joefavs

I thought Cassian was even less interesting than Jyn. Baze n’ Chirrut are where it’s at.

To jump back a couple pages and respond to Haseo RE: Vader, to which I would have responded earlier had I not had an exam and subsequently gone out for drinks:

Yes, the PT was terrible, and yes, TFA doesn’t count as a Vader movie, but the fact remains that as far as canon material goes, Star Wars cinema has been insanely Vader-centric this entire time. Now, I’m certainly not one to cry foul about the heavy nostalgia in these Disney films; I adored TFA and I thought R1 was rad as hell. but at this point I’m pretty much sated as far as the obvious stuff goes. Vader wrecking shit at the end of R1 was all I needed for him. I honestly can’t conceive of a Jedi purge story that would be at all vital or necessary. Yeah, the fact that ROTS did a poor job with it was disappointing, but the reality is that Obi-Wan’s summary of it in ANH was plenty to get the point across. To give it a whole movie would be pure fan service, with no narrative value at all. I don’t want to waste an entire movie on a thing about the single most familiar character going through the motions of a story we’ve known the broad strokes of for decades. I’d much rather go back to the KOTOR era, or do an Indy-inspired Dr. Aphra flick where she unearths something that ties into Snoke’s deal, or story about young Lor San Tekka that fills gives some backstory to the Church of the Force and fills in the gaps about his relationship with Luke. Vader hunting down the Jedi just sounds like a dead end to me.

You guys honestly aren’t a little sick of Vader? He was the heavy in three movies, got another three (admittedly terrible) movies for his origin story, shows up in this one, looms over TFA by motivating its antagonist, and already had a 25 issue comic and a novel in the new canon. I really, really would rather see almost anything else.

It’s a shame this one’s unlikely to get the Rinzler treatment. A full in-depth play by play would be fantastic.

Is it possible that the design of PZ-4CO from TFA was at least in part inspired by Titanosaurus from the old Showa-era Godzilla films?

I actually think a statement like this would be kind of a funny way of purging the internet of Legacy stuff to ensure the cat stays in the bag until a planned official release in the near future. Not saying I believe that’s what this is, but wouldn’t it be nice.

I’m honestly hoping we can be done with Vader for a good long time now that we saw him in this. I liked the cameo fine, but there are thirty or forty other things I want to see before a Vader movie.

True, I just figured that altering the flow of events enough to have them make it out of the tower and back to the beach to then just have them die in a different location seemed a little over the top. The two-building thing hadn’t occurred to me.

That headless cyborg guy totally reminds me of D’harhan from the old EU.

A version of the script was produced where not everyone died before Disney gave Gareth Edwards the OK to kill everyone:

http://www.theverge.com/2016/12/20/14022380/rogue-one-ending-original-different-gareth-edwards

He claims none of that ending was actually shot, but that seems to be at odds with the trailer shots of Jyn running around the Imperial base and beach with the plans in hand.

bromeo said:

Two questions:

1. The lava planet where Vader’s castle resides… did it say Mustafar at any point?

2. Any idea who Vader’s hooded receptionist was? Someone from the EU?

1.) It didn’t say so in the movie, but I believe it’s confirmed in one of the reference books that came out with the movie. The visual dictionary and/or The Art of Rogue One, I think.

2.) I think he’s supposed to be one of the Emperor’s buddies with the goofy hats from ROTJ.

TV’s Frink said:

I have really enjoyed the last two movies but they’ve also made me hate coming here, so…draw?

This.

BobaJett said:

I disagree. That line was totally out of character for Vader. Quippy Vader is not. Im quickly going though my head as I type this and I cannot recall one line from Vader in the OT where he quipped. He was always business. Help me jog my memory.

“Apology accepted, Captain Needa.”

All right, so it is Jyn’s theme I meant. It’s got the same chords as the main theme from Trek: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NZ84ymE53Ns
(1:10 for Dom’s link to Jyn’s theme, 0:43 for Trek)

She was kind of awesome in TCW too. Wouldn’t mind seeing her on Rebels.

What I think is Jyn’s theme reminds me of Giacchino’s Trek theme (I’m not totally sure yet which theme is which on the R1 OST apart from the guardians of the Whills). It’s got some VERY similar chord changes.

Baze and Chirrut had better get a five-issue Marvel series.

Just got back from my second viewing and I liked it A LOT more this time around.

Eh, basically killing your pregnant wife who you’ve been trying to save the whole time and then getting your limbs hacked up and set on fire by your best friend has got to rate at least as high on the trauma scale as your mom getting killed by Sand People. He went through some shit on Tatooine, but Mustafar is where he went full Vader. Plus, Mustafar is a much radder place for an evil lair.

These are in-universe explanations, of course. I think we all know the main reason he didn’t hunker down on Tatooine is that it would be impossible to make that work with the rest of the existing material.

EDIT: I misunderstood, I thought you were suggesting he should have built his digs on Tatooine. In the canon comics he actually does go back to Tatooine shortly after the events of ANH and slaughters another village of Tuskens just to kill time waiting for Boba Fett to meet him.

DominicCobb said:

Interested to hear an explanation as to why Vader’s spending his days on the planet where he lost his arm, legs, lungs, hair, perfect skin, and wife.

I figured he chose it because of all of his negative associations with the place, so that he can cultivate angst and hatred to fuel his power. I saw a blurb from Hidalgo’s visual dictionary that said his meditation chamber overlooks the location of his duel with Obi-Wan. I bet he often just stares out at that and stews in the bad vibes.

Swazzy said:

Also, for some reason I welled up when Jimmy Smits was talking with Mon Mothma about “recruiting the jedi that served you in the Clone Wars”. Something just clicked for me right there. Like I could finally accept that the original six films, while half terrible, may really have taken place in the same universe after all.

I feel exactly the same way. This film and Rebels work so well as connective tissue that the PT feels much more relevant than it ever has for me. Vader in the tank was another moment where I got a really strong feeling that this is all one story. It occurred to me that if you were to watch these in chronological order, Anakin getting hacked to hell was pretty much the last thing you saw before this one. That one little scene did more to reconcile the Vader of the OT with the Anakin of the PT more than anything else I’ve seen.

Current standings, adjusted for the fact that another film has been released and that I’ve embraced Hal’s prequels since the last ranking I did:

1-2. A New Hope/The Empire Strikes Back (tie)
3. The Force Awakens
4. Return of the Jedi
5. Rogue One
6. The Phantom Menace (theatrical)/Attack of the Clones (Hal9000 edit)
7. Revenge of the Sith (edit and theatrical)
8. Attack of the Clones (theatrical)/The Phantom Menace (edit)

If we could get a film with Rogue One’s brain and TFA’s heart, we’d have a perfect late period Star Wars movie. Here’s lookin’ at you, Rian.

TV’s Frink said:

Thought it was pretty great, although I’d rate it a bit behind TFA, mostly because I just didn’t enjoy the actors and characters as much. Donnie was great, Alan was great, Felicity was very good, and I did enjoy Tarkin, but otherwise there was too much “meh” character-wise. Especially the main dude protagonist, he got a ton of screen time and I found him to be very not interesting, as a character and as an actor. I can’t even remember his name.

The ending was fantastic.

ANH 9.5/10
ESB 9.4/10
TFA 8.8/10
RO 8.6/10
ROTJ 7.9/10
TPM 4.4/10
ROTS 3.1/10
AOTC 0.1/10

So glad to see someone else putting TFA ahead for the same reason. Jones and Luna both gave wonderful performances, but the writing just wasn’t there. I actually really loved every member of the main gang except the two main ones. Donnie Yen was just spectacular, and Riz Ahmed really endeared his character to me in spite of not having a hell of a lot to do.

Anyone else think Jyn’s theme was a little too close to the Trek score?