Lord Haseo

Having had a few days to think about Rogue One I think I can give an accurate assessment:

The story and the way it was told was solid but and just that. Beyond the entire section on Scarif and the Jyn/Galen thing there wasn’t much to drag me in either emotionally or in terms of general excitement. One thing that had me excited was the moral grey area they had with the Rebellion and Cassian but I found the resolution to be forced and abrupt. I get that the mission was a priority but they could properly hashed things out right before the mission. Lets not forget that having a comrade you trust is a priority as well. Another problem the film suffers from is pacing issues in the first two acts which is actually lead to to literally doze off. But whenever it seemed like the film was going to go on standby an undeniably awesome action scene would occur. I appreciated the score a bit more the third time around but it’s still weak for a Star Wars score; I’ll still buy it and give it a good listening to but as it pertains to how it’s applied in the film it could have been better.

Still think Vader should have gotten more screen as they nailed him and gave me the Vader I had always wanted in the PT. I specifically like how Vader uses all the established powers we’ve seen like tutaminis, force pulling blasters, force chokes etc. I very much like how they framed the slaughter. It’s as if Vader is a monster or a wall of death and while some probably thing Vader is OP we have to remember that Vader is killing non Force wielders. He was a God among men.

Tying back into my previous point about dozing off; a remedy for that could have been stronger characters and better character interactions. I know the Taun Taun has received quite a serious thrashing when it comes to this topic but it still merits discussing. I found Jyn to be less interesting in my last viewing. Beyond her nice speeches and the emotion she showed for her father I found her to be underwritten. This applies to Chirrut and Baze in spades as they are just as one note and one dimensional as I remember. I couldn’t see many things like distinct personality traits, emotional states, backstory, or even things like aspirations unrelated the main plot. All that I know about him begins and ends with him being an defected Imperial. Cassian is cool and K2S0 along with Krennic are fucking awesome. Having gotten all the main characters out of the way having them be deeper or having them more banter is something that could have made certain parts of the film less dull and made great parts even better. In general having someone to root for goes a long way in terms of investment in a story. ROTJ and TFA have their fair share of issues but I can forgive certain issues because I was enthralled and entertained by a lot of the characters.

This may have came out way more on the ranty side of things but I still like this film a lot. Just not as much as I previously did

7.5/10

Cthulhunicron said:
A - If the first fragment doesn’t match any known records, then at least the parts of Artoo’s map (if not the entire thing) surrounding that gap would also have to be uncharted. It’s like saying “we have a map of the United States, but there’s a mysterious gap between Utah and Kansas.”

I don’t think that analogy really works. The gap between star systems is exponentially bigger than the size of the gap between Utah and Kansas. Unless you know exactly where that star system is you’re probably going to miss it if you go into that uncharted territory blind.

C - If Artoo has been shut down since Luke left, how can he be in possession of a map tracking his journey? Furthermore, if he had the map this whole time, why didn’t he tell anyone? Sure, it wouldn’t give Luke’s precise location, but they would still be given a major clue. Going back to my US map analogy, you wouldn’t have Colorado mapped out, but you at least know he’d be between Utah and Kansas.

These are good questions and I’m thinking perhaps it may be tied to Rey being present but I don’t even believe that with strong conviction.

They need to make a fan remaster/remaster of that too. I don’t know how I feel about the Kotor fan remake.

Disregard

I have a viewing of Rogue One later today and it feels weird now…

Burdokva said:
Poe? He’s a … great pilot? Mind you, this was so bluntly expressed (“woohoo, what a great pilot!”) in a visually so over the top scene that didn’t have an ounce of suspense and doesn’t hold a candle to Han, Lando or even Wedge’s gripping space combat scenes, that I cringed. What else is about him? He’s… brave? And this was the character I wanted to like the most. I love flying and aviation, I love space sims. Pilots are the greatest. Oscar Isaac is an enigmatic actor. Yet, I couldn’t care a bit about Poe. He was just there. A pilot. Flat and blank.

Poe was underdeveloped. I have never been shy about saying that.

Daisy Ridley’s Rey. Bless Daisy for giving the character soul and charm but besides the strong thirty initial minutes what is there so much of a character development for Rey? She learns about the Force and how to fight using a lightsaber. Adding that on top the fact she was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, pilot, mechanic and adventurer, I doesn’t really add much. And about her character itself, nothing changed. At the end of the movie she’s determined, brave and purposeful. Just as she was at the beginning! What exactly was the growth arc here?

Really? Rey is an orphaned child who at the age of 19 has tricked herself into believing that her parents are coming back thus creating this prison in her mind that she is unwilling to escape. She spends almost the entire film running away from her destiny until she can’t and finally succumbs and through her experiences chooses to travel to Luke even though she could have gone back to Jakku. Aside from that she found her stay on Jakku to be unbearable as she had to work her ass off to survive after she strode out on her own and when she wasn’t working she tried desperately to achieve some type of peace through sleep. Also even though there are a lot of scumbags in Nima Outpost she still hasn’t been corrupted by her environment as her front is easily breakable and the real Rey shows herself after minimal prodding. But one way that she has been corrupted is that she is definitely prone to anger. Her first instinct when being told Finn had stolen Poe’s jacket was to run after him and hit him with her staff. She also called upon the Dark Side of The Force when she defeated Kylo Ren as stated by the novelization and her face after when she was looking down upon him. She gets attached to people very quickly as she thinks Han could be the father she never had and you could count her considering Finn a friend despite seemingly having none in the beginning of the film, but Finn sacrificed so much for her that there’s nothing you could call Finn other than a friend. Speaking of Finn, seeing as how she believes his lies without doubt even though he’s a terrible liar and she still believes her parents are coming back she has shown herself to be quite naive. She’s has also shown traits of both humility and arrogance as she attributed Finn being saved from the Rathtar as just being luck.

I think that’s all I can think of

Finn, okay. Boayega brought a lot of energy and had charm but I think the dialogue was a bit forced, and I couldn’t really get the sudden jump from a “coward” to a “hero”. Really, people think Jun joining the Rebellion after the Empire kills both of her father figures in a couple of days rushed but Finn suddenly turning full circle on his view of running and hiding from the First Order because of a girl he met a couple of days ago normal? Right. Well, at least TFA setup the character enough for a lot of possible future development but it did not really advance him within the movie that much.

That’s not why Finn defected…Finn defected because The First Order slaughtered an entire village and he was about to be reprimanded for not killing the villagers. Did you watch the movie?

Swazzy said:

https://twitter.com/danielmcfadin/status/813490774897782784

Damn, in hindsight I really wish she had a more prominent role in TFA. Rest in peace.

Here’s to hoping she has a stronger role in Episode VIII.

RIP Carrie

And after TFA’s lack of a proper space battle Episode VIII outta have one just as good if not better.

darthrush said:

I just got Audio Technica ATH-M50X Headphones for Christmas and was very excited. The sound quality is wonderful. They have solid range and represent a very neutral take on all sound, giving a clear and soothing listening experience.

But God damn it, do they clamp like a son of a bitch! The clamp force is crazy! I currently have a headache because of how tight these headphones are. I don’t know if stretching them or getting some BrainWavz memory foam pads might help, but I really hope I can resolve this comfort issue.

I have never had this problem and I have a huge head.

SilverWook said:

Oh my goodness…Leia is possibly the strongest character in the Star Wars universe. Lesser beings would have had a mental breakdown far before the events of TFA.

I didn’t care but she kept bugging me so I gave in. I was 18 and 2 years into my borderline unhealthy obsession with Star Wars and I didn’t care how I got my fix. I watched ANH-R for the first time on my Ipod Touch.

darthrush said:

Lord Haseo said:

Swazzy said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41_ooqHzYGc

Once again, the single greatest track in the entire series. And it lasts less than a minute.

Empirically. I don’t care who get’s mad at that because I do not give a fuck.

“The Immolation Scene” and “The Emperor’s Death” are just below it though.

“Immolation scene” and “Yoda lifts the X-Wing” are easily tied as my favorite Star Wars compositions.

I think the music when Yoda lifts the X-Wing is much more powerful when you watch the scene and in general watch the entire movie prior to that scene. The song itself is still amazing but I don’t feel as strong of an emotional response when listening to it outside of the film.

My little sister hated the 2006 OUT version of STAR WARS because the aspect ratio was absolutely terrible until I fixed it half way through. She said she wouldn’t even want to continue if I didn’t fix it. Add to the fact that we were watching it on on a 43" TV.

TV’s Frink said:

Singer George Michael has died aged 53, his publicist has said.

ON FUCKING CHRISTMAS!

This was the cherry on the shit sundae that is 2016. I hope this year is wiped off the face of human history. Me and my mom used to listen to him all the time when I was a kid.

Someone should actually do a study on that. Have 1000 or so people from varying ages, ethnicities and backgrounds watch both versions and see which one they prefer. I think letting half of the test subjects watch the SE first while the other half watches the DE is the best way to go about it. I really can’t see anyone liking the SE after seeing the Despecialized Versions or even the 2006 DVD version of the OT.

Swazzy said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41_ooqHzYGc

Once again, the single greatest track in the entire series. And it lasts less than a minute.

Empirically. I don’t care who get’s mad at that because I do not give a fuck.

“The Immolation Scene” and “The Emperor’s Death” are just below it though.

The Aluminum Falcon said:

1. Star Wars
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. The Phantom Menace
5. Attack of the Clones
6. Return of the Jedi
7. Rogue One
8. The Force Awakens

Am seriously fond of the prequel scores despite the quality of the movies themselves. They have a lot of memorable tracks from “Duel of the Fates,” “Across the Stars,” and “Anakin vs Obi Wan.”

AOTC’s soundtrack > ROTJ’s? WHAT? Other than “Across The Stars” and “Zam The Assassin” what songs can you remember from AOTC’s soundtrack? The music in the last act of ROTJ alone overtakes the entire AOTC soundtrack in my opinion.

Opeth - Black Rose Immortal

Gorillaz - Demon Dayz

Nas - It Ain’t Hard To Tell

Incantation - Unholy Massacre

EDIT:

Koji Kondo and a bunch of other people - Twilight Princess Symphonic Movement

SilverWook said:

Lord Haseo said:

My one hope for Luke in VIII is that he isn’t just sulking on Ahch-To. I won’t be mad if he is mourning his students but I want him discovering some secret to destroying Snoke and his Knights of Ren or the training of Jedi in secret to be the primary reason/s he’s there.

I also really really want to see a scene wth him and Leia. Would have preferred to see him and back together but Kylo Ren happened.

There’s a Han missing in that sentence. 😉

Funny seeing as how something has been missing inside of me since Han died.

Another musical moment I remember from TFA is the scene when Han, Chewie and Finn are sneaking on SKB and there’s this melody that plays right before the whole “That’s not how The Force works” bit and it’s kinda beautiful. I don’t think it’s on the actual soundtrack though.

My one hope for Luke in VIII is that he isn’t just sulking on Ahch-To. I won’t be mad if he is mourning his students but I want him discovering some secret to destroying Snoke and his Knights of Ren or the training of Jedi in secret to be the primary reason/s he’s there.

I also really really want to see a scene wth him and Leia. Would have preferred to see him and back together but Kylo Ren happened.

Here’s my two cents on Rogue One and TFA’s soundtracks:

I think I remember one song from Rogue One’s soundtrack and that’s it. The Attack On The Jakkuu Village, Rey’s theme, On The Inside, Kylo Ren Joins The Battle, On The Inside, Torn Apart and Jedi Steps are songs that were stuck in my mind after first viewing. Rogue One’s soundtrack may have been implemented better than TFA’s but Rogue One’s soundtrack is so soulless and lacking in melodic material and consistency that you can hardly call it a Star Wars soundtrack. I can attribute this to the fact that TFA’s soundtrack is in constant rotation but there’s a reason for that…

My hopes is that they don’t dumb him down because of the people who wanted him to be Vader 2.0

We know a lot about Kylo but there’s a lot of stuff we don’t know about him. I really want to know what he feels about Leia. He finds Han to be a disappointment but it’s possible that feeling could be even stronger about in regards to his Mom. I also want to know how he feels about Rey besting him twice and how he knows Snoke is using him.