Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, in theaters Dec. 16, 2016

[ErikElvis]

I really enjoyed rogue one. I could nit pick but do not feel the need to.  It definitely didn't let me down like TFA. 

[mechaninac]

1 hour ago, ErikElvis said:

I really enjoyed rogue one. I could nit pick but do not feel the need to.  It definitely didn't let me down like TFA. 

Finally saw it today.  My sentiments, exactly.

[sh9000]

Maybe for the blu-ray release they can fix up

Tarkin and Leia a little more?

[Graham]

Seeing Rogue One for a third time tomorrow. Really enjoying it.

[kalvasflam]

This was pretty good, I liked it better than tFA.

The ending was just right, all of the main characters died making it a good transition to Ep IV.  One thing that did make me wonder though, what is Tarkin thinking?  Hey guys, let's blow up Scarif, and ignore the Rebel fleet, Vader will do them in.  Talk about a poor work ethic.  You have this ultimate weapon, and you don't even bother to kill the rebels that are right there in front of you?  

That should've instantly led to a Vader scene in episode IV where he is choking Tarkin and saying: "Moff Tarkin, I find your lack of work ethic... disturbing, you are here by demoted...  to janitor."

[peter]

The ending of Rogue One just made me wonder.....they could easily give the same treatment to Rebels and kill off the entire cast.

Edited January 3, 2017 by peter

[sketchley]

7 hours ago, kalvasflam said:

One thing that did make me wonder though, what is Tarkin thinking?  Hey guys, let's blow up Scarif, and ignore the Rebel fleet, Vader will do them in.  Talk about a poor work ethic.  You have this ultimate weapon, and you don't even bother to kill the rebels that are right there in front of you? 

Well, he does have an anti-planet weapon (not an anti-ship or anti-fighter one), that was just completed.  So I doubt that it is fully staffed and armed, or has a full complement of TIE Fighter defenders, as it has yet to undergo a shakedown cruise to work out the bugs.  And I think we all can agree that he wants to deliver it undamaged to the Emperor.

Also, by leaving it to Vader, he can avoid responsibility if the Rebels get away with the plans (which they do), while still being in a position to claim the success (I was overseeing the battle).  He's a very slippery character, good at covering all his bases.

[kalvasflam]

3 hours ago, sketchley said:

Well, he does have an anti-planet weapon (not an anti-ship or anti-fighter one), that was just completed.  So I doubt that it is fully staffed and armed, or has a full complement of TIE Fighter defenders, as it has yet to undergo a shakedown cruise to work out the bugs.  And I think we all can agree that he wants to deliver it undamaged to the Emperor.

Also, by leaving it to Vader, he can avoid responsibility if the Rebels get away with the plans (which they do), while still being in a position to claim the success (I was overseeing the battle).  He's a very slippery character, good at covering all his bases.

I don't know, I find this kind of hard to believe. 

Because what is the time lag between Rogue one and ANH?  Vader got right on it and chased down Leia right?  Unless Leia decided to go on a pleasure cruise for a few weeks, and completely forgot about "hope."  But it seemed logical that she didn't go to Yavin immediately, and went right to Tatooine to get Kenobi. 

It's not easy to tell the time difference in ANH itself, but you have to figure those turbo lasers that were shooting at the fighters weren't newly installed, and those Tie fighters on the station didn't just get there.  Unless they retconned those away, the Death star has a bunch of other weapons and capabilities on it.  And in terms of him delivering the Death Star to the Palpatine undamaged, if the rebels decided to fire on the Death star, how is Tarkin ignoring the rebel fleet going to help avoid damage to the shiny new ball?

No, I think the real explanation is that Tarkin is just lazy bum, he didn't seem that smart to think so far in advance.  He could've blown up the planet and killed the rebels, but he just chose to not do it.  Awfully lazy of him if you ask me.

[sh9000]

http://www.target.com/p/-/A-52030319

[sketchley]

1 hour ago, kalvasflam said:

Because what is the time lag between Rogue one and ANH?  Vader got right on it and chased down Leia right?  Unless Leia decided to go on a pleasure cruise for a few weeks, and completely forgot about "hope."  But it seemed logical that she didn't go to Yavin immediately, and went right to Tatooine to get Kenobi. 

It's not easy to tell the time difference in ANH itself, but you have to figure those turbo lasers that were shooting at the fighters weren't newly installed, and those Tie fighters on the station didn't just get there.  Unless they retconned those away, the Death star has a bunch of other weapons and capabilities on it.  And in terms of him delivering the Death Star to the Palpatine undamaged, if the rebels decided to fire on the Death star, how is Tarkin ignoring the rebel fleet going to help avoid damage to the shiny new ball?

No, I think the real explanation is that Tarkin is just lazy bum, he didn't seem that smart to think so far in advance.  He could've blown up the planet and killed the rebels, but he just chose to not do it.  Awfully lazy of him if you ask me.

That's the sticky point - how much time passes between Rogue One and ANH?  Some people have said 10 minutes.  But, realistically, even if Vader dropped everything he was doing on the Rebel flagship, raced back to his shuttle, flew back to his ship, and left in pursuit immediately upon landing, could he still have tracked down Leia and caught up with her in only 10 minutes?  Its a stretch.

Back to the Death Star - how much time passes between the start of that movie and the destruction of the Death Star?  ANH isn't clear about that, either.  Going back to the point I was making in my earlier post: I'm of the opinion that the Death Star's actions in ANH are a part of its shake down cruise.  Maybe the lack of a full crew complement is also part of why the Rebel's were so successful, too?

Anyhow, I agree that the real reason is Tarkin.  Lazy bum is your interpretation, mine is that he's thinking politically, and setting others up to take the fall if things go South.

[Dynaman]

I'd go with lazy writing myself.

[kajnrig]

1 hour ago, Dynaman said:

I'd go with lazy writing myself.

This guy. Eyyy....

[sh9000]

Scenes that were reshoots.

https://www.comicbookmovie.com/sci-fi/star_wars/the-editors-of-rogue-one-a-star-wars-story-reveal-which-scenes-a147879

[Marzan]

Finally watched Rogue One after being out of commission for a few weeks. It's not perfect and made some connections that I found headscratching, but it was one heck of an enjoyable film. I think these stand alone films have a lot of potential.

[jvmacross]

Where the "10 minutes" between RO and ANH comes from.....

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/star-wars-rogue-one-reshoots-disney-898562

There is that scene from ESB where Han charges into a Star Destroyer and seemingly "vanishes".  Vader orders the freshly promoted Admiral Piett, after "accepting" Capt. Needa's apology, to "calculate every possible destination along their last known trajectory"....so 10 minutes may make sense if Vader and the Empire got really lucky at pinpointing Tatooine.....or there weren't any other planetary systems in the Tantive's "last trajectory" as it hyper-spaced away from the battle over Scariff.....at this point it is just a matter of accepting that Vader was able to get back onto his Star Destroyer and "find" the Tantive within 10 minutes or so.....

Based on how the info about the 10 minutes was acquired....I am thinking that it may be tweaked at some point....but I do not see it being tweaked by that much as Leia is shown at the start of ANH as just barely having time to load the disk into R2 before she is brought before Vader.....based on her message, she had intended to personally deliver the message to Obi-Wan so putting the Death Star plans into R2 was never the original plan and done in haste due to the unexpected speed in which they were tracked down by Vader....

 

 

 

 

 

[kaiotheforsaken]

So I saw this over Christmas and enjoyed it well enough. It had some of the best action Star Wars has seen in a long time and some of story was pretty cool. I thought the first...third or so felt really fragmented and I didn't particularly care for (or about) any of the characters. The acting felt really off or out of place for almost everyone on the rebels side. Rebel captain guy, Empire defector guy, Saw Garrera, blind...guy and his buddy all seemed really weird. For as serious as the movie tried to paint the universe and the situation these characters all seemed too jokey or at the very least not serious enough. 

I also felt like, because of the issues I had with the characters, it didn't even matter emotionally that they all ate it by the end. There wasn't enough going with them individually or as a group to care about their fate. Also, while not a fault of the writing or anything, we knew they would succeed in getting the plans to the rebels. So it kind of watered down the tension of the final space battle, awesome as it was.

So yeah, I liked it, probably will see it again, but I think it was reasonably average.

 

 

 

[Big s]

I feel the same. It was a good movie and worth watching, but it could have been a far better and more interesting film. It's definitely the best of the prequels by far.

[captain america]

I'm just happy that Sheldon Cooper finally found a way to transfer his consciousness into a droid! 

[sh9000]

That's a cool shirt.

[Phobos]

It was better than that massive disappointment that was TFA. That's all I really wanted. 

[Bolt]

It was definitely better than TFA. But truthfully JJ ,or anyone for that matter , would've had a hard time picking up after ROTJ. We all had so many expectations and JJ just cobbled a tribute together. 

Whereas R1 is a stand alone and what ever expectations anyone had , they weren't necessarily linked to 30 years of Star Wars movies. Not like the the 7 episodes..we all enjoyed watching another Star Wars movie with another perspective. Granted , it can be criticized but ..it stand alone and still ties into aNH.the best of both worlds..

Also, I think Vader was hot on PL's tail but it could have been days before he actually caught up with her(or longer?). She was planning on hand delivering to Obi Wan. Until it was obvious that wasn't gonna happen...

[kajnrig]

What made TFA so disappointing? I'm just curious. I don't think I was there for the initial discussion about that film. I've already stated my opinion on the two - tl;dr they're about on par with each other, I dislike them more than I like them, I don't think they're bad. It seems the biggest sticking point was that it was a rehash of Episode IV?

[Roy Focker]

5 hours ago, kajnrig said:

What made TFA so disappointing? I'm just curious. I don't think I was there for the initial discussion about that film. I've already stated my opinion on the two - tl;dr they're about on par with each other, I dislike them more than I like them, I don't think they're bad. It seems the biggest sticking point was that it was a rehash of Episode IV?

I'm curious too.

I thought TFA was a good movie.  Sure the basic story was a retelling of ANH but there was new characters who had personalities and a backstory.   You could get emotionally invested in them.  Actions and visuals in Rogue One were better but its characters weren't interesting enough to care about what happen to them.   Rogue One became a chore to watch.

[sketchley]

1 hour ago, kajnrig said:

What made TFA so disappointing? I'm just curious. I don't think I was there for the initial discussion about that film. I've already stated my opinion on the two - tl;dr they're about on par with each other, I dislike them more than I like them, I don't think they're bad. It seems the biggest sticking point was that it was a rehash of Episode IV?

Here's my review of TFA that might shed some light on were that disappointment comes from for some people: http://monkeybacon.mywebcommunity.org/RvwMovie.php#StarWars7

The film isn't all bad, and I really like some sequences in it.  Alas, it has all the good and bad traits of a JJ film...

[CoryHolmes]

TFA disappointed me on so many levels.  But above all it wasn't original in any way, shape, or form.  Not a lick of originality to be found in it.  I could pick out the tropes as they happened, and also identify the exact moments that copied the original films.

"Oh look, she's on a desert planet that's Tattooine in everything but name."  Why couldn't they just call it Tattooine since that's what they seemed to want?  "Oh look, it's just like the cantina sequence."  Except that it failed.  Mos Eisley felt lived in, gritty, and the cantina had a sense of history.  This one didn't.  I just felt put in for the sake of having an ANH reference.  "Oh look, here's the Yoda character."  Except that she failed as a Yoda character.  Yoda had a sense of aged wisdom, from countless years of experience.  This one... didn't.  She felt more like a plot point, there to advance the story rather than inhabit it.  "Starkiller Base?  Okay, that's an esoteric nod to the original drafts for ANH... WTF!  It's another Death Star station?"  Except bigger, because of course it HAS to be scaled up.  "Wait, didn't the good guys win in ROTJ?  Why is Leia part of the Rebellion again?  Wait, rebelling against what?  If not the Empire then what?"  Basic information was seemingly left out.  "Oh look, she's Force-sensitive.  Wait, how can she resist a trained Dark-Sider like that?  Oh, and she has TK without training.  Oh, and she can hold her own in a lightsaber fight.  Didn't Luke need two movies to get that kind of skill?"

Now add to that the way I didn't enjoy any of the original touches put in.  Kylo Ren was an abysmal villain.  I didn't buy him as a threat at all, unlike Lord Vader whom was a lethal baddass from the second he stepped onto the screen.  I absolutely hated watching the Starkiller beam streak across the sky, painfully slow, yet still able to target several planets across interstellar distances.  That sucked.

I guess the best way to sum up my gripes with TFA is as follows:  It's was designed with a checklist of points to hit.  Rather than adding to the story, they just took cookie-cutter sequences from earlier films and mashed them together, and not very well at all.  Original Trilogy ships?  Check.  Original Trilogy sound effects?  Check.  Original Trilogy plot points?  Check, check, check.

[Graham]

Gotta say, I really enjoyed both TFA and Rogue One. saw both 3 times at the cinema, bought the TFA Blu-ray and will buy the Rogue One Blu-ray.

Yes, TFA was for the most part a retelling of ANH. However, IMO it was done very well. Great visuals and ship/weapon/costume designs, interesting and likable new characters and good action scenes and dialogue. Really looking forward to episode VIII.

Rogue One, I thought had absolutely fantastic, breathtaking visuals, great ship/weapon/costume designs, some wonderful action sequences and also some good dialogue. However, yes on initial viewing none of the characters were particularly likable. However on my second and third viewings I found myself caring about them and liking them more. 

 

 

[sh9000]

Already have the Rogue One blu-ray preordered.  If it ends up cheaper then I'll just get it somewhere else.

[Big s]

Does the preorder for rogue one have the 3D and extras or do we have to wait a few  months to get a full package.

[mechaninac]

9 hours ago, CoryHolmes said:

TFA disappointed me on so many levels.  But above all it wasn't original in any way, shape, or form.  Not a lick of originality to be found in it.  I could pick out the tropes as they happened, and also identify the exact moments that copied the original films.

"Oh look, she's on a desert planet that's Tattooine in everything but name."  Why couldn't they just call it Tattooine since that's what they seemed to want?  "Oh look, it's just like the cantina sequence."  Except that it failed.  Mos Eisley felt lived in, gritty, and the cantina had a sense of history.  This one didn't.  I just felt put in for the sake of having an ANH reference.  "Oh look, here's the Yoda character."  Except that she failed as a Yoda character.  Yoda had a sense of aged wisdom, from countless years of experience.  This one... didn't.  She felt more like a plot point, there to advance the story rather than inhabit it.  "Starkiller Base?  Okay, that's an esoteric nod to the original drafts for ANH... WTF!  It's another Death Star station?"  Except bigger, because of course it HAS to be scaled up.  "Wait, didn't the good guys win in ROTJ?  Why is Leia part of the Rebellion again?  Wait, rebelling against what?  If not the Empire then what?"  Basic information was seemingly left out.  "Oh look, she's Force-sensitive.  Wait, how can she resist a trained Dark-Sider like that?  Oh, and she has TK without training.  Oh, and she can hold her own in a lightsaber fight.  Didn't Luke need two movies to get that kind of skill?"

Now add to that the way I didn't enjoy any of the original touches put in.  Kylo Ren was an abysmal villain.  I didn't buy him as a threat at all, unlike Lord Vader whom was a lethal baddass from the second he stepped onto the screen.  I absolutely hated watching the Starkiller beam streak across the sky, painfully slow, yet still able to target several planets across interstellar distances.  That sucked.

I guess the best way to sum up my gripes with TFA is as follows:  It's was designed with a checklist of points to hit.  Rather than adding to the story, they just took cookie-cutter sequences from earlier films and mashed them together, and not very well at all.  Original Trilogy ships?  Check.  Original Trilogy sound effects?  Check.  Original Trilogy plot points?  Check, check, check.

Agreed on all points; although, I did enjoy the movie to a certain extent... including Anakin 2.0

There were two things that did annoy me to no end, however:

1. The resistance visually witnessing the CME bolt from Starkiller base streak across the heavens, and the destruction of its intended targets.  Pure Star Trek - Spock witnesses Vulcan's demise from a moon light year away as if he were orbiting the planet - JJ-ism.
2. And most disappointing was the purely Geek bait insipid plot device that was Captain Phasma... just about the worse waste of time of a character in any SW movie.

Edited January 6, 2017 by mechaninac

[kajnrig]

3 hours ago, mechaninac said:

And most disappointing was the purely Geek bait insipid plot device that was Captain Phasma... just about the worse waste of time of a character in any SW movie.

The way I understand it, she's supposed to play a more prominent role in Episodes 8 and 9. I didn't pay attention to the pre-release hype, so I didn't know who she was and wasn't disappointed with what screentime she got and didn't get.

[sh9000]

8 hours ago, Big s said:

Does the preorder for rogue one have the 3D and extras or do we have to wait a few  months to get a full package.

I've only seen listings for the regular blu-ray.

[jenius]

I think TFA will become better or worse with the sequels. If the sequels explain Rey's back story and that she was trained in the force but was made to forget, that would help. If it's never addressed then it's a bigger weakness. Same with Kylo, if he's developed well and it links to TFA then great. I don't think we saw a Yoda character yet,  that might be Luke... and may have been Luke previously. I would agree that the state of the universe is tough to parse... that's not something the sequels should be burdened with explaining.  My guess is that they realized there was too much politics in the prequels so they swung the pendulum too far the other way. Star Killer base was dumb, viewing it's use was dumb. I think they should have done something more guerilla. However Star Killer Base could also seem less dumb if the sequels address the resources and backing of the First Order better. 

I was almost surprised that R1 didn't address Star Killer... like have Vader tell Krennick that his many delays have led the emperor to begin even grander projects under other directors. 

[Bolt]

I did enjoy TFA for its quality action and sci-fi. Great visuals. But yes I was disappointed by the obvious rehashing that it was. I do think that it could become a better movie with the showing of episodes 8&9 filling in the obvious holes. And I do expect episodes 8&9 to be better. 

One other reason I'll mention TFA was a disappointing chapter is because it completely killed and voided the expanded universe without any doubts. For anyone who's been reeding the tales of Star Wars for the last 20 years, say good by..

I think R1 comes across as made by someone who wanted to tell a good Star Wars story focused on the ones that didn't get away and didn't get to watch the rebel fleet ride off into the pink nebula...

i think they did a pretty good job. 

[kaiotheforsaken]

I think TFA voiding the EU was really the only smart way to do things. The EU was always kind of at risk if George wanted to tell stories post ROTJ anyways. He flushed plenty of interesting, good EU bits with the prequels after all. For me, the gutting of the EU really started at the prequels. A lot of stories just simply didn't work right with things like the Clone Wars, Republic and especially the Jedi set in stone the way they were.

I think TFA needed to serve as a reset so to speak. You had to remind the general movie going audience why they should give a crap about Star Wars again and you had to bring them in in a way that wasn't complicated or required them to read a bunch of extra stuff. Use something familiar (the plot framework) to introduce some new characters and lay the ground work for more interesting, original stories. And really, the new approach to the canon seems like it's better for all. Everything is canon going forward, there is no grey area. And they've already taken steps to reintroduce some really popular EU stuff back into the fold. That seems like a better solution to me than, "it's basically canon unless George decides it isn't anymore."

 

[anime52k8]

8 hours ago, mechaninac said:

1. And most disappointing was the purely Geek bait insipid plot device that was Captain Phasma... just about the worse waste of time of a character in any SW movie.

 

 *cough*boba fett*cough*

 

1 hour ago, jenius said:

If the sequels explain Rey's back story and that she was trained in the force but was made to forget, that would help.

Why can't she just be able to do this stuff intuitively because she's that strong with the force?