Star Wars Rogue One [spoiler thread]

Hielor

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This is a thread for discussion of the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, in an environment where we don't have to worry about spoiling things for people who haven't seen it.

If you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to see spoilers, this is the wrong thread for you. Go see the movie, and then come back.

So, my thoughts, in no particular order
- Definitely better than Force Awakens. No contest.
- I liked how closely it tied into A New Hope at the end, although some things seemed a little forced (like Red 5 blowing up in order to make room for Luke)
- On a related note, I kind of wished they'd had some explanation for why they had extra fighters but not enough pilots in A New Hope...
- I liked how the Juggernaut made an appearance--I thought that this was actually its first canon appearance, but it turns out it was already in Revenge of the Sith.
- Krennic's shuttle had design cues very reminiscent of Luke's T-16 (sharply angular, folding wings). I wonder if at some point they'll establish it as an Incom design to tie it into that--currently it's just listed as "Krennic's Imperial Shuttle" or "Delta-class T-3c shuttle"
- Did anyone else feel that Leia at the end sounded just like Natalie Portman? Maybe I was imagining things.
- Was anyone else bothered by the CGI Tarkin? It was constantly distracting me in every scene he was in, very firmly in the uncanny valley. Maybe it's because I knew he was CGI, but I wish they had just found a real person with a close-enough appearance.
- Why didn't Vader just use the Force to stop the people carrying the plans at the end? Does the Force not work through airlock doors? Maybe they were lead-lined?
- When the Rebel fighters were attacking the Eadu installation, why did they have their headlights on, making it easy for AA and Imperial fighters to spot them? Also, why didn't they take out Krennic's shuttle or any of the defenses in their first pass rather than a random assemblage of storm troopers? That should've been a turkey shoot with almost no casualties...

I'll probably have more later (I'll probably end up seeing it at least once more in theaters), but I wanted to get this thread started for discussion. I'm much more optimistic about the future of Star Wars after Rogue One than I was after Force Awakens.
 
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I'll share my thoughts in a day or so.
 

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- Was anyone else bothered by the CGI Tarkin? It was constantly distracting me in every scene he was in, very firmly in the uncanny valley. Maybe it's because I knew he was CGI, but I wish they had just found a real person with a close-enough appearance.
Hm, have you seen it in 2D or in 3D?
I saw it in IMAX 3D, and Tarkin didn't look any different from everyone else.
Leia did look acutely fake, however.

The whole ending felt a bit off - in A New Hope you get an impression that the plans were transmitted to that ship while it was passing by, more or less, rather than it running straight away from battle - everyone acted as if Vader just dropped out of hyperspace on top of them.
On the other side, everyone on board in the Rogue One acted pretty calm given the circumstances.

- Why didn't Vader just use the Force to stop the people carrying the plans at the end?
Too many distractions to fight?
But really, he should have yanked the disk while everyone was distracted by staring into the darkness at where his breath was coming from, but then that would have been boring story-wise.
Making even level 1 intelligent characters is hard...
 

Hielor

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Hm, have you seen it in 2D or in 3D?
I saw it in IMAX 3D, and Tarkin didn't look any different from everyone else.
Leia did look acutely fake, however.
I watched it in 2d. Leia actually didn't seem that bad, but she was only on screen for a few seconds and only had the one line.
 

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Why didn't Vader just use the Force to stop the people carrying the plans at the end? Does the Force not work through airlock doors? Maybe they were lead-lined?

Ooh, a question I can answer (I think!).

Vader is a Dark Lord of the Sith. Sure, he could have just thrown everyone against a wall (or used the force to stun then like Kylo Ren did) and taken the plans, but instead Vader chose to ignite his lightsaber and butcher everyone. He used the fear and horror of the rebels to fuel his hatred and strength in the dark side. It's a flaw in his character; he loves carnage and slaughter so much that he lost sight of an objective. He lost the Death Star plans.

In regards to the CGI characters, Leia looked fake and it took me out of the moment. Tarkin did not.
 

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This was the movie I was hoping the prequels would be, but weren't. This was the movie I had hoped Episode 7 would be, but wasn't. Best Star Wars film since Empire.

I only noticed a couple of times that Tarkin was CG. Sometimes the skin was just a little off. Leah was a more noticeable; I'm glad she only got a few seconds of screen time.

I enjoyed the many, many nods, callbacks, cameos and Easter eggs in the film. It was obviously a loving tribute rather than just "the search for more money." They even had nods to Lucas' original scripts, and the blind martial artist was right out of Zatoichi or a Kurosawa film, which inspired Lucas to begin with.

I also enjoyed that it was a grittier film, it actually put the "war" in Star Wars. It wasn't all fantasy with flipping around and swords spinning. It made us believe these were real people fighting for something they believed in.

But I'm glad they dropped in some amusing moments as well. I laughed at the cameo of the Walrus and the Carpenter (aka Ponda Baba and Cornelius Evazan), and Chirrut getting a bag over his head was hysterical. ("SERIOUSLY?")
 

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Saw it earlier today (in 2D because 3D gives the Mrs. Cruiser headaches).

CGI Tarkin didn't bother me in the least, it was far better than the Revenge of the Sith Tarkin.

K2 had the best lines.

I agree with JohnyBGood, this should go down as one of the best in the franchise. Good drama with a healthy dose of comedy here and there.
 

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Just saw it, and all I can say is "That's how you make a freaking Star Wars movie"!

Solidifies my dislike for JJ Abrams and Lucas' awful prequels. Too bad it's taken 33 years for another good Star Wars movie.

Hielor's post throws out a lot of nitpicks. I can think of a few others, but for the most part I can overlook them. I'll dig into those later; for now I'm just going to bask in the satisfaction of seeing a good SW film finally. The original trilogy (OT) has a lot of nitpicks, too, but when the story is good and you actually care about the characters, you can forgive the imperfections.

And for all the awesome visuals and battle scenes in this film, to me I think the characters are the strongest point. The main characters are very compelling, and even the no-name Rebel fighter pilots and ground troops are heroic.

The film does a very good job of conveying the dire situation the Rebellion is in and the awful odds of survival for the average Rebel soldier. The sacrifice of the Rebels in this film really drives home the significance of the Battle of Yavin in Ep. IV, the heroism, and the absolute triumph of the award ceremony after the Death Star is destroyed.

That Jyn's name is not mentioned in Eps. 4 through 7 is sad (but makes sense since her character wasn't invented yet), and leads one to believe that despite her and her team's heroics she was just one of many who died fighting the Empire.

Great movie, and very moving in a way only the OT films were.

---------- Post added at 10:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 PM ----------

Also, Darth Vader's scene at the end was epic.
 
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MaverickSawyer

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My biggest nitpick is the opening shot... it seems like Krennic's arrival at Galen's planet was rendered and played in 60 fps, versus the more typical 30 used in the rest of the film. It had that crisp, smooth look of 60 fps, and was a little disconcerting to have at the start.

As others noted, Tarkin was on both side of the Uncanny Valley, but not enough to truly distract me.

I love how Vader's retreat for healing seems to be, of all places, Mustafar, or a place eerily reminiscent of said world.

Finally, Chirrut is the film's badass and sassmaster rolled into one. Wish we'd seen more of him.
 

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My biggest nitpick is the opening shot...

I was hoping it would start off with the classic Star Wars logo and theme, followed by a pan to a star destroyer, as all 3 OT films did.

For a while, that was the standard, even the 1990s LucasArts computer games started off with an opening shot of a star destroyer.

Speaking of the music, I noticed the main theme of this movie was not the Star Wars theme but rather something reminiscent of it. Some of the other familiar motifs were in various scenes, though.

I loved the scene where the Rebel hammerhead corvette tugboats the disabled star destroyer into a collision, that was really cool.
 

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I loved the scene where the Rebel hammerhead corvette tugboats the disabled star destroyer into a collision, that was really cool.

Yep. Size matters not indeed. :lol:

Also, the exhaust plumes on that ship... I didn't know that you got shock diamonds on sublight engines! :cool:
 

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The whole ending felt a bit off - in A New Hope you get an impression that the plans were transmitted to that ship while it was passing by, more or less, rather than it running straight away from battle

Yeah, that one was a bit annoying. They should definitely have transmitted the plans to Leias ship waiting somewhere nearby but save while they were boarded. Would have made a lot more sense in all respects.

Something did feel off about Tarkin, but the only break in the immersion for me was that I was trying to spot what it was and never quite succeeding. It might really just have been seeing a dead guy on screen... Leia on the other hand hit the uncanny valley full force for me. I guess they just didn't have that much money to throw at those few seconds that were overall irrelevant to the movie.

I would have hoped to see a bit more of the grim-dark side of the rebellion, but I guess having a movie where rebel groups are evading imperial troops while trying to position themselves to attack each other would have gone a bit too far, as realistic as it would be.

I loved the scene where the Rebel hammerhead corvette tugboats the disabled star destroyer into a collision, that was really cool.

I was like "wait, we're having physics now in the SW-universe? Way to confuse me completely!"

Also, of course, "Are you kidding me? I'm blind!" :rofl:

Now, can we have a movie about those many bothans that died to get the information about the second death star? Because we still don't know what's up with those guys :lol:
Or, you know, maybe make a movie that is not related to a deathstar for a change. Not that I minded this one, but please get yourselves another plot device now!
 
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Also, the exhaust plumes on that ship... I didn't know that you got shock diamonds on sublight engines! :cool:

I was like "wait, we're having physics now in the SW-universe? Way to confuse me completely!"

It's called the Rule of Cool, my friends!

Now, can we have a movie about those many bothans that died to get the information about the second death star?

It has occurred to me that being sent on a reconnaissance or spy mission by Mon Mothma is a good way to get killed.
 

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Great movie :)

The CGI Tarkin/Leia are not that great.

You can spot the standard Disney animated human there.
For example, Tarkin reminded me a bit of Up's Muntz:
up10.jpg


Not the textures of course, but the way it was animated. Too cartoonish when it smiled.
So the problem is not with the models, it's the way they are animated.

On the other hand, the K2 robot was spot on, the same for the aliens.
They looked 100% real.
 

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When Vader's ISD arrives, did that particular instant remind anyone of a movie poster or something?

If the director was trying to get the viewers (or at least me) to recall something from ages ago, it worked... Now if I could just dig up the original image.


This ain't it, but it's close.
b51cc9177d409e2f7f9fb6b702f91aa0.jpg
 
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There were tons of cool visuals in this movie.

I particularly loved the "X-wing cam" shots where the camera angle is from the top of the X-wing fuselage. The strafing scene on the rainy platform, and later the hyperspace jump to Scarif.

Really captured the thrill that we got back in the day when they used a first-person view on the entry to the trench run in Ep IV.
 

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This is a thread for discussion of the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One, in an environment where we don't have to worry about spoiling things for people who haven't seen it.

If you haven't seen the movie yet and don't want to see spoilers, this is the wrong thread for you. Go see the movie, and then come back.

So, my thoughts, in no particular order
- Definitely better than Force Awakens. No contest.
- I liked how closely it tied into A New Hope at the end, although some things seemed a little forced (like Red 5 blowing up in order to make room for Luke)
- On a related note, I kind of wished they'd had some explanation for why they had extra fighters but not enough pilots in A New Hope...

- Was anyone else bothered by the CGI Tarkin? It was constantly distracting me in every scene he was in, very firmly in the uncanny valley. Maybe it's because I knew he was CGI, but I wish they had just found a real person with a close-enough appearance.

it was in the Book that they had lost RED 5 and Luke was taking his place
I thought that was a good tie in, but the battle explains why they had such a small amount of ships at Yavin maybe the rest of the ships where off protecting what remained of the fleet and that's why we don't see the the rebel fleet till The Empire strikes back,
as for Tarkin the critics are loving Tarkin and how good it was and its a mile stone in CGI and just thought his voice wasn't just right.
as for the Cameos some are so small it unbelievable they where in it, one of the blockade runners crew who escaped Vader was the same guy who had a close up in the corridor when Vader Boards it in a New Hope.
personally I was hoping that Jyn Erso herself would turn out to be Rey's mother (it would have been a great way to connect A new hope and the Force Awakens)
 

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WOW! I thoroughly loved Ep 7, but this is better! The waterworks did flow for me during a few key parts, particularly the end.

So, onto the review. Most of the positive...is most of the movie, so in terms of specific things, I'll primarily be pulling the negative.

The final scene. I agree with others that the Princess's ship should not have been at the battle. It feels a little like they dumbed Vader down by putting the ship literally in front of him, then in ANH, act like he's been on an interstellar shiphunt to find it. However, on the flip side, when the Tantive IV launched to hyperspeed, my exact thought was "and this is what launched the trilogy." The punmaster in me is also torn between wishing Leia had said "A New Hope" and leaving the scene as-was. The former may have just been a bit too corny.

The only other big negative for me was what I thought of as an overuse of the superlaser. ANH makes it seems like it's only ever been tested (not explicitly, though any weapon has to be tested at some point so it can be inferred) while this movie had it used operationally with the casualness of it being a routine operation.

Oh, one more thing I'll add. I'm not sure I can really hold it against the movie though. It was hard for me to see Galen as anything but a Bond villain, though it was solely due to who they picked and not the acting or scripting of the character.

[EDIT] Overall, you might say that this movie gave us a new hope!
 
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Andy44

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It was hard for me to see Galen as anything but a Bond villain, though it was solely due to who they picked and not the acting or scripting of the character.

You need to see the TV show Hannibal where he plays Hannibal Lecter.

Totally blows away his Bond villain in evil and cunning. His Dr. Lecter would scare Vader himself.
 

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The only other big negative for me was what I thought of as an overuse of the superlaser. ANH makes it seems like it's only ever been tested (not explicitly, though any weapon has to be tested at some point so it can be inferred) while this movie had it used operationally with the casualness of it being a routine operation.

It makes sense, to be honest. The Death Star was considered to be "fully operational" by Tarkin only a few days after the Battle of Scarif. The firings were (obviously) highly low-powered firings to demonstrate the battlestation's destructive capabilities and only consistent of two test firings. The firing on Alderaan was the first full-powered firing.
 
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