I was thinking this too. Perhaps the dish is only needed to open the communication gateway. So, in a way, it operates like a charger where once it is activated, the communications panel is able to send data to the ships above until switched off. But i agree it was very odd and, frankly, should have failed. The bittersweet ending made up for this since her efforts, while not in vain, came at a cost.
Spoilers Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Grading & Discussion
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I was thinking this too. Perhaps the dish is only needed to open the communication gateway. So, in a way, it operates like a charger where once it is activated, the communications panel is able to send data to the ships above until switched off. But i agree it was very odd and, frankly, should have failed. The bittersweet ending made up for this since her efforts, while not in vain, came at a cost.
Just came back from the movie. I liked it, it's a good solid movie, but it's not great. I'm just glad it wasn't a bad movie. Both of the leads remained pretty colorless right up until the end. Ben Mendelsohn as Director Krennic was a highlight for me. CGI Tarkin was horrible, though. I thought it looked really weird. Why did he move so robot-like?
All in all, I enjoyed this movie. It's a B+. But I wasn't as amazed as I was with The Force Awakens. Jyn has nothing on Rey.
All in all, I enjoyed this movie. It's a B+. But I wasn't as amazed as I was with The Force Awakens. Jyn has nothing on Rey.
That's not how I remember the turn of events from the movie. Isn't the dish destroyed when the Death Star fires upon the planet, minutes after they have already sent the message? You can see the dish exploding right as Krennic gets on his feet for the last time.
OK, this is a spoiler thread, so I won't bother with the tags...
There's so much about this movie that I loved, but I had some issues.
First, Mads Mikkelsen. Way too little screen time. WAY too little.
Second - Vader. James Earl Jones is 85 years old. His vocal chords have aged. Perfectly normal. There's no shame in admitting he can't do the iconic Vader voice any more. Weirdly enough, he sounded a lot better in Rebels.
Vader's appearance was off as well. Had a lot to do with the neck piece.
Third - Syndulla name drop. I giggled like a little kid when it happened, and expected a cameo. Was very disappointed when she didn't show up.
BTW, who was the voice of Tarkin? he sounded almost perfect. Also, who did the mocap?
There's so much about this movie that I loved, but I had some issues.
First, Mads Mikkelsen. Way too little screen time. WAY too little.
Second - Vader. James Earl Jones is 85 years old. His vocal chords have aged. Perfectly normal. There's no shame in admitting he can't do the iconic Vader voice any more. Weirdly enough, he sounded a lot better in Rebels.
Vader's appearance was off as well. Had a lot to do with the neck piece.
Third - Syndulla name drop. I giggled like a little kid when it happened, and expected a cameo. Was very disappointed when she didn't show up.
BTW, who was the voice of Tarkin? he sounded almost perfect. Also, who did the mocap?
Actually, I have a question.
During the halfway point of the film, where Mads' character dies, the Rebel alliance unleashed an assault against the base. Why? Didn't they know that Jyn's Father was there? In the early stages of the film where she is being briefed, they seem to know about him and where he can be found. So why destroy the base and jeopardise his life when they could have learned so much?
During the halfway point of the film, where Mads' character dies, the Rebel alliance unleashed an assault against the base. Why? Didn't they know that Jyn's Father was there? In the early stages of the film where she is being briefed, they seem to know about him and where he can be found. So why destroy the base and jeopardise his life when they could have learned so much?
I think you are mis-remembering. The panel to realign the dish is destroyed after she realigns the dish, the dish isn't destroyed until after the transmission is sent.
The alliance was convinced he is a loyal Imperial and the main engineer of a super weapon they don't know anything about yet.
They thought assasinating him would impact the construction project.
I really like how the design flaw of the Death Star was entirely deliberate, though it was a pretty hard gamble that someone would somehow able to hit the damn exhaust port.
The Darth Vader slaughtering at the end was chilling and awesome at the same time.
The two criminals Jyn bumps into on Jeddah must have been in a hurry to catch a space transport to Tattooine , because they didn't try to bully her for it and not they didn't die there obviously in the Death Star blast.
Almost a shame we didn't see the Death Star unleash it's full power, but I guess they wanted to save that moment for Alderaan.
Makes sense, they are, after all, wanted men with the death sentence on twelves systems.
Did anyone catch what the Storm Troopers said right before the attack on the beach began? I think it was "Did you hear they finally discontinued the T16?" "It's about time." Or did I mishear things?
Overall, I loved it, I look forward to owning it and watching it and A New Hope back to back (if I didn't have work tomorrow, I might have done that tonight!).
Guy Henry played Tarkin: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016...star-wars-most-iconic-characters-back-to-life
You can see some of his stuff from Holby City at the start of this video here:
With all due respect, Mr. Lucas, that's how you make a Star Wars prequel.
My initial thoughts:
I loved it. A plethora of great characters, particularly Jyn Esso and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk's best role since Wash). The CGI masking of both Tarkin and Leia were pretty damn good, although I think Leia's may have needed more work if she was more than a brief cameo. I hadn't expected either of them to show up as well as C-3PO and R2D2, but they were hardly surprising (I did know boring Jimmy Smits was going to pop up). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ben Daniels (Law & Order: UK, House of Cards) show up as Blue Leader and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock) as a senator.
The overall plot flowed pretty well, hopping from one gorgeous planet to another, although there was some minor pacing issues during the first act and some minor editing issues in the third act.
Tentatively an "A" but it could change either way over time and multiple reviews.
My initial thoughts:
I loved it. A plethora of great characters, particularly Jyn Esso and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk's best role since Wash). The CGI masking of both Tarkin and Leia were pretty damn good, although I think Leia's may have needed more work if she was more than a brief cameo. I hadn't expected either of them to show up as well as C-3PO and R2D2, but they were hardly surprising (I did know boring Jimmy Smits was going to pop up). However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Ben Daniels (Law & Order: UK, House of Cards) show up as Blue Leader and Jonathan Aris (Sherlock) as a senator.
The overall plot flowed pretty well, hopping from one gorgeous planet to another, although there was some minor pacing issues during the first act and some minor editing issues in the third act.
Tentatively an "A" but it could change either way over time and multiple reviews.
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Black Saber? A future Star Wars story perhaps? That line piqued my interest.
Anyway, Disney has done well. It was another big, lavish, visually stunning movie worthy of the Star Wars name. I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Force Awakens though. I agree that it was too talky and jumped around too much at first. Plus, it didn't have any memorable characters. It had its bright spots in that department though.
Anyway, Disney has done well. It was another big, lavish, visually stunning movie worthy of the Star Wars name. I didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoyed The Force Awakens though. I agree that it was too talky and jumped around too much at first. Plus, it didn't have any memorable characters. It had its bright spots in that department though.
- I liked Donnie Yen's character. I wish we could have gotten more out of him.
- The droid was the funniest droid I've ever seen. Brutal honesty tends to be funny.
- Mendelson was pretty good.
- I was happy to see Felicity Jones headlining a Star Wars film but Jyn didn't wow me the way Rey did.
- I like stories that involve the Jedi so I'm glad we got some Darth Vader, who by the way, was the most awesome and badass he's ever been. The whole scene with him boarding the ship and taking down those rebels as they were firing at him was something.
- I thought that Jyn would display some Jedi powers or make a light saber or something. What was the point of showing that kyber crystal otherwise?
- I was very impressed with CGI Tarkin. That wasn't the case with Leia. How could they do one so well but not the other?
- Nice to see a pre-Star Wars Bail Organa.
- The way Andor and Jyn died, sitting on a beach as they were hit with the blast... I saw that exact scene in another movie about an asteroid that hit the Earth.
I noticed that too.
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One thing I forgot to mention that bothered me: What was that weapon the Rebels used against the Star Destroyer in order to disable its systems? Pretty damn useful weapon...pity we never saw it again.
Yeah, that bugged me as well. My easy solution: Pretend the prequel trilogy didn't exist.
Maybe I wasn't as attentive but I really didn't notice any difference in his voice. I haven't watched the films in about a year and I don't watch Rebels.
On the one hand, considering Mad Mikkelsen's relative fame, I was also surprised, but on the other hand, I had a strong sense his character would have a limited role considering the basic synopsis and the trailers. I'm fine with the length he did appear because his character served his purpose for the story.
I got a good chuckle out of that exchange, although I didn't quite pick up what had been discontinued. I was just amused by the casual conversation.
Liked it. Didn't love it. It had a lot of fun callbacks to Star Wars history past (like Vader's castle on Mustafsr, kyber crystals, the Whills, the Force of Others, to name a few) but some of the already in universe stuff was a little too much fanwank for me (the Cantina patrons on Jedha, Artoo and Threepio, Red and Gold Leaders). The characters were great though, action exciting and story was plausible. I did like the Leia and Tarkin appearances although they weren't perfect. K2-SO was great.
Solid. But the fanwankery was just a little much for me. Grade: B.
Oh and Vader really wasn't needed. Like at all.
Solid. But the fanwankery was just a little much for me. Grade: B.
Oh and Vader really wasn't needed. Like at all.
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The theatre I went to had huge crowds in the lobby. I can't remember the last time I saw anything like that.
Really liked it. Of course, that may change on repeated viewings, but my initial reaction is that it was really good. Maybe B+. I liked that they gave a legitamate reason why the Death Star had a pretty stupid design flaw.
It was exciting, but I will say that most of the characters were rather weak. Not a lot of time to explore anybody in any depth whatsoever. Although I loved Donnie Yen, but Donnie Yen is a badass so it's hard not to love him. K2SO was pretty good as well. The rest? Meh.
CGI Tarkin was weird and on far too long, so it became more and more noticeable. They still haven't nailed that real CGI person thing without the uncanny valley effect. CGI Leia was on just short enough that it didn't look so bad.
It was exciting, but I will say that most of the characters were rather weak. Not a lot of time to explore anybody in any depth whatsoever. Although I loved Donnie Yen, but Donnie Yen is a badass so it's hard not to love him. K2SO was pretty good as well. The rest? Meh.
CGI Tarkin was weird and on far too long, so it became more and more noticeable. They still haven't nailed that real CGI person thing without the uncanny valley effect. CGI Leia was on just short enough that it didn't look so bad.
You know, I completely disagree. I thought his voice sounded pretty close to the OT, especially for an 85 year old. In fact I thought it was far more obvious in Rebels than here. On Rebels it sounded off to me, not nearly as much here.
Now this I do agree with.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
My Grade: A-
-----------
Disney/Lucasfilm takes its first spin at a Star Wars movie that's not an "episode" and revolves around characters not connected to the man saga of the universe, presenting us a tangential story with new characters un-connected to those in the other movies and with minimal use of "the force" or other "mythical" elements of the Star Wars universe. It also manages to be a "prequel" to The Original Trilogy that works vastly better than anything even attempted in the Prequel Trilogy, it manages to do this without trying too hard to have nods to the original movies and characters while acknowledging them when their presence is needed to intercept the movie's events.
We see, for example, C3PO and R2-D2 in a Yavin hanger in a "cameo" appearance rather than 3PO needless just showing up in TPM because child-Darth Vader built him or whatever nonsense.
The movie takes place in the days before the events of "Episode IV: A New Hope" the movie quite literally ends probably inside of an hour before "A New Hope" begins, and tells the story of the Rebel team that managed to get the plans to the Death Star in order to stop the Empire's massive, unstoppable, weapon. At first the team is assembled to apprehend/kill one of the Death Star's chief designers, the father of one of their team members whom they need to use to get inside an extremist rebel cell. But the plans quickly change as they learn more about what this weapon is and what they need to do to stop it.
We're given an interesting cast of characters, none of whose names I can really remember due mostly to the un-common names given to Star Wars characters and my own aphasic tendencies when it comes to names. but we have a roguish rebel solider with unclear motivations and moral alignment, our main female character as the person they need to help them get an audience with the extremist cell, our "Jedi" is a blind mistic with force sensitivity who watches overt the ruins of a Jedi temple along with his warrior companion whose role is "Tank" on his character sheet, and we have a comic-relief droid character, a reprogrammed Imperial droid with his "attitude" and "sarcasm" knobs cranked to 10.
There's some great visuals in this movie including an extended battle that very much feels like a Pacific Theater World War II movie.
If there's a weak part to this movie it's that maybe the reason why I didn't really remember the characters names that well was because they're not very memorable characters. They're not quite carbon-copy tropes but they're pretty much, well, rolled characters in an RPG game because they seem to be filling that role. Rogue, Tank, Magic-user, and our Neutral-Good protagonist whose mostly multi-classing without filling any specific party role. The characters are played well, but really only our main character seems to have anything approaching motivations for the first part of the movie and then after a crucial plot elements is more driven by.... I dunno it's in the campaign guide. There's not much of an arc there, I know what it is and what they are going for but it's not very strong or even that engaging. But to their credit all of the actors play their roles very well.
As expected in a Star Wars movie very good space visuals here, though I'm more of a Trek fan and never been much of a fan of how "over built" and "over manned" the Star Wars universe is, it still presents some interesting visuals. But when we're talking about planetoid-sized starbases, city-sized space ships, and continent-sized "shield gates" in the atmosphere of a planet it's really hard to wonder how the rebels aren't utterly out-manned and out-gunned at every turn. Seriously, the size of these Imperial bases how is it they don't vastly out-number the rebels in both manpower and vehicles? How are there not more laser turrets on the underbellys of their ships or the rim of this gate-thing than there are rebel ships attacking them? When you're looking at things in the sizes we're talking about here it gets kind of silly that the rebels have any hope at all.
But, that's the Trek-nerd in me sort of nitpicking and complaining, because in the movie itself the gate-thing and space battles does make for some pretty great visuals.
The ties to the OT here are fun and nice, including the ending, but somehow the stink of the Prequels still sort of lingers here. It's sort-of hard for me to take Vader "seriously" as a villain now in the wake of the Prequels when I don't have the nostalgia factor of the Original Trilogy to shrug it off.
See, when I watch the OT it's fairly easy to ignore the events of the prequels since the feelings of the OT came before the PT so they're not tainted but watching a new movie with Vader? It's hard to not see him here as not the intimidating force of evil he is in the OT but as the whiny bitch complaining about Obi Won being mean to him and not letting him do anything fun. Yeah, I know, that's odd considering this movie leads right into that OT but that nostalgic fog over the OT is pretty powerful and this movie doesn't get that just by taking place in virtually the exact same time frame.
That said is a cool Vader moment in the movie but... I dunno, he's just not as intimidating as he would be if we didn't have those name prequel movies looming over him and he's not in this enough to completely buy back his balls.
There's two CGI "cameos" in the movie that think work well even if the CGI doesn't 100% hold-up for either them (more-so the one that comes towards the end) but it was hard to not smile and want to pump a fist when the final cameo appears.
In the end? It's a Star Wars movie, and while that's true for Ep.1-Ep.3 this is a Star Wars movie in the "new age" of them and it works very well and further help us to forget the stink of those prequels. Those likening this movie to be the best one since "Empire" aren't being to hyperbolic but, really, only due to a lack of any other options given the flaws in Jedi and the Hours-Long Red Letter Media breakdowns of the PT. The Force Awakens while strong is harmed by it being so similar to ANH, so we're left with Rogue One being the best Star Wars movie to come out in 36 years. Again, not to take anything from it but we really have to consider our other options in a "best since" system of ranking.
In the end I might rank TFA higher than this simply because the characters there felt better developed and with more potential, but they have a whole trilogy before them here we have one movie to get these characters and follow their arcs, but the original story and unique visuals in this movie are very cool. So maybe action/plotwise this movie wins but in overall story and characters TFA wins.
in the end of TFA it's easy to feel for where Rey is at and how she feels as she contemplates the events of the movie and goes on to her future adventures. At the end of the movie here? It's hard to really buy the connection shared between the two main characters because it doesn't feel quite as earned it's more like, "Wait, we were supposed to see them as a thing?"
But, overall, highly enjoyed and a must-see for any Star Wars fan.
My Grade: A-
-----------
Disney/Lucasfilm takes its first spin at a Star Wars movie that's not an "episode" and revolves around characters not connected to the man saga of the universe, presenting us a tangential story with new characters un-connected to those in the other movies and with minimal use of "the force" or other "mythical" elements of the Star Wars universe. It also manages to be a "prequel" to The Original Trilogy that works vastly better than anything even attempted in the Prequel Trilogy, it manages to do this without trying too hard to have nods to the original movies and characters while acknowledging them when their presence is needed to intercept the movie's events.
We see, for example, C3PO and R2-D2 in a Yavin hanger in a "cameo" appearance rather than 3PO needless just showing up in TPM because child-Darth Vader built him or whatever nonsense.
The movie takes place in the days before the events of "Episode IV: A New Hope" the movie quite literally ends probably inside of an hour before "A New Hope" begins, and tells the story of the Rebel team that managed to get the plans to the Death Star in order to stop the Empire's massive, unstoppable, weapon. At first the team is assembled to apprehend/kill one of the Death Star's chief designers, the father of one of their team members whom they need to use to get inside an extremist rebel cell. But the plans quickly change as they learn more about what this weapon is and what they need to do to stop it.
We're given an interesting cast of characters, none of whose names I can really remember due mostly to the un-common names given to Star Wars characters and my own aphasic tendencies when it comes to names. but we have a roguish rebel solider with unclear motivations and moral alignment, our main female character as the person they need to help them get an audience with the extremist cell, our "Jedi" is a blind mistic with force sensitivity who watches overt the ruins of a Jedi temple along with his warrior companion whose role is "Tank" on his character sheet, and we have a comic-relief droid character, a reprogrammed Imperial droid with his "attitude" and "sarcasm" knobs cranked to 10.
There's some great visuals in this movie including an extended battle that very much feels like a Pacific Theater World War II movie.
If there's a weak part to this movie it's that maybe the reason why I didn't really remember the characters names that well was because they're not very memorable characters. They're not quite carbon-copy tropes but they're pretty much, well, rolled characters in an RPG game because they seem to be filling that role. Rogue, Tank, Magic-user, and our Neutral-Good protagonist whose mostly multi-classing without filling any specific party role. The characters are played well, but really only our main character seems to have anything approaching motivations for the first part of the movie and then after a crucial plot elements is more driven by.... I dunno it's in the campaign guide. There's not much of an arc there, I know what it is and what they are going for but it's not very strong or even that engaging. But to their credit all of the actors play their roles very well.
As expected in a Star Wars movie very good space visuals here, though I'm more of a Trek fan and never been much of a fan of how "over built" and "over manned" the Star Wars universe is, it still presents some interesting visuals. But when we're talking about planetoid-sized starbases, city-sized space ships, and continent-sized "shield gates" in the atmosphere of a planet it's really hard to wonder how the rebels aren't utterly out-manned and out-gunned at every turn. Seriously, the size of these Imperial bases how is it they don't vastly out-number the rebels in both manpower and vehicles? How are there not more laser turrets on the underbellys of their ships or the rim of this gate-thing than there are rebel ships attacking them? When you're looking at things in the sizes we're talking about here it gets kind of silly that the rebels have any hope at all.
But, that's the Trek-nerd in me sort of nitpicking and complaining, because in the movie itself the gate-thing and space battles does make for some pretty great visuals.
The ties to the OT here are fun and nice, including the ending, but somehow the stink of the Prequels still sort of lingers here. It's sort-of hard for me to take Vader "seriously" as a villain now in the wake of the Prequels when I don't have the nostalgia factor of the Original Trilogy to shrug it off.
See, when I watch the OT it's fairly easy to ignore the events of the prequels since the feelings of the OT came before the PT so they're not tainted but watching a new movie with Vader? It's hard to not see him here as not the intimidating force of evil he is in the OT but as the whiny bitch complaining about Obi Won being mean to him and not letting him do anything fun. Yeah, I know, that's odd considering this movie leads right into that OT but that nostalgic fog over the OT is pretty powerful and this movie doesn't get that just by taking place in virtually the exact same time frame.
That said is a cool Vader moment in the movie but... I dunno, he's just not as intimidating as he would be if we didn't have those name prequel movies looming over him and he's not in this enough to completely buy back his balls.
There's two CGI "cameos" in the movie that think work well even if the CGI doesn't 100% hold-up for either them (more-so the one that comes towards the end) but it was hard to not smile and want to pump a fist when the final cameo appears.
In the end? It's a Star Wars movie, and while that's true for Ep.1-Ep.3 this is a Star Wars movie in the "new age" of them and it works very well and further help us to forget the stink of those prequels. Those likening this movie to be the best one since "Empire" aren't being to hyperbolic but, really, only due to a lack of any other options given the flaws in Jedi and the Hours-Long Red Letter Media breakdowns of the PT. The Force Awakens while strong is harmed by it being so similar to ANH, so we're left with Rogue One being the best Star Wars movie to come out in 36 years. Again, not to take anything from it but we really have to consider our other options in a "best since" system of ranking.
In the end I might rank TFA higher than this simply because the characters there felt better developed and with more potential, but they have a whole trilogy before them here we have one movie to get these characters and follow their arcs, but the original story and unique visuals in this movie are very cool. So maybe action/plotwise this movie wins but in overall story and characters TFA wins.
in the end of TFA it's easy to feel for where Rey is at and how she feels as she contemplates the events of the movie and goes on to her future adventures. At the end of the movie here? It's hard to really buy the connection shared between the two main characters because it doesn't feel quite as earned it's more like, "Wait, we were supposed to see them as a thing?"
But, overall, highly enjoyed and a must-see for any Star Wars fan.
The Death Star was supposed to destroy the Citadel and the surrounding city, so why did they fire somewhere else and let the resulting blast consume the city? The real reason is that you don't want to kill off Jyn with a direct hit so the movie had to set up what we actually got, but what would make for a good in-story explanation?
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