Rogue One Rogue One Reviews/Reactions thread

I think we are all way too spoiled by the cineastic TV series we have nowadays with hours full of exposition and character development, to ackowledge what a great job R1 does, in spite of a huge ensemble cast. I mean, truly, look at "The Hobbit trilogy" You have 9+ hours to develop the charcaters of the dwaves and in the end you don't know them at all, except for Thorin.
I felt more for the R1 cast than for any SW character since the OT...

 

Spoiler

I might be somewhat of an organics supremacist, but I never really feel too bad for droids getting shot, mostly because they can be, at least in theory, reconstructed/replicated. The death of the human crew members, however, hit me way harder, even though they were not too well fleshed out. Cassian and Jyn had a good amount of character development, surprisingly little of which was their love story (if you can even call it that). The rest of the crew was not explored in detail, but I find that this wasn't necessary to convey the message. They were all involved personally, they all had suffered and they all had a satisfying conclusion to their journey.

 

We have Catalyst for that

 

Maybe so, but most moviegoers don't read the books. The film would have been punchier and more devastating if they had developed and focused on the Erso storyline more.

 

This afternoon I went for my second viewing (my wife's first), I enjoyed it a lot the first time, I loved it the second. With both R1 & TFA the first time I saw them I was never fully immersed because I was constantly "Who's that?...Oooh how'd they do that?.....OMG look it's that guy....are they referencing this". The second time I could not only be fully immersed and let it wash over me, I could enjoy my wife's reactions too.

I found Tarkin fitted far more seamlessly the second time round, and this is an ensemble war movie, there was never going to be enough time to go into big character development with our rebel crew and there was enough to make me care about everyone - I got more emotional during this movie than in any other SW film. And the last 5 minutes are just epic. A stunning film that will for certain be in my top 3 SW films.

 

well my first impressions :

the first hour is pretty murky and gloomy , when they got to the sunshine planet it was a great relief .

It's a pretty good movie , a WWII mission , some fantastic shots of tech and landscapes .

Spoiler

Tarkin was a surprise and I think the best of it's kind to date .

the last act has some great FX shots , Walkers look great of course .

I didn't really understand why they had to fly thru that shield window ( was the whole planet shielded ?

on the downside I'd say it borrowed heavily on what the OT created , not much that original in terms of design or ideas .
I thought they coulda done more with Vader .

SW always felt like a whole bunch of genres , this feels like one really .

Felicity Jones is someone I like but I don't think she was great in this .

 

I'm hoping this happens to me tomorrow. I loved both TFA and R1 first time out but I always find a new SW movie quite jarring and it's not till the second viewing I normally properly appreciate them.

 

Spoiler

Jyn crying while watching her dad's hologram message / Chirrut walking to activate the switch while praying to the Force / Jyn and Cassian last moments .....

Those moments were very powerful

 

I was actually quite impressed with the CGI.

 

The flip side of that is that 2 hours and change has been enough time for character development in 99% of movies for a looooong time now. If it was a result of the ensemble, maybe the answer was to trim the ensemble. There are plenty of movies that come out all the time that don't need 16 hours and three movies to develop a handful of characters.

 

All these and more.

 

EDITED to remove any spoilers till later.

 

Reminder: Until tonight (in the Eastern timezone), please use spoiler tags in all threads here except for the "Cliff Notes" spoilers thread at the top of the forum.

 

How to put spoiler tags?

Edit: oh I see: add "[*spoiler]" and "[*/spoiler]" around the text (without the *)

So....

Spoiler

If we didn't know it was impossible for them to go back in time to use the real Tarkin and Leia, we would never notice. The is the best CGI I saw in my life

 

I'm picking up Catalyst tomorrow before I go see Rogue One at 3pm. I was going to avoid it, but the great reviews and word of mouth convinced me to check it out. Plus, what kind of fan doesn't want to read NEW CANON!?!?

 

{spoilers}Han dies{/spoilers}
Replace { with [

 

Just think in a few years if the

Spoiler

CGI for real people like Tarkin and Leia were SO good, imagine what they could do to make movies that fill in the gaps between ROTJ and TFA featuring the OT3

 

I'm just back from my first screening (in English original) and I came back with mixed feelings. The movie was technically and optical well done, but I was just not the target audience I fear. The overall tone was too dark and depressing. Almost all characters were grim serious and Chirrut was heavily underused. Since some people here may not have seen the move yet, I try to be as objective as possible and point out the pros and cons:

pro:
- the scarif land and space battle was optical the best battle so far in any SW movie and I Iove especially the space battle.
- Jedha was impressive as well, but would have loved to see more
- K2 was surprisingly the best character in this movie and I was so sad when he was killed/destroyed
- again without K2 and his funny comments it would have been almost grim dark
- Tarkin was perfectly done and the interaction with Krennic was very good
- Vader moments were mainly the best parts of the movie, especially the ending and when we finally saw a lightsaber used
- Leia was also impressive to see and also one of the best and hopeful moments

contra:
- too many planets and too little to see of each one
- all characters were too dark, serious and almost without hope (I see now why there were reshots, I think Jyn's speech at rebel base was one of it, since she was moments before totally depressed and angry at Cassian, but now changed in this speech to a hopeful character)
- Chirrut was sadly underused and I expected much more from him and not always saying 9000 (the force is with me)
- sadly no funny moments between Chirrut and Baze (only the 1 we saw in trailers)
- I disliked Cassian after less than a minute when he was introduced and when he showed up as a brutal killer, later he was at least a little more likeable
- Saw was ok and only one of this more grey characters would have been enough for my taste
-sadly Jedha was underused as well and no single insights into the Jedi and force
-the last act was more a battlefront, but at least quite nice until the terrible killing started

Again, don't get me wrong, the movie was professionally done, but not for me as an audience.
Since I already bought the ticket for the German screening tomorrow, I will go there, but the 2 screenings are enough for me.

 

I'm going to have to disagree with this, obviously in terms of designs we saw a lot recycled but there was also some new stuff and most importantly I think it actually delivered new locations that brought something new rather than TFA's revisting of all too familiar deserts, woods, ice worlds, etc. Whats more I think it managed to do this AND have these locations feel very much like the OT in style.

In some ways I liked the way Jedha was used as well, bringing up a sense of history and the Jedi without having to go into massive long exposition about it. That's the kind of thing the OT excelled at just showing us a glimpse of something and have us fill in the details for ourselves.

 

Yeah but the question would be if that could ever actually happen or if you just keep pushing yourself deeper into that valley. I don't think they ever will go that far, for various reasons, not the least of which is cost, you're not just paying the animators, but you'd be paying Harrison Ford $$$ for not even having Ford.

 

Just came from the cinema...and here is my review:

OH!MY!GOD!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

WOWWWWWWW

What a great movie, it's really a STAR WARS movie, it's not my favorite SW movie, but will be in the top 3 or 4, i need to see again this weekend!

 

it is maybe indeed only my problem and that I cannot enjoy a movie in which everyone dies. I really hoped so much until the end that at least 1 survived.