Rogue One Rank Rogue One among Star Wars films

What is so bad about the full investment on Jyn and the rest of the R1 team? That's what the story was supposed to be about. Would you have preferred yet another Skywalker/Kenobi/Solo movie?

 

Ill give my views on your points in order:

I think what a lot of people are forgetting about RO, especially where it comes to character story arcs, backstory and development, is that it was a standalone movie, a one off. What I mean by this is that all the new characters introduced only had only one film (2 hours) to be given enough time to shine, to do what they have to do. Think all other SW movies - most characters are given at least 2-3 movies (some more) to be developed and mature, and to explore backstories. I think what they did with the RO characters was outstanding, given the short time frame, especially as we really all knew that they were all going to die in the end. You did get a little back story with Jyn, and Saw, Casian's was touched upon in dialogue. Jyn & Casian to me, are two of my absolute favorite characters in the SW universe - and they what - both had about 45-50 minutes of screen time in total. Wow.

Krennic being upstaged by Takin, to be fair, typical Tarkin, and Galactic Empire behavior. Although it wasn't even an actor so kudos to the director and special effects people here for showing the corrupt, egotistical and tyrannical way officers in the Imperial Navy act towards each other. I worked in the merchant navy for many years - basically the more stripes you have on your shoulder, the more powerful and better person you (think) you are. LOL. And They way Tarkin was portrayed in RO totally fit with his 'real' character in ANH.

Chirrut & Baze re: The Force. Good. Im glad. We have 8 existing movies, many more to come and numerous TV series all focusing on The Force. The way it was fleetingly touched upon in RO, along with the fallen Jedi statues on Jedah fit perfectly in what this movie was all about. Rebellion by a group of desperate comrades fighting a tyrannical war machine (French/British resistance v the Nazi's anyone?). RO was about this, not the force or the Jedi. Perfect.

Again - a stand alone movie. They had a lot to fit in - especially introducing all the new characters and story in about 40 minutes. They did a great job.

I just flat out disagree with your comment about Eadu.

These are just my views, defending one of my favorite movies. Your opinions and thoughts are welcome though. I just like to defend RO

 

I think the investment issue also just comes from comparing it to a long line of "putting a team together" movies, and I just didn't get a full sense of that team in the same way I did those from Seven Samurai, Fellowship of the Ring, or even Ocean's Eleven. Even on a comparative Star Wars scale, I was fully invested in Luke, Han, Leia, Chewie, R2 and C-3PO by the end of ANH as well as Rey, Finn, Poe, Kylo and BB-8 by the end of TFA. Granted, the saga films are doing different things than R1, but character identification is a baseline goal of any film, and I didn't fully get that with this film.

 

Well that's pretty much what I said. I think many SW fans are just so embedded with the notion that its universe revolves around: 1)Skywalkers 2)Jedi and 3)Sith. It's funny; even to this day people call the Ahsoka Tano character "Dave Filoni's pet". What if I said that Luke and Anakin were both Lucas' pets? Of course that doesn't mean that I don't like the characters (unlike many of those 'Ahsoka's pet' people), but it emphasizes my point that it was Lucas' intention to feature the SW universe revolving around the Skywalker family. And yes, the EU books existed, but how often were they touched on by Lucas himself? These "Star War Story" spinoffs like R1 and soon-to-be Solo film should be regarded from a different perspective than you'd normally expect from a numbered film in the saga.

 

I get your reference to the Seven Samurai, but both Fellowship Of The Ring and Oceans Eleven are movies with multiple sequels to flesh out characters. My favorite movie last year was Blade Runner 2049 - they could flesh out Goslings character - because really he WAS the main focus of the story. They could spend a LOT more time on his character background and story arc. IF RO had been about ONE persons fight (Jyn) they could have done this. But that would have been silly, no way one person could have done that alone. They had to have a team of multiple characters, so what they did with them in the time available was very good, in my opinion.

 

I wish Ahsoka was MY pet

LOL. She is a brilliant character. My favorite from the Clone Wars/Rebels. And by your forum name I guess you agree.

I would love to see an Anthology movie about her, with someone like Alicia Vikander playing the role.

Oops, off topic. Sorry!

 

Psst this might not be the proper forum to talk about Ahsoka. I know she's grown in popularity to the point where there are far fewer haters showing up in the TV forums, but I think the film forum's "YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS THAT ANAKIN HAS A PADAWAN" people are still ready to balk about it lol.

 

The Empire Strikes Back
Return Of The Jedi
The Last Jedi
ROGUE ONE
A New Hope
Revenge Of The Siths
The Force Awakens
The Phantom Menace
Attack Of The Clones

 

ROTS
TESB
ROTJ
RO
ANH
TLJ
TFA
TPM
AOTC

 

1. Attack of the Clones 9/10
2. The Phantom Menace 8.5/10
3. Revenge of the Sith 8/10
4. The Empire Strikes Back 8/10
5. A New Hope 7.5/10
6. Return of the Jedi 7/10
7. The Last Jedi 6/10
8. Rogue One 6/10
9. The Force Awakens 5/10

 

Wow. Just wow.

 

Sorry. Rankings should be completely homogenous.

 

Let's not critique each others' rankings in here... it's all subjective.

 

Actually I would say that whilst Rogue One did obviously have supporting characters it was actually focused on Jyn and Cassian pretty heavily. Perhaps that catches out some viewers who expect it to me more focused on the team aspect which I get the impression it shifted away from during development and shooting when the realised the central drama of the leads was the films strength.

Speaking of the Blade Runner sequel I would say as well that Rogue One definitely has quite a strong Alien/Blade Runner era Ridley Scott influence to it, ironically I actually found it brought Scott's film rather more to mind than the sequel did in some aspects. That again is probably a big divide, some existing SW fans will love sections like Eadu, others will not.

 

Funnily enough, the Eadu section reminded me of Cameron's Aliens, similarly a sci-fi war movie.

 

The arrival scene on LV-426 in the rain? I tend to think the way the film was shot was more shot influenced by Scott but I can see a potential design influence from Aliens. Eadu like a lot of the film I think tries to show us the "military industrial" side of SW which arguably mirrors the style of Camerons film, things like the marines lander(the U-wing and cargo ship), their ground transport(the tank on Jedah) and the smart guns(Baze's gun) plus the locations of course although the latter also obviously have Bespin to draw on.

 

This is my first and foremost issue with Rogue One, as well. I'm not entirely sure where exactly it would fall since it's been a while since I watched the prequels and want to do that, but I can safely say I far prefer both ST movies, and the OT over Rogue One.

I didn't hate it, or even dislike it really, I just didn't care about it. My partner and I watched it together and felt the same way, and our big thing we agreed on were the characters. They were just "there" for me. Han/Leia/Luke invested me from the get go, as did Rey/Kylo/Finn/Poe. I wanted to at least like Jyn, but I just thought even her character ended up rather bland.

 

^ That's similar to how I felt about the characters after my first watch, but the more I rewatch and get to know the characters and see the subtle ways they're brought to life, the more I care, and it keeps getting more powerful, especially the deaths.

 

Part of the difficulty in ranking RO is that it is, arguably, the most plot driven SW film while the others are more character driven. TPM is also very plot driven, but that film's visual design and overall tone is so different that they feel incomparable. All things considered, I really like it but I think it is the most "inside baseball" of all the SW films if that makes sense. I rank it 5th.

 

Honestly I think just the reverse, Rogue One is the most character focused Starwars films since the originals. The prequels are full of extraneous political plotting and the sequels are constantly having the characters thrown around by plot points. The vast majority of the time in Rogue One you can look at the film and see that some kind of personal drama is being advanced by whats happening onscreen.

Perhaps the issue is that it doesn't feature such a broad acting/directing style as people are used to with modern blockbusters?

 

1. ANH

2. ESB

3. ROTS

4. RO

5.ROTJ

6. TLJ

7. TFA

8. TPM

9. AOTC

 

Well, I guess my list has evolved to now be:
ANH
RO
TESB
ROTJ
TLJ
TFA
ROTS
AOTC
TPM

To be clear, though, I love all of them.

 

ANH
RO
TESB
TLJ
TFA
ROTS
ROTJ
AOTC
TPM

 

My updated ranking:
1. RO
2. TESB
3. ANH
4. ROTS
5. ROTJ
6. TFA
7. AOTC
8. TPM
9. TLJ

 

Walked out of the theater and immediately felt this way. Still do:

1) ESB
2} Rogue One
3) ANH
4) ROTJ
5) ROTS
6) TFA
7) TPM
8) TLJ
9) AOTC

I'm a big sucker for transcendental moments overpowering any other sentiment I have. Rogue One has it's issues, yes. But it skyrockets above every other entry except ESB for a few reasons for me:

A) With how much disrespect the Last Jedi had for the saga, the reverence that Edwards and pretty much everyone involved in the film had not only for the saga but particularly the EU stands out big time. It is a love letter to Star Wars while building its own story

B) The music. Giacchino just kills it. He drops a few tributes to Williams, but mostly it's his own material and it stays with you long after the film ends. The double whammy of "Your Father Would be Proud"+"Hope" is fantastic, along with
"The Imperial Suite" which is essentially giving Tarkin the theme song he never had.

C) The space battles. Widely acknowledged as the best in the series

D) Finally, those last 20-30 minutes continue to blow my mind to this day, like jaw dropping on the floor.

Don't know why but for me, Star Wars films are defined for their quality for me primarily by their climax. I guess it's fitting that the order reflects that. The bottom four movies have zero tension or uncertainty in their ending or in general really blow it. Meanwhile, I frequently replay the last 10-15 minutes of the first 5 films.

Anyway yeah it's my list.