ROGUE ONE

[soundmotor]

I saw it Saturday night with my wife, we splurged on lux level seating and had dinner. a pretty good one too.

Minor background: I saw A New Hope on the day it was released in 1977, 1st showing. I sat in a near empty theater with a friend, dead center, and it was glorious. I came back a week later to see it again and the lines went around the building. When The Empire Strikes Back came out, again I saw it again on release, 1st showing, and got there a couple hours early. I wasn't even close to first in line but did get in. It was a great film, not as magical as the first but still very good. When Return of the Jedi came out I gave up on 1st showing settling for 1st week and although I liked it grudgingly came to the conclusion that things had somewhat ran out of gas. Or as a friend put it, "Jabba's yacht band looked like the stuffed animals on his sister's bed.".

And then the later franchises which my son liked (he was 7 for TPM), but I can reduce to single sentences -

The Phantom Menace - "What the hell did I just watch?"

Attack of the Clones - "Lucas should be euthanized."

Revenge of the Sith - "Oh hell, I'm done."

So last year I saw The Force Awakens. It was OK, way better than the preceding 3, but just OK. It felt nostalgic but not necessarily in a good way. Any edge it could have had was exchanged for treacle. I sat through it and really could not remember a whole lot about what I just saw a few days later. And, I don't attribute that to my rapidly advancing senility either. Even when it hit one of the cable affiliates we have I did not do much more than skim over some of the pew pew lasers action.

Which brings me back to Rogue One which I approached with serious trepidation. I purposefully avoided reading any reviews, online discussions, or shows that might mention it. Two friends that saw it release week were informed that no discussion would be tolerated, good or bad. All I saw was the trailer which.looked.good. But, those have been so misleading before. So how was it? My wife & I plan to see it again.....

http://ew.com/article/2016/06/28/star-wars-rogue-one-high-resolution-photos/

 

[hi*ball]

So you liked it?

I thought it was OK (no spoilers, just in case), but not as good as The Force Awakens.

Just my take.

Plus I found Daisy Ridley's character much more likeable than the current girl's (don't even remember her name).

 

[RamblinE]

I think Disney is going to have trouble with the new trilogy, basically creating new stuff from scratch. With these anthology movies though? There's already a huge universe to work with and many different angles and points of view to tell the story from. I particularly liked Rogue One and the grittier war movie feel it had. A friend and I agreed that it probably had one of the best space battle sequences we've ever seen.

 

[qdrone]

I thought it stunk period. I'm done with the franchise.

 

[Klappco]

I was bummed that Jar Jar got killed.

 

[whyaskit]

I loved it

 

[soundmotor]

So you liked it?

I thought it was OK (no spoilers, just in case), but not as good as The Force Awakens.

Just my take.

Plus I found Daisy Ridley's character much more likeable than the current girl's (don't even remember her name).

Yes I did, almost as much as ANH.

 

[soundmotor]

With these anthology movies though? There's already a huge universe to work with and many different angles and points of view to tell the story from. I particularly liked Rogue One and the grittier war movie feel it had. A friend and I agreed that it probably had one of the best space battle sequences we've ever seen.

Pretty much how I felt after seeing it. I am more interested in new material than carrying on with the older plot lines.

 

[hnash53]

I liked it. Spoilers coming... you've been warned.

No opening scroll like every other Star Wars movie has had. Didn't really miss it.

Everyone dies by the end. That's never happened before... but is fitting for this story.

But a great story of the events leading up to "A New Hope."

I give it two thumbs up... though it started slow, but necessarily so since every character was a new one and some development was needed.

 

[onwardjames]

Very difficult to catch that "lightning in a bottle" that the first one had. Society has become callous and jaded to special effects, and while I'll forever love the first Star Wars (and Empire), it really was a bit thin on dialogue, even with the thick, meandering plot (which, itself, is an amalgam of King Arthur, Star Trek, and various Shakespeare elements).

Since Disney intends to pimp this out to recoup their 4 billion, I'm out.

 

[RamblinE]

I liked it. Spoilers coming... you've been warned.

No opening scroll like every other Star Wars movie has had. Didn't really miss it.

Everyone dies by the end. That's never happened before... but is fitting for this story.

But a great story of the events leading up to "A New Hope."

I give it two thumbs up... though it started slow, but necessarily so since every character was a new one and some development was needed.

Spoiler in response to your spoilers

I love how they were finally able to create a scene depicting how terrifying Darth Vader was. That was absolutely incredible and adds some valuable context to his portrayal in the original trilogy.

 

[RobRoy]

I saw the original 27 times in the theater. I liked it that much. Nothing can replace the first one though. It was magical in a world where there really were no movies to compare it to. The Empire Strikes Back is probably the best from the series, but it was not the first, so some of that magic is missing. The third was kinda dumb, and hinted at where the next three were going.

Episodes 1-3 were pretty much a waste of time. The guy who played the young adult Darth was either the worst actor to ever get a major role in any major movie or horribly directed. But it ruined the second and third movies. Jar-Jar ruined the first.

Awakens did hearken back, somewhat, to the original, but the fact is this series has run its course. They have created a new universe and can come out with all sorts of movies based on that universe, similar to how many books have been written about the world created in Star Trek TOS, but it's really just another franchise at this point, like James Bond.

And as I get older, I do enjoy movies with characters I can more relate to, which means more based on the real world we live in. In other words, I think this franchise can continue to entertain new generations for a very long time until it becomes "uncool". It is a brand, and Disney is good at protecting brands.

 

[Jack Lord]

I agree with you OP.

I thought it quite good. Kind of a Guns of Navarone done sci-fi style. I would also compare its pace to the Return of the King. Starts out kind of slow and then suddenly ignites and never looks back.

 

[soundmotor]

Spoiler in response to your spoilers

I love how they were finally able to create a scene depicting how terrifying Darth Vader was. That was absolutely incredible and adds some valuable context to his portrayal in the original trilogy.

That scene was terrific in how he was both casual and disdainful while using his light saber as part of the boarding party. But one other point too. In all the preceding this is the first time the capabilities of the Death Star were made real to me. The on-the-ground perspective, twice, nailed that point home.

 

[soundmotor]

I agree with you OP.

I thought it quite good. Kind of a Guns of Navarone done sci-fi style. I would also compare its pace to the Return of the King. Starts out kind of slow and then suddenly ignites and never looks back.

When the credits rolled I realized I was rather stunned by how much I liked it. My first thought (and likely true) was that I was happy that a film in the Star Wars franchise finally lived up to my expectations. Then my wife turned to me and said she wanted to see it again. This is a rare occurrence but to me a good indicator that the film checked off key points as a well constructed film and not just another franchise installment to a receptive audience.

 

[RamblinE]

That scene was terrific in how he was both casual and disdainful while using his light saber as part of the boarding party. But one other point too. In all the preceding this is the first time the capabilities of the Death Star were made real to me. The on-the-ground perspective, twice, nailed that point home.

You've put it into words much better than I could have. I completely agree. EDIT: I read Death Star as Darth Vader for some reason. Busy day. Still agree. The perspective views of the Death Star blocking out the sun were quite loaded. Really played back on the psychological reaction of our lizard brains towards something as disruptive as an eclipse.

 

[dodog]

I saw it twice and was originally excited. The more time away, the less I like it. The CGI scenes with Grand Moff Tarkin and Princess Leia were painful. At least they minimized CGI Carrie Fisher, but the Tarkin scenes looked and played awkwardly. The scenes with Saw Gerrera were WAY too long and they wisely killed that windbag off early. Other than his cool looking cast of creatures, they kind of forced a plot around him and it wasn't needed. Finally, the whole Death Star is powered by Kyber Crystals (so, basically shooting lightsaber beams?) thing was dumb. On par with the whole miticholorians=force BS from the prequels. Rogue One was pretty but not much better than Return Of The Jedi. I do have some hope that the Han Solo/Lando movie will be fun. Donald Glover is great in about everything he does. He might actually make Lando redeamable.

 

[hnash53]

I saw Rogue One... and of course the end scene with Carrie Fisher... on the evening of the day she died. It was moving.

If they can continue to make movies such as this, these side stories around the trilogies, I'll continue to go and see them.

Comments made by other re the other Episodes I generally agree with, though I found Episode 1 The Phantom Menace to be great. Qui-Gon Jinn is my favorite Jedi. Jar Jar Binks sucks really bad.. I totally agree. I really liked Revenge of the Sith/Episode 3 as it compares with Return of the Jedi/Episode 6. The Clone Wars... they need to do the proper remake of that one.

Now I just have to guess what the title of Episode 9 will be. Let's see... Revenge, Return... Resurrection? Revelation?

All fun stuff....

 

[soundmotor]

Now I just have to guess what the title of Episode 9 will be. Let's see... Revenge, Return... Resurrection? Revelation?

All fun stuff....

I'm hoping it isn't Revisit the Death Star, Once More but we'll see...



As far as Jar Jar goes, there is an interesting theory that he was actually a Sith but Lucas decided it was too controversial. Might have been a better film -

 

[hnash53]

Yes, I had read of one person's theory that Jar Jar Binks was a stealth Sith. For me, that would have been a redeeming feature for that particular character.