Rogue One Is R1 Your New Favorite?

Over a year later I'm still blown away by how good Rogue One turned out and I would've never expected it to become my new favorite SW film leaving that theater, and yet that's precisely what happened. I went in expecting a good SW film but not an excellent one that would quickly shoot to the top of my list as my new favorite, just as R1 did. Watching it again recently it still holds up remarkably well and I only find new things to like about it and am reminded every time I see it again of how excellent it truly is. I was definitely in the boat of fans who felt the original trilogy would never be topped but for me R1 both equalled and surpassed the OT in many ways.

Besides the incredible battle scenes which are as exciting as they are intense to watch and even genuinely harrowing, I enjoyed the much darker and more downbeat tone which maybe some didn't like but it felt like it was the right approach for the movie to take given how it's essentially an all-out war film set within the context of SW. Like other fans I really enjoyed how we finally had an SW movie all about the Empire vs. Rebels and not just the Jedi and Sith all over again. I've seen some say they didn't care for the characters but I really liked the new ensemble. For me the likes of Jyn, Cassian, K2, Baze, Chirrut, Bodhi, etc. are as memorable and lovable as the original crew of Han, Luke, Leia, Chewie, etc. and I like how this movie didn't try to have them be like those characters but instead be unique in their own way. The events of this movie actually help to enrich the OT and make you want to see them again knowing what this film reveals, like it's the story behind the story. While I enjoyed both TFA and TLJ, I like other fans feel they relied too much on nostalgia with the OT and this film evoked it in a way that felt organic by doing a very different type of story within familiar settings and iconography recognizable from the OT. Even though his screentime was minimal, who didn't get goosebumps seeing Darth Vader again, back to his imposing self he was in ANH. Especially during his final scene. Never has he been so relentless and brutal as he was in that one sequence.

I know it's a bold claim to make, but I guess I just wanted to say how much I really love R1 so much and am wondering if there's other fans here who hold it in as high a regard as I do. I'm still blown away by how excellent it turned out and reinvorgated SW in a way TFA and TLJ didn't. I'm honestly more interested in these spin-offs and "lost chapter" type of SW films after how this turned out and showed there's much to be explored in the cinematic version of the Expanded Universe.

 

That's cool. Not my favorite of SW. Definitely my favorite of the Disney era SW movies.

If it was a trilogy (or however many films 2, 4, whatever needed) that starts with a very young Jyn and younger Saw, Erso family and Krennic where we didn't even know the final film of that saga was to retrieve the Death Star plans, it could have probably given the OT a run for its money. Especially if the film starts out with the Erso family simply being Imperials. Not some poor souls that were under the foot of the Empire, but thriving in the Empire before they get recruited by Krennic. So you'd start off despising them as an automatic response to BAD GUYS.

 

Not my favorite, but it was very good and I am happy that the first Anthology film did so well.

 

Honestly I felt the reverse, part of what made Rogue One so welcome was that it was just focused on telling its own story inside of one film, that's something that's become depressingly rare in Hollywood these days which is always trying to sell us the next blockbuster.

Actually being able to write characters to tell a one off story as effectively as possible is I think a very significant advantage and one Disney could potentially exploit in the future playing on the fact that SW is unique in that its the setting itself rather than just the characters that are the draw.

 

Couldn't agree with you more TS - I love this film! I too (especially after the PT) never thought I would see a SW film that made me feel the way I did about the OT...and I thought "Oh well, at least I still have the originals to watch if nothing else good comes along"

I made my peace with the fact I will never like the PT...
The ST thus far is pretty good... I'll wait to see how it plays out.
RO was down right amazing! It really does give the OT a run for it's money. Vader and Tarkin again!! (and used far better than expected) Great characters. Great locations. Awesome aesthetic in line with the originals - Imagine what they could have done with these characters over a few films! Brilliant! I even love some of the designs more than some of the OT ones. Easily the best SW film since Jedi imo. It also adds sooo much more to the OT. Just seeing The Empire in more locations (Wobani, Jedha, Eadu, Ring of Kafrene, Scarif, Mustafar etc etc) gives them a larger than life feel. In the OT it felt like you could run into an Imperial Cruiser anywhere - Something the ST has not done well with the FO. They feel really contained.

If I end up hating every SW film released moving forward I now have RO, ANH, TESB and ROTJ. A beautiful prequel that leads into a magnificent trilogy. Now, give us those deleted scenes!!

 

Yes, it's definitely my favorite. Right there with TESB .

 

I really like Rogue 1 ... Better than episode VII ...

 

To date it's my favorite since the OT. And it's the only SW film released by Disney that I have among my home video collection. I'll wait until the ST is done to buy the entire trilogy in one collection.

 

Still the best of the Disney era.

Still love the movie to bits.

Also, Raddus and Vader both deserve awards for Best Character Entrance in movies of the past decade.

 

ANH and TESB still hold the top two spots for me, but it's probably impossible to unseat them. And Rogue One comes really close to doing just that, and settling in nicely at #3.

 

Its a fantastic movie, nostalgia alone stops me from ranking it higher than TESB or ANH. Is that fair? Not sure. Everything about it though, is EVERYTHING I wanted in a prequel story/movie to the original. I have blocked the PT out of 'my existence' and watch RO probably once a week.

 

WOW. EHT - you were typing that as I was typing my post!

 

My favorite of the Disney Era.
The OT
ROTS/R1
TPM
AOTC
TLJ

Not sure where to put TFA. Somewhere with TPM and AOTC probably.

Jedha is incredible. Scarif was a great locale as well.
I love all of the new characters.
Vader, Leia, Tarkin, Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, R2, C-3PO as well.

 

Yeah...what happened to him?? Great poster! He was a huge RO fan.

 

Haha, no. Not sure who that is or was.

 

R1, ANH, TESB and TLJ are my top tier.

TFA, RotJ and RotS my middle tier.

AOTC and TPM are my lower tier, which are films I still consider excellent, except for some bad acting here and there.

 

Like most here, it's my favorite of the Disney-era stuff. The right mix of new and nostalgia. I still get goosebumps when the Rebel fleet pops out of hyperspace above Scarif! Talk about feeling like a kid again!

 

I must be one of the few people who watch the PT, then R1, leaving the OT as optional for full marathons (Don't like ST enough to marathon).

R1 has eclipsed the OT for me, nearly reaching the lower reaches of the PT.

 

I was expecting R1 to be good but I wasn't expecting it to be as amazing as it ended up being. For a while I wasn't sure if I liked R1 or TFA more but as time has passed and I've seen the film more times, it's now my favourite of the Disney films and in my top 3 of the films overall.

I've always struggled with ranking the SW films but now I would say my top 3 are ROTS, ANH and R1 in that order.

 

Far and away the best of the saga. Simply amazing.

 

It's a very easy film to enjoy for any fan who played with his or her Kenner action figures back during the time of the OT (including myself). I wouldn't say it's my new favourite, but it's right up there with the OT in terms of being so watchable. I can easily put it on and feel like I'm spending time with an old friend.