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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story **SPOILERS**


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On ‎3‎/‎01‎/‎2017 at 7:19 PM, DieselDaisy said:

I wonder what Cushing would think, or what he indeed thinks (if he is up there)? It is indeed a disturbing precedent that has been unleashed here!! We could see Cary Grant and Robert Mitchum reprise their movie careers.

Yeah, bring back Carey Grant and put him in a movie with Kanye West.

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While this is likely sanitised, this account of reshoots and the making of process is very interesting: https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/rogue-ones-editors-reveal-scenes-added-in-the-star-wars-standalone-reshoots-exclusive-110124381.html

Apparently the first time we were supposed to meet Jyn was in that meeting with the nascent Rebel Alliance. We barely spend time with her as it is in the final cut, that sounds like it would have been even worse.

Also found it fascinating how they get an idea of running time before even having a script by just having a story breakdown and editing scenes from other films together.

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Tony Gilroy was called in to save the film - apparently it was too serious and glum. He rewrote the script and supervised the reshoots during the spring and summer. While Gareth was relegated to press duty, Tony was still locking the film down until December. You can tell how much of the film was compromised right from the beginning, too many introductions on various planets, plus they cut Felicity's part down considerably. The first half was not good, but the second half was fun, much better than TFA.

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4 hours ago, Amir said:

Just came here to post that vid. It very well may be RLM's masterpiece.

At least the best thing since the Phantom Menace review. Its pretty dope satire, I listen to a lot of podcasts and this is just spot on :lol:

Edited by Dan H.
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After finally watching it last night, I feel the same way as @Dan H. and @downzy for the most part.

I might as well start with the positives.

On the whole I think it was a well-made film that fits nicely into A New Hope. It certainly made me want to go right home and watch the original trilogy. Star Wars feeling? Check. The finale was absolutely incredibly in every sense of the word. Any of the film's faults were instantly forgiven right there.

Seeing Vader kicking ass and Princess Leia in a cameo was just awesome. Smart decision to truly tie it right into A New Hope and impressive CGI to boot.

I approve of the lack of opening scroll since this was basically the A New Hope scroll in imagery. It also helps keep this separate from the main episodes. Nicely done.

The expanded universe was handled well and left enough mystery to be explored in possible future spin offs, which is great.

So overall it was a great addition to the franchise, but I just didn't enjoy it as much was The Force Awakens. It's bit of an unfair comparison I suppose since they are completely different parts of the story, but strictly as a film, Force was more enjoyable. I forgave Disney for the "rebootquel" nature of it because I realize that their $4 billion investment required the first film to be a sure crowd pleaser. On the particular side of things I will reserve judgment until we've seen episodes 8 and 9.

Wih Rogue One, they had more wiggle room to be original but what brings it down is the new characters. K-2SO is the MVP of the film by far. I felt the most attached to him and his death got me in the Han Solo feels. Obviously the existing characters were fine too - it was the new ones were generic and forgettable. Jyn is okay, but I felt nothing when she's standing over Le Chiffre, I mean her dad. She had so much potential but the characterization fell flat.

Cassian, again, was just okay. Zero charisma even though there clearly should have been based on a few shining moments (like killing the guy in cold blood and his reluctance to shoot Le Chiffre - those moments were highlights).

Forest Whitaker was wasted, and the other team members as I'll call them did nothing for me. I just felt more attached to the new characters in The Force Awakens than I did here.

I should also mention the score - I didn't want or expect a carbon copy of John Williams but what a disappointment. Not a single memorable new theme. Some of the new themes actually sounded like a YouTube score that hints at a theme song to avoid copyright infringement. Very disappointing aspect of the film for me considering how much the Williams scores add to the film.

Better than the prequels, the ending scene satisfies the A New Hope toe in, and I will definitely watch it again and again. I was just mainly disappointed with the new characters and some clunky pacing.

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@James Bond - Good points about the score.  I felt like the music at times was a distraction and at times unnecessary.  

Will definitely watch again when it gets released for home consumption.  Certainly not going to spend $15 to watch it again in theatres, but excited to see in a few months from now.  

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Just back from seeing it. I wasn't a big The Force Awakens fan, so it took me a while to muster the enthusiasm to go to Rogue One, fearing I would find it similarly lacklustre... but I absolutely loved it! It actually felt like the first proper Star Wars film I've seen since Return of the Jedi.

I was a big fan of the pre-existing Expanded Universe before Disney bought over the rights to the franchise, the problem was that universe had books and books worth of depth whereas I felt that the conflict of TFA had no depth whatsoever, there was no context given to the  fledgling New Republic before it was extinguished by yet another planet-killing doomsday machine, we have no real idea of the history of the First Order. That and there were some great adventures Han, Luke and Leia had in the old EU that would now never happen because they killed Han. I still felt like his character was the best thing about TFA and had a lot still to offer the story going forward. I thought killing him was to the detriment of everything, more or less.

Rogue One changed some things from the pre-existing EU as well (such as the chief scientist on the Death Star no longer being Bevel Lemelisk), but it was done so well that I didn't  mind as much. It took us right back to the heart of the original conflict against the Empire and showed us a lot more of the personalities involved in that. I was astounded that they brought back Grand Moff Tarkin in the way they did, but it was brilliantly executed. I loved all the dogfights, seeing the Rebel squadrons in action again, hearing the old transmission protocols etc. If you were looking at it from the point of view of a cynic, you could cry "Fanservice writ large", but fuck that... For me it was the perfect visit to a galaxy far, far away after far, far too long. Definitely up there with the original trilogy for me, put me in the mood to watch Episode IV straight off the back of it and I think it'll only be enhanced by Rogue One.

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2 hours ago, Powerage5 said:

Saw it a third time over the weekend. 

 

No shame. 

There's something about Star Wars that makes you want to see it again and again. I've even watched The Phantom Menace more times than I care to admit even though I think it's absolutely terrible. :lol:

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1 hour ago, James Bond said:

There's something about Star Wars that makes you want to see it again and again. I've even watched The Phantom Menace more times than I care to admit even though I think it's absolutely terrible. :lol:

Yeah, I mean even the shit films are fun - there's really no other sci-fi films on the same scope as Star Wars. 

 

Unpopular opinion here - I don't think TPM was bad in concept, just in execution. There were some good ideas hidden under all the shit. Qui-Gon is a great character, and Liam Neeson had great chemistry with Ewan MacGreggor. And I'm not even opposed to the political aspect of it all, I just think it was presented very poorly, too jargon-y with too little weight to any of the dialogue. I find it ironic that so many people complain about the politics in TPM, yet complain about the lack of a political context in TFA. 

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10 hours ago, Powerage5 said:

Yeah, I mean even the shit films are fun - there's really no other sci-fi films on the same scope as Star Wars. 

 

Unpopular opinion here - I don't think TPM was bad in concept, just in execution. There were some good ideas hidden under all the shit. Qui-Gon is a great character, and Liam Neeson had great chemistry with Ewan MacGreggor. And I'm not even opposed to the political aspect of it all, I just think it was presented very poorly, too jargon-y with too little weight to any of the dialogue. I find it ironic that so many people complain about the politics in TPM, yet complain about the lack of a political context in TFA. 

Darth Maul is easily the best villain introduced post-OT and I am of the firm belief that the PT would have benefited greatly from him being kept around for at least a second film.

Edited by AxlsMainMan
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2 hours ago, AxlsMainMan said:

Darth Maul is easily the best villain introduced post-OT and I am of the firm belief that the PT would have benefited greatly from him being kept around for at least a second film.

I think they definitely regretted killing Maul considering they brought him back for The Clone Wars and Rebels. 

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14 hours ago, Powerage5 said:

Yeah, I mean even the shit films are fun - there's really no other sci-fi films on the same scope as Star Wars. 

 

Unpopular opinion here - I don't think TPM was bad in concept, just in execution. There were some good ideas hidden under all the shit. Qui-Gon is a great character, and Liam Neeson had great chemistry with Ewan MacGreggor. And I'm not even opposed to the political aspect of it all, I just think it was presented very poorly, too jargon-y with too little weight to any of the dialogue. I find it ironic that so many people complain about the politics in TPM, yet complain about the lack of a political context in TFA. 

I think he just focused a little too much on the politics and the film's pacing suffered because of it. Lots of sitting and waiting for anything of substance to happen, but that's true of all the prequels - good ideas with poor execution. He needed someone else to polish the dialogue and structure the films better.

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On 1/10/2017 at 9:04 PM, Powerage5 said:

Yeah, I mean even the shit films are fun - there's really no other sci-fi films on the same scope as Star Wars. 

 

Unpopular opinion here - I don't think TPM was bad in concept, just in execution. There were some good ideas hidden under all the shit. Qui-Gon is a great character, and Liam Neeson had great chemistry with Ewan MacGreggor. And I'm not even opposed to the political aspect of it all, I just think it was presented very poorly, too jargon-y with too little weight to any of the dialogue. I find it ironic that so many people complain about the politics in TPM, yet complain about the lack of a political context in TFA. 

TPM was the best of the three prequels. It still had actual sets, good shots, and the most original and artistic SW world building content of all six of the films. 

The problem is that once you get past all of that, it suffers from strandling between boring, confusing, and childish all at once. 

At least it hadn't gotten into full blown green-screen prequel territory yet. My God, the next two films look absolutely atrocious. The Phantom Menace is a poor movie, but the next two can barely be called movies.

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I think more than anything, the dialogue is what kills the prequels for me.  Not just the delivery, but the lines themselves.  It's as if Lucas never wrote any of the Indiana Jones movies and hadn't written a word since ROTJ.  Plus, it didn't help he cast some truly tone deaf actors to play Anakin.  Even Natalie Portman was pretty flat in all three movies.  

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5 hours ago, downzy said:

I think more than anything, the dialogue is what kills the prequels for me.  Not just the delivery, but the lines themselves.  It's as if Lucas never wrote any of the Indiana Jones movies and hadn't written a word since ROTJ.  Plus, it didn't help he cast some truly tone deaf actors to play Anakin.  Even Natalie Portman was pretty flat in all three movies.  

Yeah, he is bad at Anakin role but I can't possibly imagine a good delivery of: "I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere." and some other great lines :lol: 

Edited by Nicklord
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10 hours ago, downzy said:

I think more than anything, the dialogue is what kills the prequels for me.  Not just the delivery, but the lines themselves.  It's as if Lucas never wrote any of the Indiana Jones movies and hadn't written a word since ROTJ.  Plus, it didn't help he cast some truly tone deaf actors to play Anakin.  Even Natalie Portman was pretty flat in all three movies.  

I definitely blame the directing more than the actors. Hayden Christensen is fine whenever he's allowed to act with his expressions but those lines he had to deliver...

Even Samuel L. Jackson had some flat delivery and he's a terrific talent. It's as if George Lucas told everybody to be as robotic as possible.

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