Review Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Alex Vojacek

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I consider it far better than The Force Awakens on several points. I believe the Force Awakens was a fiasco made for teenagers, completely outside of what true Star Wars really mean.

So far, the only thing that fit Star Wars universe perfectly is the video games. This movie, and it's ending is much more Star Wars oriented than the majority of the movies I've seen so far.. sacrifice was always a very important topic in the SW universe and the movies always played it out safe, save for The Empire Strikes Back.
 

Hux

Member: Rank 6
It was reasonable good. I loved the immediate prequel quality of it and wish more prequels would finished right at that moment when the parent film began. Plus, it finally put to rest all those jokes about building a death star with such a ridiculous and unnecessary weakness.

Maybe in the next Star Wars story, they can explain why Storm Troopers still can't hit a barn door from three yards.
 

Elliot Thomas

Member: Rank 3
Solid and straightforward enough, bit grittier than I anticipated. I thought the plot was thin though and padded out by the screenwriters but I liked how they focused on themes of sacrifice and heroism (esp in the surprisingly downbeat climax). Much preferred TFA.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
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Plus, it finally put to rest all those jokes about building a death star with such a ridiculous and unnecessary weakness.
I've never understood those jokes. In what way was the weakness in any way ridiculous or unnecessary? Surely for any engine (especially the size of the Death Star) a thermal vent is vital to get rid of the build up of excess heat. And to do that it would need to run directly from the main reactor to the outside. I've heard people say that it should have been covered. I'd suggest to them to put a cover on the vent of their PC and see how well that works out and then imagine that expanded to the size of the death star. The vent was protected by an energy shield and the only way to destroy the reactor (and hence the Death Star) was to fire a missile from a high speed single person fighter into a hole with a 1 metre diameter. And since the Death Star was equipped with artillery and (at least) a squadron of TIE fighters, the missile would have to be targeted and fired at the same time as avoiding fire from the defence systems. In the end it was only because the Rebels had someone with force abilities (that the Empire believed no longer existed outside the Emperor and Vader) that they were able to succeed. Doesn't really sound like a major weakness to me. If Luke hadn't been part of the battle, the Death Star would have destroyed Yavin 4 and the Empire would have won.

If I'd been designing a weakness for the Death Star I would hope that I'd have been able to come up with something that relied a little less on a miracle occurring for that weakness to be exploited.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I had two issues with the film. My first problem is that the first act is jumbled. You get a lot of characters thrown at you, a bunch of locations, and no real chance to absorb it. The second issue I have is one that was echoed by more than one reviewer I saw, which is that you get little to no backstory or explanation for anybody. You get Jyn's childhood, and then it skips to her being an adult. No one else really gets any real setup.

That being said, I really dug the movie. I'm going to watch it again tonight to see if it holds up for repeated viewings.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Finally seen it tonight. I thought that it was good, solid and made with the love of a talented fan, with seemingly minimal stupid decisions from studio suits.

I agree with an earlier comment that you did not know much to anything about many of the characters, so it was difficult to care for their fates.

The droid, I fell in love with. I thought that it should, ultimately have been a film about his sweetly comic misadventures in the Lucas Universe.

The much vaunted c..g.i. recreation of a certain famous thesp fell short for me It felt like they should be that bold in maybe ten years time, when the technology matches their ambitions of recreating a human being, but not yet. And the voice was largely wrong. There were fleeting seconds when the recreation worked for me, but that was it. Seconds.

There was a daring quality to this film in places though, a quality that I felt was largely missing from the play it safe Force Awakens.
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
The droid, I fell in love with. I thought that it should, ultimately have been a film about his sweetly comic misadventures in the Lucas Universe.
Oh, K-2SO is the best character in the whole film. It also helps that he's voiced by the fantastic Alan Tudyk. But yeah, his completely sarcastic attitude about everything is great.

And honestly, while not perfect, I had little issue with CGI bad person. Yeah, there was some uncanny valley stuff going on, but overall, I thought it worked. But you're right, about ten years down the road and we'll perfect these things. It looked better than CGI good lady at the end.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
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The much vaunted c..g.i. recreation of a certain famous thesp fell short for me It felt like they should be that bold in maybe ten years time, when the technology matches their ambitions of recreating a human being, but not yet.
The problem is that its only by using the technology now, while it's not perfect, that the continued development can occur so that in ten years time it is perfect. If we just say "its not perfect yet, lets wait" there's no motivation (or money) for the work to be done perfecting it.

I hope that it does get perfected so that in 2038 we can have a 75th anniversary movie (or series) of "The Eighteen (Nineteen? Twenty?) Doctors" with William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, etc.
 

croft_alice

Member: Rank 4
Has anyone of you watched the animated series of star wars?, because many of the scenes in rogue one and the last jedi are very similar with the animated star wars.
I'm still waiting the money for the cinema ticket.Such a dissapointment
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Cassian & K-2SO Get A Comic Prequel


cassian-k-2so-get-a-comic-prequel-696x464.jpg



Following in the wake of the announcement of a new “Star Wars” comic mini-series about Mace Windu, Marvel Entertainment has unveiled a new one-off comic in the works about “Rogue One” characters Cassian & K-2SO.

Set to take place prior to the events of the movie, the project features the first meeting between the undercover Rebel Alliance operative and the sarcastic former Imperial security droid.

Duane Swierczynski is penning the issue with art by Fernando Blanco. This marks the fourth ‘Rogue One’ literary spin-off to date, though the previous three had been novels.

Source: Heat Vision
 

chainsaw_metal1

Member: Rank 8
I gave this a re-watch the other night, and it is better on repeat viewings. The first act is still rushed, and there really isn't enough character development, but I get the feeling the writers had a particular story they wanted to tell and had specific points they wanted to include, and had to try to condense it into a 2 hour format. This movie could have easily been 3 hours, and could have allowed the story to flow much better, but then you run the risk of losing the audience. I still applaud them for making a movie like this in the Star Wars universe, and tell a story that isn't in the same format as the main films.
 

Gavin

Member: Rank 6
VIP
I gave this a re-watch the other night, and it is better on repeat viewings. The first act is still rushed, and there really isn't enough character development, but I get the feeling the writers had a particular story they wanted to tell and had specific points they wanted to include, and had to try to condense it into a 2 hour format. This movie could have easily been 3 hours, and could have allowed the story to flow much better, but then you run the risk of losing the audience. I still applaud them for making a movie like this in the Star Wars universe, and tell a story that isn't in the same format as the main films.
I'm currently working my way through the novelisation, which has a bit more space to breathe. I agree that it could have been longer. In fact, at the risk of providing encouragement to studios, I think there was enough story potential to have built it into a trilogy. But I suspect that they were testing the waters with this one and didn't want to risk more than one movie on a spin-off, in case it didn't work. Also I would imagine there is some reluctance to develop other multiple part stories which compete with the main trilogies.
 

Doctor Omega

Member: Rank 10
Disney doubtless want to forget this now, but in the early days of the Solo film... there were mutterings.....

Good things are apparently coming in threes for actor Alden Ehrenreich, who’s been tapped to play Han Solo in the upcoming “Star Wars” spin-off depicting the intergalactic scavenger’s early years.

Disney has quietly signed the 26-year-old “Hail, Caesar!” star to a three-picture deal, insiders tell Confidenti@l, paving the way for more Han Solo flicks if the one currently being filmed strikes gold at the box office.

“There is a real sense of excitement around the Han Solo movie and its potential,” says our insider. “Given that Han’s early adventures do not need to be tied to the Empire, it leaves story lines open with the opportunity to really give fans something different. They can explore new galaxies and crazy creatures and bring in a wide array of new characters.

“They feel that his character has the right potential to become a central figure in several movies,” our source said. “They’re keeping things under wraps at the moment, but the deal is that he has signed for at least three movies.

and, interestingly.....


The L.A.-raised Ehrenreich — who was discovered by Steven Spielberg at a bat mitzvah — beat out thousands of hopefuls to play the space cowboy made famous by Harrison Ford. Short-listers included “Whiplash” star Miles Teller, British box-office draw Taron Egerton, and Irish actor Jack Reynor, of “Transformers: Age of Extinction.”

I can't help but wonder if those three would have needed an acting coach bringing in? :emoji_head_bandage:
 
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