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Star Wars - now with SPOILERS! (Read at your own risk)

Robviously

By Robviously
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qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

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Felicity Jones and Oscaar Isaac played very watered down versions of Daisy Ridely and Oscaar Isaac's characters. The Rogue One writers didn't seem to understand that those characters get 3 movies to complete their arcs.

 

 

Felicity Jones's origin in this movie was so weak. The intro, which was an establishment of her tragic past, went nowhere. All the information we learn about her would've been better served peppered into the 1st and 2nd acts. If her character intro was just waking up in an imperial prison, I think that would've lended itself to more mysterious and interesting characterization.

 

Also, the time they took with each character is really strange. The first half of this movie spends A LOT of time setting up Mads Mikkelson and Felicity Jones as important. The second half of the movie discards this in favor of a more ensemble-focused pace. It's fun in the moment (see: action) but doesn't amount to much in the end.

 

Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen's characters were interesting and cool, but they didn't really have a reason to be in this story except that they crossed paths with the main characters and knew it was a movie. It never felt like they were thrown together by circumstance in the fog of rebellion, it felt like they read the script. I loved Donnie Yen's hyper confidence and Jedi abilities during battle juxtaposed with his humility and fear when he's praying in the quiet moments. He and his friend had a really sweet relationship, and when they died was the saddest I got all movie.

 

I was really excited for a robot to be a character, rather than just a side piece of scenery with a bit. Unfortunately K2 was barely more than a piece of scenery with a bit. There were bits of better robots in the writing, but underneath it all he had none of the magic of Bender/HK47's gleeful misanthropy and only a sliver of Marvin's sarcastic doomsaying. His bit was that he's always thinking about the odds and he loves the sound of his own voice. His comedic role in the group was exactly that of Sheldon in The Big Bang Theory (which I did not need more of in my life). They tried to have he and Felicity Jones's character bond, but that felt forced. She almost immediately places herself in between K2 and some guns yelling "He's with us!" Which would've made much more sense if Diego Luna had done it. Then at the end it's supposed to be their friendship moment when she gives him the gun. Like... where was the lead up? Why didn't this happen way earlier?

 

 

 

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qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

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This movie had a good idea (make a star wars movie that's a war movie!), but no confidence in itself.

 

 

 

Instead of building a war story from the ground up, they had to contrive a Star Warsy protagonist with a Star Warsy back story, complete with parental distance and an uncertain father figure's legacy. I think this really took away from the last hour of the movie where EVERY SINGLE character died.

 

I appreciate that so many members of the rebellion gave their life for the cause. It made the struggle of the rebellion feel much more real and human. In the original trilogy, the rebellion was there exclusively to give context to the main characters' situations. In this movie, all the characters felt like they were a smaller part of a bigger setting, which was cool. But the way this movie is paced, it's all a fun action adventure until it's die time. Pretty much all the characters die at the same time, which really weakens the impact when they're all taken as a group. It didn't feel like the movie was trying to make that point, either, that war makes statistics of the loss of human life. It felt like they didn't have control over the tone or pacing of the movie.

 

Unfortunately, Diego Luna and Felicity Jones didn't have any extra context to add to the conflict of this movie. There's that one scene where they yell at one another after Mads Mikkelson dies, but they're really just talking past each other. Diego accuses Felicity of not caring about the rebellion when it's like, DUDE, she was fighting with crazy man Forest Whitaker! She obviously cares.

 

Which brings us to another huge problem: Forest Whitaker. Why was he in this movie? What did his character add? I have no clue what they were going for. Him choosing to die was also really strange. All he needed to do was give the girl her dad's message and what? His life's work is complete? What happened to the extremist attacking the out of the empire?

 

There were so many ideas put into this movie, nobody was saying no.

 

What was the deal with the CGI bad guy? Like, was Tarkin that important of a character that we needed a video game character version of him that looks like he did in A New Hope? That, combined with the two darth vader scenes showed a movie that had no idea what to do with its connection to A New Hope.

 

The Force Awakens did a good job having Rey and Kylo very involved with the myth surrounding the original stories. Rey grew up in the shadow of a downed destoryer, Kylo was obsessed with Vader 'cause he shops at Hot Topk. The story felt more complimentary to the star wars universe rather than depending on it wholesale.

 

Yeah, a bunch of people died fighting this war, but the movie didn't care about those people, the movie just cares about setting up A New Hope.

 

 

 

Can anybody describe either of the two main characters without telling about their role in the movie? I can't.

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qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

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BREAKING NEWS: Qwk has lots of problems with a major, mainstream movie.

 

:p

I like mainstream stuff! I like Deadpool! I like all the Cap America movies! I really want to like what disney's doing with Marvel and Star Wars. But after Dr. Strange and Rogue 1 I feel much less confident in them.

 

Also, do you really want to hear all the problems I have with indie releases too? :lol:

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GoPre Second Liner

GoPre

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Maybe the studio didn't try very hard because they knew anything with "Star Wars" printed on the tin was gonna sell. Maybe Star Wars 8 is still going to be really awesome. (I hope so. Rian Johnson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 

After reading the script and I believe it was before or during early production, J.J. Abrams admitted he wished he didn't pass on the chance to direct Episode 8.  Have a feeling it's going to be an incredible Star Wars movie. 

Edited by GoPre
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qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

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After reading the script and I believe it was before or during early production, J.J. Abrams admitted he wished he didn't pass on the chance to direct Episode 8. Have a feeling it's going to be an incredible Star Wars movie.

I'm so glad he did. Rian Johnson is 8 times the director JJ is. And that's not a slight on JJ.
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sabills Second Liner

sabills

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Saw Rogue One on Saturday, I thought it was great.

 

 

As sad and kinda ###### as this sounds, I'm glad they all died. It makes it feel like war has real stakes without going super dark about it.  When they say "many died to bring us this information" you don't really get it. They're faceless numbers. Seeing these characters, buying into them, growing to like them, then watching them die without ever knowing if they succeeded in their mission; it really adds depth to the universe as a whole. It makes me wish Ep. 1-3 were better, too...

 

CGI Tarkin and Leia were...pretty good. We're so close to climbing back out of uncanny valley, but we're not quite there yet.

 

Edited by sabills
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darksabre Hall of Famer

darksabre

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Josie and I saw Rogue One yesterday. In short, I thought it was good. Not exceptional, but I will watch it again and like it. 

Spoiler comments below:

 

 

 

Let's get the low hanging fruit out of the way: There's a lot of uncanny valley stuff in this movie. From CGI Tarkin, to new Mon Mothma and the digitized unseen footage of Red and Gold Leader from ANH, this movie tried really hard to make sure it didn't feel too separate from the regular Star Wars universe. Some people didn't like Tarkin. I thought he was perfectly fine. I knew going in that he was CGI and it really didn't bother me. CGI has come such a long way and I think having him in this movie was crucial.

 

I just about fell out of my chair when Red and Gold Leader showed up during the battle though. I had no idea that was coming and it hit me right in the feels. Loved it. I will watch this movie just for that alone. 

I REALLY wasn't expecting CGI Leia at the end, but I really liked it, and again, the CGI didn't bother me at all. In fact it almost upset me in a good way. I knew Leia was on the ship, but I didn't think they'd go so far as to CGI her in and have her speak. It was surprisingly emotional for me.

One thing I thought stood in contrast to my expected dislike of the CGI was my surprise dislike of James Earl Jones returning to voice Vader. Sure, he still sounds like Vader, but there's some power missing from his voice now. You can tell he's 85 years old. It bothered me. I'd have preferred someone with a stronger voice doing the part and having the sound wizards adjust it in post. 

Stealing the show: Malbus and Imwe, our sorta-Jedi Guardians of the Whills. These guys felt like a straight nod to Kurosawa and added some much needed depth to the movie. I would love to see them return in other films. I was more fascinated by them than anyone else, to be honest. 

The Imperial Pilot turned out to be a much better character than I expected. He came on strong at the end. I think it would have been nice to see some more about his relationship with Galen Erso. Their connection and his subsequent dedication to Erso felt forced. 

I agree with qwk that Saw Gerrera seemed out of place, but he's a major figure in the expanded universe so I understand why they worked him and his band of radical rebels in. He didn't bother me that much but again his presence seemed forced. He could have been a much more intriguing character. 

K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk) was great. No complaint from me there. 

Thing I really liked that I didn't know about until after the fact: The return of the female Rebel Pilots who were cut from the battle in ROTJ. That's a cool nod, and much appreciated in a movie franchise that seems to be working really hard to make strong, bada** ladies into its most important characters. 

It was nice to see the Rebel Alliance portrayed in greater depth. In the original trilogy you sometimes get the feeling they're hapless and extremely lucky, or that the Empire isn't really that big of a deal. This does a better job of making their cause a lot more real and a lot more desperate. It makes the Empire feel a lot more evil. 

Overall: I liked it. I'm looking forward to more of these little filler Star Wars movies. I appreciate they did the cold-open without the text scroll. I thought the soundtrack was pretty good. 8/10. 

 

 

 

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darksabre Hall of Famer

darksabre

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Saw Rogue One on Saturday, I thought it was great.

 

 

As sad and kinda ###### as this sounds, I'm glad they all died. It makes it feel like war has real stakes without going super dark about it. When they say "many died to bring us this information" you don't really get it. They're faceless numbers. Seeing these characters, buying into them, growing to like them, then watching them die without ever knowing if they succeeded in their mission; it really adds depth to the universe as a whole. It makes me wish Ep. 1-3 were better, too...

 

CGI Tarkin and Leia were...pretty good. We're so close to climbing back out of uncanny valley, but we're not quite there yet.

 

 

I definitely was thinking about the prequels during this. Man, those movies sucked. Disney just throws money at the franchise and completely revives it. Please keep making movies so I never have to think about the prequels again.

 

I suppose I didn't need to put that comment in the spoiler tag because duh.

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sabills Second Liner

sabills

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I definitely was thinking about the prequels during this. Man, those movies sucked. Disney just throws money at the franchise and completely revives it. Please keep making movies so I never have to think about the prequels again.

 

I suppose I didn't need to put that comment in the spoiler tag because duh.

 

No spoiler tag, because everyone should watch this: "What if Episode One Was Good?"

 

He goes through all three movies in separate videos and essentially retells the story. He ends up wayy off from the original script by the third one, but I think the story is better. Part of me hopes they eventually redo those stories, but I just don't know how you could justify it...

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darksabre Hall of Famer

darksabre

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No spoiler tag, because everyone should watch this: "What if Episode One Was Good?"

 

He goes through all three movies in separate videos and essentially retells the story. He ends up wayy off from the original script by the third one, but I think the story is better. Part of me hopes they eventually redo those stories, but I just don't know how you could justify it...

 

I mean, everything gets a remake now. If Disney really wanted to get fans on the wagon:

 

-Remake the prequels (giving Darth Maul the role he was supposed to have and cutting a LOT of CGI)

-Remove the BS that George put into the new version of ROTJ (nooooo! and young Anakin) 

 

 

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qwksndmonster All Star

qwksndmonster

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Originally I was just as mad at Rogue One as I was at Dr. Strange. But at least Rogue One had a heart and an idea. And it was wayyyy better than Juriassic World and Independence Day 2: Electric Boogaloo.

 

The shotmaking and editing was not good, though, which is pretty unforgivable with the amount of money they had to throw at this movie.

 

I don't understand why they put so much money into Tarkin. The uncanny valley effect hit me really hard. Why not just call up Charles Dance?

 

 

 

Vader's first scene felt very forced. They showed him in his tank, which was a callback to his little breathing ball back in the original trilogy. But instead of using that to tell the story through visuals, it was just an establishing shot. Then he lectures the bad guy and does the choke thing. And then jokes about it with a pun.

 

That was such a fanservice scene. Yeah Vader chokes people right?? That's what you wanna see??!!

 

 

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