little different but it sometimes didn't really fit the scene or musical cues would emphasise odd unecessary things. not terrible, but probably my biggest criticism alongside what i thought was a sloppy first act.
WaffleTaco
Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Saw it earlier today. This was probably one of the better Star Wars movies, much better than Force Awakens. I would say the only thing I didn't really like about it was that the final battle. It showed way too much action, and it lengthened the movie longer than it needed to be. I will say that the beginning was a bit hard to follow though.
I had a fun time with TFA, but this was much better than that on several levels and I hope it influences episode VIII somehow.
I don't have time to get into it right now, but there was some subtle work going on with the characters in this that I think will be better appreciated with time and after more people rewatch it.
I don't have time to get into it right now, but there was some subtle work going on with the characters in this that I think will be better appreciated with time and after more people rewatch it.
It felt comparable to uh...
Bateman v Superman?
In that it seems to focus on creating memorable moments than something that came together as a whole. Or maybe I expected something different based on the Rogue in the title, the trailers that had a grimier Suicide Squad "we're the bad guys" vibe (halfway), and how Cassian acted with his allies. I thought it'd be more Rogue'ish? The emotional moments are loudly spoken and The motivations felt off. For characters like Finn and Poe and Rey, they're in an adventurous Star Wars so it works that they trust and act friendly right away but this Rogue one feels more distrusting and sinister so their fast camaraderie feels off.
But unlike bvs, the core of the franchise rings true. Star Wars imagery and world building and flavors. And that part works swell.
Bateman v Superman?
In that it seems to focus on creating memorable moments than something that came together as a whole. Or maybe I expected something different based on the Rogue in the title, the trailers that had a grimier Suicide Squad "we're the bad guys" vibe (halfway), and how Cassian acted with his allies. I thought it'd be more Rogue'ish? The emotional moments are loudly spoken and The motivations felt off. For characters like Finn and Poe and Rey, they're in an adventurous Star Wars so it works that they trust and act friendly right away but this Rogue one feels more distrusting and sinister so their fast camaraderie feels off.
But unlike bvs, the core of the franchise rings true. Star Wars imagery and world building and flavors. And that part works swell.
UnemployedVillain
Member
There was a handful of those moments AT MOST, and it was far less in your face compared to TFA
I feel like you interpreted the movie really weirdly. It wasn't going for anything remotely close to Suicide Squad in tone or in how the commercials portrayed it. None of the cast was portrayed as "bad" people. They were simply what you'd expect a small group of rebel forces to be like. Not instant friends like the gang in TFA, but people who shared a common goal and bonded over their short experience trying to reach it. I don't know why people think all characters need to go through drastic character arcs, especially when it's not necessary nor does it make sense.
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
Having seen it, I feel RLM kind of overdid it on the 'franchise' angle. Jay is pretty much the opinion to go with.
Rogue One is essentially a good movie with a very slow start, which is somewhat due to the unconventional structure the movie has to follow for a movie within this franchise. I think it's a good experiment in showing what SW is like for non-users of the Force and does plenty of visually newish and exciting things for me, combined with a good sense of scale.
Holistically, if this were NOT a Star Wars movie, this would be a great movie, even with some odd CGI vs Practical effect choices (
).
The major problem for Rogue One is that is held back by the franchise it's a part of. One aspect of that is reference dropping to things you know, but when the movie goes into its second half, a more troubling pattern appears and that is a tonal disconnect between the story as is being told and the insertion of "Star Wars" expected events, like 'this is team leader' and you can pretty much fill in the rest of that one. That is of course because it has to be a prequel to ANH which has a very different tone entirely, but there is no mixing and mingling between these radically different tones, and I think the studio decided to splice that in during reshoots and editing because they were afraid the movie might be 'too dark' to be considered compatible with fan expectations. Personally, I would have preferred if those beats had not been inserted because they draw attention to themselves like a clown in secret service bootcamp. Those motherfuckers don't do colors like that, and it's obvious that the clown does not belong there. So as it nears the end, Rogue One kind of derails from its own tone towards the tone that it is not, namely A New Hope.
So in conclusion, I think it is a good movie, but being a prequel frustrates the overall development and tone a bit. I do think it's worth seeing though.
For one, it was not the script I had guessed from the early info, and that's a good thing. It's also not trying to mimic what you've already seen, like TFA did, and that is a very good thing, imo. I enjoyed this movie for what it is, not what anyone would expect it to be.
edit: I have to admit, when thinking about
I too though of BvS, but I think that's more due to being too familiar with writing tricks than it is with that sour mess of a movie. Rogue One is not that. To compare them directly would be a mistake.
Rogue One is essentially a good movie with a very slow start, which is somewhat due to the unconventional structure the movie has to follow for a movie within this franchise. I think it's a good experiment in showing what SW is like for non-users of the Force and does plenty of visually newish and exciting things for me, combined with a good sense of scale.
Holistically, if this were NOT a Star Wars movie, this would be a great movie, even with some odd CGI vs Practical effect choices (
the uncanny valley people really stand out btw, and are not 'omg so lifelike'. They behave okay enough if you're comparing them to video games, but they still stand out like a sore spot were you have real people around them
The major problem for Rogue One is that is held back by the franchise it's a part of. One aspect of that is reference dropping to things you know, but when the movie goes into its second half, a more troubling pattern appears and that is a tonal disconnect between the story as is being told and the insertion of "Star Wars" expected events, like 'this is team leader' and you can pretty much fill in the rest of that one. That is of course because it has to be a prequel to ANH which has a very different tone entirely, but there is no mixing and mingling between these radically different tones, and I think the studio decided to splice that in during reshoots and editing because they were afraid the movie might be 'too dark' to be considered compatible with fan expectations. Personally, I would have preferred if those beats had not been inserted because they draw attention to themselves like a clown in secret service bootcamp. Those motherfuckers don't do colors like that, and it's obvious that the clown does not belong there. So as it nears the end, Rogue One kind of derails from its own tone towards the tone that it is not, namely A New Hope.
It also can't help mentioning that word, hope, which is 'uurgh' for me as a viewer, but I know, script writing wise, why it has to be there.
So in conclusion, I think it is a good movie, but being a prequel frustrates the overall development and tone a bit. I do think it's worth seeing though.
For one, it was not the script I had guessed from the early info, and that's a good thing. It's also not trying to mimic what you've already seen, like TFA did, and that is a very good thing, imo. I enjoyed this movie for what it is, not what anyone would expect it to be.
edit: I have to admit, when thinking about
'hope'
Reagan's BR
Banned
Edit: Was for the other RO thread.
crisdecuba
Member
I loved it. And certainly much better than Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. I hope you're pleasantly surprised when you see it eventually, but I suspect that watching it on a much smaller screen may dull the impact of the final third of the movie.
whatsinaname
Member
Just watched it. Started off in a promising manner. But then it devolved into an hour which felt like scenes picked at random from the cutting room floor. Jumping between characters and locations that didn't really feel like they mattered at all. The last 40 minutes looked good but what weight they had came from our pre-knowledge of what comes after. If that connection didn't exist, it was just a random Marvel type
.
Still enjoyed it more than Force Awakens.
space-ship-falls-on-planet type ending
Still enjoyed it more than Force Awakens.
I think the movie wanted to portray them as the less noble parts of the rebellion but didn't follow through with actions.
On two occasions, they rattle off a list of why they aren't good like when
Cassian reads off Jyn's crimes and when Cassian comes to join Jyn with his group who he says are assassins, snipers, etc
Which makes the film's DNA more Star Wars than Rogue'ish from what I expected or what the film seemed to imply about the cast based on the tone set by
Cassian's intro where he shoots his ally but he doesn't do a legit shady thing
I don't mean that I was put off that they were instant friends, I mean that it doesn't feel right that they seem so friendly with each other in Rogue One given that their characterization implied that they were going to distrust each other instead and the reasons given for why they trust each other felt perfunctory rather than sincere. For them to act like Star Wars heroes when the movie nudged at saying "these aren't the nicest people" felt contradictory.
UnemployedVillain
Member
I took that part differently.
It seemed more touching on the point that they've all had to make sacrifices for the greater good, which has even led them to doing deplorable things. I never took it as "Here's a team of bad people!". Not to mention Cassian straight up kills the informant at the beginning, Saw's gang tortures prisoners, and Bodhi was a former Empire pilot, so they're not portrayed as the typical goody goods either.
The movie was excellent for me. Very old school in the slow build with huge payoff at the end. I cringed at vaders scene in the middle. It was like the studio struggled to make a realistic, classic Vader costume which is understandable. Still I mean yikes the movie would have been better off without it and just have him in his action scenes.
The Hermit
Member
probably the first DLM that I completely disagree, especially their comparison to TFA, which was a much worse offender regarding "remeber this?"
and I know people being confused by those asynchronous Star Wars movies " wait, is this Darth Vader the same Darth Vader from last year's movie? He looks menacing here and it was just a kid the previous one, what gives?"
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