Rogue One Discussion (SPOILERS!!!)

Alright, we all need this. So.

Let it rip. Tarkin. Vader. Leia. OH MY!!

Tusserk

I think my biggest internal squee was seeing Bail Organa to be honest, ahaha, even though his presence really shouldn't have been a surprise at all. And that entire ending sequence, holy schnick!! There was a LOT of happy flailing and thumping each others' shoulders as we were watching it.

THE HAMMERHEAD AHH

Braltika

Yeah I like how they brought Bail back in. I'm not so familiar with the expanded lore and have only seen a few episodes from Rebels. Is the function of those Hammerhead Cruisers to actualy ram ships or did they just sacrifice themselves? Since they called for this particular kind of ship, I thought that that was it's function. Like a big space battering ram.

Tusserk

A lot of my excitement seeing that ship was carry-over excitement from my husband (he made a LOT of excited little flails and squeaking noises and 'huh!!' sounds throughout the movie), haha, we've had mention of them in our home games? Buuut I think his major familiarity comes from KotoR, and I deeeefinitely got the impression of 'big space battering ram' which was just insanely cool to watch.

Tusserk

Ohhh don't you worry, I am very, very aware.

'Tusserk' aka the Trandoshan I played for many years before Jak came along, was a deeply loyal member of House Organa. He went down when they all did. :'( Seeing Bail on screen basically made me want to pack him up and keep him somewhere nice and safe for a while.

Braltika

My first impression after viewing R1 was that you can feel the director is a real fan. Usualy when directors say 'Oh I'm a fan of the franchise, this movie is going to be for you!' I get a bit cautious. But, this time I felt and saw that these guys knew what fans wanted. So here's my thoughts about this movie:

Story: This was great. I liked the prelude with the Galen family and Krennic's relentless ambition to get the Death Star project going. A great opening for this movie, although it's uncommon to start a Star Wars movie like this. I felt the despair as the Rebellion was barely hanging on. Internal conflicts, splintered groups, extremists. They nearly surrendered! And what incredible redemption for A New Hope to have the Death Star flaw be an inside job. That makes ANH instantly so much more a better movie. The Krennic vs Tarkin competition was a nice subplot. I can imagine such rivalry could exist in the Empire. Asskissing their way to the top, trying to take all the credit just to get closer to the Emperor. Krennic pleading to Vader he could get an audience with the Emperor was a nice touch to show just how previledged you have to be to get close to Palpy. The fact that everybody dies in the end gave SO much weight to the mission. A bold move from a Disney movie really. Some of the new characters are perhaps one of the weaker points in the movie. I expected more from Saw Gerrera and Bodi.

Music: It's almost painful to admit that I like this score better than John Williams' score for Episode VII. It does not have many memorable themes but conveyed emotion, was mixed loud enough into the movie and had some really good highlights here and there.

VFX: What can I say... the balls ILM had to give their digital Tarkin so much screentime. I kept wondering if I had known he was digital were I not familiar with SW. We all know Cushing's been dead for 20+ years so ofcourse we all KNOW he's not real and then you immediatly try to spot flaws. And yeah, sometimes it was still a bit 'off' but I did not mind. The acting was good, both from the animators and the voice. Loved this. I went to the movie with a collegue of mine who knows SW but is not a rabid fan (SW never was a big thing here in Belgium) and during the break in the middle I told him Tarkin was CGI. He had no clue. Leia at the end was great, but I found Tarkin more lifelike. The cameo's of Gold and Red leader was probably reused material from ANH and were not as good integrated in the other shots. Other SFX were top notch, but we can't expect less from a movie like this ofcourse.

Geek stuff: There is SO much fan service cramped in to this without feeling 'in your face'. Only C3PO and R2 felt a bit shoehorned. I do not mind they are in the movie, but it had probably been a better idea to keep them near Leia in the final scene, aboard the Tantive IV. Anyhoo, there was a Turbo Tank in the movie, the Ghost from Rebels, Evazan & Assface Ponda Baba, etc etc... Awesome land battle, awesome space battle, many many new trooper designs, vehicles and extra lore. Biggest geek moment was ofcourse Vader going berzerk in that corridor. This is what we always wanted to see. This part had me sitting there mouth open and goosebumps all over.

Neither the prequels nor TFA left me like this excited afterwards. I feel the need to discuss, praise and recommend this movie... this was such an insanely good movie.

Tusserk

"Neither the prequels nor TFA left me like this excited afterwards." -- yeah, I completely get what you're saying here!! TFA left me walking out of the theater thinking 'aww, yeah, that was nice, it felt like Star Wars' and not a whoole lot deeper than that. Walking out of R1 I felt utterly pumped, and very, very, VERY much inspired from a creative standpoint. I want to write and draw so much right now!

Seeing Tarkin was like... a huge double-take moment. I think my internal monologue was something like; "Wait that's gotta be... is it? It IS- haaaang on... how are they- OHHH. HE'S CG. WOW." For a fraction of a second I entertained the thought that they'd found an astounding lookalike, but then I could definitely 'see' that he was digital, so to speak. I could see it, but also... enjoy it. It was a pretty impressive move for them, I think.

As was everybody dying. Oh man. I wasn't expecting it, and damn it was pretty emotional watching them start to drop and slowly realising that wait, no... nobody's getting out of this. I really really dig the idea of the flaw being built into the Death Star too. Got a massive soft spot for the resigned Imperial engineer playing the long game. Man, almost every aspect of this film really left me feeling like I wanted to see more, and know more of everyone's stories.

definitely enjoyed this score more than TFA, but I'm still waiting for something... more, I guess? You're right that there were no memorable themes, or... nothing that grabbed my attention. I can hum Kylo Ren's motif (even though I've only seen the film twice... a year ago... and never listend to the score since) whereas I really only have the 'may the Force be with you' theme rolling around my head from R1. Which is nice, but gosh, I am dying for a new 'Duel of the Fates'.

Loved seeing the ugnaught, haha. And I need to know what that shaggy white not-Talz dude was.

Braltika

The white alien is Moroff. Apparantly he's from an existing EU species but redesigned for the canon movie. I wish we'd seen more of him. Same for Bistan aka 'Space Monkey' who was featured heavily in trailers but was almost completely absent in the movie. Though I do not really mind that, we all know that SW is made up from great designs be them in the foreground or background.

Seghast

So glad I actually made the time to go to the theater to see this one!

I'll admit that I really, really did not like Force Awakens because I felt like it was nothing more than a rip-off of the story/plotpoints from the original trilogy, but Rogue One? This is the Star Wars movie I've been waiting 20+ years for and I couldn't be happier (well, I did miss the familiar theme music and having an opening crawl, but that's about it).

Vader was more terrifying than he's ever been. Holy crap, now that's the badass Vader the lore has always mentioned, the one that makes the entire galaxy tremble at the mere mention of his name. The CG for Tarkin... I honestly thought they had found a decent look-a-like actor and used CG to finish making him look like the late, great Peter Cushing. Maybe if I looked harder I could have seen that such wasn't the case, but I was just so...enthralled I suppose.

I felt like I was a kid, experiencing Star Wars for the first time again.

Disney/Lucasfilm hit it out out of the park and over the moon (THAT'S NO MOON) with Rogue One. I really hope all the standalone stories are as good as this one.

Hablyonus Pense

You guys already pretty much summed up my opinion on this movie, so I guess a two page long review is out of the question. A few additional points I'd like to bring up. CGI Leia and Tarkin felt a little shoehorned in, but only a little. The reason, I think, that the visual design of many of the ships, weapons, armor, and locations is so good is that many of them are based off old Ralph McQuarrie concept art from the production of the first movie. I could've lived without Darth Vader's dad joke at Director Krennic. The climatic space battle at the end of the movie literally gave me chills, and I'm proud of Disney for breaking their trend and giving us something a bit darker.

Finally, my biggest pet pieve: In ANH, Mon Motha addresses the gather rebels before the assault on the first Death Star, saying, "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." So, considering that R1 sets up ANH to immediately follow, how come no bothans died to bring them that information? I mean, sure, some might've been part of the enormous rebel force attacking Scarif, but why were there no bothans in the main cast, or even mentioned?

Hablyonus Pense

Ah. Well that explains it. The fanboy is not strong with me...

UnnaturalGas

I wansn't going to see it, but a friend of mine found a $3 matinee, so a bunch of us enjoyed an evening out.

First, I'd like to shout out to the Death Star book that's legacy now. It covered the building of the Death Star and offered an alternate explanation for the design flaw.  While I think it would have made just as good a movie (featuring a defecting Imperial pilot, Force-sensitive martial artists, and weapons development engineers under duress all on a suicide mission), I enjoyed seeing Disney's take on it.

What I enjoyed most about the movie, hands-down, was the realistic reactions of military leaders in a war room.  I've spent more than my share of time hashing out tactics and national policy with admirals and multinational forces, and I've seen plenty of disagreements exactly like the ones we saw in R1.  These people are cool as a cucumber in casual contact, but the gloves come off when it comes to allocating resources, especially to a suicide mission.  I was glad they didn't fold to the angsty teen; they treated her like you would expect. Except for the fact that she was there in the first place, which I can hand-wave, I was satisfied with the scene.

Also nothing piques my interest like a naval engagement, complete with ramming and boarders.  I found myself almost shouting orders to bridge crews the way we do in the 'look behind you!' horror genre.

As a well-known technophobe though, I have mixed feelings about Cushingbot.  I can't fault the production team; I wondered if it could've been done in a reflection or over the shoulder, but those would've been too cliche, and Tarkin was an eye-contact guy.  I think it did more to honor the late Peter Cushing than to 'whore him out posthumously', as a friend suggested.

I dislike the animated series, so I was relieved you don't've to follow it to enjoy the movie.  My problems with it revolve around why an elite Jedi strike team wasn't already in service to the Rebellion, if they're apparently out there prancing around with lightsabers anyway, and why Luke and Leia were considered the 'last hope' for the Jedi if there were in fact others, but that's for another time.

I liked the setup for the title of A New Hope, as Leia spoonfed audiences the line right at the end.

I enjoyed it.

UnnaturalGas

Actually, I totally forgot about what I disliked about the movie.

The guy that was gonna shoot Galen could've shot Krennic, and logically would've. Even if he didn't know Krennic was the guy in charge of the Death Star, he was obviously more important than Galen. If you have enemy brass in your sights, even grunts know to shoot.  We could speculate all day, but it wouldn't have been far-fetched to presume Galen might've ended up in the care of the Rebellion if Krennic's head had exploded immediately after outing him as a turncoat, bypassing altogether the fateful showdown at Scarif.

I was in agony for what felt like hours while he struggled internally and missed an opportunity to take the kind of shot they make holos about. Also, it was more than a stretch that the other characters assumed he was going to kill Galen. Even not having taken the shot at Krennic, he could've easily passed it off as observing some valuable interactions between high-ranking Imperials.

That's my two cents.

Tusserk

Sounds like you watch military stuff the way I watch animals. ;) Hard not to judge, but there are things you've just got to let go for the narrative.

That said, I will be watching this scene a little more critically second time around, trying to figure at just how much Cassian could have known/surmised.

Tusserk

Another point- I was mightily compelled to watch A New Hope today while I worked on Christmas presents today. It seemed kind of extra beautiful somehow, and I definitely never had those strong feelings to devour the franchise over again after TFA. Gosh I'm still pumped.

Braltika

People seem to either love or hate his joke. I did not mind it and did not think it was unfitting for his character. Vader is the right hand of Palpy but is still somewhat subjected to the whole military rank thing. I bet he gets his mechanical ass kissed everyday by overambitious generals, admirals and other high ranked militarians. I can see him being annoyed by this but at the same time find it pathetic. We all know he likes to toy with them as we see in the conference chamber in ANH and make sure they all remember him as a powerful force.

I'd make that joke everyday on some random officer if I were Vader. Every. Day.

UnnaturalGas

Last thing, I swear.

What I like most about R1 in meta is that it will be another installment in a series that will inspire a new generation of Star Wars artists.  

My older daughter loves Star Wars and loves to doodle, but hasn't married the two, maybe because she knows of the sacrosanct status of SW in our household (my younger daughter somberly came to me one day to say she didn't want me to feel bad, but she likes Farscape better than SW). I'll keep my fingers crossed that one or both of them starts churning out stuff featuring lightsabers and/or unnecessarily articulated wings.

Braltika

Yes, I think this will be the case. More than TFA has inspired. Though I got to give it to Disney and their foresight. TFA was about the newer generation, the young ones getting into the SW brand as a whole. R1 was a movie to spark the flame among the newer generation to go watch the originals and the older generation to rewatch them. Because, let's be honest, we all went back and watched ANH after this movie, right? And after ANH comes ESB and after that we have ROTJ. It's a brilliant strategy to get fresh blood interested in these old, but still very good, movies.

Xanamiar

I have to say that my best moment of the movie was watching a very agile and very force strong Darth Vader rip through republic soldiers as if they were toys.  It gives you the real feelings of how the republic must have felt every single time they saw Vader walk into a room they were occupying.  That was by far the most active Vader I've ever seen in any of the films.  Makes you remember that he's not just a Dark side user, but he is THE Dark Side user.  A warrior that no one want's to go toe to toe with.

Rebels did this as well, made him scary...  I love when they do Vader correctly. Making him the scary guy he really should be.