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Rogue One * Spoilers * Thread — Page 62

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Is this the first Star Wars soundtrack without the Star Wars theme on it??? Jeez… 😦

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 (Edited)

I’m glad to hear others on this forum enjoyed it as well!
About the cameos, I was very surprised at all of them except for the ones shown in the trailer. Only Dr. Evazan and Ponda Baba were almost a little too much but I still thought it was funny. Hey, they were wanted in 12 systems… Other than that, none of the cameos felt out of place. I mean, this probably happened like within a week or two before SW, it would have been more weird if the same people were nowhere to be seen. I also liked how Red 5 was bumbling around and then killed. I thought it was very cool to have the original leaders there although compared to everyone else they were a hell of a lot calmer.

And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a savior, and he shall be known as the Son of the Suns.

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 (Edited)

Whatever happened to re-casting characters for whom the original actor has died or is no longer able to film? I feel like having a different actor portraying Tarkin would be far less distracting than a CGI Tarkin.

When it comes to creating a convincing human character using CGI, the technology is just not there yet. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

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ray_afraid said:

I dunno how it looks in motion, but Leia looks alright here…

And it’s so quick, I don’t see how anyone can criticize it all that much. She says one word “Hope” and that’s it.

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 (Edited)

They both look stranger in motion, but I guess it depends on the individual viewer, or how far you’re willing to suspend your disbelief. Although I personally aren’t a fan of this technique, it was convincing enough to not take me out of the movie. However I wouldn’t say that it looked “real”, but it was quite impressively done none-the-less.

And although a look-alike actor would have been more “normal” looking, I must admit that more-or-less seeing Cushing and a young Carrie Fisher made the experience quite interesting. I’m at least glad that they didn’t CG Mon Mothma as she has far more scenes.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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pleasehello said:

Whatever happened to re-casting characters for whom the original actor has died or is no longer able to film? I feel like having a different actor portraying Tarkin would be far less distracting than a CGI Tarkin.

When it comes to creating a convincing human character using CGI, the technology is just not there yet. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

Episode III Tarkin looked somewhat ghastly though.

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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ray_afraid said:

The pics I’ve seen of Tarkin look terrible…

“pics”?

I googled it and could only find one very low res picture from RO.

The only Leia one I could find was the one posted above.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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SilverWook said:
Episode III Tarkin looked somewhat ghastly though.

Yeah, I agree that looks terrible. I meant just a different actor without any prosthetics.

For instance when Richard Harris died, WB didn’t get a guy that looked like Richard Harris to play Dumbledore. They just cast a different actor who brought his own interpretation to the role. Incidentally I intensely disliked Michael Gambon’s portrayal of Dumbledore, but that’s not the point.

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Just came out from a screening, and again, somethings are quite disturbing, but it is far far better than Disney Awakens the Force, and personally for me, up there with the OT.

The soundtrack feels somewhat odd, certainly not a JW OST, but the movie closes with classic star wars credit music. And I think that’s my feeling about the movie, it might be different but it indeed earns to be called a Star Wars film, probably the first since the 80s.

Things I liked:

Break out of War!!! One line -this is Admiral Raddus of the Rebel Alliance- made it for me. The previous debate (even if Felicity’s speech was a Disney® moment) was gold. Should the Rebellion risk an open War against the Empire? This was the first battle, the Rebels first open incursion against the mighty Empire, and it was on the verge of just not coming to be.
The high steaks, intelligence assasinations, etc. There is no Death Star says Vader. The Senate doesn’t know anything. There IS a lot of political tension amidst a war film.

Great, excellent prequel material. I liked seeing some Old Clone Wars vehicle at the beginning as well, and Coruscant was just criteriously used as a memory of a long forgotten past…

Tarkin. Great, great and promising technology. I agree the results are a little off, but I put it all on Guy Henry’s acting. You can Mocap his face and get it replace by Cushing, but he just isn’t Peter Cushing, nor has his gestures. This is what I think was the reason behind the uncanny valley feeling I got sometimes during the movie. For instance, they got the mouth part to be quite accurate. Eye movement is even correct, but eyebrows seldom get a vertical movement, which is a key feature when someone is surprised/tense. Now is that a fault on the thecnology or is it just an actor perhaps playing it light perhaps because he knows he is to be replaced?

In the end…OT era. Boy how I missed this. I can’t help not giving a damn about The First Order and Kiloren or Battledroids or Mace Windu. This IS the classic Star Wars Era. All the designs and schemes of the OT prove to be so timeless I wouldn’t mind if they just got stuck doing films set in this timeframe.

Things I didn’t like:

Well, the soundtrack: Both Imperial themes from the OT weren’t used enough. ANH’s wasn’t even used, and Rebel Fanfare was in a Yppieeee Disney version, not militaristic enough.

ILM/Technology: Yes, used universe and whatever they want to sell to E-Entertainment and SDCC, but there’s no point in putting half the budget in 3D modelling entire catalogues of model pieces only to use them in OT ships. What I mean is, they got Star Destroyers and the Death Star quite right [just speaking of the models, the lighting felt off, and very Star-Trek to me] but the new designs weren’t digitally built with such model pieces, so the movie ends up having on purpose low-detailed model-like Star Destroyers but classic CGI full detailed U Wings, Rebel Cruisers, Scarif Building or Krennic’s Shuttle. Perhaps I’m asking too much, but it should have all looked as those old and loved 80s models.

About the lighting of the space scenes, well I might be a nitpicker, but it’s just that it didn’t match OT’s more uniform and plain light, instead there’s a super-accurate Gravity-like approach of lighting.

And, the last thing I didn’t like is…Vader. I think Edwards cinematography didn’t help him at all. Vader is there to be filmed from below, and he just keeps putting the camera at the height of his eyes, which renders an angle not so familiar of his mask, and certainly not imposing at all. Combine it with the fact that JEJ didn’t get the tone quite right, and also the fact that well, he doesn’t quite have anything to do in the movie other than fan service and you’ll have a strange presence in the film. (which on the other hand, I welcome because what is Star Wars without Darth Vader?)

The last shot of Vader standing there in open space even looked fan-film like.

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ZkinandBonez said:

ray_afraid said:

The pics I’ve seen of Tarkin look terrible…

“pics”?

I googled it and could only find one very low res picture from RO.

The only Leia one I could find was the one posted above.

I saw two, but now one is gone. It was a kinda profile view. He looks somehow “dopey” in both.

Not too bad really, but I’m so familiar with Peter Cushing (from far more than just Star Wars) that there is little chance of it not pulling me out of the moment. It does looks like something I could adjust to though if the performance is good.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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ZkinandBonez said:

Well, you could argue that all the Disney SW films are essentially just high budget fan-films.

Yes, and we’ve known (or should have known) that would be the case since 2012.

Not going to pay more money for fan service cash grabs when the OOT still hasn’t been restored.

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SilverWook said:

pleasehello said:

Whatever happened to re-casting characters for whom the original actor has died or is no longer able to film? I feel like having a different actor portraying Tarkin would be far less distracting than a CGI Tarkin.

When it comes to creating a convincing human character using CGI, the technology is just not there yet. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

Episode III Tarkin looked somewhat ghastly though.

The worst thing is that his character was completely unnecessary in that awful film. Sticking him into the movie when he’s not needed and has terrible makeup and doesn’t even look like the original character gained…what, exactly?

Which brings me to Leah and Tarkin in R1: are they even needed in the film? Or are they just there as easter eggs?

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Alderaan said:

ZkinandBonez said:

Well, you could argue that all the Disney SW films are essentially just high budget fan-films.

Yes, and we’ve known (or should have known) that would be the case since 2012.

Not going to pay more money for fan service cash grabs when the OOT still hasn’t been restored.

I personally use the “fan film” argument as an excuse to see them. I’ll simply enjoy them for what they are, SW fan films made by directors who grew up with the OT. If the film ends up being bad or mediocre, then why should I care? It’s just a silly fan film. And if it’s good, well, then it’s an enjoyable fan film.

ray_afraid said:

ZkinandBonez said:

ray_afraid said:

The pics I’ve seen of Tarkin look terrible…

“pics”?

I googled it and could only find one very low res picture from RO.

The only Leia one I could find was the one posted above.

I saw two, but now one is gone. It was a kinda profile view. He looks somehow “dopey” in both.

Not too bad really, but I’m so familiar with Peter Cushing (from far more than just Star Wars) that there is little chance of it not pulling me out of the moment. It does looks like something I could adjust to though if the performance is good.

I see what you mean. When I first saw Tarkin staring out the window at the DS, I was consciously wondering if he would be CG or an actor with prosthetic when he turned around. In other words my curiosity and expectations took me out of the movie very briefly. And when he did turn around and was revealed to be CG, I was again very conscious of it. But once he showed up for the second time I had more-or-less adjusted to it. I think a lot of people here, like me, are simply to critical of these things to ever get completely used to it, but I do think most of us will get used to it eventually. And I personally thought the actor did a very good job of emulating Tarkin.

To be honest, I thought the recycled Red Squadron shots were far more jarring than CG Tarkin and Leia. They obviously looked more real, but I recognized those shots from ANH and it was immediately clear (to me at least) that those were 40-ish year old film-footage spliced into a digitally shot movie. The two CG characters did at least fit into RO’s more modern aesthetic.
(Just FYI, I didn’t dislike the inclusion of Red Squadron. It was a pretty clever idea. But I did find it to be the most jarring part of the movie. It definitely had that “fan-film” vibe to it.)

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Alderaan said:

SilverWook said:

pleasehello said:

Whatever happened to re-casting characters for whom the original actor has died or is no longer able to film? I feel like having a different actor portraying Tarkin would be far less distracting than a CGI Tarkin.

When it comes to creating a convincing human character using CGI, the technology is just not there yet. I dunno, maybe it’s just me.

Episode III Tarkin looked somewhat ghastly though.

The worst thing is that his character was completely unnecessary in that awful film. Sticking him into the movie when he’s not needed and has terrible makeup and doesn’t even look like the original character gained…what, exactly?

Which brings me to Leah and Tarkin in R1: are they even needed in the film? Or are they just there as easter eggs?

Tarkin, yes. Leia, yes [just for continuity tho, no plot weight]

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ZkinandBonez said:
I personally use the “fan film” argument as an excuse to see them. I’ll simply enjoy them for what they are, SW fan films made by directors that grew up with the OT. If the film ends up being bad or mediocre, then why should I care? It’s just a silly fan film. And if it’s good, well, the it’s an enjoyable fan film.

I’m just tired of crap. I’ve seen 4 god-awful Star Wars films in a row. I’m tired of paying these assholes any money when they have vandalized and failed to restore the only good films in the series for almost 20 years.

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Alderaan said:

ZkinandBonez said:
I personally use the “fan film” argument as an excuse to see them. I’ll simply enjoy them for what they are, SW fan films made by directors that grew up with the OT. If the film ends up being bad or mediocre, then why should I care? It’s just a silly fan film. And if it’s good, well, the it’s an enjoyable fan film.

I’m just tired of crap. I’ve seen 4 god-awful Star Wars films in a row. I’m tired of paying these assholes any money when they have vandalized and failed to restore the only good films in the series for almost 20 years.

I see what you mean. But I find “they” to be quite vague and generalizing. I can enjoy Gareth Edwards’ SW fan film because it’s as much his film as it is a Disney film. Also Lucasfilm is hardly responsible for Fox not releasing the unaltered OT. I still can’t quite figure out if Disney can/should be blamed for it as well. There is after all a lot of people involved in these things.

But I get what you’re saying. Even though I personally liked RO, and found TFA passable, I’m already getting a bit of a SW fatigue. However I’m just glad to see that these “fan films” are re-legitimizing the OT while pushing the PT out of the spot-light. These Disney films are already getting kinda out of hand, but at least coming generations of SW fans will have 8 OT-style/era movies, and only 3 PT-era movies. The lack of a proper OT is still frustrating, but I’m counting my blessings at this point.

Star Wars is Surrealism, not Science Fiction (essay)
Original Trilogy Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Beyond the OT Documentaries/Making-Ofs (YouTube, Vimeo, etc. finds)
Amazon link to my novel; Dawn of the Karabu.

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Right. I can’t say anything bad about Gareth Edwards or a film I’ve never seen. But I’m reluctant to fall for the old Jedi mind tricks again and continue giving money to a company that is not doing what I want it to do.

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I am back from a pre-premiere screening (at least in my country), and I am thrilled. To me, this is the best Star Wars movie to be released since 1980. I’ve watched the OT on cinema in the 90s when the Special Editions were released, as I am too young to have seen them during their original runs, and I’ve watched every Episode premiere following.

Edwards has done a fantastic fan service and I am saying that in the most positive way possible. He definitely loves Star Wars and I think has a far better grasp of what it stands for than JJ; as much as the movie is different, tonally and editing, from the Saga movies, I think it gave me everything I could have wanted from a Star Wars movie. In some respects, it’s also a “soft reboot” - it’s a mix between a direct prequel for ANH and what RotJ should (could) have been. But it’s subtle, not at all blatant like TFA was. In fact, it makes TFA feel like a 12-year old’s fanfic. Rogue One has breadth, scope and nuance (not just visually but story wise) where TFA feels cramped and forced.

Tarkin looks amazing. Definitely still in the “uncanny valley” but far, far better than anything similar I’ve seen before. Honestly, if he was used more sparingly, the results would have been better. There’s a particular scene where he’s silent, just observing eerily (reminiscent of ANH) and that’s the exact moment I lost it that it was CGI… he felt like the real Peter Cushing. It still felt odd where there was dialogue and a close-up shot of his face, though. There is another CGI character used very briefly and it works marvelously.

RO gives me some vague hope that Disney can actually deliver decent continuation of the OT, and that JJ’s TFA was just a misstep as they wanted to play “safe” with the new trilogy. The movie had its fair share of problems but overall, it’s great.

If anyone is interested in spoilers, let me know. 😃

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Alderaan said:

ZkinandBonez said:
I personally use the “fan film” argument as an excuse to see them. I’ll simply enjoy them for what they are, SW fan films made by directors that grew up with the OT. If the film ends up being bad or mediocre, then why should I care? It’s just a silly fan film. And if it’s good, well, the it’s an enjoyable fan film.

I’m just tired of crap. I’ve seen 4 god-awful Star Wars films in a row. I’m tired of paying these assholes any money when they have vandalized and failed to restore the only good films in the series for almost 20 years.

I agree with this. I have some interest in R1 because it’s the part of the story I’ve thought about the most. My late best friend and I were working on a story where we were characters who helped the Rebels get the plans to Leia. I’m interested to see if I like this movie enough to re-write parts of our story to fit in with this, or if I’ll dismiss it and continue where we had left off. OR (if I really love R1) re-write our story so that it has nothing to do with the DS plans. (I’m making this animated comic book one way or the other.)
But I have no excitement for R1. No driving desire to see it ASAP.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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Alderaan said:

Really interested to hear what people think about R1 who didn’t like TFA.

Outside of the first thirty to forty minutes, TFA was a great letdown for me. It’s somewhere with the prequels in my world, I can tolerate it but I mostly ignore it as a wasted opportunity (at best) and a very bad movie (at worst).

See my post above -> I absolutely loved Rogue One, despite some flaws.

I only hope Rian Johnson is more like Gareth Edwards than JJ in his vision for Ep. VIII …

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 (Edited)

Mithrandir said:

Just came out from a screening, and again, somethings are quite disturbing, but it is far far better than Disney Awakens the Force, and personally for me, up there with the OT.

The soundtrack feels somewhat odd, certainly not a JW OST, but the movie closes with classic star wars credit music. And I think that’s my feeling about the movie, it might be different but it indeed earns to be called a Star Wars film, probably the first since the 80s.

Things I liked:

Break out of War!!! One line -this is Admiral Raddus of the Rebel Alliance- made it for me. The previous debate (even if Felicity’s speech was a Disney® moment) was gold. Should the Rebellion risk an open War against the Empire? This was the first battle, the Rebels first open incursion against the mighty Empire, and it was on the verge of just not coming to be.
The high steaks, intelligence assasinations, etc. There is no Death Star says Vader. The Senate doesn’t know anything. There IS a lot of political tension amidst a war film.

Great, excellent prequel material. I liked seeing some Old Clone Wars vehicle at the beginning as well, and Coruscant was just criteriously used as a memory of a long forgotten past…

Tarkin. Great, great and promising technology. I agree the results are a little off, but I put it all on Guy Henry’s acting. You can Mocap his face and get it replace by Cushing, but he just isn’t Peter Cushing, nor has his gestures. This is what I think was the reason behind the uncanny valley feeling I got sometimes during the movie. For instance, they got the mouth part to be quite accurate. Eye movement is even correct, but eyebrows seldom get a vertical movement, which is a key feature when someone is surprised/tense. Now is that a fault on the thecnology or is it just an actor perhaps playing it light perhaps because he knows he is to be replaced?

In the end…OT era. Boy how I missed this. I can’t help not giving a damn about The First Order and Kiloren or Battledroids or Mace Windu. This IS the classic Star Wars Era. All the designs and schemes of the OT prove to be so timeless I wouldn’t mind if they just got stuck doing films set in this timeframe.

Things I didn’t like:

Well, the soundtrack: Both Imperial themes from the OT weren’t used enough. ANH’s wasn’t even used, and Rebel Fanfare was in a Yppieeee Disney version, not militaristic enough.

ILM/Technology: Yes, used universe and whatever they want to sell to E-Entertainment and SDCC, but there’s no point in putting half the budget in 3D modelling entire catalogues of model pieces only to use them in OT ships. What I mean is, they got Star Destroyers and the Death Star quite right [just speaking of the models, the lighting felt off, and very Star-Trek to me] but the new designs weren’t digitally built with such model pieces, so the movie ends up having on purpose low-detailed model-like Star Destroyers but classic CGI full detailed U Wings, Rebel Cruisers, Scarif Building or Krennic’s Shuttle. Perhaps I’m asking too much, but it should have all looked as those old and loved 80s models.

About the lighting of the space scenes, well I might be a nitpicker, but it’s just that it didn’t match OT’s more uniform and plain light, instead there’s a super-accurate Gravity-like approach of lighting.

And, the last thing I didn’t like is…Vader. I think Edwards cinematography didn’t help him at all. Vader is there to be filmed from below, and he just keeps putting the camera at the height of his eyes, which renders an angle not so familiar of his mask, and certainly not imposing at all. Combine it with the fact that JEJ didn’t get the tone quite right, and also the fact that well, he doesn’t quite have anything to do in the movie other than fan service and you’ll have a strange presence in the film. (which on the other hand, I welcome because what is Star Wars without Darth Vader?)

The last shot of Vader standing there in open space even looked fan-film like.

When did fun little nods become “fan service”? I friggin’ hate that new term! I’m a lover of nostalgia, it’s excellent and charming. People out there quit giving dorky ass names to things whilst trying to harpoon the fanbase!

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Burdokva said:

I am back from a pre-premiere screening (at least in my country), and I am thrilled. To me, this is the best Star Wars movie to be released since 1980. I’ve watched the OT on cinema in the 90s when the Special Editions were released, as I am too young to have seen them during their original runs, and I’ve watched every Episode premiere following.

Edwards has done a fantastic fan service and I am saying that in the most positive way possible. He definitely loves Star Wars and I think has a far better grasp of what it stands for than JJ; as much as the movie is different, tonally and editing, from the Saga movies, I think it gave me everything I could have wanted from a Star Wars movie. In some respects, it’s also a “soft reboot” - it’s a mix between a direct prequel for ANH and what RotJ should (could) have been. But it’s subtle, not at all blatant like TFA was. In fact, it makes TFA feel like a 12-year old’s fanfic. Rogue One has breadth, scope and nuance (not just visually but story wise) where TFA feels cramped and forced.

Tarkin looks amazing. Definitely still in the “uncanny valley” but far, far better than anything similar I’ve seen before. Honestly, if he was used more sparingly, the results would have been better. There’s a particular scene where he’s silent, just observing eerily (reminiscent of ANH) and that’s the exact moment I lost it that it was CGI… he felt like the real Peter Cushing. It still felt odd where there was dialogue and a close-up shot of his face, though. There is another CGI character used very briefly and it works marvelously.

RO gives me some vague hope that Disney can actually deliver decent continuation of the OT, and that JJ’s TFA was just a misstep as they wanted to play “safe” with the new trilogy. The movie had its fair share of problems but overall, it’s great.

If anyone is interested in spoilers, let me know. 😃

Someone on here talked about there being mentioning or a reference to the Whills in this movie. Tell us about them?