rjones1325 wrote:So I saw this in 4DX last night in the first showing in Times Square at 7 PM and it was an experience. My theater wasn't huge with hype as we were all investing with the visuals onscreen.

Two characters I did attach myself to was Donnie Yen as Chirrut Îmwe who is one of the coolest characters this film introduces. He’s like Daredevil mixed with Hawkeye where he’s blind yet skilled with a staff and a crossbow and charismatically making jokes about it. Another one is Alan Tudyk as the voice of K-2SO who is personally my favorite Droid introduced into the Star Wars universe to date. He is a hilarious character who unlike 3-CPO or R2-D2, helps out on the action and joins in the fights. He is completely badass. And besides that he is genially funny by having a cynical personality.

I hate fan service in movies especially in large franchises, but boy this delivers nearly as much as Captain America: Civil War does. One of the biggest reveals in the film’s marketing was Darth Vader. James Earl Jones returns to do the voice work of the iconic character, but once he’s shown BOOOOOOOY! I dare you not to get giddy about it. Although he is unnecessary, Vader is bak and is displayed as a threat similar to Freddy Kruger in the first NIghtmare on Elm Street. The film even introduces him in all white fog from the light walking up like he’s a God, Even minor things Star Wars fans love will have something to get a kick out of. There is something for nearly everyone in this.

: I have several major problems with the movie. For one our leads are very undeveloped. Jyn Erso is the audience’s avatar for this adventure and the film tries it’s best to flesh her out into a third dimensional character, but yet it fails to do so somehow. The film is paced way too fast to give her more of a personality than she is showcased to have. Casein Andor who I personally refer to as Han Manolo (if you have seen The Book of Life you’ll get it) isn’t that fleshed out as well which I think is for the best due to the fact that by it’s conclusion you would walk out depressed.

As much as the film’s visual effects are amazing there is one that is incredibly out of place. One of the important Star Wars characters in A New Hope was Grand Moff Tarkin played by Peter Cushing who passed nearly two decades. Since he was crucial to the story, the visual effects studio, Industrial Lights, and Magic came in to recreate him through CG and you can see it. It looks impressive but it isn’t impressive enough to not notice. It’s obvious that he’s CG and the film gives him a long amount of screen time and yet every time he appears you cringe onto how much the CG doesn’t mix well with actual human actors. I commend them for the effort, but it wasn’t effective enough.

http://www.rendyreviews.com/movies//rog ... ory-review

Did you or did you not meet Gareth Edwards though

The last 30 minutes of this film are legit amazing. The last 5 are pure fan-service that is in fact a weird epilogue for newcomers to the franchise but it's so well done. The first two acts are a real mixed bag

Otherwise like most said, the characters aren't enough well developed. I liked Jones a lot though. But what makes Star Wars special are the characters and I'm not sure my 10-year old self would buy any Rogue One figurines. As much as Force Awakens may be flawed, it gave us instantly new and iconic characters.

Not a big fan of the score

50-50 on the Tarkin CGI. It's an incredible achievement because it almost works. They used him way too much though, it was still noticeable and distracting. I don't know why they didn't use Krennic more instead. The other CGI character in the end was fucking horrendous though

I'd give it a 7.5/10 for the Virgo-meter, it's a nice extra to A New Hope and a refreshing blockbuster overall. Not at all the disaster I was expecting with the reshoots, I must admit.

I'm sorta not surprised at the reaction given how much I dig this and how much I'm still scratching my head at how much people buy into the Abrams con job. Then again I'm delighted that the series means so much to people in different ways, and I'm largely YMMV with it. For my money this is a film that far more critically understands the lore and the universe than TFA even comes close to.

Vader182 wrote:the first 2/3rds of Rogue One feel like a montage/trailer for a longer movie

The first act sure, but the second act is very buttoned down and limited - even sluggish.

there's not, er, characters?

or people who have interior motivations

or much of a plot?

Chirrut is following a vague "will of the Force" and Baze is following him; Bodhi is a functionary but outside of that you have characters striving for atonement, security, status, control.

Jyn is undone by the third act leap - the critical error is that she has turned into some sort of visionary. What she should be is absolutely livid in that conference scene given what she's learned about Cassian's mission and how it turned out - there are some steps missing there and it's a muddle. Her opposite is, perhaps in true SW fashion, her father, Cassian is very well rendered though and has a definitive trajectory, going from being ruthless and indifferent, internalising his pain to being compassionate, even romantic (I mean in ideals, not in relationships).

Krennic is the true opposite of Cassian, the compassionate visionary exterior masking even more brutal indifference - one of the more shocking villain moments in the series (or maybe anything) is his irritable, dismissive order to fire on Jedha (with his back turned to the screen if memory serves) because Palpatine and Vader don't deem the demonstration important enough to attend in person.

The text of the film is quite deliberately not doing what the saga films does because it is a mission film, but what it does manage to do is thematically hit relative waypoints that the peaks of the saga manage to do. It's Krennic's misjudgment of character that causes a massive chain of disasters for the Empire, which is emblematic of what undoes the Jedi and the Sith in turn across the saga. You have, in Saw, the willing choice of death once they realise that the game is far beyond them - same as Obi-Wan and Luke in IV and V. You have choices with massive consequences that characters commit to, which is really fitting for a war film - that total understanding and acceptance that you are not coming out on the other end and the dedication to the sacrifice evident in many of the scenes of the film, right through to the Rebel trooper in the denouement who sticks his arm through the door.

The plot is driven by character. Nothing happens in the film that doesn't come from character. Galen is a reluctant participant, he sends Bodhi. Krennic and Tarkin believe the leak is contained to Jedha, they fire. Jyn wants to save Galen, they go to Eadu. Cassian wants to kill Galen, they go to Eadu. This is much stronger plotting than "They find someone who had the map, so they take him to the ship, but the thing is unsurprisingly back on the planet... they get in the ship, they leave the planet, Han and Chewie happen upon them"

it's all super, super, super broad strokes jumping around rapidly for an hour and 20 minutes until the third act really takes off

Apart from nasty comedy droid it's got a pretty damn even tonal metre and sticks with action derived from the inciting incident of Bodhi's defection exclusively from thereon in. Unless you don't mean tone or plot focus?

Also:

Vader's characterization was off. They made him this oddly sassy guy who talks in long sentences, instead of ice cold speaking in short precise phrases.

I quite enjoyed this

Gotta say

that moment when

Nomis wrote:

although he spoke way too much than he would if he was himself.

have you guys ever like seen the star wars movies

Yehess I just agree with what Vader182 said about him. Still,

Something I really dug about the end-
Also, Got to love, I'll talk about more later after I see it a second time. While I agree with the complaints about wanting some from some of the supporting characters (despite having their moments), I can explain why Jyn, Cassian, Galen and Krennic were worthwhile. I'll get into that in a longer post. (Edit- Armand addressed this in a great way). The beginning does jump around a lot but once they meet up with Saw I think it settles in nicely the rest of the way.

ArmandFancypants wrote:

Nomis wrote:

although he spoke way too much than he would if he was himself.

have you guys ever like seen the star wars movies

So much this.

Allstar wrote:Something I really dug about the end-

First, I like that Jyn did not kill Krennic but rather Cassian shot him down and left him to die and would not let Jyn finish him off, mainly because it would not have been satisfying for her. That moment was great. Also the poetic justice of Krennic being finished off by the weapon he worked on nearly his whole life to become a reality was very fitting.

Also,

Seeing Mustafar on screen again was quite a treat and the way they did it was really cool. It was very much Mustafar but obviously did not feel like CG overload.

Got to love,

Bail's moment with the reference to Obi-Wan and reference to Leia "I'll trust her with my life"

Fan service? Perhaps but makes complete story sense.

I'll talk about more later after I see it a second time. While I agree with the complaints about wanting some from some of the supporting characters (despite having their moments), I can explain why Jyn, Cassian, Galen and Krennic were worthwhile. I'll get into that in a longer post. (Edit- Armand addressed this in a great way). The beginning does jump around a lot but once they meet up with Saw I think it settles in nicely the rest of the way.

That is also where I feel the movie settled in and got really good.