Rogue One (Spoilers)

Rudy · December 20, 2016

I'm surprised no one is talking about it. Who all has seen it? Thoughts?

I saw it Thursday night and OMG!

Army of Dad · December 20, 2016

7 hours ago, Rudy said:

I'm surprised no one is talking about it. Who all has seen it? Thoughts?

I saw it Thursday night and OMG!

Saw it and liked it. Though some of the people I saw it with didn't like/were surprised about how it ended.

(not posting more than that to avoid a spoiler)

Aldo · December 20, 2016

Maybe put *spoilers* in the title (if we wanted to have a spoilery discussion).

Took the kid, and she loved it. Going to watch it for a second time today.

I feel there was a lack of character development, but overall the movie was awesome. I put it second to Empire Strikes Back.

KingDL1 · December 20, 2016

I saw it Saturday. I thought it was very thrown together. Like @Aldo said I thought there was lack of character development to say the least, I would go further and say there was no character development at all. It jumped around a ton, the Forest Whitaker character was a waste of time, the constant making it in the nick of time was a joke. I guess they did not want to pay good writers. Why were the large ships ships not firing? How did the main male character make it to the top of the antenna tower after after our heroin got to the top through the hole chopper that seemed to exist for no reason and barely made it? He was shot and fell like thirty feet, how would he get through that? Yet they could not steal a ship and get off the planet? And at the end of the day couldn't the father just tell his daughter to find the trench that leads to the vent to drop bombs down? Or better yet designed a flaw that would blow up the death star when it powered up? None of the characters were really likable to me short of the smart-ass robot.

I thought it was just a grab for cash and that is about as much effort as the studio wanted to put into the story. I was disappointment. I would give it 2 stars at best just for some of the space scenes. Blah should called it the No Hope movie.

Aldo · December 21, 2016

Yeah there were some glaring issues that I saw from minor characters (just run off the damn planet Forest, you've been fighting this long) to major ones (get on a ship on a planet full of ships at the end). But I think the story itself 1) fixes a major issue of a moon size space station blowing up so easily and 2) does a good job of setting up A New Hope in a better context - it makes their efforts to blow up the Death Star matter more.

I needed more amble Darth Vader.

The thrown together feeling might have been due to the fact of the reshoots needed. I felt no connection to the characters, nor did I feel bad about all the deaths/letting themselves die (except for the droid and maybe Donnie Yen).

But the huge space battle and the final scene were things we missed from the original trilogy, and definitely makes it a movie I would rewatch.

Rudy · December 21, 2016

SPOILER!!!!!!!!

I agreed there was a lack of character development, but it was a war movie with no sequels. There's not supposed to be a lot of character development.

As for the escape, by the time they got out of the tower, the Death Star had already fired and the Shockwave was already approaching, and their ship had been destroyed.

Edited December 21, 2016 by Rudy

TheWestie · December 21, 2016

R1-R5.0.gif

UNTFan23 · December 21, 2016

15 hours ago, Aldo said:

Yeah there were some glaring issues that I saw from minor characters (just run off the damn planet Forest, you've been fighting this long) to major ones (get on a ship on a planet full of ships at the end). But I think the story itself 1) fixes a major issue of a moon size space station blowing up so easily and 2) does a good job of setting up A New Hope in a better context - it makes their efforts to blow up the Death Star matter more.

I needed more amble Darth Vader.

The thrown together feeling might have been due to the fact of the reshoots needed. I felt no connection to the characters, nor did I feel bad about all the deaths/letting themselves die (except for the droid and maybe Donnie Yen).

But the huge space battle and the final scene were things we missed from the original trilogy, and definitely makes it a movie I would rewatch.

You get a good feeling for how ruthless the Empire really is with this movie.

I definitely could go watch the movie a second time in the theaters, which I almost never do.

Aldo · December 21, 2016

2 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

You get a good feeling for how ruthless the Empire really is with this movie

yes! and the sheer expanse. You visit all these planets and meet all these characters, and they're all under imperial control.

Cerebus · December 21, 2016

Forest Whitaker's (Saw Gerrera) character has an extensive background developed in other media (Star Wars also has books, cartoons, and comics). He didn't run because he has been doing it for a long time, and felt the actions he was taking had made him develop into a character he didn't like, and he didn't want to fall further towards the dark side. He stared into the abyss and it stared back.

The engineer couldn't make an obvious flaw, other engineers were going over the plans with a fine tooth combed. He hid a feedback loop into the design that would be triggered when a sufficient force was applied. If he had just told them exactly what the problem was on e-hologram.com then the empire might have just fixed the issue.

I think the movies main flaws sprang from 1) the fact the story it told would have been better as a multi part mini series, and 2) people who aren't super nerds and hadn't watched the Rebels and Clone Wars missed out on some of the back plot.

If it had been a mini series it could have spent time developing the life story of each character. Also, it might have had time to give more detail on some of the facts they glossed over. For example the the blind monk character (Chirrut Imwe) is actually one of the Guardians Of The Whills. The mention it once, but then no one ever brings discusses it again or even brings it up. This is a huge thing to gloss over.

ETA: Despite the above flaws, really liked the movie. Easily the best since the original three. My favorite is Empire, and this had that same darker, grittier story-line.

Rudy · December 22, 2016

7 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

You get a good feeling for how ruthless the Empire really is with this movie.

I definitely could go watch the movie a second time in the theaters, which I almost never do.

Just saw it for the second time. This time I started to tear up when they sat on the beach. But that could be because Felicity Jones is my new crush.

1 hour ago, Cerebus said:

Forest Whitaker's (Saw Gerrera) character has an extensive background developed in other media (Star Wars also has books, cartoons, and comics). He didn't run because he has been doing it for a long time, and felt the actions he was taking had made him develop into a character he didn't like, and he didn't want to fall further towards the dark side. He stared into the abyss and it stared back.

The engineer couldn't make an obvious flaw, other engineers were going over the plans with a fine tooth combed. He hid a feedback loop into the design that would be triggered when a sufficient force was applied. If he had just told them exactly what the problem was on e-hologram.com then the empire might have just fixed the issue.

I think the movies main flaws sprang from 1) the fact the story it told would have been better as a multi part mini series, and 2) people who aren't super nerds and hadn't watched the Rebels and Clone Wars missed out on some of the back plot.

If it had been a mini series it could have spent time developing the life story of each character. Also, it might have had time to give more detail on some of the facts they glossed over. For example the the blind monk character (Chirrut Imwe) is actually one of the Guardians Of The Whills. The mention it once, but then no one ever brings discusses it again or even brings it up. This is a huge thing to gloss over.

ETA: Despite the above flaws, really liked the movie. Easily the best since the original three. My favorite is Empire, and this had that same darker, grittier story-line.

Those books that have been written, at least the ones I used to read, we're very well done. And your last statement is why I rank it up with the Empire Strikes Back.

FirefightnRick · December 22, 2016

I liked it and the wife and kids did too. I also liked how they cgi'd Grand Moff Tarkin(Peter Cushing) and other characters (X wing fighter pilots and Leia) from New Hope. Cushing died in 1994 yet there he was. Very cool.

Rick

MeanGreenZen · December 22, 2016

Mysticism.✔️

Outer space battles. ✔️

Cool-looking aliens. ✔️

Nostalgia. ✔️

World-building. ✔️

Humor. ✔️

It was an awesome movie.

forevereagle · December 22, 2016

On 12/20/2016 at 2:43 PM, KingDL1 said:

Yet they could not steal a ship and get off the planet?

Not going to go through everything in your post, but this one begs to be responded to. When did they establish that either character could pilot a ship? It's not like they could just hop in, hot wire it and get out of there. Besides, even if they get a ship, they just get caught on the way out.

KingDL1 · December 22, 2016

50 minutes ago, forevereagle said:

Not going to go through everything in your post, but this one begs to be responded to. When did they establish that either character could pilot a ship? It's not like they could just hop in, hot wire it and get out of there. Besides, even if they get a ship, they just get caught on the way out.

Don't know he sat up front on one of their flights at least, the flight to make the introduction, no character development means I can guess the girl was well trained by Forest Whitaker's character and getting from planet to planet in this realm seems vital.

I saw no point in killing everyone, I guess I did not care after everything anyway.

Hey just my opinion, it does not make it good. I did not mind the darker gritter atmosphere I think I preferred it, but for that to mean something I need to care, I never got know any character well enough to care. I think they failed horribly, and they had an opportunity have a great movie. But to it seemed like a collection of spare parts that fell together again and again just at last split second luckily enough in every critical moment but without reason. How did rebels find the base where the girl found her father? The escaped pilot had to show them, they had to fly in low in a storm not to be detected to secret base, how would the Xwings find it so fast in the storm? I had major problems with almost every big scene in this movie, and why I felt it was thrown together.

To me without character development you can't have a great movie.

forevereagle · December 22, 2016

7 hours ago, KingDL1 said:

Don't know he sat up front on one of their flights at least, the flight to make the introduction, no character development means I can guess the girl was well trained by Forest Whitaker's character and getting from planet to planet in this realm seems vital.

I saw no point in killing everyone, I guess I did not care after everything anyway.

Hey just my opinion, it does not make it good. I did not mind the darker gritter atmosphere I think I preferred it, but for that to mean something I need to care, I never got know any character well enough to care. I think they failed horribly, and they had an opportunity have a great movie. But to it seemed like a collection of spare parts that fell together again and again just at last split second luckily enough in every critical moment but without reason. How did rebels find the base where the girl found her father? The escaped pilot had to show them, they had to fly in low in a storm not to be detected to secret base, how would the Xwings find it so fast in the storm? I had major problems with almost every big scene in this movie, and why I felt it was thrown together.

To me without character development you can't have a great movie.

He sat up front, but never touched the controls. He even told the pilot in the third act that he had to keep the ship ready to go because he was their only way out.

They kind of had to kill everyone for the sake of continuity. Heroes from the biggest victory to that point never show up again? They even established some of the pilots from ANH in the movie, so if these characters don't show again, it becomes glaring. Besides, it was a suicide mission and they knew it. It was a nice change to not get the Hollywood ending, something that Star Wars has done a lot in the past.

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, just trying to add some details and color that I noticed when I watched it. I enjoyed it, but it did feel odd to have a Star Wars movie that wasn't about the Skywalkers. I am not sure that they made a great movie, but I definitely feel they made a very good one. It was fun and told a story that directly moved to the core story and is basically the first paragraph of the opening scroll from ANH.

The characters were a little under baked, but not so horribly. They could definitely have done a better job, but I think that is less derived from the effort to develop characters and more from my biggest complaint with the movie, pacing. They moved so quickly that any character moments were so fleeting that you missed out if you weren't looking for them. It just felt like they had a lot to do, not enough time to do it, so they moved as quickly as possible.

Rudy · December 22, 2016

I think Cassian could pilot a ship, but he knew that IF they were going to escape, it was going to be a hot extraction, so he told Bhodi, you're our only way out. They knew it was unlikely they'd get out. You could see in Baze Malbus' eyes the realization that it was a suicide mission when he saw the explosion from their transport.

KingDL1 · December 22, 2016

5 hours ago, forevereagle said:

He sat up front, but never touched the controls. He even told the pilot in the third act that he had to keep the ship ready to go because he was their only way out.

Got the feeling it was the ship needed not that he could not fly but that might be the pilot in me.

5 hours ago, forevereagle said:

They kind of had to kill everyone for the sake of continuity. Heroes from the biggest victory to that point never show up again? They even established some of the pilots from ANH in the movie, so if these characters don't show again, it becomes glaring. Besides, it was a suicide mission and they knew it. It was a nice change to not get the Hollywood ending, something that Star Wars has done a lot in the past.

This is epic size thousands of solar systems and what could be hundreds of thousands of worlds, I think they can have multiple story lines that cross only once easily, and plenty that never cross. So for me, I don't think killing everyone was the only option.

Rudy · December 23, 2016

I thought this was a good in depth review.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uLljgEUPmRQ

UNTcrazy727 · December 23, 2016

2nd best Star Wars movie after Empire. LOVED how the ending rolled right into episode 4.

Rudy · December 23, 2016

Developing: Carrie Fisher in critical condition after suffering full cardiac arrest on flight from London to LA.

UNT Five&Dime · January 3, 2017

On ‎12‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 8:49 AM, forevereagle said:

They kind of had to kill everyone for the sake of continuity.

We had new versions of Tie Fighters and Imperial Troopers that aren't seen in Episode IV that takes place right after this. I don't think continuity is a concern with the Star Wars franchise.

forevereagle · January 3, 2017

1 hour ago, UNT Five&Dime said:

We had new versions of Tie Fighters and Imperial Troopers that aren't seen in Episode IV that takes place right after this. I don't think continuity is a concern with the Star Wars franchise.

There are a few throw away lines that reference things being discontinued and such. We don't ever see in atmosphere fighters again in the next three movies, so hard to say if there is a continuity issue there. Similar with the troopers, we don't see special ops or much ground troops in the same environments, so not sure that qualifies.

Others have done much more research than I have put together analysis on this stuff, so I am sure that info is out there if you are curious.