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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is up on US Netflix

GK86

Homeland Security Fail
I mean 60% of Rogue One is built on fan service and "HEY LOOK AT THIS THING FROM ANH" or "LOOK AT THIS, STAR WARS"
So probably not

I didn't know any of the callbacks and I enjoyed it. And this is coming from someone that has watched the rest of the SW movies.
 
The movie jumps around way to much in the first act. First your on this planet, then jump to another random planet. Then another etc. the direction didn't seem very good

The characters also felt hollow. Jyn was just, there most of the time. Forrest Whitaker did nothing really.

This is why I can't get into the movie.

It's disjointed and has no real character driven emotional core. The story is barebones, but it works in concept. Its execution is sloppy though.

All flash, no substance.
 

Ridley327

Member
Ugh, Rogue One is amazing and is the best Star Wars movie. Can't believe so many did not like like it, and I guess it is mostly because
it did not have a nice happy fucking ending like every other movie.

I don't think that's an issue at all, as ESB, everybody's once and future favorite Star Wars movie, ends decidedly poorly for its heroes.
 

Surfinn

Member
I came around to really like it. The score is a grower and it's just a fun SW film.

Nowhere near the awesomeness that is TFA, but still very good.
 

Wolfe

Member
I didn't like this movie. It's bad, but it's bad in an interesting way. I'm going to watch it again today.

Why is it bad? I mean I get if you don't like it but it's literally the opposite of a "bad" movie.

Most people who don't like the movie are critical of it because of the shoddy first half, not due to the ending.

Why is the first half shoddy? I keep seeing people throw criticisms like this around without backing them up with any actual arguments or explanations of said criticisms.

Or maybe because it's a total bore of a movie where a bunch of characters nobody asked for, or cares about, dies. All of it sloppily written just to explain a plot hole of a much older and better film.

This is why I can't get into the movie.

It's disjointed and has no real character driven emotional core. The story is barebones, but it works in concept. Its execution is sloppy though.

All flash, no substance.

I honestly can't get where opinions like this are coming from based on the movie I watched. I get people not liking it and all that but some of those critiques sound "sloppy" as hell.
 

jph139

Member
Having watched it for the first time recently, I get why people would be down on Rogue One because it's definitely messy at best. For me it was the dialogue - the characters all sort of speak in cliches, so it's hard to take them seriously in those quiet moments where you're supposed to build characters and connections.

But I was sold on the premise of "Star Wars from the ground level." The setpieces were cool. The whole final sequence made logical sense and really communicated how slim the odds were, without every overstepping into feeling contrived - like, I believe every step of the way that this is next-to-impossible, but their success never feels like a deus ex machina. And when they finally make it to the end, the catharsis of it all feels earned. I'd watch it again and that's pretty high praise.

(I wanted more Vader though.)
 
I liked the part at the end where the hero had to leap over the big chasm to reach the difficult-to-access place where they could transmit the truth about Miranda plans to the death star.
 
The part where it goes right from Jin being super mad at Cassian for going after her father and being generally pissed to her giving her inspirational speech to the people that ordered his assassination is the moment I knew TFA >>> RO. TFA may be bland, but at least it makes sense.
 

sphagnum

Banned
The part where it goes right from Jin being super mad at Cassian for going after her father and being generally pissed to her giving her inspirational speech to the people that ordered his assassination is the moment I knew TFA >>> RO. TFA may be bland, but at least it makes sense.

She wants to make sure his death isn't in vain so she tries to light a fire under the Rebels and get them to go to Scarif, what's off about that?
 

SilentRob

Member
Watched it again after seeing it in cinema but I just can't warm up to it. I just don't think it's a good movie. It's a Star Wars Fan's dream, sure, but maybe that's my problem with it. It feels like a movie made by Star Wars Nerds for Star Wars Nerds with very little attention being paid to actually making a great movie that could stand on its own. There's not a single interesting new character, the first half of the movie is a convoluted mess, the dialogue is cheesy and cliched in the most terrible way (while characters and dialogue were actually among TFA's strongest parts)and Mads Mikkelsen is utterly wasted in his role (as is Donnie Yen). The last big action scene is amazing but man - this still feel slike the world's most expensive fan film.
 
She wants to make sure his death isn't in vain so she tries to light a fire under the Rebels and get them to go to Scarif, what's off about that?
It's a really jarring movement. For so long, Jin has been becoming more and more disenchanted with the fight between the Rebels and the Empire, hence her becoming a criminal, and now she finds out the Rebels can be just as cutthroat as the Empire. A whole scene was dedicated to showing this, and they put it right before her speech! There's nothing in between to bridge her anger to her up-and-at-em attitude, let alone something to suggest she's thinking about her father while doing it.

And then you have to dive into the fact that her and her father's relationship was flat and I just don't understand where the passion comes from.
 
Just watched it last night - never saw it in theaters.

Obviously the effects are top notch - it definitely looks like a Star Wars film. The battle scenes are great to watch (especially the fleet battle towards the end). The different locations and sets feel like distinct places (Vader's palace was great btw).

The plot...eh I guess there are worse ways to tell the story of how the Rebels got the Death Star plans. It proceeds at a decent enough pace and we're given clear reasons of why we jump from place A to place B. In my head I still wish it was more a heist film or something - with the Rebels getting the worst of the worst to do a suicide mission. Oh well.

The characters...well is it weird to say the villains felt more like actual characters than the heroes? I mean I was rooting more for the nameless rebel pilots and commandos in the final battle over the main characters. The Imperials are caricatures, but at least they're memorable. I don't even remember the name of anyone besides the main lead. From the crazy cyborg man to the weird heavy trooper who is somehow friends with the blind monk...none of them stayed with me. As funny as I found the droid even he felt wasted. And this idea that they'd all just decide to defy orders and go on a dangerous mission together at the end felt...forced? I mean Donnie Yen's character I get, he's in touch with the Force and probably recognizes the gravity of the situation, Jena (sp) wants to make sure her dad didn't die in vain...but the rest? The rebel assassin seems to just feel bad he wanted to kill her dad, the droid is just up for whatever, and the pilot...he's kinda there.

Oh and here's some random rebel commandos, who honestly probably could have had a movie made about their raid on the facility instead of spending the previous hour focusing on a group of people I really do not care about. I mean...seriously? You could have had a similar story, just make it about a group of rebel commandos (with some former clone troopers - I can't be the only one who wanted to see something like that). The group we're meant to care about...we really don't. I mean the Rebels have clearly been fighting against the odds this whole time, but we need our female lead to inspire them when an hour ago (movie time) she did not give a damn about anything?

It's a well made film...but the core group of characters is so forgettable it drags the film down.

Better than the prequels, not as good as the main trilogy/TFA.
 

MC Safety

Member
I'm rewatching this on Netflix.

I'd forgotten how much of a rushed jumble the first 15 or minutes is. The film jumps from planet to planet at least five times before the protagonist arrives on Yavin. It's kind of a mess.

As Star Wars go, this one is probably the weakest. Its characters are forgettable, its story answered a question no one was asking, and it's like that friend you have who peaked 10 years ago and begins every sentence with "Remember that time...."
 
Why is the first half shoddy? I keep seeing people throw criticisms like this around without backing them up with any actual arguments or explanations of said criticisms.

First off, the first 15 minutes jumps from planet to planet so quickly that almost none of them end up being memorable in the slightest. Can you name me any of the planets from the first 15 minutes (besides Jedha)? In the OT, you end up spending enough time on each planet to get a feel for what its about. Tatooine, Dagobah, Hoth, Bespin, Endor; all of those are memorable because you spend time on them. On the other hand, the constant jumping in RO makes the opening feel schizophrenic, as in some cases, you only spend about a minute on a planet before it jumps to a new one.

Secondly, the second act is pretty much a carbon copy of the first. In both acts, Jyn and the members of her team go to a planet to meet with one of Jyn's father figures to get information about the Death Star. However, an explosion makes her fail to discover that information and also kills the father figure. Absolutely nothing is accomplished by going to Eidu in RO. Jyn already knows about the Death Star and has seen it destroy a planet, and she knows her father has built in a weakness, and she ends up gaining no new information. You could argue that her witnessing her father get killed by the Rebels was important, but all that happens is she yells at Cassian for a little bit before it disappears like Claudette's breast cancer, and it was like it never even happened.

That's a big problem with Rogue One: characters will do things that make no change on them or the plot. Another example is the tentacle mind rape scene. Saw is distrustful of pilot guy (I can't remember his name; that's how unmemorable the characters were) and uses the tentacle monster to find out if he's lying. It tells him that he's not and... Saw is still distrustful of the pilot guy. It accomplishes nothing. For pilot guy, it's said to drive people insane, but he ends up fine because Cassian asks him a question or two. It's like it never happened.

Also, the film barely spends any time building up the relationship between Jyn and Saw or Jyn and her father, so their deaths didn't have much of an impact, since you barely know the characters and have spent next to no time with them. Their deaths feel hollow. It's like the movie is a sociopath; it understands what movie scenes that make audiences sad look like, but doesn't realize what making a scene like that actually means, that you need to actually need an emotional core that comes from building up interesting characters. All you saw between Saw and Jyn was a two-second scene before they reunite, and the movie proceeds to tell you about their relationship, instead of showing you it so you can get attached to the characters. Galen has only two scenes with his daughter before he was killed. Even Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru got more development, and they were way less important in terms of the plot.

That's really the main problem with Rogue One, it never takes any time to develop any of the relationships between the characters, so they all feel flat and boring. They hardly spend any time with each other, talking and learning about one another, so you end up barely knowing them and barely caring about them.
 

sphagnum

Banned
First off, the first 15 minutes jumps from planet to planet so quickly that almost none of them end up being memorable in the slightest. Can you name me any of the planets from the first 15 minutes (besides Jedha)?

Lah'mu, Ring of Kafrene, Wobani, Yavin IV. Coruscant also makes an appearance later!

Of course, I read the books so this is the fun stuff to me.
 
Yeah the Saw Gerra scene with him telling Bondhi
he'd go insane from the Bor Gullet and Bondhi turns out completely fine for the rest of the movie.
Was really bizzarre.

Also Chirrut calling Jyn "little sister" O_O like wtf he just met her. There's zero context set up for this lol.

And yeah CG Tarking looked weird af. I actually did like Bondhi though, there was some missed potential there with a defective Imperial.
 
Film was solid. I enjoyed it for what it is.

I mean, it's Star Wars. If your expecting a superb movie look elsewhere or just watch Empire Strikes Back.
 
If you wanna see the best Darth Vader in the last 30 years watch this movie.

tbVomBn.gif
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
It's a really jarring movement. For so long, Jin has been becoming more and more disenchanted with the fight between the Rebels and the Empire, hence her becoming a criminal, and now she finds out the Rebels can be just as cutthroat as the Empire. A whole scene was dedicated to showing this, and they put it right before her speech! There's nothing in between to bridge her anger to her up-and-at-em attitude, let alone something to suggest she's thinking about her father while doing it.

And then you have to dive into the fact that her and her father's relationship was flat and I just don't understand where the passion comes from.

I've been the most courteous moviegoer around since I was a toddler and I actually yelled "Fuck you." at the screen during the speech on the way down to Scarif.
 
I've been the most courteous moviegoer around since I was a toddler and I actually yelled "Fuck you." at the screen during the speech on the way down to Scarif.

All those years. All that reputation. Hard fought. Well earned.

wasted.

Was it worth it, Taj?

Was it really
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
All those years. All that reputation. Hard fought. Well earned.

wasted.

Was it worth it, Taj?

Was it really

No. This stuff isn't worth getting upset about.
 

Aaron

Member
Yeah the one at the end was good, but the other Vader scene was embarrassing in how awful it was. Most of this movie was far too bland to be called... well anything really. It was the lukewarm tap water of the Star Wars universe.
 

sphagnum

Banned
Yeah the one at the end was good, but the other Vader scene was embarrassing in how awful it was. Most of this movie was far too bland to be called... well anything really. It was the lukewarm tap water of the Star Wars universe.

I think you mean the Mustafar scene was awesome.
 

99Luffy

Banned
I'm rewatching this on Netflix.

I'd forgotten how much of a rushed jumble the first 15 or minutes is. The film jumps from planet to planet at least five times before the protagonist arrives on Yavin. It's kind of a mess.

As Star Wars go, this one is probably the weakest. Its characters are forgettable, its story answered a question no one was asking, and it's like that friend you have who peaked 10 years ago and begins every sentence with "Remember that time...."
Huh. The deathstar weakness has been made fun of and parodied countless times. Now it makes sense.

..wait didnt TFA have a deathstar that that had an easy weakness? Hard to remember what happened in that terrible movie.
 

Boney

Banned
Vader could've just force pulled the data disk instead of trying to look cool.

I don't think that's an issue at all, as ESB, everybody's once and future favorite Star Wars movie, ends decidedly poorly for its heroes.
Hell even just TFA ends with Finn in a coma after getting his spine melted and Han dying, leaving Kylo as unredeemable and Leia heartbroken.
 

sphagnum

Banned
Huh. The deathstar weakness has been made fun of and parodied countless times. Now it makes sense.

..wait didnt TFA have a deathstar that that had an easy weakness? Hard to remember what happened in that terrible movie.

Starkiller Base's flaw was more difficult to attack, but the way TFA flows it doesnt really seem like it. They didn't have to just hit one hole, or blow up a shield generator to get to the hole, they had to get past a shield that was projected from the planet itself, shut off the shield so others could get in, then blow up the generator powering a second shield around the thermal oscillator itself and then blow up the oscillator.
 
Vader could've just force pulled the data disk instead of trying to look cool.


Hell even just TFA ends with Finn in a coma after getting his spine melted and Han dying, leaving Kylo as unredeemable and Leia heartbroken.

Nah, TFA ends with hope being found. None of the things you mentioned have a chance to resonate like the ending of ESB
 
Saw it in theatres, and im not sure if i want to watch it again where ive watched force awakens and 4-6
Multiple times. Its not a bad movie at all, and its an obstensively better film than any of the prequels can dream of being, for all
Its interesting ideas (the rebels not being the goody two shoes we know them to be and actual resorting to scum tactics
Like the empire) its held back by putting its focus on the two least interesting characters. Casdian is the worst while jyn
Is just kind of monotone compared to donnie yen and the other dude, and the droid. Had a pretty dope last half hour though, otherwise its just kind of slow
 
I just watched it myself.

Never bothered to see it in the theater because I was Star War'd out. We binged the OG trilogy before going to see TFA 2 winters ago, and I just never felt like watching more Star Wars last Winter.

I thought it was pretty good. All the characters are definitely worthless and it's kinda crazy how they kill most everyone lol. The final battle was definitely worth watching though. I was really impressed with how they made it match the older movies aesthetics. That whole mission sequence felt very Star Wars in a way that TFA didn't.
 
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