Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

[BoJack Horseman]

Another year for a hype for a new Star Wars movie. It already looks amazing. Love how action and special effects look and this will sure be an interesting way to tell the story of events that happens at the begining of New Hope. Can't wait.

[illiniguy34]

I'm excited for this :3.

[Jane]

 

Well now my interest is piqued. Looks awesome.

[BoJack Horseman]

H Y P E D

[Clappy]

Spoiler

Where do I start with this?  Well it was different...while still trying very hard to be the same.  If that makes any sense.  Let me explain:

Rogue One was quite possibly the most fan servicey movie the series has ever made.  Not saying that's a bad thing mind you.  I enjoyed A LOT of the fan service outside of just a few things.  The CGI-ed up Tarkin and Leia were fucking distracting as hell.  Honestly, it was laughably bad.  Leia was only on screen for ten seconds, but Tarkin was in a good portion of the movie and yes the guy who portrayed him died twenty plus years ago, but you could have just recasted his role.  I know fanboys would have probably trashed it if so, but making Tarkin look these levels of plastic were much worse.  At least Darth Vader was awesome in his three minutes, but I seriously wished he had a bigger role.  I also liked seeing the same Red leaders and Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba and...honestly all the other fan service that was so overwhelming lol.

Why focus on all the nostalgia?  Because I'm mixed on all the new they introduced.  The new characters are all a mixed bag to me.  They spent so much time building up the two leads Jyn and Cassian but they were still not all that interesting.  Jyn has the same backstory as you'd expect of someone who grew up without her father.  Cassian is what you'd expect from someone as a soldier who doesn't always play by the rules.  J2SO was by far the best new character and he was a droid.  The villain Krennic was one note.  Donnie Yen was awesome but at times, he reminded me heavily of a blind Legalos.  I wish his character was more established on.  Actually I wish a lot of these characters were built up because they were a lot more interesting than the ones who got focus.

I don't know.  I did like the darker tone of it all as the movie focused less on the usual good vs evil tone the series is known for and even admitted that not all the good guys were good, which I loved them finally admitting to it since characters like Han Solo weren't as heroic as the series paints them out to be.  That being said, the writing was messy at times as you could tell by its pre production if you followed it at all that the movie went through a ton of rewrites.  It got its act together in the second half though as it focused far more on the action, but the first half was boring at times and a bit clunky.  Also that score.  I missed John Williams because this guy was clearly trying to be John Williams.  I wish he wasn't because this is trying to be a different Star Wars movie.  The tone of the movie worked for me because it was trying to be different so I wish the score did too.

The movie itself was still a good time though.  I liked that it tried to be different from the usual Star Wars story arc while still throwing in fun Easter eggs.  The second half of the movie especially was so fucking good.  I liked this a lot more than I initially expected.  You just have to sit through the first hour or so before you get to the real fun stuff.

7/10

 

[terminoob]

Spoiler

Felt like for the first hour or so I was watching a move version of an opening title crawl, so I'm not sure why they didn't just, like, make an opening title crawl explaining what was going on so they didn't need all of that exposition (at the very least, title crawl everything up until they leave for Jedha - it felt like the movie didn't even start until they got there).

Also, who the hell approved a script where, like, none of the characters are referred to by name? Jyn and Cassien were the only two I remembered easily - and Saw, I guess, but they killed him off so early it didn't even matter. I had to struggle to remember Bodhi's name because it just kept getting mentioned so off-handedly and like he never had any real introduction, I had literally zero clue about the two Asian characters (I guess Donnie Yen's character was Chirrut or something? Would not have known that without looking it up), for most of the movie I only knew the "K" part of the droid's name (I think its full name was K-2JSO? Maybe? Seriously, no clue). I know Tarkin and Vader because of the other movies, but who was that other guy? The actual main antagonist. The one that was wearing white. Because I don't know his name. I didn't know Mon Mothma's full name was Mon Mothma. If they referred to her it was only by "Mon". I guess Bail Organa was in the movie? Couldn't have told you that. Didn't know who the hell the commander of the Rebels was in that last battle scene above Scarith (the alien dude that was sitting in the chair - he ordered the hammerhead to ram into the Star Destroyer). Also, that kind of balding guy with the blonde eyebrows that told Cassien to kill Saw (or did he tell him to kill Jyn's father? I have no idea). Didn't know who he was.

Seriously. Scriptwriting 101. Introduce your damn characters. ESPECIALLY if you kill them all off. The battle on Scarith was great and the deaths were unexpected but I couldn't bring myself to care even a little bit that any of it was actually happening because it felt like the movie didn't care enough about these characters to introduce me to them. Like, it's as if the movie knew these characters were destined to die, so it just went "don't worry about these guys, they're not important".

Oh, also, Vader talked a lot. That was weird. Especially because he talks a lot for that one scene and then disappears until the end when he boards the ship and kills all those rebels. The "don't let your ambitions choke you up" (or whatever that line was) was really weird and out of place and it felt like that was the only justification for even having that scene in the movie (otherwise they could've just mentioned that the guy in the white suit met up with him and he said whatever it was he had to say). Would've made the end a lot more surprising if we only hear mentions of him throughout the entire movie and then the one time we see him he shows up and kills everyone on screen. Think about it in the grand scheme of the movies - if you're watching these in order, then that scene where he force chokes the guy is the first time the audience is introduced to Darth Vader's character. I don't know about anyone else, but I want my very first scene with Darth Vader to be terrifying and to show me why this guy is so feared across the galaxy and why he's in the one in charge. Him being talkative and cracking a joke isn't that scary to me - him in the dark hallway, killing rebels, showing off his lightsaber and the force? Yeah. That's pretty scary.

 

[crushingmayhem]

Still undecided whether to watch it or not but I probably will.

[Dragonball Z]

I saw it, watched it, loved it!

Grand Moff Tarkin was REALLY convincing for me, I can't believe he was C.G.I.! I can't remember who did his voice, but he did a really good job! I really like the characters played by Felicity Jones and Forest Whitaker. My personal favorite scene is where that Mon Calamari ship RAMS against the Star Destroyer, forcing it into ANOTHER Star Destroyer, forcing them to CRASH into the Force Field Generator! If you're watching the films in chronological order, when they're supposed to take place in the "Star Wars" universe, this could EASILY be considered the FIRST part of "Star Wars: A New Hope," seeing as how "Star Wars: A New Hope" is supposed to take place IMMEDIATELY after "Rogue One!"

I'd give it a 10/10! Enough said!

[BoJack Horseman]

Spoiler

Welp, it wasn't as great as I expected but still I definitely enjoyed watching this one.

 

Positives:

- DARTH WADER. Holy shit. This is the first time I've seen him on screen and good god it was incredible. Although his first scene here was kind of weird and I didn't feel that powerful about the scene but seeing him was still delightful. I just kind of wished he'd be more in the movie but holy fuck, the last scene when he started to kill those rebels, I just got so pumped. That part was definitely the most amazing thing about the movie.

- I definitely liked how the movie felt different than other Star Wars, while still keeping Star Wars charm. This movie definitely had more war vibe than other movies, which exactly what should have been and it was. A war Star Wars movie  

- Visuals and effects were definitely so cool. I'm so happy that new Star Wars movies know how to use special efects so well.

- Action scenes were definitely so exciting. I kind of wished those would be more in first 30 minutes or so but I'll talk about that later.

- Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor were definitely good characters imo. Yeah, we've seen their types of characters before but still I enjoyed both of them and their interactions were cool.

- K-2SO is definitely the best character in the movie. He was just pretty funny and his last minutes with him shooting stormtroopers was so awesome.

- Saw Gerrera was also a good enough character for me. Not too memorable but I did enjoy his moments with Jyn.

- Chirrut kicked a lot of ass. That was amazing.

- C-3PO and R2D2 CAMEOS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I LOVED THAT PART SO MUCH. God they are just ugh <3333333333333333

- All characters being killed off. That was just wow brutal. I can't help but feel they definitely surpassed all main character kill offs in a movie. Idk but just wow. Even though I hated how one of my friends spoiled that everyone was going to die, I didn't take it seriously until I saw it on screen  

Negatives:

- The main issue of the movie. Characters. Outside of Jyn, Cassian, K-2SO and kind of Saw; none of characters had rarely any personality and that sucks cuz they died and you were supposed to care for them but you just couldn't. I suppose I did care for Chirrut a little just for how badass he was but sadly he didn't have nothing to have offer for, except for him praying for "force". And others were just there. Bodhi was just a plot device and Baze only appeared as Chirrut's friend and nothing else. Krennic was just a dull villain overall, hell even Saw was more effective than him. I was so disappointed cuz I really cared for new characters in Force Awakens but not the characters here, especially when they were killed off one by one.

- CGI effects on Tarkin was definitely distracting.

- First 30 minutes were kind of dragging a little. I just wished they'd add more action in it and keep up the pace. Yeah, you do need to set up stuff and ofc that'll take a bit in first 30 minutes but if the character introductions were mostly poor and shoved in, then yeah I do have a problem with that.

Overall, I didn't enjoy watching this one as The Force Awakens last year but it was definitely refreshing to see a different Star Wars movie tbh.

Grade: B+

 

Next antology movie. Han Solo <3