I'm of the opinion that The Empire Strikes Back is the only truly great film in the entire franchise, and that overall, the whole series is only so-so. So I went into this with low expectations. I liked it fine. The thing I'm surprised no one has brought up was how Rogue One redeems A New Hope a little bit. One of the gripes people have had with ANH over the years has been that this all powerful Death Star has such a huge flaw in it that a blast from a x wing the size of an ant could cause the destruction of the entire death star. I thought they bridged that gap nicely. I thought it was a pretty good movie overall. I suppose I'm a little bit of a hypocrite because in general using CGI in place of real people is something I think will eventually be a horrible, degrading thing for cinema, but I kind of dug the Peter Cushing and young Carrie Fischer stuff. Overall, I'd give it 3/5

I disagree. Vader in ANH was different than in ESB. He was on the landing party on the Tantive he got in his Tie fighter to go after the rebels. Vader before he discovered Luke was an attack dog.

No, what we saw was a uniting of various factions of rebels. They didn't have a central leader or ethos yet. At least one faction believed change could still happen from within the system.

The wife and I were talked about how realistic the squabbling between the different factions was. We watched X-Company, a show about Canadian agents assisting the French Resistance during WWII, and could see a lot of similarities.

The original Star Wars is a great film as well.

I didn't have a big problem with Leia or Tarkin. Although at least with Leia, the voice sounded right. I'm a pretty big Cushing fan with his Hammer stuff, and I didn't think the actor doing the voice really matched him that well.

I think they could have just found a solid British actor in his 70's that looked something like Cushing to take over the role, and that would have been fine and a lot easier.

Yep. And so far, it's the only SW film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Yeah, remember that at this point the Senate still exists and has enough power that one of the guys on the Death Star doubts the Emperor can keep control without it. And after the events of Rogue One, it's no wonder the Emperor finally said, "Fuck it. I'm disbanding the Senate. Vader, go arrest Senator Organa, I don't care about her consular status anymore."

I liked the scene where Vader is in his nutrient tank just chillin' before being summoned.

Based on the bacta tank thing I'm wondering if we just won't get a Vader backstory at all. That whole healing process looked like a new thing to Vader and thus his first opportunity to go ape shit may have been in R1.

Also, loved loved loved this film. It was much better than TFA imo and slightly better than ROTJ. The battles were epic- everything I've wanted to see in a SW film for damn near 35 years.

I also liked how there was no opening crawl. You get the Lucasfilm logo, a long time ago in a galaxy far far aw, and then cut to the planet.

Going to go see it with my dad in 2 hours. Will be my third viewing.

I missed the scroll, but understand why it shouldn't be included. I did like the little prologue and then into title card. That's was different and nice.

Went to see it this morning with my son. Was going to see it in 3D IMAX but the projector fucked up and they canceled the show. Saw it for free 30 minutes later in 2D.

We both really enjoyed it. I thought it blew the doors off The Force Awakens which is a terrible film due to its poor story. Star Wars fans prop it up (and will likely hate in a decade like the The Phantom Menace) because it was the first Star War movie that helped take the bad taste of the prequels out of their mouths.

The CG was fantastic in this movie. Very well done. The acting was good and they tied into the original Star Wars really well. The humor wasn't lame and hit most of the time. I am going to disagree with most and state that I enjoyed the score. It sounded unique yet similar and it wasn't just an original themes rehash. The Vader scene was badass and seemed more like Vader fighting Luke in Empire & Return than the gold medal gymnastic events of the prequels.

I thought it could have been trimmed by at least 15 minutes though. Just a little long. I thought they went a little overboard having the main girl make two major inspirational speeches. Loved the little cameos throughout, especially during the final dogfight. I did think the Snaggletooth/Walrus Man cameo was too much though and didn't really fit.

Good supporting cast and the second tier characters were actually interesting. This did not occur in the prequels or The Force Awakens.

CG Tarkin looked pretty damn good. CG Leia not as much but mainly because she appeared to have not seen sunlight in her lifetime.

Do they pay and have to get permission to use Peter Cushing's likeness like that? They may own it for toys, posters and stuff like that but it seems a whole different ballgame when you are using them to spout lines and basically costar in a movie they could not agree to. I wonder what Peter Cushing would have thought of it. He was a movie whore but I could see him not necessarily agreeing to be used like this.

Peter Cushing is not listed in the credits on IMDB but I think he should be in a situation like this. Just a thought.

This may be the first Star Wars movie I buy on BD. Still haven't bought the OT since they still won't give us the true originals. I tried to re-watch The Force Awakens the other day since it was on HBO (or one of those) and couldn't make myself sit through it again. Such potential wasted. I am hoping the sequel to it is better since they will maybe come up with an original story. Maybe this film will give them some inspiration on how to make something original from a common concept without it being a rehash.

And I loved that everyone died. Actual sacrifice in a Star Wars film. When the Red Shirts came in and started taking bullets I figured none of the cast was actually going to bite it. I was waiting on some ship to swoop down and save the day and ruin all the good in the prior 2 hours.

One nitpick...Cassian should have shaved right before he got into the Imperial uniform. I don't I have ever seen an Imperial Officer look scruffy and that would have been a dead giveaway that something was amiss I would think.

People clapped at the end of the movie today. I don't hear that too often nowadays.

Good point, and I was wondering about that myself. Wasn't there some controversy several years ago with John Wayne's likeness being used for a commercial without his estate's consent?

As I said earlier, I think it would have just been easier to use a different actor to take over the Tarkin role, the same way they did for Mon Mothma.

They probably had to get permission from his estate.

They did get permission and input. https://www.google.com/amp/www.teleg...?client=safari

The Mon Mothma actress was involved in Episode III, but her scenes were deleted, so that's another person from the PT. Also, the white haired dude with the beard who spoke during some of the tactical meetings is the dude who is giving the briefing/passing medals to Leia in Star Wars. And of course, it looks like he too has some 200 page backstory.

Tarkin was good cg, like he would look great in a completely cg Pixar movie or something. But it just doesn't work here because it is still obvious cg, so it sticks out like a sore thumb when everyone else is real.

I would reckon that Lucasfilm probably has most of the likeness rights considering all of the merchandise they churn out. (Might be fun to have Tarkin-Dooku scene in a future movie.)

Tarkin was also shown briefly in Revenge of the Sith, though it was an actor in make-up and he had no lines.

I remember the John Wayne Coors commercial. I would assume they had permission to use Wayne's likeness because I believe the Wayne Estate keeps his likeness on a short leash. John Wayne's ghost was featured in the Preacher comics, though his face was never shown.

Okay, I couldn't recall the details of the John Wayne thing.

Yes, I do remember the brief appearance of Tarkin in Revenge of the Sith.

This movie looked like the OT but felt like the PT. It's either the second or third worst SW film, depending on how generous you'd like to be to AOTC.

I gave it 3.5 stars in the poll but the more I think about it the less I like it and I'd probably rank it as 2.5 now. The action was good but the characters were completely flat and the rote way they went about filling in every minor detail of things better left to the imagination made the movie tedious.

TFA was less original but had way more heart and character. As soon as it ended I wanted to see Episode VIII. As soon as Rogue One ended I wanted to forget I had seen it.

That blows my mind. I always thought he was CG in that move... Looks like it to me.

I caught an IMAX 3D matinee today with a buddy of mine. He actually saw it last night, but was willing to see it again with me today.

If anyone outside of California is wondering, IMAX 3D costs $19.50 here (at Regal theaters at least). So yeah you're paying a pretty hefty premium. I found the glasses kind of uncomfortable and the corners were kind of sharp.

I thought it was pretty good, but not great. 1st hour was pretty slow. I honestly started clock watching a few times. But, I enjoyed the 2nd hour and how the whole story segues to Episode 4. I also liked that they had some balls here and killed off every lead character including Jyn. Great special effects and I liked some of the humor from Donnie Yen's character.

The re-creation of Peter Cushing's character Tarkin was pretty damn cool I thought. Very impressive job doing that for a guy who's been dead for 22 years. I don't get how anyone didn't think that looked good.

It's way better than the laughable CG recreation of Jack Lord that the CBS show Hawaii Five-O did earlier this season.




I also had no problem with Carrie Fisher's "cameo" at the end. She was on screen for how long? 1 minute tops?


Definitely catch this if you're a fan, but I wouldn't really recommend seeing it in IMAX 3D. I'd give this a B and maybe 3 1/2 to 4 stars. If the 1st hour wasn't so slow and had a more brisker pace, I probably would have rated it higher.

Funny how polarizing the experiences are. I love them both but pending my second viewing in a couple days, I like Rogue One more right now largely due to a better and less derivative story. Wanted to rush home and watch A New Hope. One thing I don't recall at all which I have seen a lot of comments about is any of it being slow. I thought it was riveting all the way through and fast paced.

I forgot to mention that we don't see Emperor Palpatine until Empire(?) but Rogue One had demolished statues, and what seemed like mountainsides of him, on that planet that gets fucked up by the deathstar in the first part of the film. Looks like he was already out and about or may have had a following/followers.