Groucho

I was fine with the movie until the Tarkin Toon showed up and it turned into Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Orbi-Wan Techno

Not statues of the Emperor. They were giant statues of ancient Jedis.

OldBoy

Yes.

Mabuse

In the credits is a special credit thanking Peter Cushing OBE and his estate. I have no idea if they paid the estate or how much.

devilshalo

Near perfect for me. Wasn't too keen on the CG Tarkin and Leia. Tarkin was hidden a bit with the dark lighting in his scenes making it tolerable, but Leia was noticeable in her well lit environment. (And that she smiles as half of her force along with the main ship is destroyed/captured is a bit jarring.)

I liked the Vader sequence. We finally get to see why he is feared. The last time he goes off on a rampage is when he takes out the sand people that held Shmi captive. This is the first time he does so as Vader.

Found it weird that Bail didn't have Leia in the war room and that he refers to her as the one ace up their sleeve they can depend on. I thought he was talking about Ben Kenobi, but then he says 'she'.

Didn't realize the fucking Death Star could jump to light speed

Supermallet

I didn't think it was slow enough. I think even the detractors of TFA would agree that it nails the contemplative scenes with Rey and took time for the characters to live in the world. Rogue One was basically a Michael Bay movie with a Darth Vader cameo.

Obi-Wanma

I don't remember the exact dialogue, but...

He's talking about Obi-Wan when he refers to his old Jedi friend who served him in the Clone Wars. Then he's talking about the person that he will send to get him (Leia) when he uses the female pronoun.

The fact that Leia was captured outside Tatooine and that's where the escape pod landed was no accident. It's where she was headed.

joe_b

Because the cut footage made up the bulk of the adverting promos? I can't think of another film where so little of the trailer footage was used in the actual movie. It was surprising to discover many beautiful and fully rendered shots didn't make the cut:

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/196155136?color=ffeb14&portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

DJariya

Wow, I can't believe they cut out that Tie Fighter shot with Jyn.

There's either an extended version coming (not that this movie needs it since it's 133 minutes) or there will be a shit load of deleted scenes on the BD.

slop101

I think the Tarkin and Leia CGI faces would've worked better had they not been such tight close-up shots. I don't know why they couldn't just use medium shots of Tarkin, and maybe a side profile of Leia from Episode IV of her taking the info, instead of insisting of closeups that don't quite work.

Dr. DVD

Caught this one Friday. In short: 1) Better than TFA. 2) Better than the PT. 3) The FX work for Tarkin was good, but still obviously CG, 4)Forest Whitaker's character was annoying to me, but I never saw him on Clone Wars so maybe that's just how he's written . 5) It was a satisfying ending and movie, but I am REALLY curious as to what got re-shot and what got scrapped. Final five minutes seemed like complete fan service done on the fly. It was fun, but still seemed like studio meddling .

Daytripper

Yeah, they clearly filmed his face, took away any lines, and put that on a teen age CGI body. Same thing with Michael Douglas in "Ant-Man". That was his face minus the lines on a younger body. Looked great! Jeff Bridges in "Tron Legacy" was probably the worst. Tarkin was almost as bad.

mcnabb

I saw it today and thought it was good, but not great. I think it was well executed and Directors Edwards told the story he wanted to in a more mature way then the Prequels were portrayed.

In saying that, there was nothing memorable about this movie, as that where it fell flat to me. Other then Jyn Erso, I really didn't care about any of the characters in the rebellion. This is a typical problem in today's blockbuster is that the director is more worried about the action and effects then the characters, as it should be the other way around.

This to me was Black Hawk Down in space. Black Hawk Down was a good war movie that came out 15 years ago with no memorable characters or scenes that I enjoyed when I rented it on DVD. Rogue One felt the same as there was nothing real memorable about it that will really drive me to watch it again, and a Star Wars movie should be much more then that. The characters, the humor, the drama, the score, THAT is why the OT is memorable, this was just your run of the mill war movie. Good but not great.

islandclaws

Just saw it in IMAX 3D and loved it. Didn't love the 3D, though. It added nothing.

No issue with the characters being rote or flat. They're a ragtag ad hoc group trying to achieve a goal. I don't need to know any of their backstories to know these are men on a mission and, ultimately, they are all expendable.

Mads was underused but I really can't think of much more that he needed to do for the story. He exists for a purpose and once that is made clear the film doesn't need him any longer.

The second act does take a bit to fit its footing. But then, this is a rebellion that is hardly planned out. I loved the sense of urgency to it all, especially during the final act.

Krennic wasn't exactly THE villain, and his character served whatever function it needed. He was nothing more than an Empire lackey looking for accolades.

Yes, of course I could tell Tarkin was CGI. But so what? He looked as good as any CGI human I've ever seen. I'd much rather see the film use this tech than put some guy in makeup who clearly isn't Tarkin. That was Peter Cushing on the screen and seeing him again in 2016 was fucking cool. Period.

Leia was shown for, what, all of 6 seconds? BFD. She looked fine, just like Tarkin.

Anyone who complains about WHY the Vader scene happened hates awesome things. Who in the fuck cares? I got to see Vader fuck shit up bigly and he looked like the badass we all wanted to see. Bacta tank scene was chilling, too. Edwards used him just as much as he should have. Zero qualms.

Love how this dovetailed so seamlessly into IV.

Artman

Odds Vaders castle is where Snoke is? I say 90% chance it's in Ep 8 or 9.

Shannon Nutt

I agree with this 100 percent. Thank god, I thought I missed something everyone else was seeing. I think this movie does do a pretty good job of drawing the line of what some fans like about Star Wars and what other fans don't. Most (not all, of course) that love The Force Awakens don't care much for Rogue One and vice versa. I think that this might actually be a good thing, since it draws more people into the franchise and sets up a nice precedence - that Lucasfilm is going to have a lot of different "takes" on this Universe and if you don't like one movie, you may love the next one.

Shannon Nutt

Exactly.

Mon Mothma wants to know who Bail can send to recruit Kenobi and he says he knows someone and that "she's" never let him down. He's obviously talking about his adoptive daughter. I thought Jimmy Smits was really good in his brief couple of moments...I wish he had been in this more.

Why So Blu?

You sure? As the ship was lifting off the one shot of the half-face statue clearly looked like the emperor.

joe_b

They clearly show it in the last shot of the deleted footage reel I posted. It's a Jedi statue holding a lightsaber.

The movie made an estimated $155M domestic this weekend -- down about $93M from TFA's opening numbers.

Why So Blu?

I stand corrected. Just saw that clip and it is a jedi.

mcnabb

What you said in your post hit me halfway through Rogue One when Vader first appeared and it did nothing for me while my friend was freaking out.

In the end, I'm a Luke, Leia and Han, Star Wars fan. These standalone movies are not for me, the Prequels weren't for me either. I loved the OT and liked TFA cause it still linked the OT characters. I'm looking forward to Episode 8 & 9 but that about all I really care about in the SW universe.

Lt Ripley

You don't like it because it is a feminist movie!!
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...minist/510944/

There is a quote from the author about "charm" and the foreclosure of romance, which she says is progressive for society.

fumanstan

That's a good summation and movie comparison to me. The more I think about the movie the less I'm interested in seeing it again - and even after rating it 3.5 stars here, I might drop it to 3 upon more thought as well. It was entertaining, but ultimately a story that isn't as interesting to me compared to the rest of the Star Wars movies.

milo bloom

Saw it today and I think it's an incredible addition to the story of the Rebellion vs the Empire. We get to see the people doing the dirty work of fighting a tyranny and how that can end badly for them. And that final act is just amazing- the ground battle is brutal but the space sequences are just amazing. Seeing the Rebels using unorthodox tactics like the hammerhead maneuver really drives home how they're willing to do what it takes to win the war.

The CGI actors had some dodgy bits but I was still glad they included them, it really drove home where they were in the timeline.

onebyone

Amen to this, like who complains about Darth Vader? To see him in action again is a gift. The internet blows my mind sometimes.

I loved this movie. It was different than other Star Wars movies, but it still fit right into the series. I can't wait to see it again, and look forward to seeing the deleted scenes on the blu-ray.