Criticisms Of Rogue One

It's modern movie making. It's all got to be big action set pieces or it's boring.
It's why Transformers makes a billion dollars every time.

 

I saw R1 and TFA with my wife who knows next to nothing about Star Wars. She loved TFA, but was completely lost watching R1. She told me she just gave up about half way in and started mentally working out who was left on her Christmas list. I don’t blame her at all. For a ‘stand-alone’ movie, this picture relied pretty heavily on the audience knowing the other films.

 

So much of my enjoyment is nothing more than 'member berries. Look! Those guys from the cantina! Wow, Y-Wings? Holymoly, Red and Gold Leaders! Geez, the Death Star firing sequence! Tarkin? Berzerker Vader! Leia! Blockade runners! Squid dude! It's everything I remember!

Somehow, and this is just my opinion, by expanding the universe, they also somehow made it feel smaller.

On the flip side of that coin, Doctor Aphra #1 is out today, and I'm about to go buy a copy on my lunch break.

 

A few small criticisms after first viewing:

1). Opening: Would have liked an opening crawl and trumpets blaring for pomp and ceremony, but it really had no effect on my entertainment. It's akin to walking in the theater a few minutes late.

2). Music: I didn't notice it but I guess it was there, which is a good thing. Maybe JW could have made it more epic and memorable.

3). Krennic: made to appear too needy and subservient to Tarkin. Would have liked to have seen him as an equal to the grand mof vying for favor and power.

4). Krennic's shuttle: Looked like a cheap model from an early 60's Godzilla movie. C'mon guys how could you let that in there.

5). Too much "May the force be with you" and definitely way too much of "I'm one with the force, the force is one with me". Chirrut's line should have been said ONCE. The great line should have NEVER been uttered in this movie. - Blasphemy!

6). Vader's voice: They should have sped up the recording of old Earl Jone's voice. Sounded somewhat geriatric in large parts.

7). Tarkin's voice: didn't sound authentic. i can't believe that they couldn't find someone in the whole of England with his exact same voice. (Notice I didn't say anything about the CGI, because I was fine with it).

8). Saw's demise: Felt like he did not get enough time and interaction in the movie as warranted by the complexity and importance of his character.

9). Jyn & Cassian's demise: with all the time they had to limp downstairs from the antenna array you would think they would have stopped by the fighter hanger or freight ship docking bays to get the hell out of there.

10). The Death Star plans: In Ep. IV the dialogue read - "The Death Star plans are not in the main computer" + "Several transmissions were beamed aboard this ship, I want to know what happened to those plans". The plans were transmitted from the surface of Scarif to ALL rebel ships. Then mon Calamari puts them on a floppy and the boys play flag football with Vader until the floppy gets handed to Leia aboard the Tantive IV (which should have not been there in the first place). They could have had an interim ship run away with the floppy - jump to hyperspace - rendezvous with the Tantive and then give the floppy to Leia. As the two ships move away from each other after the exchange, the Devastator comes out of hyper space, and then chases the Tantive. I think it would have been more in line with the narrative in Ep. IV.

 

while i disagree with a lot that you have said, you have articulated these points very well. since i didn't read Catalyst, i'm curious how that might have changes my feelings about the film, but it's impossible to rewatch it for the first time with a new perspective. that said, without the novel to precede it, i didn't actually have any trouble understanding Galen and Krennic, their rivalry, nor Krennic's power-mongering and squabbling with Tarkin.

i think as individuals we pick up on different things--different aspects of the film resonate with us differently. i was so distracted by Peter Cushing's face, i don't think i heard a word he said throughout the whole movie. but i thought Krennic's behavior and all of their body language made that relationship very clear. storytelling isn't just about the words. i think R1 is visually well-done even despite weaknesses in the script.

i really hope my sister likes it (or at least doesn't hate it).
like your wife, she really got invested in TFA (big time), but i'm not sure she'll connect to this one as easily.
i agree that a patent love for Star Wars enhances the entertainment of this one manifold.
though it has some universal themes, it does feel much more audience specific that TFA or the OT.

 

One more step between Vader chasing the plans on the Mon Cal ship and beaming them to Leia would have resolved the discrepancy, although it would've slowed down the pace a bit. We're used to semantics defining plot and story though ("from a certain point of view") so I'm willing to let it slide.

 

Unfortunately, I wasn’t sold for a second on either. Reminded me of Tom Hanks in Polar Express. Just really rough, man. I’m surprised at all the positive reaction. Both renders looked so incredibly jarring to me. Maybe my standards are too high. I cringed my way through all those scenes.

 

More like modern audience. With the attention span of a squirrel. Imo there was absolutely nothing boring about the first half of the movie.
I wonder what would those who find the first half boring say to Once Upon A Time In America, or Tarkovsky's Stalker...

What does beeing visually well done have to do with the script? Especially nowadays, in the age of Transformens and Suicide Squad-like products (I wouldnt even call those movies).

 

Or what about a movie with very little action in it at all with only one real big action piece surrounded largely by dialogue and traveling and seeing the results of action but not the action...I think it's called...A New Hope

 

May be I'm old, I think all the Transformers movies are boring (Except the first one)

I think the yellow SW logo should be kept at the opening of all SW stand-alone movies,along with the main theme "da da....da da la da da", stop the music, no crawl, then the movie starts........

 

Exactly. Or a similar movie with even less action and which culminates in a small-scaled, visually not so intriguing final act. Called Empire Strikes Back.

 

This ‘development’ is something that really bothered me. The Tantive IV was actually at the Rebel assault now? Vader unmistakably saw it flee with the stolen intel. What’s the point of the “diplomatic mission” pretext in ANH now? This ship was undeniably part of an unprovoked attack on an Imperial outpost. Vader has every right to treat it as hostile. Am I missing something?

 

There's more than one of these ships. It could have been any of them.

I don't think it had vanity plates with Tantive4U on it

 

Well, ask any kids who didn't grow up with Star Wars to rank them, and without fail A New Hope will be in the bottom third of the order. I know plenty of millennials who actively dislike A New Hope, either because of the pacing or because of the "primitive" special effects.e

 

It explains the complete lack of patience Vader has - he kills Captain Antilles immediately after asking, rather snarkily, "Where is the ambassador?"

Then, which I now LOVE more than I did before: "YOU ARE PART OF A REBEL ALLIANCE AND A TRAITOR! TAKE HER AWAY!"
I actually love that immediate no-nonsense reaction now. There would have been a veiled need for some sort of courtesy if there was any semblance that it was a 'diplomatic mission' but Vader don't got no time for that at that point, the Empire tagged the ship at the battle and there's no need for pretense, and Leia's just buying time for Artoo to get the plans to Obi-Wan.

 

Vader always seemed confident in his point imo. I mean if the "diplomatic mission" story ever had any credibility, the rebels probably wouldn't've started shooting at the arriving imperials. Even if it has had, murdeing imperial stormtroopers, and resisting the Executor casts a pretty bad shadow on the princess's story...