Rogue One The Battle of Scarif -- How It Compares

That's like saying the ground battle of Scarif is a rip-off of the speeder bike scene on Endor.

 

You want to elaborate? The battles were not the same at all, unless you just count that there were spaceships pew-pewing each other.

 

I really liked it for this interpretation: The Empire seemed quite smug and unstoppable with their new weapon. The rebellion to them seemed distant. Then, before the eyes of the leading ranks, the Rebellion shows up out of now-where in a surprise assault and smacks them in the face with reality.

This really helps set up the anger and desperation of the Empire in the original films. They feel vulnerable now, and possibly even a little frightened by what the Rebel ambush means. Suddenly these guerrillas could pop up anywhere. The need to find their hidden bases and eradicate them is now much more of a pressing issue than before.

I thought it was fun, powerful and emotional. It did precisely what it needed to do.

 

I did love how the empire were shocked when the Rebel fleet came out of Hyperspace. They really were caught off guard.

It also makes me wish the rebel fleet opened fire as soon as they came out of hyperspace. No questions asked.

 

Bingo - Rogue One is the reason for the Empire to see the Rebels as a legitimate existential threat, regardless of what Palpy himself thinks (all that insignificant Rebellion garbage in ROTJ). They know that with the loss at the Battle of Scarif, they have to ratchet up their priority on fighting the Rebellion. To put it frankly: "***t just got real."

 

Why do we need to compare?

Really, I really mean it. Why compare?

Do we compare which of our children we love the most?

 

The only thing I would change about your list is to switch Yavin and Endor. The Battle of Yavin is my favorite Star Wars sequence in terms of tension, editing, and score.

 

Props to OP for a thread that really made me think about the battles (not being sarcastic! being 100% serious!). Why it was so hard to rank the battles is because some of them have other things going on add or detract to them. I'm going to give it a shot. I'll list them David Letterman Top 10 style from WORST to BEST:



9. Star Killer Base Battle. FAIL out the gate. The movie was a rehash of ANH and copying is not allowed. Just watch ROTJ to see Han and Chewie take down the shield generator and Wedge(Poe) blow up the Death Star.

8. Coruscant. Even though I'm the biggest Prequel and Lucas defender, this battle scored low. I liked the intro from the crawl and some of the ship to ship fighting was cool, but it was broken up (not added too) by the Dooku and Grievous fight scenes. The best bart was when Obi-Wan crash lands in the hanger and jumps out ninja style igniting his saber.

7. Naboo. The kickoff with Darth Maul vs Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon gets this battle going. The Naboo star fighters are okay, but the pilots are weak. Even Ankain is weak, but he gets a pass because he's like 9 years old. The initial Gungan shield is original and the deployment of the dorids was cool. And Jar-Jar makes the battle fun, something that lacks in a lot of these battles (except for Han and 3PO). Points for Jar-Jar taking down a Droideka, by being clumsy.

6. Scarif. Even though I feel RO one wasn't that great of a film, the space battle earns it my top 6 spot. The ground battle wasn't anything special, it had a slight Endor feel, but without the excitement. The space battle had a Endor feel, but just not as good. The Star Destroyer crash was a little cheesy. However Gold Leader and Red Leader was a nice surprise.

5. Utapau/Kashyyyk. ROTS had two big battles, this is the second and better battle. The clones in this one prove 100% that they are the greatest soldiers in any Star Wars film. They upped their game with more troop styles and bringing it home with Order 66. Not an easy task for any trooper in Star Wars, but they managed to bring down almost all the Jedi, while still fighting the separatists.

4. Yavin. I wanted to have it tie for #3, but what's fair is fair. The final trench run is super suspenseful. John Williams music keeps you on the edge of your seat. Vader chasing Luke. Then.... BOOM! Classic ending to classic movie.

3. Hoth. It suffers, but just barely because it's the only thing going on. Also it's the only large battle in ESB and it takes place in the beginning of the movie. It's the Empire at it's best, actually winning a battle on screen, and making the Rebels run for it. Did I mention AT-ATs?! General Veers?!

2. Battle of Genosis is the second strongest battle. For one, the clones are arguably the BEST soldiers/warriors in Star Wars history (to date). The were cloned from a Mandalorian (basically Boba Fett). It's like watching Stormtroopers that are actually good. Now forget all that. This is the first time that actual Jedi are on the battlefield! Yes, actual Jedi fighting an actual battle, pretty sweet. You get to see Mace Windu and Yoda commanding troops. Lastly the scale is epic. So many mechs, soldiers, droids, drop ships. Largest scale land battle in Star Wars to date.

1. Endor, hands down best battle of any Star Wars movie. You had the best land battle: Han, Chewie, Leia, R2 and 3PO, with help from the Ewoks, fighting the Imperials (speeder bikes and AT-STs). At the same time you had Ackbar, Wedge, Lando and the Falcon battleing in space. At the same time you had Luke vs the Emperor and Vader. From start to finish, including John Williams at his best, nothing but goosebumps and shivers until the DS blows up.

 

Best battle since Hoth for me, it had absolutely everything.

 

Clearly for Naboo the movie was going for a tonality which it totally nailed just as well as Rogue One nailed it for the tonality they were going for. So both hit it out of the park for what they wanted to do.

So the question is then about multiple other factors including simply the fact that Lucas is the one who created the visual mosaic style of Naboo and Endor upon which Edwards based his battle. It not an easy thing to do as TFA shows. It's not simply about the cutting but the entire thing in terms of the storytelling of everything included.

In this case scope and scale are needed to capture the vibe of what Lucas did before.

 

I was thinking size wise the scarif fleet was probably half of what the Alliance mobilized for Endor.

 

what I love about the Endor battle is that they actually use different ideas to bring down the Walkers , whereas in R1 it's basically just shoot lasers at them which as a viewer struck me as odd since that didn't work in ESB , yes I've heard various explanations for that but those aren't in the movie .
Lucas always had great ideas in these battles .

 

What, exactly, have Star Destroyers been asked to do? In ANH the only time we see them doing anything is in the opening scene. In ESB, the only thing they do is chase the Falcon the whole movie. Admittedly, they fail in that task, but that is hardly what they were designed to do. In Jedi, the Emperor specifically instructs them NOT to engage, because he wants the Rebel Fleet trapped, not destroyed, to taunt Luke with (pretty dumb move dude).

So it's not like we've seen a lot of situations where Star Destroyers have been asked to kick a bunch of butt. Mostly people just run scared from them.

 

Scarif is my no1 it was just incredible.....

 

Agreed. Scarif was the only one that was thrilling for me on all fronts.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Scarif battle - it was easy to follow, had great action, both in space and on the surface, and had a rewarding payoff despite pretty much everyone dying. I'd say I enjoyed it more than the battles on Hoth, Yavin IV, and Geonosis, but it'll take a second viewing before I can rank the battles.

I will say this, of all the battles we've seen in Star Wars, this is the first one that emphasized the fact that it's an actual war that we, as viewers, are experiencing and not just some minor, lopsided conflict. Not to say that the Galactic Civil War wasn't lopsided, just that this felt like an actual 'battle' on a grand scale. The lack of CGI clones/gungans/droids probably helped give it some grit in that regard.

 

I feel like I really need to see this movie again. While I enjoyed the ground and space battles, this film did not remotely approach the level of "grit" and "realism" that I see bandied about. You'd think this was Apocalypse Now meets the GFFA, and I'm not seeing it at all. The film didn't feel much "grittier" to me than Hoth or even parts of Geonosis.

The space battle felt like the battle of Endor-lite. It certainly beats every prequel Space battle to me, but it's eclipsed easily by the two Death Star battles in the OT.

This is starting to remind me of how people swear up and down that TESB is a "dark" film. No it is not. It's dark...for Star Wars.

Rouge One is gritty...for Star Wars.

 

Yeah I don't quite get why things can't be just enjoyed, and instead have to be held up to every imaginable comparable example.

 

Yeah, the movie needed something like this

Red 2: Yeah! We got that AT-ACT
Red 4: Yes but don't let that make you think that lasers will always work against imperial walkers. I suspect they'll be upgraded in about two years

 

As a hardcore fan, you definitely need to see it twice. There's too much of a maelstrom of expectations on the first viewing, which creates both confusion and frustration.

 

I will see again.

But I do want to clarify that I had no expectations for Rouge One. I wasn't excited about it at all. I'm not excited about any of the Spin offs. And I did enjoy it, quite a bit. It's just not blowing my mind away like an episodic SW film has the potential to do.

 

But it's even subconscious and basic expectations. Like: the plot is about stealing the DS plans. And guess what? We don't even know where those plans are until halfway through the film! On first viewing, that requires a mid-stream expectations adjustment that can inhibit enjoyment.

Which is why I eat up spoilers in advance.

 

Nope. I didn't expect a film to be 2 hours of stealing the Death Star plans.

I went into RO with the lowest expectations I have ever had for a SW film save TCW. It more than lived up to my low expectations.

But I consider it ultimately little more than a well made fan film. It's very existence is largely unnecessary to the overall saga. It doesn't have the scope, impact, or grandeur that even the worst episodes have, to me.

Which isn't a "bad" thing, mind you.

 

How about both? What are internet forums for if not to discuss?