Spoilers Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - Grading & Discussion

[Relayer1]

No.

Just ... no.

Giacchino managed to work his way up to Williams' incidental flourishes. But that's about it. He does have one easily recognizable theme (first heard at 0:36 of "He's Here For Us") which pops up relatively frequently. There are some others, but they leave little impact. And there is nothing close to, say, Rey's theme. Much less the symbolic significance of Ren's theme. His use of the Force Theme felt awkward and clumsy. He barely used the Rebel theme. And there was very little to tie this score to the rest of the Star Wars films - a significant shortcoming, seeing as how this film fits so critically into the events of ANH.

The score is a lot of Williams-influenced stylized, but forgettable, wallpaper.

By compared favourably to, I meant of a similar standard. I'd call Williams Ep.VII score Star Wars influenced but forgettable wallpaper. Certainly his weakest SW work.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The firings in Rogue One were single reactor only, and did not destroy the planets. Alderaan was its first use at full power.

Though I prefer the destruction in Rogue One almost. The way it propagated in a more realistic speed instead of disintegrating the planet instantly like a bursting balloon.

 

[Ithekro]

Will I was impressed. My friends wife was sad at the end since she has expected at least some of them to live and started not liking it as soon as the main and supporting characters started dying one after the other. Though you feel bad for some of them, just going by what Vader was doing in A New Hope, you figure they are all going to die.

CGI Tarkin was amazing. The space and ground battles were impressive. And Darth Vader reminds us why he is so feared. Also despite the differences in acting styles, I actually liked Vader's conversation with Krenic. He sounded basically like he did in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back in terms of the way he was talking.

 

[Venardhi]

I just watched A New Hope and I would say the line works fine with what we saw in Rogue One. The actual line in A New Hope is "Where are the transmissions you intercepted?" Darth Vader could simply be using the royal you, referring to the Rebels because he knows someone in the Rebel fleet at the battle intercepted the the transmission as we saw in Rogue One. I don't see any problem there.

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"Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies."

Leia's ship should have been standing by somewhere at the edge of the system, not in the hangar of a ship in the thick of a battle where it could have easily been destroyed. Of course, then you can't have the Vader scenes as presented.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

A slight inconsistency that can be attributed to Vader generalizing a bit too much.
And technically the transmissions were beamed to the ship the blockade runner was docked at at the time.
So still not entirely wrong.
Also it is clear why he dismisses her story so easily.
He is basically saying "are you shitting me?! We saw you escaping the ship we just boarded to retrieve the plans."

 

[Locutus of Bored]

"Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies."

Leia's ship should have been standing by somewhere at the edge of the system, not in the hangar of a ship in the thick of a battle where it could have easily been destroyed. Of course, then you can't have the Vader scenes as presented.

Which was awesome and way better than requiring Leia's ship to be on the edge of the system and out of harm's way just to avoid a pedantic nitpick about whether her ship was the one the plans were beamed to directly or simply docked to the ship the plans were beamed to. What difference does it make to Vader's accusation if the plans were beamed to the other ship and then quickly run down a hallway by troopers fleeing for their lives? It's functionally the same thing as far as Vader is concerned and doesn't require a more complicated and redundant explanation. He's got Leia dead to rights and isn't in a court of law where he needs to spell things out in precise detail for a jury. He's like "Don't bullshit me, I know what you did."

 

[Venardhi]

It makes Leia's entire side of the conversation laughable. The clear implication of the scene is that her part in the mission was covert and they had some modicum of plausible deniability. Putting her right in the middle of things makes no sense for someone whose real usefulness to the Rebellion is as a political figure operating within the system.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Her presence in the battle was probably incidental.
The call for reinforcements came very short notice and the jump to light speed before they could undock.
It was actually smart to leave the ship docked during the battle precisely because of Leia's presence.
That way she remained protected and undetected.
The only reason they decided to reveal themselves was because the main ship was compromised and boarded.
If that didn't happen the next thing would have been a retreat of the entire battle group or what was left of it.

 

[MacLeod]

In case anypone is interested, this article sheds light on the re-shoots.

http://www.slashfilm.com/rogue-one-missing-trailer-footage/

It's interesting to see what was changed, and part of me wonders what the orginal cut was like prior to the re-shoots. There is another linked article that suggests Jones had a sequel clause in her contract. So perhaps not everyone died in the orginal cut.

 

[Tosk]

I just remembered one of the little nods I liked...we see a physical dejarik set being used at one point, and the pieces look like their holo counterparts. First Finn turns the Falcon's table back on, now this.

 

[Venardhi]

That was one of the few familiar "winks" I didn't mind. No particular attention was drawn to it, it was just there.

 

[stardream]

Will I was impressed. My friends wife was sad at the end since she has expected at least some of them to live and started not liking it as soon as the main and supporting characters started dying one after the other. Though you feel bad for some of them, just going by what Vader was doing in A New Hope, you figure they are all going to die.

CGI Tarkin was amazing. The space and ground battles were impressive. And Darth Vader reminds us why he is so feared. Also despite the differences in acting styles, I actually liked Vader's conversation with Krenic. He sounded basically like he did in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back in terms of the way he was talking.

Yeah, I didn't like that about the whole everybody died thing either. I know, heroic sacrifice, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Remember the Alamo and Masada and all that but I left wishing one of them had survived, even if it was just the droid. That's part of the reason why I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

We talked about the CGI Tarkin after the movie and joked that they could resurrect anybody now to play a part. Why not bring back Clarke Gable and all the other actors of classic Hollywood...or use it to keep actors eternally young. Heck, why not just do away with actors altogether and CGI what you want. At least that way no one can get after you for casting someone of the wrong ethnicity....just CGI what you need.

 

[Mach5]

Heck, why not just do away with actors altogether and CGI what you want.

In the near future studios like ILM and Pixar will likely be able to produce computer animated features with a degree of photo-realism which will make them virtually indistinguishable from live action films. Sounds almost scary, but it's heading in that direction.

 

[Venardhi]

At some point they may do just that. Both animation and rendering have a ways to go before then.

Everything about Tarkin seemed off to me. It was like they overdid the detail in his face and forgot to simulate the makeup they put on the other actors. The lighting of those scenes didn't help that at all; since when are Imperial interiors so dark? On top of that he never seemed to be completely still, there was always some twitch of a lip here or a head wobble there, like they were afraid if he stopped moving for a second it would give the game away.

 

[Mach5]

At some point they may do just that. Both animation and rendering have a ways to go before then.

Oh, they do indeed, but look at the progress that's been made over the last decade or so. Ironically, the most realistic looking CGI character to date is still, in my opinion, Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. And that was 10 years ago. Caesar from the Apes movies comes as a close second.

But there was a time not long ago when Final Fantasy - Spirits Within was celebrated as pinnacle of computer animation, and back then something like the CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger from Terminator Genisys was beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Whether it takes ten years, or twenty, it doesn't matter. Fully animated movies that can't be told apart from live action are a matter of time.

On top of that he never seemed to be completely still, there was always some twitch of a lip here or a head wobble there, like they were afraid if he stopped moving for a second it would give the game away.

Which is absurd, considering it's the motion that's the biggest giveaway.

 

[Vger23]

I gave it a straight B. I enjoyed it, but there were fundamental things that were weak.

The good:
Stunning visual effects and awesome cinematography
Cool, perfect tie in to ANH
Thoughtful story and pacing (meaning it seemed straightforward with not a lot of holes)
Lots of Death Star
Vader

The bad:
Completely unengaging and cookie-cutter characters
Lack of John Williams
Weak villain (besides Vader obviously)
Paint by numbers plot

 

[Mach5]

Lack of John Williams

JW is an old man and he's not going to be around forever, so I suggest you stop thinking about this as a "flaw", and accept it as a fact of life instead.

 

[John Clark]

Just got back from seeing it. I thought it was a good solid film and while I was aware of a couple of the cameos ahead of the time, some of the others were unexpected. There were quite a few bits from various trailers that didn't seem to make it.

(The soundtrack also arrived today, so I'll give that a listen apart from the film at some point)

 

[Greylock Crescent]

JW is an old man and he's not going to be around forever, so I suggest you stop thinking about this as a "flaw", and accept it as a fact of life instead.

It would be helpful, though, if the non-Williams soundtrack was actually good, though (it's not terrible, just mostly non-descript).

(Seriously, Kevin Kiner's work on the Clone Wars TV series was much better than Giacchino's RO score.)

 

[Jax]

Giacchino did a good job, the guy knows how to score a film.