spsimmons

Well, it was better than Attack of the Clones I guess.

dex14

Have there been reviews that compare K2 to Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory? Because it was pretty much the same character.

Mike86

This was fucking great. I'm really not sure why there's been so many mixed reviews. It found a way to tell a story that feels stand alone and different from the rest of the films yet manages to tie itself in to the overall saga.

I guess I can somewhat agree about the lack of characterization but overall it didn't really bother me as the story is engaging enough. Jyn, Chirrut, and K-2SO are the standouts. Loved how Tarkin was incorporated and thought the way he was handled felt pretty natural. Vader in my opinion was used just enough for effect but not too much where it felt like they were being over reliant on using him. Also liked all the little cameos and how they felt pretty natural and not just forced in.

I definitely want to see it again and I'm excited about future anthology and saga films.

stvn1974

Awesome, just awesome. Can't really think of any negatives and will definitely see it a few more times in the theater. For me it sits behind The Force Awakens but it is still a 5/5.

Star Wars
Empire
Jedi
TFA
R1

joe_b

Solid movie. Theater was PACKED. My brother and I got there 40 minutes early and still had to sit on the far right side of the top row. Everything else (other than the front rows) was already taken. As if that wasn't enough, some woman (possibly special needs) kept yelling out "NO! whenever anyone on screen asked a question. She must have done this at least fifty times throughout the movie and it was extremely distracting.

While I was annoyed by how much The Force Awakens copied A New Hope, I'd still say it's a more entertaining film than Rogue One. None of the characters here grabbed me as much Rey, Finn, etc. The performances were adequate all around (save for Forest Whitaker, who I sort of hated in this), but I never got invested enough to have a strong emotional reaction to their eventual fates.

The action set pieces were beautifully done. I thought the score was terrific. It did it's job in stirring emotion at all the right places. The CG recreation of Tarkin wasn't as bad as I'd heard. Probably the best example of that technique I've seen so far. The Leia shot looked worse. It sort of took me out of the movie, which is unfortunate considering it's the last thing we're left with before leaving the theater.

7/10 - I'll definitely pick it up on blu-ray, but there's no way it's getting rewatched as much as the saga films. Oh, and that mind-reading tentacle monster scene was a stupid inclusion. It looked like they ported in a third-stage guild navigator from David Lynch's Dune.

stvn1974

Liked it so much that I just ordered all three announced Hot Toys figures from sideshow.com, damn you Disney.

bunkaroo

Solid 4 out 5 for me. Enjoyed it about as much as TFA. Certainly better than the prequels but not better than anything from the OT.

I wound up liking Cassian more than I thought I would. I liked Yen but I don't think he stole the show. Good solid supporting character. Loved the final scene with Jyn and Cassian.

I also was happy to see Smits in this as well.

Now onto the things I thought took it down a notch.

I AM NOT USING SPOILER TAGS. This is a SPOILER thread.

The first appearance of Tarkin actually looked pretty good, but the more you see, the worse it looks IMO. Maybe it won't be so obvious on a smaller screen on home video. I LOL'd at Leia's "face". They would have been better off just showing her from behind or a profile shot.

I didn't care for the reused footage of Red Leader and Gold Leader from ANH. Also didn't need to see he previous Red 5. A little too Lucas for my taste.

I think they did this in TFA too, but I don't like the captions telling us where they are - just feels too Star Trek to me.

The R2 and 3PO cameos were OK but not really necessary IMO.

I'm guessing Baze Malbus was a clone? Haven't seen confirmation of that but seems implied to me.

I'm looking forward to seeing it again this weekend.

Mike86

I actually thought Tarkin looked good. Leia I can agree looked less natural but it didn't bother me since her part is so brief. The 3PO and R2 cameo was a welcome surprise. Just enough that they were there but they didn't take up a lot of time. I did think Vader's voice sounded a bit off but I guess it's be expected given that James Earl Jones isn't getting any younger.

joe_b

I agree, that bothered me. They didn't use captions in TFA.

Mike86

I pre-ordered the deluxe edition of Jyn when she first went up. I probably will get K-2SO and Chirrut too. As cool as some of the Troopers look I'll probably pass on them since there are just too many.

majorjoe23

My brother thought he was pretty much Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide.

joe_b

I went on blind faith and bought all 8 of the Rogue One Elite Series figures from the Disney Store before I even watched the damn movie. Didn't hurt that they'd already been reduced to $15 each and I used a 25% coupon that expired yesterday.

I will be returning one of them: C2-B5, the black astromech droid. I thought it was part of the Rogue One crew, but now it seems that figure was just a cheap repaint cash grab. It plays no part in the movie... didn't even spot it in the background.

Brack

Liked it, though it has issues. Vader at the end, while neat and well done, is completely out of continuity. He would have killed Kenobi in 5 seconds in a New Hope. Did Ben put an old man Jedi thing on Vader's body to move like an old man all of a sudden? I knew there had to be some references to the other films, and while not near as tacked on at the PT, still get forced.

And K's jokes wore out their welcome pretty quickly. I liked him at first, but then he was just annoying. It was like seeing a more silly version of Jarvis from the Iron Man movies.

RoboDad

Just got home, and thought was awesome, on pretty much every level. Reading through the "complaints" so far in this thread, I think I can sum them up like this. Those who didn't like the movie pretty obviously wanted it to be "NOT Star Wars".

Well guess what, folks, It IS a Star Wars movie, through and through. And a great one, at that.

RoboDad

How do you figure? Obi Wan was a Jedi, not some random rebel trooper with a blaster.

Mondo Kane

Same. I'm not the biggest TFA fan, but I can easily re-watch that movie in it's entirety. Only The last 20 minutes of Rogue One will be re-watched from me ( Easily the greatest space battle out of all the movies so far) And while Vader does have that killer moment, as ^Brack points out, those insane skills he has doesn't match with the bumper-car duel he has with Kenobi.

I also agree with you guys on the captions. Completely unnecessary since the previous films never used them. And Kristian Harloff is dead-on with his issues regarding the music. Completely amateur score compared to what we've heard before.

I'm with Mike86 on liking how Tarkin looked AND sounded. Leia (With MUCH shorter screentime) looked more iffy.

Was expecting a Porkins cameo

...Oh, and I thought Gererra (Whitaker) was about to go Frank Booth on Jyn. Won't be surprised if someone makes a clip out of that soon.

Mike86

Yeah the score is one of the weaker aspects of the film. It's really just there and doesn't have much personality as a Star Wars score.

Mike86

Eh the Vader scene in this film versus the duel between him and Obi-Wan in A New Hope are completely different things. The scene in this film is Vader in full on rage mode just displaying what he's capable of whereas the duel with Obi-Wan is a more personal battle. Sure he could have easily taken Obi-Wan out but that duel wasn't really just about that and he wanted to rub it in that he's this great power of the Dark Side to his former mentor and the man responsible for making him the way he is in my opinion.

Solid Snake

Yeah. It wasn't a fight to show off w/ Kenobi in SW. It was a mind game and a personal encounter for him. The Rebels were just nuisance.

joe_b

Pretty sure they filmed one:



Not sure if the plan was to just see Biggs and Porkins out of focus in the background of a shot, or if they were going to do more digital trickery and graft the faces of Garrick Hagon and William Hootkins onto these actors.

Brack

Just based on his body movement alone. It's as if him suriving and basically being on life support after Revenge of the Sith never happened, or even earlier in this movie that echoed an Immortan Joe scene from Fury Road. His movement was way too elegant compared to the original trilogy.

And that still seemed off when this moment is minutes or at the very most a couple of hours before the beginning of A New Hope. He was doing just fine without storm troopers, so why does he let them take the charge at the beginning of ANH, with no sense of urgency? I really don't like to nitpick, but since the ending was trying its hardest to blend seamlessly with the beginning of ANH, it stuck out like a sore thumb for me.

I too thought the captions were unnecessary, as if I was going to remember the names of this planets or moons from the few seconds they were on screen. Pointless and kind of distracting.

Mike86

I guess thinking back on it to me it just seemed like him making his entrance and making his presence known and that afterwards he let the Troopers take charge of searching the ship for who had possession of the plans. It's honestly something I didn't even think of until you brought it up.

outcastja

From watching the first trailer, I can just assume all the reshoots were for the ending. And I thought the ending was great, so kudos to Gilroy for fixing it.


Overall, I really enjoyed it. This felt different from the other movies which was nice, I liked how brutal the ground battle scenes were, felt like an actual war and shit was really at stake.

majorjoe23

I have to say that the "Don't choke on your ambition line" struck me as too on the nose for Vader. But pretty much every film in this series has lines I wish were cut.

Also, did I hear something about a "General Sebulba" on the intercom in the rebel base? I'd enjoy it if he was still causing problems for Anakin Skywalker, but with their roles reversed.

stingermck

Dont try to make the Vader scene fit in 'continuity'

It was fan service. And it was awesome.

The original duel, the actors and lucas did know what they were doing each movie, the saber fights get more and more flashy.

But if you have to, I take Vader and Ben had a very cat and mouse duel. Neither was making very big moves.