Rogue One - seen it thread. (open spoilers)

[Raguleader]

[QUOTE=ganthet]
It seems like the purpose of that scene was to further establish the bureaucratic rivalry of Krennic with Tarkin, show Krennic’s ambitions as the motivation for his actions, and affirm that Vader is officially or unofficially more powerful in the hierarchy than either Krennic or Tarkin. Essentially Krennic was complaining to an executive vice president of a regional manager’s attempts to sideline him.
[/QUOTE]

In that case, I guess it does do a decent job of world-building. The Empire is no more of a big monolithic all-together team than the Alliance is.

@Chronos

Oh, and to all of those saying that the ship had no character, what do you have against sea turtles?

Well, that’s it, every time I watch this movie from now on, I’m quoting “Finding Nemo” through every scene with that shuttle.

[Lucky_Mike]

I will say one thing about them all dying.

Yes, it is realistic. Yes, it is gritty. Yes, it is the most likely scenario.

But, I fell in love with Star Wars because it was the Rocky of Sci Fi.

I do not want Star Wars to be gritty, I want it to be inspiring.

I do not watch movies like Star Wars to be reminded of the shit that is humanity. I watch it to be entertained and reminded of the beauty of humanity.

No, I do not want some bogus “save” scene at the end. I want a complete bad ass scene where my heroes kick ass and get out.

I mean, who among you does not love that scene from Kick Ass near the end?

Still like the movie. A little sad the main character died so blandly.

I reiterate, the best death was the robot.

Still like it, just needs to be better.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

So, I’m gonna go against the grain here. I was disappointed.

There were some little disappointments:

-Hey Krennic, I know you’re a dick, but you’re also in charge of a major operation. When you get the urge to murder eight people, round up some villagers or something. Those eight engineers who together worked to design your death star? Working under a boss who you just found out is a traitor? Yeah, you’re gonna want those dudes to help you look over the plans for any flaws, once you torture the traitor to death. Might want to keep them alive here.
-Hey Cassian, remember how Krennic shot you and left you for dead, but you weren’t really dead, and you got up and shot Krennic in the back? You know how Jyn is going over to make sure he’s really dead? THAT’S A GOOD IDEA. Otherwise he might do exactly what you just did. Did you forget?
-Speaking of “left for dead,” when you saw that the Empire is storing its records in a giant shaft, you DID know you were gonna end up climbing in it, right?
-And you brought your climbing gear, right? Because someone in the Empire has a fetish for big dangerous shafts (hee hee). They show up in every goddamn bit of Imperial architecture. You know there’s a big ole tower, bring your crampons.
-Speaking of fetishes, I think I know why both pilots were skinny good-looking Latino guys with big soulful eyes, same as the pilot in The Force Awakens. Somebody at a pilot school somewhere has a type, and they make sure that type gets admitted. Everyone rolls their eyes when those pilots are all hot-shot: “Oh, sure, Cassian, you got the training because of your NATURAL SKILLS, and Lucy the baby-faced blonde got rejected because of hers. Nothing to do with you looking like every other pilot!”
-Darth? Did you seriously just say “Don’t CHOKE on your ambitions”? I was expecting him to turn around and say, “Did you see what I just did there? I CHOKED you, then I said, don’t CHOKE on your ambitions! Get it? Get it?” A Darth who makes cringeworthy puns is a little less scary. I like to think he’s constantly making these jokes to his underlings, and nobody laughs, and he’s sad because he thinks everyone’s too scared to laugh, but really he just has a terrible sense of humor.
-Why are you putting Jyn in charge of this mission in any way, shape, or form? You have a freakin’ strategic analysis droid–put IT in charge!

All that said, there was a bigger disappointment: I didn’t care about the characters. Jyn didn’t really have much to recommend her (I mean, she fights, but so does everyone else). A ten minute scene early on that showed her as a brilliant rogue, or as a charmer, or as a tactical master, or even I don’t know as a champion poker player would have been time well-spent, could’ve been taken away from the unnecessary time with Saw. I just watched Guardians of the Galaxy, and the scenes where they sit around shooting the shit with one another really humanize all of them (yes, including Rocket) and make it a lot easier to care about the action sequences. The movie desperately needed some casual scenes for the characters to bond, and for the audience to bond with them.

So yeah, I was disappointed. It was still a great spectacle, with an audaciously grim approach to an aspect of the story that requires grimness, and I’m not sad I went. I just think it could’ve been even better.

[Aji_de_Gallina]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

So, I’m gonna go against the grain here. I was disappointed.

There were some little disappointments:

-Hey Krennic, I know you’re a dick, but you’re also in charge of a major operation. When you get the urge to murder eight people, round up some villagers or something. Those eight engineers who together worked to design your death star? Working under a boss who you just found out is a traitor? Yeah, you’re gonna want those dudes to help you look over the plans for any flaws, once you torture the traitor to death. Might want to keep them alive here.
-Hey Cassian, remember how Krennic shot you and left you for dead, but you weren’t really dead, and you got up and shot Krennic in the back? You know how Jyn is going over to make sure he’s really dead? THAT’S A GOOD IDEA. Otherwise he might do exactly what you just did. Did you forget?
-Speaking of “left for dead,” when you saw that the Empire is storing its records in a giant shaft, you DID know you were gonna end up climbing in it, right?
-And you brought your climbing gear, right? Because someone in the Empire has a fetish for big dangerous shafts (hee hee). They show up in every goddamn bit of Imperial architecture. You know there’s a big ole tower, bring your crampons.
-Speaking of fetishes, I think I know why both pilots were skinny good-looking Latino guys with big soulful eyes, same as the pilot in The Force Awakens. Somebody at a pilot school somewhere has a type, and they make sure that type gets admitted. Everyone rolls their eyes when those pilots are all hot-shot: “Oh, sure, Cassian, you got the training because of your NATURAL SKILLS, and Lucy the baby-faced blonde got rejected because of hers. Nothing to do with you looking like every other pilot!”
-Darth? Did you seriously just say “Don’t CHOKE on your ambitions”? I was expecting him to turn around and say, “Did you see what I just did there? I CHOKED you, then I said, don’t CHOKE on your ambitions! Get it? Get it?” A Darth who makes cringeworthy puns is a little less scary. I like to think he’s constantly making these jokes to his underlings, and nobody laughs, and he’s sad because he thinks everyone’s too scared to laugh, but really he just has a terrible sense of humor.
-Why are you putting Jyn in charge of this mission in any way, shape, or form? You have a freakin’ strategic analysis droid–put IT in charge!

**All that said, there was a bigger disappointment: I didn’t care about the characters. Jyn didn’t really have much to recommend her (I mean, she fights, but so does everyone else). A ten minute scene early on that showed her as a brilliant rogue, or as a charmer, or as a tactical master, or even I don’t know as a champion poker player would have been time well-spent, could’ve been taken away from the unnecessary time with Saw. I just watched Guardians of the Galaxy, and the scenes where they sit around shooting the shit with one another really humanize all of them (yes, including Rocket) and make it a lot easier to care about the action sequences. The movie desperately needed some casual scenes for the characters to bond, and for the audience to bond with them.
**(my bolding)
So yeah, I was disappointed. It was still a great spectacle, with an audaciously grim approach to an aspect of the story that requires grimness, and I’m not sad I went. I just think it could’ve been even better.

100000000% agree, especially the bolded part. I couldn’t remember the names of the two main characters after the movie.

Also, if you have Forest fucking Whitaker in your movie, GIVE HIM SOME GOOD LINES!!! Talk about underusing a fantastic actor.

Also (x2). When the pilot was in prison with mystic-monk and fat-guy-with-machine-gun-blaster he was deranged, brain was cooker (as Saw Gerrera predicted).
Later, he has the presence of mind of Richard Feynman.

Is there any canon of fanon explanation as to how the planet-shield works with only one station? It bugged me to no end.

[JohnT]

My 15yo daughter is watching Phantom Menace for first time.

“How is it Sophia?”
“I don’t know, Dad. It’s pretty cringy.”

Really… that’s kind of perfect.

[Quimby]

@RandMcnally

I saw it yesterday and really enjoyed it.

I hate the originally trilogy. I found them all boring. I’ve seen bits and pieces of the prequels but no interest in seeing more. I haven’t seen TFA and don’t really care to. But I heard this was a decent stand-alone film and I really, really liked it.

Maybe I’ll just like the expanded universe flicks? Who knows.

This is interesting because you’re an animal I didn’t think actually existed in nature

If you’re interested in more Star Wars you might want to check out the cartoon Rebels. Also I suspect you would probably like The Force Awakens. It has modern movie making sensibilities like Rogue One does.

[RandMcnally]

@Quimby

This is interesting because you’re an animal I didn’t think actually existed in nature

If you’re interested in more Star Wars you might want to check out the cartoon Rebels. Also I suspect you would probably like The Force Awakens. It has modern movie making sensibilities like Rogue One does.

I confuse a lot of my friends. I don’t like Star Wars or Star Trek. I also couldn’t care less about Harry Potter. And yet, I’m a huge nerd. I’m probably going to have to turn my card in soon.

[DigitalC]

@Lucky_Mike

I will say one thing about them all dying.

Yes, it is realistic. Yes, it is gritty. Yes, it is the most likely scenario.

But, I fell in love with Star Wars because it was the Rocky of Sci Fi.

I do not want Star Wars to be gritty, I want it to be inspiring.

I do not watch movies like Star Wars to be reminded of the shit that is humanity. I watch it to be entertained and reminded of the beauty of humanity.

No, I do not want some bogus “save” scene at the end. I want a complete bad ass scene where my heroes kick ass and get out.

I mean, who among you does not love that scene from Kick Ass near the end?

Still like the movie. A little sad the main character died so blandly.

I reiterate, the best death was the robot.

Still like it, just needs to be better.

It’s not just that it’s gritty and realistic it also had to fit in with the current stories. They had to die because they are not anywhere in the originals. They went out of their way to fix plot holes from the original trilogy, it would be silly to add more.

[Miller]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

-Speaking of fetishes, I think I know why both pilots were skinny good-looking Latino guys with big soulful eyes, same as the pilot in The Force Awakens.

Pretty sure Riz Ahmed isn’t Hispanic.

For that matter, I don’t know that I’d necessarily call Cassian Andor a pilot. He knows how to fly a ship, which isn’t that rare a skill in this setting, but all the difficult flying in the movie is done by the 'droid or Bodhi.

[Alessan]

@DigitalC

It’s not just that it’s gritty and realistic it also had to fit in with the current stories. They had to die because they are not anywhere in the originals. They went out of their way to fix plot holes from the original trilogy, it would be silly to add more.

You know, that’s not that big a problem if you think about it. The Rebellion, after all, was raging across a entire galaxy. Why weren’t they at Hoth or Endor? Because they were on other planets, fighting other battles. It’s a big war. I mean, you’d hardly expect a hero of Guadalcanal to take part in the Normandy invasion, right?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Miller

Pretty sure Riz Ahmed isn’t Hispanic.

Oops, fair enough. In my defense, I’m absolutely certain that Cassian Andor isn’t, either.

For that matter, I don’t know that I’d necessarily call Cassian Andor a pilot. He knows how to fly a ship, which isn’t that rare a skill in this setting, but all the difficult flying in the movie is done by the 'droid or Bodhi.

More getting at how similar two of the three leads looked: same sex, skin tone, hair color, and build. A little differentiation would help folks like me who have trouble telling characters apart under the best of circumstances :).

[Miller]

@DigitalC

It’s not just that it’s gritty and realistic it also had to fit in with the current stories. They had to die because they are not anywhere in the originals. They went out of their way to fix plot holes from the original trilogy, it would be silly to add more.

I don’t think that’s really too much of an issue. It’s a big galaxy, the Rebellion’s happening all over the place. It’s easy enough to say that, at any given time in the films, Rogue One was “off somewhere else.” The only places where that doesn’t really work is the medal ceremony at the end of Star Wars, and the strike team on Endor in Jedi, but you could still finesse it to work. It wouldn’t be hard to end the movie with the characters in a place where they wouldn’t be able to attend the ceremony (they survive, but are too wounded to attend the ceremony; they get captured by the Imperials at the end, setting up a sequel where they escape; General Kind-of-Looks-Like-Kelsey-Grammar gives them their medals in secret, because they’re a covert ops group and big flashy ceremonies don’t mesh well with that). And there’s a lot of time between the beginning of Star Wars and the end of Jedi to explain why the Alliance’s best infiltration team didn’t help take down the Death Star shields.

That said, I liked that it ended the way it did.

[BeepKillBeep]

Back from my second viewing and the movie has not diminished at all for me. I love it. If I can find the time, which seems unlikely, I’ll go see it a 3rd time and I will buy it 100% for sure when it comes out.

[GuanoLad]

@RandMcnally

I confuse a lot of my friends. I don’t like Star Wars or Star Trek. I also couldn’t care less about Harry Potter. And yet, I’m a huge nerd. I’m probably going to have to turn my card in soon.

I can relate. I mean, I do like all those things, for the most part, but I am not a fan of things like Game Of Thrones, Blade Runner, Dune, and anything Joss Whedon or Tarantino. These are all things that most people would expect me to like, but there you go. Nerds can be eclectic sometimes.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

I know the director did what he thought was best, and he made a fine war movie. But you know what I would’ve loved? A heist movie. Mission Impossible, or Oceans Eleven, set in the Star Wars universe. Now that woulda been something.

[Quimby]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I know the director did what he thought was best, and he made a fine war movie. But you know what I would’ve loved? A heist movie. Mission Impossible, or Oceans Eleven, set in the Star Wars universe. Now that woulda been something.

That was more like what I was expecting going in but you know what, this thread (and also a rewatch) have reminded me what A New Hope’s crawl actually says and I have to admit this story is a good approximation of that.

[DigitalC]

@Alessan

You know, that’s not that big a problem if you think about it. The Rebellion, after all, was raging across a entire galaxy. Why weren’t they at Hoth or Endor? Because they were on other planets, fighting other battles. It’s a big war. I mean, you’d hardly expect a hero of Guadalcanal to take part in the Normandy invasion, right?

Sure, that’s how real life works but it’s not how movies work.

[GuanoLad]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

But you know what I would’ve loved? A heist movie. Mission Impossible, or Oceans Eleven, set in the Star Wars universe. Now that woulda been something.

There’s every likelihood that will happen. Aside from the Han Solo movie, which could potentially have such a plot line, the future is open ended in the Star Wars cinematic universe.

[AK84]

@Alessan

You know, that’s not that big a problem if you think about it. The Rebellion, after all, was raging across a entire galaxy. Why weren’t they at Hoth or Endor? Because they were on other planets, fighting other battles. It’s a big war. I mean, you’d hardly expect a hero of Guadalcanal to take part in the Normandy invasion, right?

Well…

Col. Ecklund enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941 and served five overseas tours. He participated in the battle for Guadalcanal and in the aerial invasion of Normandy.

[adaher]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I know the director did what he thought was best, and he made a fine war movie. But you know what I would’ve loved? A heist movie. Mission Impossible, or Oceans Eleven, set in the Star Wars universe. Now that woulda been something.

I think the challenge there is that a heist movie has to be pretty intelligent and intricate, usually with a twist ending, to be good. Seems to me that a tale of sacrifice and bravery as they took the direct approach to getting the plans was a better story to tell. Heists involve extremely intelligent characters with near perfect intelligence about where to find what they want and the place it’s being kept in. The rebels had neither such brilliant minds nor the necessary intelligence on the ground to do anything but go in there and wing it. Which is consistent with everything the Rebellion does throughout the story. Just one desperate fight after another and somehow they manage to win.