Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

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Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by Dalty »

First reviews are out and really positive. As a note of caution, they are from the premiere.
Last edited by Dalty on December 18th, 2016, 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Rogue One

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

I have a feeling that K-2SO is going to be a big hit with people. It's already getting hard to find the K-2SO figures in stores.

I'm also a little worried that Jyn will be the dullest and least likable character of the bunch. I hope that's not the case, since she appears to be the movie's central figure.
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Re: Rogue One

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I really liked her as an actress in most things I have seen her. Fingers crossed!
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Re: Rogue One

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What kind of idiotic mo-fo books company Xmas drinks on the day the new Star Wars movies come out? What the hell kind of outfit is this??
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Re: Rogue One

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"This deal keeps getting worse all the time!"
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Re: Rogue One

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Pray I don't alter it further.
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Re: Rogue One

Post by neglet »

Are you sure it wasn't "pray I don't altar it further"? Because that's a horrible dad joke, and we now know Vader was a dad....
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Re: Rogue One

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Imagine what he would have done if he found out his two kids nearly had a special cuddle! Awks!!
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Re: Rogue One

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I'm seeing it tonight at 7 PM CST! Can't wait!
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Re: Rogue One

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

I'm seeing a Saturday matinee. I'm going to be late to a Star Wars party for the first time in my adult life, but it'll be worth it to save some money on the ticket.
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Re: Rogue One

Post by Master Skywalker »

The Swollen Goiter of God wrote:I'm seeing a Saturday matinee. I'm going to be late to a Star Wars party for the first time in my adult life, but it'll be worth it to save some money on the ticket.
I'll try really hard not to blurt something out in the day or so gap between my viewing and yours. :mrgreen:
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Re: Rogue One

Post by The Swollen Goiter of God »

Maybe just give me the ol' blue thumb's up on Facebook chat. Let the size of the thumb reflect the size of your love for the movie.
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Re: Rogue One

Post by Dalty »

Saturday lunchtime for me too. Xmas party last night, another one tonight. Seriously...... guys?? It's motherf-cking Star Wars and I have to go to Xmas parties??
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Re: Rogue One

Post by Master Skywalker »

The Swollen Goiter of God wrote:Maybe just give me the ol' blue thumb's up on Facebook chat. Let the size of the thumb reflect the size of your love for the movie.
I've already told you much more than a simple thumb's up could convey, since I returned from the film last night, but just wanted to mention that there isn't a thumb's up icon BIG enough to relate how much I love Rogue One.
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Re: Rogue One

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Well, that's that then. Somebody just ruined it for me on Facebook.
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Re: Rogue One

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Just seen it. Wowsers!! I mean really. Wowsers!
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by Dalty »

Just amended the thread title so we can cut loose and get our chat on!
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by omicron »

I caught a 10am showing this morning. It was definitely a good movie. Action packed, emotional, and SPOILER: and I was pleasantly surprised that no-one got out alive Probably the "darkest" movie so far in the SWU.
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

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There was a lot in the trailers that didn't make the final cut.
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by Dalty »

There seemed to be more Vader in the trailers, and a TIE fighter over the gantry.
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by neglet »

Finally saw this today. The story beats were predictable and the action a little too shoot-'em-up heavy for my taste, but there was a lot to like about this. Answered problematic issues from A New Hope, strong female lead w/o any need for romance, diverse cast, enough humor with great droid character, and a conclusion fitting to the mission. Enjoyed it.
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by Mango »

Saw this today, I'll post a full 'Good, bad, fiddly' over the weekend but for now I'll say "It's pretty OK."
High point was definitely the droid. Low point was the Forrest "I seem to be in a cartoon" Whitaker.

But the movie raises an interesting question. They came out and stated that khyber crystals were used in lightsabers, BUT as a power source.
Does this mean that a bigger crystal emits more power? Does a big-crystal saber overpower a little-crystal saber?
And since the Deathstar is powered by crystals, presumably big ones, does this answer an age old question?
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by omicron »

I am reading Catalyst, the novel setting up Rogue One, and it goes into depth about the nature of the crystals.
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Re: Rogue One - WARNING, NOW WITH ADDED SPOILERS!

Post by Mango »

Hrm, I'll have to see if that comes through the library. Always interested in lore...not so much actually reading the book though.
It's odd, back in the day the whole crystals thing really bugged me. Now I don't care too much, I like the idea of it being a power source.

As for my review of the movie...man this one is tough...the more I thought about this film the less I felt I liked it. Not sure, gonna list some stuff and ramble and see where we go. I'm going to try and keep the bullet points fairly spoiler free but the ramble will be spoiler unfree.

The Good
[*]I really liked the droid. Fun lines, fun attitude, and he had the best scene in the whole film. I cared about him and he seemed to progress in the movie.
[*]I also enjoyed seeing the Star Wars universe through a different lens. A well funded, researched, and planned lens. I enjoyed seeing a more ground view look at things, and subtle mood changes via basic element alterations. Like using M-16s as the base for some of the rebel weapons as opposed to WW2 era guns. Or altering the rebel uniforms to appear Vietnam conflict era. Or...a door gunner. Little things that made the movie feel grittier even though it's all just the same action. Seriously, if they could have had an orchestral riff on "Long Tall Sally" it would have been great.
[*]I also really liked the bad guy, though I am not sure why. Honestly I think I just like his cape. He should have killed someone by weilding a vibrosword.
[*]The riffs on the classic musical themes were pretty neat. Felt a little rough, but in a good, raw way.

The Bad
[*]Forrest Whitaker. Ok, I've been a fan of this man since Ghost Dog, but man... OK so he's playing a dude from a cartoon I guess which explains why he overacted maybe? Anytime he spoke it just lowered the tone of the film.
[*]The pacing felt really off. The first half was pretty slow (except for the action bit which was pretty good) And then the final action sequence really just...happens. I mean they talk about what needs to happen but in execution it felt slapdash.
[*]Dat CGI. If this had been a video game I might have said "Wow! The GCI is perfect, how good are we?" but seeing a rubber mummy stand next to a real man and talk to a real man was disconcerting. Tarkin did not move or act like a human.
[*]I'm sure some people will talk about how badass Vader is, or how we get to see the true Vader. Just...no.

The Fiddly
[*]No name, aimless characters. Yeah, they all had names, but I'll be damned if I can remember any of them. Sure if I'd have devoured internet rumors, and prerelease info and other kinds of merchandising noise perhaps i'd know these guys by name but silly me I just watched the movie. Plus very few of them got any time to really shine. Blind guy had some nice stand out moments, but the rest faded together. I've heard it mentioned that these are like the fringe rebels, the rough people too mean to be shown in the spot light. But we had a daddy's girl, a scruffy pilot, a priest, his body guard, and a pilot who was defecting to the good side. Not enough shade there to keep me cool.
[*]I'm not even sure why the storm troopers were in this movie.
[*]Daddy's girl had the feeling of an interesting character. I honestly feel like she is the type of character who had had a rough life full of interesting adventures and backstory, but what we are seeing is the most boring point in her life.

So, spoiler time.
I kind of feel like this movie was done all wrong. What we got was basically a bunch of potential characters wandering around until they get motivated and then it's a rush into the ending. I think either a split approach or a flat out focusing on Mads' character would have worked best. Give me some shots of imperial life, intrigue as he works inside the system to take it down. Play up his conversations with Pilot, they must have been good to cause him to defect. Maybe if we had spent more time with him I'd have cared when he got offed. Maybe i'd been like "Oh man, now i'm rooting for his daughter to get some justice, Punisher style"
Instead I just felt that we had wasted Mads' acting chops.

I'm also upset at how a few elements were portrayed. Now up front I want to say that I am no Imperial sympathizer. Oh sure I love me some close soldiers, but BEFORE order 66. But I do get annoyed by the low hanging fruit of the 'storm troopers can hit things' joke. It's easy, and it represents a misunderstanding of subtle plot points. One of the things I liked about TFA was how the storm troopers really came across as pretty evil. Still less effective than the heroes but pretty devastating in their own right. But in Rogue One we go back to them being disposable cardboard targets who can't hit a thing. There is literally a scene where two troopers run out to attack a main character who is busy doing something else and he blasts them both off-handily. It's almost Hot Shots level of silliness.
And that stupid bit at the end with Blind guy. Earlier in the film he's a bad ass, dodging things, flipping, using his staff to take out troopers. And then at the end he just strolls along. I get that I'm supposed to believe that the force is protecting him, but he doesn't even dodge. So instead it comes across as if a whole squad of storm troopers can'd hit an old dude shuffling along mumbling to himself. Just make him dodge, or fight his way past a bunch of them. Not shuffle.
I was also a bit annoyed at his staff/bow/cannon. Having him shoot down a tie fighter was pushing believability a bit, but I'm a big Zatoichi fan so I went with it. It's cool. Good stuff. But then he's using it against basic troopers...and they aren't exploding into bits of red mist. Sure maybe it's adjustable...but still why wouldn't you use it on full explosion mode?

Vader really annoyed me. So he basically had three scenes, unless he was on the Death Star when Tarkin was introduced...I have honestly forgotten. Anyways, if he was I'll say he was fine there. But his first scene introduced him in a bacta tank like thing...which is cool I guess. I didn't really have a problem so much as it felt odd since his ball-chamber thing from ESB is pretty much the same thing. What ever, it's all good I was just mildly confused by decision. And then...And then...her makes a damned pun. Look, I love puns. They are great, make 'em all the time. Vader should not make puns. Honestly making the Bad guy subservient to Vader was a bit annoying. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of the equals aspect. I don't think Vader always needs to be the top dog, he's a big dog and that's fine.
And then the big saber fight at the end. This is where i'm going to get stupidly fanboyish, if I haven't already. So this works as a bit of a mirror with the opening of ANH, except here we don't even need storm troopers, Vader can just do it himself. So why didn't he do it 30 minutes later in ANH? Plus I'm still against rampant force usage during saber duels. It's not supported in previous film and it cheapens both things. Using a sword is an art form, it requires concentration and focus. Much like I imagine using the force does. Flipping from one to the other, in the span of half-seconds, while in a dangerous situation feels silly. It's this weird notion that we have to make Vader unstoppable so he can be a badass, but Vader is already a badass, making him superman just fulfills a silly power-wish fantasy for someone out there.
Plus we just saw all the heroes sacrifice themselves in various noble fashions (such as looking a bomb, ambling along the beach, hugging) but now we get our reward: Badass Vader killing a bunch of other good people.

Plus having the codes be just a second ahead of him until they reach Leia (who was at this big battle why?) is very forced and overly simplifies the plot. Now the Empire hasn't used it's vast reach and power to uncover a secret rebel faction...they just followed this ship. And Leia's defense that she's just an ambassador on an ambassador ship is reduced to the level of a child covered in crumbs, by a cookie jar, claiming they have not eaten all the cookies. Oh sure, she says hope, great. Makes all the stupid go away.
Also, why is everyone there? We have the rebel meeting, Daddy's girl makes her big speech and everyone decides that this rebel thing is passe and they all leave. So our main cast steal a ship, super easy, and go do what they wanted to anyways. And once the rebels hear they are doing the mission that was decided they would not do...they all change their minds and rush off to also die heroically. Nothing about the end of this movie makes any sense.

You know, I liked this movie. I came out of the theater and said "Hmm, that was alright. I liked it just fine."
But now I'm not even sure. I think I'll boil it down to this: If Rogue One had not been a Star Wars film I would have found it to be rubbish.
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