Rogue One Vs The Force Awakens

[Sybok Was Wrong]

Rogue One is the worst Star Wars movie yet.

The first two acts are choppy and badly edited. The characters aren't fleshed out well. The soundtrack is unmemorable. The outcome is a foregone conclusion.

This movie is Tailor-made for shallow, video game playing geeks who like 'splosions. This movie is perfect for viewers who don't want to be challenged but want comfortable, familiar imagery.

The best parts of Rogue One are visuals of what has been done before: X Wings. Tie Fighters. Death Star. Tarkin. Vader. Star Destroyers.

Nothing "new", outside K2SO, is strong and memorable & brings anything new to Star Wars.

"The Force Awakens" has issues, definitely, but it had a bigger job than being "just a movie". It had to win back the audience that has unmercifully beaten the Prequel Trilogy to hell. It succeeded. TFA's best parts weren't the old characters- it was the NEW. That's a big achievement!

Rey. Finn. Poe. Kylo Ren. BB8. They're well on their way to being Classic Star Wars characters. Who were the characters in Rogue One? Um....Gyn Erso. K2SO. Name the others!

The best/boldest move was killing off all the characters. How un- Disney. Impressed. But something felt lacking on First Viewing. So I saw Rogue One again. Couldn't wait for it to end.

Rogue One doesn't have rewatchability. The Force Awakens doesn't have the rewatchability of The original trilogy films, But it's the opening Salvo of what has the potential to be a fine trilogy.

Star Wars fans have been so predictable since "The Phantom Menace". Every new film that comes out is awesome. UNTIL THE NEXT ONE. Then the last one suddenly now "Sucks".

A year ago TFA was awesome and a return to the SW we all love. Now, apparently with Rogue One, TFA is crap.
So "The Last Jedi" is going to be awesome, and the slamming of Rogue One will be louder. You Fans are too predictable.

One last thing: Rogue One makes me respect the Prequel Trilogy more for what Lucas attempted. All that , "it's like poetry- it rhymes" smart assery aside, he tried to do a lot of new things. The prequel trilogy is pretty good and all you people who have been awful to Lucas over the years didn't deserve all the creativity that went into it. You just wanted Rogue One style callbacks.

Anyhow, Star Trek is better.~





-

 

[Saul]

The prequel trilogy is pretty good

And there your argument crumbles.

 

[Ithekro]

The thing is, Lucas liked Rogue One because it took more risks than The Force Awakens. Technical and film making risks. His view of the two films is that from a maker of films rather than someone interested in plot or characters. Rogue One took risks that TFA didn't take because TFA was shot to bring people back into the franchise and make them get into Star Wars again. Rogue One just decides to make a film in the Star Wars universe and see what sticks and what flops. You need a dead man on the screen for a few minutes...lets do this. Need to go against the grain a bit...sure lets try it. Want an overly large heroic moment that doesn't include any of the main characters? Sure thing...we'll get you two and add in a new defining moment of awesome for the original antagonist while we are at it. That's just how Rogue One is.

Is it the greatest movie ever? No. Was it fun. When they left for Jedha it became fun and by the end it was awesome due to what was happening. TFA was fun for the entire film due to the characters, not the plot or situation. The character of RO are almost forgettable, but the situation is grand and that works for war films, where it is the situation that is the focus...not the people who lived and died there. The people had their rolls to play, but it is the event that is remembered.

And there your argument crumbles.

That reminds me, did you ever get around to looking at the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series? Its sequel Yamato 2202 is coming in a month or so.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Rogue One for me. Something really bothered me about TFA and I think it's down to the stylistic choices used in the movie. Some of the direction struck me as really odd. I liked the characters just fine, but felt that there was something missing. Lots of backstory left out for instance, that should have been in the movie. Characters get introduced and we see them very little. Just a lot of very broad fast moving strokes. Some of the legacy characters I felt weren't quite handled right. R2's slowly agonizing reveal felt very lazy. R2 droid funk, really? Just seems very counter-intuitive. Made me feel very sad for what they'd done to him as writers. TFA also had the effect of having to live up to a whole lot for a franchise sequel. It felt to me like a movie with a SW theme rather than a SW movie. Ironically, Rogue One felt so much more like Star Wars to me, likely because it didn't have the same pressure to adhere to. They could just make a fun movie set in SW universe, and boy, did they deliver. It had more of a sense of fun to it and the magic that I felt TFA didn't have.

It's the movie that made me look forward to Star Wars all over again.

 

[Set Harth]

The outcome is a foregone conclusion.

The prequel trilogy is pretty good and all you people who have been awful to Lucas over the years didn't deserve all the creativity that went into it.

But how could it be good? After all, the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

 

[Relayer1]

Rogue One is the worst Star Wars movie yet.

This movie is Tailor-made for shallow, video game playing geeks who like 'splosions. This movie is perfect for viewers who don't want to be challenged but want comfortable, familiar imagery.

The Force Awakens" has issues, definitely

Rey. Finn. Poe. Kylo Ren. BB8. They're well on their way to being Classic Star Wars characters. Who were the characters in Rogue One? Um....Gyn Erso. K2SO. Name the others!

Anyhow, Star Trek is better.

-

True, the worst one yet. Apart from Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Force Awakens and maybe Return if the Jedi.

I hate video games. They bore the pants off me.

The Force Awakens has issues ? Yes, the main one being that it's crap. O.K., an opinion not an argument I realise, but I went through what I disliked about it at length last year and I'm not doing it again. Suffice to say I found it very poor.

Kylo a 'classic character' ? Surely you jest ! I liked some of Rogue One's cast enough to be disappointed they won't be back. I never want to see Kylo again.

Trek is better ? Not judging by the frankly awful Beyond...

 

[Saul]

That reminds me, did you ever get around to looking at the Space Battleship Yamato 2199 series? Its sequel Yamato 2202 is coming in a month or so.

Not yet, it's definitely on my to watch list once I get time. Funny you should mention it, I saw advertisements for Yamato 2202 at the station today. I gotta catch up.

 

[Gaith]

The prequel trilogy is pretty good and all you people who have been awful to Lucas over the years didn't deserve all the creativity that went into it.

"I sense much bitterness in you.
Bitterness leads to upset.
Upset leads to fear.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to... defending the prequel trilogy!"
​

 

[Relayer1]

....defending the prequel trilogy!

I couldn't even comment on that bit.

Not outside TNZ anyway...

 

[Venardhi]

TFA has by far the more interesting and compelling characters and the inclusion of the legacy characters were central to the story being told. The central plot of Starkiller Base is old-hat but it is only the framework on which the rest of it is built and those threads of story surrounding it are compelling as hell, because they're driven by compelling characters.

RO on the other hand has a thoroughly compelling premise but wastes its potential by involving legacy characters like Vader and Tarkin and sprinkling fanboy callbacks throughout that had little or nothing to do with the actual story of the plans being stolen. They piss away a third of the movie on material that doesn't involve the central characters at all (or could easily have been a toss-away line) and those characters and the overall film suffer for it.

And the prequels are still bad.

 

[kirk55555]

I have to go with TFA. I like both movies, but TFA had better, more fleshed out characters, and I don't care if it has similarities to Episode IV. RO was still very good, but none of the characters were as memorable or enjoyable as Rey, Finn, Han, etc.

 

[Lowdarzz]

After watching Rogue One I left the theater thinking I'd seen the best Star Wars movie since Empire Strikes Back. I have no criteria by which to judge whether it was a perfect film. I liked the characters, I liked the plot and I liked the conclusion.

I walked out of TFA bored at having watched a lesser remake of A New Hope.I enjoyed seeing the old characters but was unimpressed by what had become of them. As for the new characters, to me there was nothing to them. MaRey Sue (yes I watched the honest trailer), Finn the walking punchline and Poe, the guy whose there. Ren is the only character I found interesting. I hope Johnson is able to make something of these characters in The Last Jedi but I don't believe he has a ton to work with.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Rogue One is the worst Star Wars movie yet.

I take it you have not watched The Phantom Menace, The Ewok Adventure or Attack of the Clones.

The first two acts are choppy and badly edited.

Agreed. No pacing--it was just jump from one event to another as fast as possible. For a film that's supposed to take place right before A New Hope, it has none of the original's pacing and attention to character development.

The soundtrack is unmemorable.

No argument there. It was like terrible Star Wars sound-a-like music used in the flood of knock-off films produced after the original Star Wars.

The outcome is a foregone conclusion.

Yes, but the point was to make the journey getting there interesting and vital to the OT, but it was not. No one could care about the characters and their struggle as presented.

"The Force Awakens" has issues, definitely, but it had a bigger job than being "just a movie". It had to win back the audience that has unmercifully beaten the Prequel Trilogy to hell. It succeeded. TFA's best parts weren't the old characters- it was the NEW. That's a big achievement!

The only reason TFA attracted audiences was the thrill of the OT's "Big Three" returning--something SW fans had longed for since ROTJ left theatres in the summer of 1983. Remove the "Big Three" and there would have been next to no excitement about Finn, Rey, Ren and the copy+paste plot of ANH.

Rogue One doesn't have rewatchability. The Force Awakens doesn't have the rewatchability of The original trilogy films, But it's the opening Salvo of what has the potential to be a fine trilogy.

That's not a good start; ANH instantly earned repeat viewings. For TFA to lack that drawing power--being the 7th film in a well known brand like Star Wars--says much about its poor execution.

The prequel trilogy is pretty good and all you people who have been awful to Lucas over the years didn't deserve all the creativity that went into it. You just wanted Rogue One style callbacks.

Are you serious? The prequels were nothing except verbal or visual callbacks / "wink winks" to the OT (despite its chronological place in the series). From the fanservice of--

• dragging anyone named Fett into the film
• baby Greedo
• R2 conveniently being the property of future Skywalker twins' mother Padme
• 3-PO conveniently built by Anakin
• middle act has Anakin lose a limb during a lightsaber duel
• Obi-Wan telling Anakin he will be the death of him
• Padme wearing the Leia/ANH bun hairdo
• Chewbacca appearing in the film AND having any kind of personal relationship with Yoda
• Younglings lightsaber training with the seeker remote and helmets
• asteroid pursuit

...and there's more. The Prequels did not have a real identity of its own--it was always some OT reference sandwiched in that terrible story.

Anyhow, Star Trek is better

..that depends on which part of the franchise you're referring to, 'cause.....

 

[fireproof78]

Yes, but the point was to make the journey getting there interesting ad vital to the OT, but it was not. No one could care about the characters and their struggle as presented.

This movie is Tailor-made for shallow, video game playing geeks who like 'splosions. This movie is perfect for viewers who don't want to be challenged but want comfortable, familiar imagery.

Wow...I don't know who should be insulted more-video game players or the viewers who liked the film?

Personally, there was not a lot that I took away from RO that was comfortable, even if it was familiar. It was a dark, very introspective film, that looked at the side of war beyond the explosions and battles. Like ROTJ, it gave a whole new perspective on aspects of the SW universe that hadn't been seen before. Which, I think, gives the film a certain memorability to it.

As for rewatchability, I find TFA far more rewatchable, primarily due to the characters. Jyn has started to grow on me, but few of the main characters from RO are specifically enjoyable for me.[/QUOTE]

 

[Ithekro]

TFA is more rewatchable due to its characters and certain fun moments. RO is not as much for its characters, but for specific moments in the film.

TFA is along the traditional Star Wars line of space fantasy setting space operas. RO is more a war film set in the same universe. It is more like watching a movie about a specific event rather than a story about the characters. I guess like watching say, Tora, Tora, Tora or some other historical battle where the characters play a part, but it is the event that makes the movie.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Wow...I don't know who should be insulted more-video game players or the viewers who liked the film?

er...

This movie is Tailor-made for shallow, video game playing geeks who like 'splosions. This movie is perfect for viewers who don't want to be challenged but want comfortable, familiar imagery.

...was not my quote.

 

[fireproof78]

er...



...was not my quote.

It was in this post

Might want to check it then.

 

[Saul]

It was in this post

Might want to check it then.

Yes, but Sybok Was Wrong was the first to say it at that top of this page, so putting 2 and 2 together it's easy to see that Trek_God was meant to put it in quotation marks.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

It was in this post

Might want to check it then.

Yes, but Sybok Was Wrong was the first to say it at that top of this page, so putting 2 and 2 together it's easy to see that Trek_God was meant to put it in quotation marks.

^ Correct.

 

[fireproof78]

Yes, but Sybok Was Wrong was the first to say it at that top of this page, so putting 2 and 2 together it's easy to see that Trek_God was meant to put it in quotation marks.

It flowed well enough that I missed it. I will correct my post and apologize for any offense.