Rogue One [Official Info] Felicity Jones (Jyn Erso) in Rogue One

Excellent. Thanks for the review of the review to avoid spoilers. I bought it yesterday on Amazon...should get it Tuesday. I got the hardcover for less than $11.

 

I am.ablut half way through the book right now. All I can say is I am enjoying it immensely and it adds further enjoyment I get out of Jyn. Jyn is quickly becoming my favorite of all SW characters (already in my top ten).

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Blue 5
Mr. Forest

I'd be interested to know if he's exaggerating about the violence.

 

I'll definitely post my impressions when I get it. I'm looking forward to reading some from others, too.

 

It depends really. There are two moments that stick out violent to me, but it's hard for me to compare violence from books to what I see on screen.

 

Guardians of the Whills is excellent. Surprisingly good.

I'm halfway through Rebel Rising, and it's of the same level of quality.

These Rogue One spinoffs might be the best canon ancillary material we've gotten so far.

 

Rebel Rising is an absolutely fantastic book. I am about 1/3 of the way done, taking my time with it and enjoying the heck out of it. It chronicles Jyn and her life experiences but gives lots of focus to Saw as well. I like little touches that hint at themes from the movie and utilizes elements from the movie. It actually portrays Jyn very much as I already perceived her.

It maintains a similar distinct gritty feel as the movie, and there are parts that are indeed extraordinarily violent...with enough detail to let you understand and depict the brutality of the mutilations without descending into full scale morbidity. If that makes sense. The subject material adds depth to the birth pangs of the Rebellion as a whole.

It is very enjoyable and only adds, in a very positive way, to Jyn's character, along with Saw Gerrera. I definitely recommend reading it.

 

Agreed. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Jyn is my favorite Star Wars character of all.

 

Forgot to mention: I finished the audiobook last Monday. I did not expect it to be as good as it was and has managed to actually make me like Jyn as a character more. It's an easy recommendation for Star Wars fan, whether you liked Jyn Erso in Rogue One or not.

 

Jones is so freakin' good as Jyn and I love her very much. The actress and the character.

 

You know what I've recently found funny about the introductory sequence, the girl who plays young Jyn does an awful lot of running. In every instance we see her she is literally just sprinting around. From wherever she was when we first see her as she runs back to the homestead, to running off with Lyra into the hills, to running back to the homestead to see what was going on, to then running to her hiding place, back and forth, up and down all those hills. What an in shape little girl, as I'm sure numerous takes had to be done on all those scenes as well. I just watched RO again last night and for some reason that stood out to me.

 

Now I will always have this in the back of my mind. *shakes fist in rage*



In other news, Felicity Jones has gotten engaged. Jyn Erso would be probably still be available if she hadn't become Stardust. There's just no way to win in this situation...

 

I'll join you. *grabs blaster*

Man, you are sure lucky. Or are you? Maybe your girlfriend noticed the eye contact. Do you really know?

 

Remember when Jyn half sarcastically half seriously asks "Hope?"

Talk about foreshadowing...

 

It helps if your Significant Other is already a fan, which was the case in my situation, and she pointed me in the direction of Like Crazy, a lovely film - good not great, but a showcase of Felicity's ability to convey a lot through expression (as the script was non-existent). It has its detractors, but I side with Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine:

"[Director] Doremus knows the value of just being still. A chair Jacob designs for Anna mirrors the architecture of the movie, appearing solid and fragile almost simultaneously. Doremus is a talent to watch. And he has the good sense to let the camera stay close to Jones as her face reflects what words cannot. Jones is a marvel. Sundance couldn't get enough of her. You won't, either. Her performance grabs hold and won't let go."

http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/like-crazy-20111027





My felicitations to the bride-to-be.

 

I do kind of view Jyn as a bit of a realisation of Portmans potential as Padme which went rather untapped for me. Both I think as Cthulhu says actresses who don't really need masses of dramatic dialog to sell a situation but here Jones was allowed to run with that much more were as Padme was left constantly telling us or having others tell us dramatic details that were already perfectly obvious.

 

Felicity Jones is, IMO, inside and outside Star Wars, a much stronger actress than Portman. The latter was good in Femme Nikita and Black Swan, but overall, I find her acting comparatively flat and monotone.

 

You mean Leon? I'd agree Portman can be a bit bland when not pushed and perhaps hasn't advanced much this decade(unlike her old rival Johansson who also doesn't need a lot of dialog to be effective) but in the right role she could definitely sell drama without needing a wordy script which the PT didn't really exploit.

I'v seen more than a few people call Jones performance as Jyn bland but really I think that comes down to the role being played in a more subtle fashion as with the above two actresses best performances making it much more rewatchable.

 

Jones can make the film work for her, Portman needs the film to work for her.

 

I have also come across the criticisms of blandness and I put it down to dashed expectations. That's not Jones' fault, that is the way the character was written (or edited). My feeling is that these people were expecting more swash and buckle, a more traditional Star Wars heroine. In the Favorite Character poll in this forum, she was upstaged even among fans of the movie by the more Star Wars-y characters - the Threepio analog K2S0 and the wizened force user Chirrut. I don't know whether they thought she was bland but I wonder whether the deleted "I Rebel" Jyn would have come across as more appealing to them. Perhaps if she had gotten more "cool lines" and action scenes to show off her skills..? For example, in the clip below there's a scene which didn't make it to the final cut where she shoots a Stormtrooper without looking (starting at 0:57). I suspect that would have impressed more than a few.



And it was mocked by some (many?), but her "This is a rebellion, isn't it?" line seemed to have caught on with quite a lot - spawning a line of merchandise, for example, even before the movie came out.

 

Honestly I felt the "cool lines" were the worst parts of those earlier trailers and was very glad to see them dropped for the most part, it felt rather like ESB Leia behaving like ANH Leia and not really exploiting Jones strengths.

Perhaps an issue was expectations from Rey as well? I felt both Ridley and Boyega were rather over the top myself both in delivery and non verbally, granted that's most likely down to what Abram's wanted from them but it was nice to see a return to something a bit more naturalistic.

 

A lot of Star Wars fans, many of whom are also MCU fans, only want broad, over-the-top, melodramatic, cartoonish "acting" from these films. Anything more subtle or subdued is bland/ flat/ boring, etc. That's why Luna and Jones, two of the best actors to ever appear in a Star Wars film, and two characters who deliver some of the most complex performances of any Star Wars actor, are dismissed as bad or "unmemorable" by some. It's all about fan expectations of the comic book/ pop sci-fi/ fantasy genre. And what I love about Rogue One is that it says "to heck with those genre conventions, I'm going to just be a dramatic film."

So yeah, I'm also glad Edwards didn't pander to the one-liner loving crowd. Give them a little of that with K2, but otherwise, give us real characters instead of avatars.

 

Honestly for me its just having the characters fit the setting/story, I'v no problem with the Marvel style within its own context and I do think they've managed to build up an incredibly strong cast of actors like Downey Jnr, Evans, Johanssen and Ruffalo who can play both larger than life AND have some dramatic weight but I think its also fundamentally suited for the kind of story there telling.

Star Wars for me just isn't so well suited for that, one of the OT's great strengths for me is actually how grounded its setting/characters feel, the humour is not generally at the expense of the situation but rather naturally comes from the characters. To me this is a lot of what the likes of RLM and STuckman miss in there drive to seemingly work out a simplistic "perfect blockbuster formula" totally miss such issues.

TFA for me had neither setting/story nore the cast to carry off that kind of larger than life style well IMHO and the result for me is a very mediocre film(not a bad one but there are many other recent blockbusters I find superior) with only the odd hint at what could have been.