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

Grade the movie.


  • Total voters
    222
I loved it, I would put it right up there The Empire Strikes Back, and The Force Awakens as my favorite SW movies.
The whole cast was great, and I thought all of the characters were pretty interesting. I was disappointed that they killed everybody, I was hoping they would at least let Jyn and Cassian survive for future stories. I was glad that they at least give each character a big moment before they died.
I think this was my favorite SW from a visual standpoint, the CGI was great, and it gave us some really nice looking shots.
I got a big kick out of all of the Original Trilogy call backs, with Vader getting two cool scenes. Getting to see Vader go full on scary Sith Lord at the end was a hell of a moment. That scene did a lot to really show just how terrifying Vader is. I know I've seen some people complain about the CGI Tarkin and Leia, but I thought they were actually pretty good. They were still not quite 100% convincing, but they were pretty close.
I loved the whole battle and everything at the end.
As for the debate a the top of the page, I really think that was the best way for that stuff to play out given how ANH started, and was more or less what I was expecting.
This gets an A+ from me, I really have no complaints.
 
Yup. I raised this point up thread a bit, but there's a possibility that place has some significance to the Sith beyond what went down between Vader and Kenobi. So that might not be the only reason Vader hangs out there, but I'm sure it helps in his "meditations" on the dark side.

On a related note, are people still claiming that Disney & LF have some mandate to avoid mentioning or referencing the Prequel trilogy, because I think this movie pretty much kicks that idea squarely in the teeth.
There's a line in season one Rebels about Mustafar spoken by Hera in "Rebel Resolve": "I've only heard that name once, from Kanan. He said Mustafar is where Jedi go to die."

That line caught my attention, because it grammatically refers to more than one Jedi going there to die, which would mean it's referencing at least one other Jedi not including Anakin who died there, or I suppose who was supposed to die there.
 
There's a line in season one Rebels about Mustafar spoken by Hera in "Rebel Resolve": "I've only heard that name once, from Kanan. He said Mustafar is where Jedi go to die."

That line caught my attention, because it grammatically refers to more than one Jedi going there to die, which would mean it's referencing at least one other Jedi not including Anakin who died there, or I suppose who was supposed to die there.
It has been confirmed that Mustafar is where many of the captured Jedi were sent for torture, interrogation and execution, presumably by Vader. So that reference tracks.

What made me wonder about it's significance to the Sith is that bit in TCW where Palpatine has a secret lab set-up there to experiment on force sensitive younglings to create an army of indoctrinated spies and enforcers. Put the pieces together and it seems it may be the location of the Inquisitorius headquarters, where they are trained under Vader's supervision.

I don't have the book myself, but apparently the Rogue One Visual Guide mentions some ancient "Sith cave" located under Vader's sanctum. That could just be a fun nod to the unused Ralph McQuarrie concept art for the Emperor's throne room from RotJ, or there could be a larger story at play there (queue Snoke fan theory #723.)
 
I'm not sure if anyone has pointed this out, but I think it's now clear that in ANH, Luke filled the empty post of Red 5 after the character identified as Red 5 in R1 died in the space battle.

Kor
 
That little bit almost took me out of it as the guy playing Red 5 almost seemed to be hamming it up for laughs.

Side note: do pilots that decorate their helmets typically have a spare that they decorate in almost exactly the same manner? Because the helmet that guy was wearing had the same paint job as Luke's. Also, if I feel like being super picky: where did the Rebels get an extra X-Wing from and did they really have the time to bother repainting it with 'Red 5' markings? I mean I know it was a few days between the battles at Scarif and Yavin, but still, you'd think they'd have more pressing maintenance issues to attend to.
 
Sometimes I just can't believe I've seen the same movie as other people. How can someone give this an A, meaning an outstanding achievement of the cinema arts, far, far above average. Man, is this thing average.

Dullsville. I like female protagonists. Really liked Rey. This one: dullsville. A bunch of boring rehashed characters. Too many, as others have noted. THE most interesting character, the conflicted father, we never really get to hear much from, or see him in his conflict. This was like a typical WWII do-the-big-mission film with many characters. But, c'mon, the blind Buddhist monk and the shaggy brute? One reviewer on metcritic said it's the only film preview he or she had ever walked out on, and I could se why, if I wasn't just kind of wanting to spend some time in that universe and hear Star Wars music on a theater sound system.

The music was surprisingly good to me, btw, as Giacchino seemed to step up his game and channel his inner Williams ( Vaughn Williams, that is, and Holst, and Prokofiev, and the other usual suspects John Williams channels so well). G's Trek scores were pretty pedestrian, but I thought this was pretty good. Some of the cinematography and effects were cool. I liked the real-er look to it. But the story and dialogue -- yish: dull ingredients assembled by corporate hacks. I wonder if the original, quirkier(?) cut was actually better before Disney ordered the re-shoots.
 
Dullsville. I like female protagonists. Really liked Rey. This one: dullsville.

My feelings, both for TFA vs RO and Rey vs Jyn, are the exact opposite of yours. I liked Jyn, and her quiet struggle. I thought Rey was one trope after another (though well acted by Ridley, I'm not faulting the actor for the weakness of the character). Rogue One is the superior film, and the superior Star Wars.
 
Side note: do pilots that decorate their helmets typically have a spare that they decorate in almost exactly the same manner? Because the helmet that guy was wearing had the same paint job as Luke's. Also, if I feel like being super picky: where did the Rebels get an extra X-Wing from and did they really have the time to bother repainting it with 'Red 5' markings? I mean I know it was a few days between the battles at Scarif and Yavin, but still, you'd think they'd have more pressing maintenance issues to attend to.

If you go to the trouble to match call signs on the fuselage it's obviously an important part of identification during battle. "Red Three you have a Tie on your tail". since the update only takes a little paint, there is no reason not to update it. As for the helmet, I'd need to see them side by side to make an assessment.
 
If you go to the trouble to match call signs on the fuselage it's obviously an important part of identification during battle. "Red Three you have a Tie on your tail". since the update only takes a little paint, there is no reason not to update it. As for the helmet, I'd need to see them side by side to make an assessment.

I think the markings are mostly just for show and tradition. In a battle you're rarely going to be close enough, even to your wingman for five hashmarks to be legible, let alone Red Eleven's to even be countable at a glance. Instead you're going to depend on a tactical heads up and the IFF system.
But like I said: super nitpicky. It's just a gag and not something that massively bothered me.
 
My feelings, both for TFA vs RO and Rey vs Jyn, are the exact opposite of yours. I liked Jyn, and her quiet struggle. I thought Rey was one trope after another (though well acted by Ridley, I'm not faulting the actor for the weakness of the character). Rogue One is the superior film, and the superior Star Wars.

I agree
 
I really enjoyed this. As someone who was never a Star Wars fan before The Force Awakens, and still thinks the prior six movies range from terrible to okay, I'm not entirely sure what's changed but I'm on board with what Star Wars is now.
 
plynch said:
One reviewer on metcritic said it's the only film preview he or she had ever walked out on

That's absolutely ridiculous.

There's only one movie I've ever prematurely walked out of ( which just so happens to be the only one Siskel ever walked out of ), and it deserved it.

This one did not.
 
^With a lead-in like that I think you have to tell us what movie it was. :)

And I did enjoy RO more than TFA. I think, especially on rewatches, TFA suffers from its similarities to ANH, though how the sequels evolve will influence my impressions.
 
So after the little cameos in Rogue One, am I the only one who thinks a live action Rebels movie would be really fun to see?

Even if the series hasn't always been the strongest, this is still a solid group of characters they've put together that I think would translate really well to live action, and probably work even better there with the grittier and more intense action and backdrop of a movie.

If nothing else, it's a much cooler idea to me than a young Han Solo or Boba Fett spinoff.
 
I loved this one, I'd put it right up there with TESB, and TFA as one of my favorite Star Wars movie.
I really liked all of the characters, with Jyn, Cassian, and K2 being my favorites. We didn't get quite as much development for the others, but I still liked them. As for the debate earlier in the thread about Chirrut and Baze, it did seem to me like Chirrut was at least able to sense the Force, but I don't think he was a Jedi. I really don't see anything to indicate that Baze might have been a Clone. They said they were Guardians of the Whills and I really didn't see anything in the movie to make me think they were lying. When it comes to Chirrut's possible Force sense, in the old EU there were places where the Jedi sent people who had Force abilities, but weren't powerful enough to be full fledged Jedi Knights, maybe the Guardians were something like that.
I've seen a lot of people complain about the CGI for Tarkin and Leia, but didn't think they were that bad. They weren't quite 100% convincing, but they were better than I was expecting. Tarkin actually played a much bigger role than I expected, I was thought he was just going to be a quick cameo. Does anybody know how they did his dialog, was it reedited stuff from old Peter Cushing movies, or just a sound alike voice actor?
The movie had some of my favorite action scenes in the whole series.
I got a big kick out of the other call backs to The Original Trilogy, with the guys from the Tattooine cantina, and the droids. I was a little surprised we didn't see the the droids again at the end as set for ANH.
It was pretty cool seeing Vader go all badass Sith Lord on the rebels. It really did a lot to make him an even scarier, more intimidating villain.
What were the Rebels cameos? The only one I saw was The Ghost in the fleet.
 
Zeb would likely have to be CG character with motion capture on set. Chopper they already have. At which point they'd just need to find people that can look at least somewhat like Kanan, Erza, Sabine, and someone who can act very well with Twi'lek makeup for Hera.

Rebels has been using a sound-a-like actor for Tarkin for a few years.

The Rebels cameos were Chopper at Yavin base. The Ghost on Yavin base, and the Ghost with the fleet during the battle. I thought I saw it jump to hyperspace just before Vader's Star Destroyer arrived.
 
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Clone Wars era Ahsoka (under her master Anakin Skywalker as played by Hayden Christensen), or older Ahsoka fighting against the Empire?
 
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