This user has been banned.
The Ewoks aren’t that bad. Having them beat Imperial troops with rocks and sticks was obviously really really stupid, but it’s one blemish in an otherwise very good film. The Force Awakens has about a thousand blemishes that mar its sometimes really good parts.
Tyrphanax said:
The overarching point of the film was to explain how the plans got from the Empire to the Rebels (unless I watched the wrong movie or something), not to explain that the Death Star was sabotaged. No?
So the entire point of the movie was to explain stuff in another film?
So the entire movie was about the McGuffin and some girl who was never mentioned and only appeared on screen for the last three or four seconds?
Tyrphanax said:
The story is “how the Leia ended up with the plans”
Orly?
Tarkin was completely unnecessary and a real blemish on the film. Leia could have been done with a hologram, but honestly I didn’t mind her at all.
It’s so curious that you didn’t like Tarkin but didn’t mind Leia. It was kind of the opposite for me. I minded Tarkin less and less as the film went on.
Difference of opinion I guess. You said it jarred you because the resemblance was uncanny? I thought she was fine precisely because it was only one shot, and there was no acting (which the CGI can’t emulate). She looked fine and not distracting. Tarkin on the other hand was in many scenes that required acting and besides, the computer was not as good at rendering Peter Cushing’s angular and gaunt facial features as it was Leia’s rounder and softer features. But maybe I just didn’t have time to pay close enough attention because it was just one scene.
Just my opinion.
Tarkin was completely unnecessary and a real blemish on the film. Leia could have been done with a hologram, but honestly I didn’t mind her at all.
Lord Haseo said:
I felt kind of emotionally attached to Jyn and the storyline with her father
Well that’s good. That’s what movies are supposed to be about.
These non Star Wars fans are the worst…
EDIT:
And you’re goddamn right I went there.
Do you really want to go somewhere else? We could also discuss how some people have incredibly poor taste in films, don’t understand anything about storytelling or filmmaking, and base their ratings of Star Wars movies on nothing more than how much **** can be crammed onto the screen that they’re familiar with from other films or novels for God knows what reason.
You don’t even understand the opening crawl of a film you claim to love. Fuck out of my face with that shit.
You’re asking for a ban man. What I do understand are people who are so vain, so into themselves, that they enjoy watching movies where their entire gratification comes from subconsciously going “ah I knew that was going to happen” and “I remember that in some other film I liked years ago” and “that was in _____ EU book I read!” and the like.
There was a great quote in one of the reviews I read that said we, as a society, used to go to movies to wonder about the future (and the OT certainly fits that bill). Now we seem to be in love with reliving the past.
Were the Rebels given the plans to the Death Star in or before that scene? If not then there was still more story to be told.
Well now we’re getting somewhere. You’re describing a story that moves mindlessly from event #1 to event #2 and so on, and we all get off on it because we already know those things happen because we saw some other movies years ago that we know and love. That’s not how stories are written, or at least not how good stories are written. Or interesting ones. You have things like characters, and they have goals and motivations.
Who was the main character in Rogue One? Jyn, right? What was her driving force? What motivated her throughout the entire movie?
These non Star Wars fans are the worst…
EDIT:
And you’re goddamn right I went there.
Do you really want to go somewhere else? We could also discuss how some people have incredibly poor taste in films, don’t understand anything about storytelling or filmmaking, and base their ratings of Star Wars movies on nothing more than how much **** can be crammed onto the screen that they’re familiar with from other films or novels for God knows what reason.
They literally advocated for the removal of “that space battle $#@%.”
Can review shows jump the shark? =P
What’s wrong with that? I said the same thing in my review. The whole third act was ridiculous and eyerolling. The movie was over when Jyn’s father died. The writers screwed up and buried the climax in the middle of the second act!
How does that change what I said? The film was over when it was revealed Jyn’s father intentionally designed the death star with a flaw and then he died. There was no more story left to tell after that, because the first two acts were not about the Empire vs. The Rebel Alliance. They were about Jyn and her father and their stories. The rest of the **** was just tacked on.
They literally advocated for the removal of “that space battle $#@%.”
Can review shows jump the shark? =P
What’s wrong with that? I said the same thing in my review. The whole third act was ridiculous and eyerolling. The movie was over when Jyn’s father died. The writers screwed up and buried the climax in the middle of the second act!
Oh God, I’m watching RLM now. I said the same thing about the opening scene when it happened during the movie. Why the hell does the Imperial land a mile away?
The dialogue was most certainly the problem with Vader. The dialogue in the entire movie was terribly written.
Everyone needs to consider that the people making all of these new films are just not as talented, or more importantly inspired, as those who collaborated to make the originals.
10/10- The Empire Strikes Back
9/10- Star Wars
8/10- Return of the Jedi
5/10- Rogue One
2/10- The Force Awakens
1/10- The Phantom Menace
0/10- The Other Prequel movies that shall not be named
My girlfriend had never seen any other Star Wars movie before. We saw Rogue One last night. It confused the **** out of her. But, at least she’ll have some kind of context when she picks up the story with ANH.
So I guess we’ll try this order:
Rogue One
Star Wars/ANH
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
…and that’s it!
OK like I said the girlfriend has never seen any Star Wars movie before. Her reaction was WTF is going on? Truth be told, there is just too much **** going on in the movie and almost none of it is important. So yeah I think her assessment was pretty spot on.
The film starts with about ten different scene changes, and for some reason all of them need superimposed titles. That’s the first indication one gets that the script sucks. I don’t remember any superimposed titles in the OT, do you? When did “Dagobah” or “Yavin” or “Alderaan” or “Tatooine” or “Bespin” ever flash on screen? Well the answer is never, because the stories were told in a way that the viewer was never confused and never needed to read the movie like it’s some kind of travel brochure. All of these scenes are just expository **** thrown against the wall because the script sucks bad.
Once that awful beginning was out of the way, I guess I did find myself trying to discern more between the good aspects of the film and the bad. Throwbacks like Mon Mothma and Bail Organa were perfectly appropriate, well cast, and made the film better. Others like CGI Tarkin and the droids reminded me of the RLM joke that Lucas nearly threw in baby Han at the end of the PT just for the **** of it. Do we really need another droid ripping off Empire dialogue, or chess board holograms lifted out of ANH?
Anyway, as the story progresses, we get to know our protagonist, Jyn Erso. Honestly I don’t mind this character. She’s derivative and not terribly interesting, but she’s pretty much the only likeable person in the movie, so I can get behind her. The real problem is that I don’t give a damn about any of her sidekicks. The old black mentor type guy, who cares about that dude? He’s like the general grievous of Rogue One. The Alliance good/bad guy she dies with, what was his story? He’s just some scruffy nerfherder that kills people on orders and then doesn’t kill someone else on orders because the plot got in the way? At least the Imperials were cast better in Rogue One than TFA (General Hux, I’m looking at you) but these guys are still cartoon characters and nothing like the nuanced stage acting we used to get from people like Kenneth Colley.
Oh well, back to the plot. There was actually one invaluable novelty contained within Rogue One, and it was the idea that someone intentionally designed a flaw into the Death Star in order to aid the alliance. What a concept! That single idea could have made this entire movie, and by made the entire movie, I mean it could have been the unifying force that tied together every other scene and character and motivation the same way Vader’s confession did in Empire Strikes Back. Literally the entire rest of the script should have been designed in order to build to THAT revelation, and undoubtedly, THAT revelation, and Jyn meeting her father, should all have come at the climax of the story.
But that doesn’t happen. None of that was fleshed out.
In fact, in the middle of my first viewing, having not read any spoilers, I immediately noted to myself that the movie was already over at that point. Sure, I could tell the filmmakers were setting up some kind of contrived, nonsensical space battle, just for ****s and giggles, but the movie was already over. If I hadn’t been with my girlfriend, I would have walked out. They buried the ****ing climax in the middle of the second act!!!
The whole last act was just derivative spectacle to fill screen time. Was that Jyn and her paramour climbing some records thing, or Luke and Leia swinging from a grappling hook? I mean, I don’t even want to get into denigrating the Chinese guy and his friend, that’s too easy. At least Vader’s last scene was really great, but everything else with him and CGI Tarkin looked like it was made by amateurs filming their own Youtube videos.
Well, I’m probably being too harsh here. I will say that Rogue One does not offend me. It’s the first Star Wars movie since 1983 that I don’t despise with a burning and seething passion. I just find it to be a poorly made and boring movie.
Boring…yes, I’d say that’s the final verdict.
Saw it last night with the girlfriend, who has never seen any Star Wars film before. Not even TFA last year. Report to follow…
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.
The worst film in the franchise is TPM. Clones and its successor are not films 😉.
I see what you did there!
There are people who rank TFA over Jedi, and I don’t get that either.
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.
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?
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.
More:
You’re left wanting both more and less. There are too many characters, too much tactical and technical explanation, too much pseudo-political prattle. And at the same time, there isn’t quite enough of the filial dynamic between Galen and Jyn, and not enough weight given to the ethical and strategic problems of rebellion. When might ends justify means? What kind of sacrifice is required in the service of a righteous cause?
Popular art — “Star Wars” included — has often proved itself capable of exploring these kinds of questions with clarity, vigor and even a measure of nuance. But “Rogue One” has no such ambitions, no will to persuade the audience of anything other than the continued strength of the brand. It doesn’t so much preach to the choir as propagandize to the captives, telling us that we’re free spirits and partners on the journey. The only force at work here is the force of habit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/13/movies/star-wars-rogue-one-review.html?_r=0
