Just got back from seeing it in Imax, and I thought it was fantastic. I watched Ep. IV last night to get ready for this one, and it really holds it’s own against the original trilogy.
Favorite bits:
K2’s slap, followed by “Mouth off again and you’ll get a fresh one!”
Krannic’s offer to blow up the entire planet, and Tarkin telling him to just take out the city.
Blue milk.
Darth freaking Vader. I felt like I was 10 again watching him in this movie.
Andor left behind his ends jusify the means mentality for - well, it wasn’t clear. Someone who lied to, betrayed, and shot a Rebel spy in the back because he was a liability suddenly decided without much apparent reason to not shoot Galen. But he didn’t really abandon his mentality or seem to change much. Han Solo was the classic devil may care mercenary with a heart of gold who was shamed by Luke into helping and not simply cashing in his winnings. Basically, Han Solo was a scoundrel who was really a good guy underneath (and over time lost the scoundrel part). Andor was a cold hearted killer, somewhat similar to a scoundrel, who suddenly got cold feet about the assassination part but without much character change. He didn’t seem to suffer a sudden attack of conscience causing him to question all of his cold blooded actions, he didn’t seem to suddenly have feelings for Jyn and let them get in the way, and he didn’t seem to lose his faith in the Rebellion.
My point there is that this neer seemed to have happened, unless it was in the Clone Wars cartoon. The prequels could have set up this direct relationship, but thought sending Obi-Wan on a pointless quest to take out the lead general droid was more worthwhile. Not this movie’s fault, but odd to emphasize it again.
I’m sure it was on purpose. Plenty of reviewers called the film a “heist movie”, but in my opinion, they were wrong - it was very much a WW2 “men-on-a-mission” flick, like* Guns of Navarone* or Where Eagles Dare.
My review: Liked it, but didn’t love it.
The main drawback for me was that I just didn’t really care about any of the characters. Jyn, Cassien, Donnie Yen, Donnie Yen’s sidekick, the pilot defector… the fact I don’t even know half their names is a bad sign. K (the droid) was good. But Jyn’s story didn’t grab me and Yen and his friend barely even get a backstory. Forest Whittaker’s character felt like he existed only to serve the plot for connecting Jyn back to her father. I would’ve cut him entirely and give more background to Yen and his buddy. Jyn’s turn from uninterested criminal to sudden gung-ho rebel was so abrupt that I think the movie would’ve worked just as well with her being a rebel from the get-go.
Krennic was underwhelming, as well. Being from Imperial Intelligence I was hoping for someone like Hans Linda from Inglorious Basterds. Instead he came off as snivelly and incompetent. It would’ve been really easy to give him a much better character, too… change some of his dialogue at the beginning to make him a lot more friendly with Jyn’s dad, and maybe show that he’s a true believer in the Empire’s stated mission of ‘peace through control’. Have him try to cajole his old friend back into completing the Death Star. Then they could’ve give him a more emotional moment right before shooting Jyn - “I killed your father because I had to, to give the galaxy peace, I don’t want to do it but I will” etc. (Also would make a better reason then the “I’m a villain and I have to gloat” speech he does give)
The first part is really jumbled and confusing, lots of jumping from planet to planet. Not sure why the rebels wanted to kill Jyn’s father… I can sorta understand if they thought the Death Star wasn’t operational yet and he was needed to make it work, but once they know it works (blowing up the Jedi temple), why still kill him? Why send a whole X-wing squadron to do so?
The third act is really, really good though… the Vader scene was amazing as others have said, but I also really liked the space battle as well. And I’m satisfied all the characters died, kinda necessary in this sort of war movie. Just wish the first part of the movie made me properly care for them.
Tarkin was uncanny valley for me. Leia looked good (probably because it was so brief). The C3PO/R2D2 and “death sentence on twelve systems” guy cameos were unnecessary IMO (and if anything, the C3PO/R2D2 one doesn’t really make sense… unless C3PO gets mind-wiped again during this film). I agree with Sir T-Cups that the ending with Leia didn’t jibe well for me.
I thought it was moe Dirty Dozen to be honest.
Another good example.
I don’t think Cassien ever actually abandons his “ends justify the means,” attitude at all. He’s clearly conflicted about killing Galen, because it’s both a betrayal of Jyn, who he’s come to like and respect, and because it’s increasingly clear that Galen is really a good guy trying to help the Alliance however he can. But the reason he was given that secret order to assassinate Galen was because the risk of the rescue attempt failing, and Galen remaining in Imperial hands, was too great. Even with the Death Star finished, Galen is a genius weapon designer and a hugely valuable Imperial asset. But while Cassien is waiting for a clear shot, he sees that Crennic is about to execute Galen himself. Thus, there’s no reason for him to assassinate Galen: they can try to rescue him like originally planned, and if it doesn’t work, the Empire will kill Galen anyway.
Later, when he agrees to follow Jyn to steal the plans, he still not repudiating his past deeds: instead, he’s unwilling to have got all that blood on his hands for nothing. If the Alliance folds, then all his moral compromises were for nothing. He follows Jyn not because he’s rejecting his past deeds, but to justify them.
The prequels did set up this direct relationship. The Republic military was ultimately under civilian control - specifically, the control of the Senate. As one of the highest ranking generals in the Republic army, Obi Wan reported directly to the Senate, and took his orders from them - or from the Jedi Council, of which he was also a member. Bail Organa was not just a Senator, but was directly involved in directing the course of the war. Obi Wan did serve Bail Organa in the Clone Wars. That’s pretty much what was happening during the entirety of the third movie.
Also, I’m not quite sure how assassinating the leader of the enemy army would be considered “pointless.” Usually, that’s the sort of thing nations at war are quite keen on doing.
All this talk about callbacks, cameos, and fan service and no one has mentioned my favorite!
I don’t remember exactly when it happens, I think it’s one of Saw Gerrera’s men in his hive of scum and villainy.
Anyway, one of the guys is watching porn on a holographic porn-viewer just like Chewbacca’s dad from the Star Wars Holiday Special!!!
Entertaining, but Very by-the-numbers. The main flaw is the lack of personality in any of the characters (except for the robot), too many battle scenes that went on too long, and the truck ending.*
Some of it reminded me of the deathtrap tunnel in Galaxy Quest. I’m all for tightening the screws on the characters, but it began to grow tedious as more complications were added just to prolong things.
*“Suddenly, everyone was run over by a truck.”
More of a Bolivian Army ending, actually.
And I didn’t see it as a sad ending at all. The good guys won. The protagonists achieved their goals.
No, it wasn’t sad (partly because the characters were too cardboard for there to be anything to care about), but the mechanics were clunky. It was clearly “these characters weren’t in Episode 4, so we need to kill them off so the fanboys won’t complain.”
“Truck ending” is the earlier term
But being hit by a truck is random and avoidable. The characters in the film, OTOH, died fighting, and in doing so succeeded in carrying out their mission. That’s the opposite of random.
Taking that exact thing one step further…I believe it has been confirmed that the hologram was OOla - the dancer in Jabba’s Palace.
Every person has their own tastes and I respect that, but it actually sounds like you just do not like the star wars universe/template itself. Which is cool, but it would be like me saying something such as “Man I hated Rocky 4. I mean come on, guy is underdog, guy trains, guy overcomes odds. It just rings hollow to me.” Some of your criticisms are literally staples of all Star Wars movies/universe.
My wife and I both felt the same way. We were really hoping for characters we wanted to cheer for and care about. The movie was entertaining and when I see it again I will really know how much I like it (I don’t know about you all, but I sometimes cannot assess a movie until I watch it a second time. If I watch it a second time and get into it, then I know it is a good one).
But, the director fell flat on character development. The ONLY death scene that was really impactful for me was the droid.
Honestly, and I know this may sound weird, but I think the soundtrack was partially to blame. I never realized how important music in the background is in these movies. But, I found myself numerous times thinking, “man, that music just does not seem to fit”.
Also, pulling off inspiring speech scenes is ABSOLUTELY critical to get people to care about characters in movies like this. The inspiring scenes were good, but not great. Twice, Jyn had speeches that were building up and just as it seemed she was about to make it a great one, it just died.
I have a lot of respect for Directors and Producers, the little details really do matter and being able to write, shoot and edit those scenes is critical. Also, the actors are very important and I am sad to say the actress playing adult Jyn just did not carry the scenes.
Like, for example, when after her attempt to convince the council, Jyn is walking away and that entire group joins her. That could have been a great moment, but it just fell flat. Her speech in Rogue One starts out in a perfect set up. Tension can be felt. The extras react well when she starts talking and then… meh.
Anyways, good movie, entertaining. Won’t know how good until I watch it again. No matter what, I love Star Wars and even the mighty mess ups that were episode 1, 2 and 3 still entertained me.
I think the kids at the showing I attended were quite subdued at the ending, as they realized that the protagonists died. We’re so used to the happy ending, where the protagonist walks away (often after undergoing tremendous hand-to-hand combat) that it’s a little surprising when they don’t.
Star Wars, as written by George R. R. Martin…
Also, what many expected, this is 2016 still…
One of the ideas from the very beginning of Star Wars (or maybe this is an urban legend) is that C3P0 and R2D2 are the only characters to appear in every movie.
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Forest Whittaker’s character felt like he existed only to serve the plot for connecting Jyn back to her father. I would’ve cut him entirely and give more background to Yen and his buddy. Jyn’s turn from uninterested criminal to sudden gung-ho rebel was so abrupt that I think the movie would’ve worked just as well with her being a rebel from the get-go.
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Saw Gerrera (Whitaker) is a character brought in from the Clone Wars series. He is a rebel extremist, and they state in the movie that he raised and trained Jyn until she was 16 and she was the best soldier in his team. Then he left her behind…as he said to Jyn when she said he ditched her “Because you are the daughter of a high ranking Imperial scientist, and people were starting to figure that out. You would be the perfect hostage” So he served to show that the rebel alliance had groups that were way too extreme, and to show that Jyn was in fact raised (or at least trained) as a soldier.
He also is the rebel version of Vader…needs the breathing apparatus to survive, robotic legs…he’s more machine now than man.
Yeah the music really wasn’t up to par…I read that Giachonni had less than a month to do the score.
The Rebel soldiers’ uniforms actually made me think of Vietnam troopers more than WWII soldiers, probably because of the body armor that looked like flak jackets.
Also, this thought occurred to me in the shower last night: Darth Vader did what we all hoped he would do, and went all Dark Lord of the Sith on a hallway full of helpless Rebel soldiers, deflecting blaster fire, cutting them down, force choking them into the ceiling, etc.
And he failed to get the plans because in the time it took him to cut through the soldiers like a chainsaw through hot butter, the Rebels were able to pass the MacGuffin along to keep it out of his grasp. If he had just chucked a hand grenade into the room or pulled a blaster to one-shot the guy at the door, the Rebels would have failed. He got cocky and had to show off his badass Sith skills instead of just going the less showy pragmatic route.
How very typically Anakin.