Rogue One Reviews (With Spoilers)

Thanks

 

I do not think Stand Alone Star Wars are good idea. I love the movie and the idea of establishing new characters, but there is just not enough time to tell their own stories. I prefer Trilogies so we can get to know the characters on a deeper level before the end plot.

Having said that, I think they did good jamming as much as they could in there.

 

There isn't just one Blockade runner ship like the one they were flying. While it's obvious that Vader wasn't buying it they were going for this is a case of mistaken identity.

 

That was a good movie with a few great moments. Personally, I enjoyed The Force Awakens more, but I can attribute at least part of that to the fact that it's more traditional Star Wars fare - the familiar characters, arcs, score, and stylistic upbeat heart of those movies is a bit of a contrast to the more gritty portrayal of Rogue One.

First, I'm going to get this out of the way - Director Krennic was reminding me of someone every time he had one of his little tantrum outbursts about not being in control, or not being recognized, etc. It took watching a video review for it to click in for me who he reminded me of:



I thought Ben Mendehlson did what he could with the role, but outside of that first scene, he never felt like much of a threat. He seemed easily outwitted, and seemed to be something of a joke amongst the Imperial hierarchy, with Tarkin basically humiliating him at every opportunity and Vader basically telling him to shut the hell up in the most Vader-esque way possible. He had a personal connection to the heroine that provided a good through-line for the plot, but he felt like too much of a lame duck to really be taken seriously.

Which brings me to Tarkin; much is being made of the decision to bring him back through the power of CGI and whether it looked good or not, or if it was the right call, but count me in the camp that loved it. I thought it was fantastic - that was the best work I've seen yet in recreating a person. I reflect back to Tron: Legacy where they tried to reverse-age Jeff Bridges and he looked like a PS3 character, and while this wasn't perfect, this was miles ahead. Very impressive, and the voice work was spot-on too. I felt like I was watching and listening to Peter Cushing again which was fantastic. He also had what I felt was one of the best quotes of the movie, when Krennic wanted to blow up Jedha and Tarkin insisted on just the capital city - "We want a statement, not a manifesto." Feels exactly like something Tarkin would say.

The trick wasn't quite as successful when they tried to pull it with Princess Leia (something was off about the way her mouth moved), but still, that's nitpicking - it was again impressive.

And the use of stock footage, familiar faces, returning characters (Red Leader and Gold Leader!)...all those little hat-tips were great. And it totally made sense to me that we would see many of those faces in the circumstances they were in - these were clearly big players in the Rebellion, and they clearly had their own stories leading up to where they concluded in ANH.

This was a movie that I felt got progressively better as it wore on. The criticism that it jumps around a fair bit in the first act is justified, and there were some bizarre choices in the early goings on of the movie (looking at you, telepathic tentacle monster of brain-eating insanity. WTF?) But as we built towards the climax, the action was classic Star Wars, with battles on both the ground and the air.

Jyn Erso benefitted from being the most developed character, and Felicity Jones imbued her with charisma and heart that stood up well with the other leads in the series. Her supporting cast was solid - Cassian Andor and K-2SO had a nice dynamic, as did Chirrut and Baze. I felt Bodhi Rook was a little underutilized in that he was potentially very interesting as an Imperial defector, but maybe they felt that would have been treading on familiar ground with Finn's story. Not sure. But either way, I cared enough about all of these characters that when they began to meet their ends, I was saddened; but that feeling would have been more acute if I had expected any of them to survive (I didn't), so while I was sad, I wasn't really surprised.

But then, at the end, I was. Oh my God. The last two minutes of that movie was face melting stuff. There were shouts of joy, screams of terror, and wild applause in my theater for those last two minutes, particularly when Vader went full Terminator-mode on those Rebels. There was a bit of me like "oh man, I wanted more of that", but that was immediately tempered by the realization that the scene was as effectively amazing as it was because it had a whole movie building towards it. The Rebels running that gauntlet at the end, tossing the plans ahead to each other, from failing hands to living ones to try and keep it just out of reach of our favorite Dark Lord of the Sith - that was terrific. Vader has never felt so intimidating and imposing as he did in that moment. I also enjoyed his scene with Director Krennic as well - I referenced above that Vader shut him down in the most Vader-esque way possible. Choking him and joking about it (as much as Vader does joke, in his own sardonic way) when he started asking about being in charge and being in control...the characterization was absolutely on point.

So overall, I thought it was a good movie. I'd watch it again for sure, and it had some great moments. If I had to give it a score, I'd say a 7/10. My re-ranked order of Star Wars movies is as follows;

1) ANH
2) ESB
3) TFA
4) ROTJ
5) RO
(A chasm the side of the Marianas Trench)
6) TPM
7) ROTS
8) AOTC

 

Impressive.

Most impressive.

Any naysayers probably like sand and/or need their diagnostics run.

 

Thankfully, this movie was no “The Force Awakens”. The rest of my family thought “Rogue One” was one of the best STAR WARS films. I couldn’t really share their feelings.

Don’t get me wrong. It was a pretty good movie, but I thought it could have been better and more unique. I could have done without the major battle in the end. Considering the protagonists’ goals, I thought it was a bit too much and it felt as if Edwards was trying too hard to remake the Battle of Endor in the movie’s last act. I don’t know. It was a feeling I had. If the movie had played out as a straight espionage or military intelligence story . . . without the major battle, I would have been a bit more impressed. As for CGI Tarkin and Leia . . . didn’t care for it.

I really hope that one day, the Disney Studios and Lucasfilm will get over this obsession with the Original Trilogy and create stories that are a lot more original and less to do with it.

 

That's exactly how the PT should be ranked.

 

We know Bail was going to send Leia, we can imply his orders to Captain Antilles were those but the one leading the mission was the Princess.

Exactly.

Also, let's remember that the involvement of Bail Organa and the Alderaanians in the Rebel Alliance was suspected, but not outright declared.

In Rebels Season 2, Leia tells Kanan and Ezra that the Rebels have to "steal" her Hammerhead Corvettes she was taking to Lothal in a cover relief mission, because giving them to the Rebels would be to declare their allegiance to the Rebellion and be imprisoned by the Empire.

In Lost Stars, the cadets in the Ball at the Imperial Palace talk about her recent speech in the Senate regarding the criticism to the Empire by increasing mercy missions to planets the Alderaanians regarded as being affected negatively by Imperial policies.

Agree, also her speech at the Senate mentioned in Lost Stars - see above - could give her a good cover for that.

At that point, hearing that just caused me more tears.

And yeah, I can get the "no formal recognition" part. I mean, even in Princess Leia # 1 when they expand the Throne Room ending of ANH, Leia says that the casualties for the Rebel Alliance were not small. There I would have liked the mention to the Rogue One squad before mentioning Alderaan - a mention that got her the "Ice Princess" moniker by the pilots lol. But well... mentioning that at that point would have been a spoiler for Rogue One.

I guess it's more on our previous knowledge. My first viewing I went with a friend who's never seen any of the episodes and he didn't notice the CGI characters until we told him. The second viewing I took my cousins and they were so thrilled Princess Leia was there! (Only thing that bother me a little bit was when the younger one said "yeah, it's Kylo's mum!" and I was like "EXCUSE MEEEE??" lol).

And that chain of command problem keeps on rolling even with the New Republic - see the Battle of Kashyyyk lol.

Exactly! Maybe some worlds were more affected than others. For example, we see people like Sergeant Kreel (Star Wars comics), Grand Admiral Sloane, whose background story talks about a belief that the Empire has indeed brought peace and security to the Galaxy based on their particular experiences of living in planets ruthless and controlled by criminal gangs and such.

 

One thing I that I liked (not sure if it wasn't already mentioned) I liked this movie, and past movies continuing to refuse to paint characters, philosophies, and causes as either all evil or all good. This is 1 thing that was good about the Prequels is that they begin to introduce the idea more that there were some attractive aspects to the Sith, and some problematic ones for the Jedi. It's continued on in TFA, where we see the idea that one could view the "pull to the light" as undesirable (aka Kylo) or Snoke's desire for a pupil who could balance light side and dark side powers (not all of one).

In R1 I think they continue on with this idea by showing that the Rebels are not puritanical do-gooders. They get their hands dirty... in a way that we usually only associate with what we consider bad guys. Bad guys assassinate, not those paragons of moral virtue the Rebels. I mean, Cassian articulates it perfectly, that he had done terrible things in the name of the Rebellion. And that subtle admission is a powerful truth. There are rarely good guys and bad guys in conflicts, there's just your side and their side. The moral projections are more about us justifying what we were already going to do in the name of our cause. The First Order (in TFA) kinda brushes up against this in making proclamations about disorder and chaos and needing to eliminate it, and that ultimately serving as a justification for firing SK base and destroying the Hosnian system.

And I thought that moral ambiguity is kind of why they called the movie Rogue one. Like it was a "hat tip" to the reality that in this Rebellion, there were plenty of people fighting who were comfortable walking a tight rope on ethics in the name of a cause. The Rebels aren't ethically better people even if they're fighting for a system we find more acceptable. That idea has applications in the world of politics today (let me tell it).

 

Impressive ranking making your top 5.

 

1. ESB 10/10
2. TFA 9.5/10
3. ANH 9/10
4. RO 9/10
5. ROTJ 7.5/10
6. TPM 6/10
7. ROTS 5/10
8. AOTC 4/10

 

ESB - 10/10
RO - 9/10
TFA - 9/10
ANH - 9/10
ROTJ - 7.5/10
ROTS - 6.5/10
TPM - 4/10
AOTC - 3/10

 

I saw R1 a 2nd time last friday and tried to ignore the depressing finale. Nice space battle and also the asian martial arts interludes were nice. But the movie did not leave me satisfied or want me to watch it again.

my list of SW movies:
ROTJ 10/10
ESB 10/10
ANH 9/10
TFA 7/10
ROTS 7/10
TPM 6/10
AOTC 5/10
R1 5/10

 

your rating is very near my own but i would up the ratings some points on the prequels because they are very intimately tied to important/emotional moments in my life, but I kinda also see the whole saga incl. spinoff stories as ONE story, where some chapters are more boring than others, but in their whole every part enriches the Star Wars Universe & the newest chapter is bringing SOOO much more to the overall story

 

Lyanna Halik........Lianna Haliç..........sounds familiar. That's a particular woman Edwards might know.

 

For me (currently) it's the below standing. Will need more then two viewings of Rogue One.

1. TESB
2. ANH
3. ROTJ
4. RO
5. TFA
6. ROTS
7. TPM
8. AOTC

Urgh, Attack of The Clones is such a poor filim all round. Just reminded myself. Even the title sucks.

 

I think my rank is:

1- ESB
2- RO
3- ROTS
4- ROTJ
5- ANH
6- TFA
7- TPM
8- AOTC

 

Exactly!!

That is why in the first place the whole "Greedo shot first" for me it is unnecessary - sometimes the moral compass of our heroes is not 100% pure and white. In Han Solo, we've got a guy who is basically a mercenary at the beginning of the movie, someone who would shoot first in order to avoid any further conflict or potential damage to his plans - and later on, we see him coming back to save the day (and cause his future father-in-law ship to be stranded in space in the way) to show there was more to him than money.

Here we see a member of the Rebellion doing shady things - like killing an injured and freaking nervous informant in order to save his skin and avoid compromising the information he was taking back to the Rebel Alliance. But we see a progression - the moment when he refuses to take orders and shoot Galen Erso, and when he joins Jyn on her suicide mission.

 

Did anybody think that Vader's neck was huge? It was weird. The rest of his body looked right but he had the neck of a wrestler.