Lord Haseo said:

cybr1d said:
-I think they said “hope” too much. Probably just me.

You are not alone on that one. One line that emphasized “hope” would have been perfect but they chose to run it into the ground. Preferably I would keep the “Rebellions are built on hope” line and scrap CGI Leia and the “Hope” line by proxy and it’s be perfect.

-After Tarkin, CG Leia wasn’t so much of a surprise (the suprise was them ending on the Tantive IV), but she’s worth a mention, and again, I think she looked great.

You may be alone on this point though…actually I’d bet some PT fans would agree with you though.

Nah he’s not alone.

DominicCobb said:

Reminder that the human brain is essentially dumb as fuck and cesspools like reddit are doing their best to make sure logic and reason never changes that: http://www.newstatesman.com/science-tech/internet/2016/12/movie-doesn-t-exist-and-redditors-who-think-it-does

People love echo chambers. There’s a place on the Internet for everyone to find someone who agrees with them about whatever they think, and eventually it becomes normalized.

Warbler said:

Now I wish to bitch about fucking comcast. We got a third call from some sort of telemarketing scam thing. I looked up the number at it looks like they keep calling. So I decided to try to block the number. We get our phone service from comcast, so I when to our account page to try to figure out how to do this. I couldn’t. There was chat screen so I thought I’d use that to try to ask for help. I couldn’t get on the chat. It kept asking for info(some of which I had already typed in), but wouldn’t give me anywhere to type in said info. I gave up and decided to call them. When I did, they asked for our account number. We have recently switched account numbers (it had to do with with my father passing away). I accidentally gave them the old account number. Shortly after that, the phone cut off. Our phone and internet service went down. I had to reboot our modem. Our phones came back, but not the internet. We had to have someone come out to the house and fix that. Our internet was down for almost 20 hours. Apparently, when I gave the old account number, the jerk on the phone(whose accent I had a lot of difficulty understanding) reset something. Didn’t warn me. Didn’t try to research to situation on his end. How difficult would it have been for him to figure out that I had given him the wrong account number? But no, he resets something and knocks out our internet. This all happened merely because I tried to find out how to block a certain phone number.

FUCK COMCAST!!!

From all I’ve ever heard, Comcast is one of the actual worst companies to deal with ever.

It’s why monopolies are bad for the consumer.

DominicCobb said:

JEDIT: Realized what thread I’m in. Some mild Rogue One spoilers.

In many ways Cassian works better. You basically get the gist of what he’s all about in his first few scenes. He’s a spy for the Rebel alliance, going on missions and finding info for the cause. He doesn’t care what he has to do in the name of fighting the Empire, even if that means killing people in cold blood.

Jyn on the other hand, it’s a bit more confusing. We know that she loses her parents to the Empire at an early age and that Forest Whitaker takes her in (though it’s unclear at the time who this person is). Then we see her 15 years later and she’s in Imperial prison. Why? It’s kind of explained a bit later in the Yavin briefing scene, but it’s still unclear what kind of life this person is living. We don’t really get the full picture until about 30 minutes into the film or so when she finally meets up with Saw, and we get it, she used to be a rebel for him, she was abandoned, and now she’s going it alone, avoiding the fight. But then she changes her mind in the next scene. There’s a compelling character there but it’s mishandled.

It all comes down to the structure of the film being off in the first act especially. Everything jumps around so much it’s nearly impossible to figure the status quo, so that once the plot kicks in and we get moving, it’s hard for us to be invested as we can’t completely connect to the protagonist. Cassian almost works as another protagonist but not totally, because the conflict isn’t there - it’s almost just another mission for him. If more was made of the fact that Jyn was going along being a bad idea than maybe, but otherwise he’s supporting a character we can’t yet relate to.

And if it’s not a film about the characters and it’s more generally about the Rebellion, they drop that ball a bit too. Again the status quo isn’t totally there. We could see the thumb the galaxy is under and the small victories the Rebellion is gaining… and then bam now there’s a Death Star to quell that and how will the Alliance face it? There’s a way to make the Alliance itself the protagonist but the first act’s so jumbled that doesn’t work either.

Thankfully things come into focus on Jedha and the rest of the second act is very solid I think. However, the third act, even with it’s near perfect action sequences, fumbles again. Cassian’s character is never challenged beyond trusting Jyn, which as mentioned before, is not a thread that is fully developed. They could have delved further into his morality but it basically boils down to “I’ve done some fucked up shit so yeah I’m still in all the way.” It’s frustrating because it’s all staggeringly close to the main theme they want the film to have: “hope.” Problem is, just because they say it all the time doesn’t make it so, it has to come about through the text of the film. They could have done this organically through Jyn - the pieces are there, she used to be in but she lost all hope. But again they bungle it by having her do a 180 within a single scene. And they could have done it with the Rebellion as the de facto protagonist, but again without the solid foundation of the status quo, and without the feeling of a looming Death Star threatening the existence of the Alliance throughout the film (and not just in one scene where they air their thoughts), the resolution of the third act just isn’t there.

Well put!

joefavs said:

I think someone posed the same issue to Pablo and his response was something to the effect of “being wielded by the Force isn’t the same as wielding the Force,” which I took to mean that it’s more a matter of the Force acting through Chirrut than of Chirrut using it.

That’s how I took it.

Worried that my school pulled my ability to access their online file storage now that I’ve graduated. My online portfolio is there and I currently don’t have the money to purchase hosting anywhere else.

I need a job pretty bad, heh.

NeverarGreat said:

People keep on bringing up the idea that the characters in Rogue One are worse than those of TFA, but I think that these movies present two very different ways to create a character. In the case of TFA, the characters for the most part are larger than life, all of them at least idealized, at most mythologized. Everything they do is part of a larger destiny, and they cannot die in vain. Even Han Solo’s death was played on a huge, dramatically lit stage surrounded by other figures of destiny who will surely avenge him.

Contrast this with the characters of Rogue One, who are often subdued, restrained, ordinary. They are not figures of destiny, and even the one who has genuinely magical powers is treated as no more important in the story than the grunts in the Rebellion. It is the story of everyday people coming together to achieve a goal that will be largely unsung in the annals of history and overshadowed by the achievements of Chosen Ones.

To say that one interpretation of character is better than another is to misunderstand how TFA and Rogue One are fundamentally different movies. One is about heroes of destiny, the other about people acting heroically.

Well put.

He took his cloak off before the fight so I’m sure his hood remained intact.

I guess you missed the last two movies then.

doubleofive said:

Ronster said:

Triangle Face a bounty hunter was tacking Dr Evanzen and Walrus Man before Jyn Bumps in to them…

This probably allows the two criminals to escape as Triangle face is caught the other side of the Hover Tank and has to wait then the battle kicks off allowing Dr Evanzan and walrus face to evade capture.

He may have been going to shoot just as Jyn bumps in to them or does he bump in to Jyn to cause a diversion.

This is a thread where we try to figure out what was originally shot, not make things up. Where are you even getting this stuff?

Some of it is in the Rogue One Visual Dictionary, and some of it is pure speculation.

Mavimao said:

MalàStrana said:

Mavimao said:
I forget who said it, but if ANH was released today, it would be crucified by today’s culture.

Why ?

Were The Matrix, Avatar or Lord of the rings crucified by today’s culture ?

(and basically today’s culture has been partially defined by Star Wars so I don’t get your point)

(I don’t even understand the relevance here…)

You’re just repeating dumb statement which don’t mean anything trying to appear cool (you’ve failed by the way) or you really believe that ?

I know a lot of people who aren’t really Star Wars fans try to watch the first film and find it really boring and tacky. I don’t necessarily agree but there you go.

PS: I’ve got a PHD in Cowabunga. U can’t touch this.

The issue is that we’re living in a post-Star Wars world now. If 1977’s Star Wars was released today alongside a movie like Captain America: Civil War I can understand people being bored by it. But it’s largely because of Star Wars that we have the exciting effects-driven films we have today.

Compared to modern sci-fantasy movies, Star Wars might be boring, but if we were in a hypothetical world where the film industry today was still the same as it was in 1976 and Star Wars came out, I think the effect would largely be the same.

But it’s impossible to speculate with any accuracy.

Yeah, they’ve been making dreck on the level of a movie about emoji for many decades now. We’ll make it through.

TV’s Frink said:

Live and Let Jedi?

[groan]

I always enjoy the composer’s personal names for songs purely because they’re usually goofy.

It always reminds me of the Age of Empires soundtracks wherein all the songs have goofy names you’d never see.

I’ve stolen this from Tobar:

The Original Rebel: Saw Gerrera Returns | Star Wars Rebels

doubleofive said:

Official images from Rogue One

Awesome!

Man Rogue One was good, hah.

Based on the Saw trailer for Rebels, I’m assuming we’ll see his crippling happen in the show soon.

Tobar said:

Awesome! Though I wonder if they’ll be reprinting all of the Sunday strips in color. When Dark Horse put out Classic Star Wars they weren’t able to locate any of Manning’s color strips. So they ended up doing their own revisionist color job. Would be fantastic to see them as they were meant to be.

Doesn’t that mean you’re extinct?

ForceGhostRecon said:

Ronster said:

A very minor tweak is required for 100% Line up of Rogue One and Star Wars (A new Hope)

“Several Transmissions were Beamed aboard this ship, I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you?” Original

“Several Transmissions were Beamed aboard a ship, I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you?” Fixed

I feel like this would be a futile ‘fix’… In RO, There was no way for Vader to know for sure which ship received the transmissions (for all he knows, they ALL could’ve gotten it), but after watching the Tantive escape so frantically/deperately, it makes sense he’d assume that was the ship that received them. This would explain the line when he catches up to them in ANH.

Moving on, does anybody else feel like a movie in between ROTS and RO would be a great spot on the timeline for a Vader movie? Possibly show him hunting down the last of the Jedi (alla The Force Unleashed) - also a good opportunity to bring back Palpatine for continuity. I quite like that RO didn’t show the Emperor, as I feel it preserves his ambiguity in ANH… but the Vader movie as a standalone would certainly need some direct “Imperial guidance” at some point for sure. This is the only spot on the timeline I can think of to make a Vader movie happen and it could be great.

Lastly, and I’m 3/4 joking when I say this… Vader’s servant on Mustafar… Secret Apprentice Snoke?? lol

I heard a decent explanation the other day wherein Vader didn’t know there was a physical copy of the plans.

Remember, he says “several transmissions were beamed aboard this ship,” we know that’s not true because we see they get beamed to the flagship and downloaded to the datacard and then physically brought to the Tantive IV by troopers, but Vader clearly doesn’t realize this as he’s slaughtering the Rebels in the hallway either because he can’t see the datacard or because, let’s face it, the man has anger issues and tends to fly off the handle and go into a murderous rage that he can’t control, and he was so absorbed that all he could feel was the fear and not the reason for it.

In ANH the stormtrooper captain says “the Death Star plans are not in the main computer,” Vader assumed the plans were beamed to the Tantive IV and thus in the computer, when it was really the flagship they were beamed to. That’s when he realizes they may be hidden physically on the ship (“commander tear this ship apart until you’ve found those plans”) and explains why they weren’t so bothered about the empty escape pod leaving the ship.

Leia and Captain Antilles’ lying is nothing more than the delay tactics that any good spy would do until the bitter end. Deny deny deny. Even when you’re caught dead to rights.

Also, Vader’s servant as Snoke might actually be alright with me. =P

LexX said:

Yeah I would never show R1 to a rookie first. It’s a great film for the fans but newbies probably are just confused and/or not interested. I mean, it’s still fun and enjoyable but they would be asking “why”.

Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about.

It’s been a long time since they’ve seen it, so will it make sense? Will I have to explain it?

Finnius said:

I have recently discovered that Mike has dumped the Legacy project and has given his full attention to a restoration of the classic TV show “Space: 1999”.
In an interview given last week via podcast, Mike had this to say about his sudden change of projects:

“Some months ago I had shown my son ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ for the first time. He really didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as ‘Star Wars’. About 3 weeks ago we were both watching an episode of ‘Mystery Science Theater’ and it was 2 episodes of “Space: 1999”. Well my son became completely entranced and excited about this movie and said to me “Dad, you should do that instead.” Suddenly a light went on in my head and I suddenly realized I had been wasting all my time and effort on ‘Legacy’ and had forgotten all about a show that was always clearly better in all respects. The acting, special effects and plot in “Space: 1999” were always leaps and bounds beyond anything Lucas has ever done, and I’m ashamed I had forgotten about that series. Guess I’m getting forgetful in my old age (laughter). So I’m here today to publicly let all the Legacy fans know that I am officially terminating the Legacy project. In the coming weeks I will be taking down the Legacy website and putting up a new one dedicated to this new project. My Vimeo site will likewise also undergo a complete overhaul as I intend to use that as a sort of video diary of my progress and work. I understand that a lot of you in the OT community and other “Star Wars” sites are really going to hate me now, but I have to follow my dream, my passion. I hope many of you will come to share my enthusiasm for this new project, and come to love it as I do.”

I had a few private chats with Mike and tried to get him to at LEAST ‘accidentally’ release Legacy but he told me that he had already deleted all his external hard drives containing Legacy in order to make room for “Lunar” (his codename for the new project). Apparently the show lasted for 2 seasons and he was going to need all the space he had…and more…for his endeavor. I told him that he would probably become vilified by the OT community once they learned of this…but he just laughed and told me there were ten times the number of fans for “Space: 1999” than there are for “Star Wars”.

Anyway…I did TRY to get a copy of Legacy to share with everyone here but it was a bust. Sorry to be the bearer of such terrible news…this is truly a HUGE blow to the Star Wars community…and me personally. I’m off to get stinking drunk now…

POTY 2016

Ronster said:

Just in from a french Film maker Xavier Gens

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1164755/

Apparently the earlier version of Rogue One featured Saw vs Vader. It explained how he lost his legs on Geonosis and was crushed by something and trapped whilst his lungs were also consumed by this insectocide the empire used to wipe out the Geonosis Insect type creatures.

Vader chopped his legs off.

This story comes from a friend of the film maker because of French Dubbing work and someone he knew has seen the footage.

I can actually believe this back story to be true. The scene with his Medical droid and on Life Support are clearly missing so this Flashback is missing scene. (10 Years before Rogue One)

So now we are need to know how Chirrut became Blind but can see the Crystals.

Interesting if true! It fits the canon.

Bobo Jameson said:

Mithrandir said:

Alderaan said:

Lord Haseo said:

Alderaan said:

Lord Haseo said:

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.

I can’t help disagreeing strongly. There are tons of great movies and stories where you know what it is going to happen. Surprise is not an artistic value per se.

In fact, I would argue that there was a time when we went to the movies and theatres not giving a shit about knowing the ending, and still enjoyed it. And now all we got is just plain “oh, plot twist!”

Rogue One is a tragedy, because you know the unavoidable fate of the characters, yet you know they can do nothing about it.

Seen it three times by now, and I just keep liking it more and more. The Rebel Alliance feels like an actual military organisation. And we get to see that both Rebels and Empire have their internal political struggles, be it Tarkin/Krennic or Saw/Mon Mothma. It doesn’t feel monolithic anymore.

It’s a film that has the maturity the OT had, where characters understand each others with just eye contact and they don’t need to say everything, tho in the end yes, what ends up being key is the story and not the characters. I can’t see how that’s not the case in most of movies anyway.

And I don’t like the fact that this movie is getting so much trashing on the web, mainly because I really liked it and hope all the spinoffs take this approach and level, and not to have “character driven” spinoffs such as “origins of han solo”, “origin of boba fett”, “Vader”. And since I do not want Luke Skywalker or whoever they need to be re-cast, I won’t even dare to say a thing about CGI. Yes it was recognizable, but I’m enthusiastic on this tech, and hope they continue to pull it off.

Honestly cinema today, and actors are generally so crappy I’d rather have a CGI Alec Guinness or Peter Cushing all day.

Hell I couldn’t agree with you more. 😄

Yep. Well-written post, Mithrandir.

Pretty sure CGI’ing two actors performances in Rogue One was risky CGI. Especially considering how polarizing it has been so far.

Booman said:

I just got back from my second viewing, and I noticed something interesting, I don’t think anyone else has pointed it out yet. When Jyn first sees Chirrut (Donnie Yen) outside the temple, he can be heard saying “May the force of others be with you”. I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the first draft of Star Wars, where the saying “May the Force be with you” was originally “May the Force of others be with you”. This also goes along with the fact that they are the “Guardians of the Whills” which is also a reference to the title of the first draft of Star Wars.

Yeah, I noticed it and a couple other people have mentioned it. Very neat little nod for nerds like us.

Alderaan said:

Tyrphanax said:

Alderaan said:

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?

I mean… yeah? I figured that would be pretty obvious from the plot that it wasn’t a character film and was an event film, but I guess it wasn’t, haha.

Like I’ve said a few times, this wasn’t Saving Private Ryan, it was Black Hawk Down. Characters were secondary to the events. They were there and they fulfilled their purposes to advance the story (sacrifice for a larger cause), but I never really expected it to focus on them.

Well, if your idea of a movie is exposition on top of exposition and then some battles thrown in for toys and action figures, I guess we have stumbled upon our fundamental differences in taste when it comes to films and filmmaking.

See, I didn’t feel that way at all about the film. I wasn’t bored once while watching, I didn’t feel like the exposition was heavy-handed, and I thought it did a great job of expanding the story we already know.

I mean these aren’t going to be quirky indie films anymore. They’re built to sell, but as long as they’re good (and so far, they are) I don’t care, haha.