Rogue One (with SPOILERS)

Apparently the CGI thing has a definition known as "the uncanny valley," and it affects some people more than others. I've been baffled when I hear someone say that they didn't notice that Tarkin and Leia weren't real, or that it didn't bother them, because it was super jarring to me. But I guess it is pretty split as that goes, with many hating it and many okay with it. I think we're pretty close to that effect working seamlessly enough to fool and please everyone... Maybe a few more years and I can see there being a fully created human character, meant to look like a real person, that will get it right and lead the way from there. But this wasn't it, and yeah, it just seemed weird to me much of the time. The BFG, indeed. Again, Tywin Lannister... he'd have been perfect.

As far as the flow, there was way too much planet hopping in the early film, without something more entertaining or illuminating connected to it. Things happened and we are introduced to different people, but it takes quite a while before any of it gets interesting. I usually don't mind slo-burn movies, but it just didn't pay off its pacing for much of the first half or so.

Eh, I'll probably go again this week. Barnes, you saw it in 3D, right? Was that effective at all? I don't like the 3D with things flying in your face, but sometimes when it's used to give more layers and depth to scenery it's pretty good. Was it more the former or latter?

Yeah, we did 3D...it was decent but for most of the film I didn't even really notice it. There was some cool stuff in the Battle of Scarif, but mostly it was inobstrusive to the point of irrelevance.

Thinking it over some more, this is really the first "hardcore" SW film...like MuMu mentioned, most of the referencing was less obvious and it was "deep cuts" kinds of stuff- none of which was really obvious if you didn't already know. Like Bail Organa. A major character (Saw) is from Clone Wars. Seeing the Y-Wings using the Ion torpedoes correctly. The Hammerhead is actually from KOTOR. The Ghost at the Massassi temple. That kind of stuff rather than the HEY LOOK sorts of things in the other films.

You know, the Empire can make a Death Star...but the best they can do for data warehousing is to put hard drives in a shaft and you have to get them with robot arms?

Because of family things I ended up seeing a 2nd time. So my overall conclusions of the whole Star Wars Octilogy is that the first 3 1/2 episodes are total crap and next 4 1/2 were pretty damn great.

Best things about rogue 1.
1. The Droid
2. The Blind guy and his Bro-mance, side-kick or gay lover story (which ever Disney-Star Wars story you want to believe)
3. Y-Wings Ionizing the Star Destroyer. In FFG's X-Wing, I love flying Y-Wing with Ionizing cannons.
4. All the Darth Vader stuff. Darth Vader in this movie is kind of like Donald Trump during the Republican primaries. All the Empire Generals and staff hate the guy but they're also scared shit-less of him. And the Rebels or the Democrats have no clue how powerful he really is.
5. All the stuff Scarif on. Probably the best battle scene ever in the Star Wars universe. Loved the dudes on the beach, the droid with the blaster holding off the Storm troopers, the rebel fleet warping in to support the Rogue one fleet.
6. The Death Stars destruction of the cities close up. It was an Atomic Bomb on steroids.

What sucked:
1. The first half of the movie
2. Lack of Star Wars stuff. Like the scrolling of the back ground stuff at the beginning of the movie. The mediocre music until the Darth Vader scenes.

dysjunct wrote:
Also, NO Bothan spies died! Total letdown. I was expecting complete Bothan carnage.

This is a common misconception. The Bothans died getting the info on the Endor Death Star.

Msample wrote:

dysjunct wrote:
Also, NO Bothan spies died! Total letdown. I was expecting complete Bothan carnage.

This is a common misconception. The Bothans died getting the info on the Endor Death Star.

Nerd.

Msample wrote:

dysjunct wrote:
Also, NO Bothan spies died! Total letdown. I was expecting complete Bothan carnage.

This is a common misconception. The Bothans died getting the info on the Endor Death Star.

Yes, the Bothans are planned for the sequel. ROGUE TWO: IT'S A TRAP!

Well, I'll preface this by saying I thought it was the most competent Star Wars movie ever made, and probably the only one I will ever re-watch, except perhaps the very first one. But it wasn't really a Star Wars movie was it. It was a dystopian nightmare, where everything good goes to die. My daughters didn't like it, and what was there for them to like? Any character they could possibly connect with was destroyed. Frankly, I felt like kind of a heel leaving the theater. It is like my grabby man-boy generation took a wonderful children's toy and twisted it into something scary and foul. Then they gave the toy back to me and said, "you like that better now don't you". And to my astonishment, I did. This leaves me wondering what is it exactly that I have become, and more to the point, couldn't we have just left the damn toy to the children?

I suppose these days Star Wars is a large enough property to accommodate both children and adults, certainly the reboot is heading in a more kids friendly direction. But next time I'll make sure to note to which sort of Star Wars I'm taking the fam.

One thing the Vader scenes solidified for me is that I regret ever being shown Anakin Skywalker, his story and persona, and will never watch anything with pre-Vader Anakin in it again. It was like this movie brought Darth Vader back to being one of the greatest movie villains ever.

surprisingly I liked it more than i thought i would (thought TFA was lame) and agree a lot with mutagen's points. is this what we've come to the rebellion is the establishment and our heroes need to rebel against them? well, I guess if the rebellion is now carrying out assassinations...

oy...

I did like a lot of the characters though. saw Guerra was great and that blind force monk was the best Star wars character introduced since a new hope.

one tip of the hat I'll give to Disney is of how they're sticking with the 70s styles. beyond tying into the OT it gives the series this other universe/mythical feel. I don't need to see characters in undercuts and skinny pants...

edit: tarkin and Leia looked great, imo, though I'd be fine if they only showed them as holograms/from behind/whatnot. not sure we need to press pepole into work after they're dead/moved one. im sure other actors could use the work but also this feels ....dirty...

Mad Dog wrote: One thing the Vader scenes solidified for me is that I regret ever being shown Anakin Skywalker, his story and persona, and will never watch anything with pre-Vader Anakin in it again. It was like this movie brought Darth Vader back to being one of the greatest movie villains ever.

I do have a fear that the Adam Driver/Keylo Ren character is heading down the whiny emo path in the new trilogy, we'll see . When Vader gets pissed, he force chokes some poor fucking officer, not whip out his lightsaber and trashes his office.

Yeah, the whole "maybe not a family movie" thing hit me too. My daughter fell asleep and wanted to leave when she woke up. The whole time I'm thinking that she really doesn't get this. And there wasn't a BB-8 or Chewbacca to keep her interested (those are her favorites). My son loved it, but there again there was so much that he could not have gotten. And let's be frank, the violence was a few notches above anything in the other films. It was pretty damn serious, especially that ambush in the market place. That could be something that happens today in Syria.

It goes back to this being "hardcore" SW, I suppose.

The part I keep thinking about is Vader though, that was just such an incredible scene that shows his ruthlessness and malice in a way that has never been so visceral. It's like he busts in saying "I am NOT a fucking Tsum Tsum!"

Saw's story can be seen in the season 5 Clone Wars story that starts with "The Soft War. Very good arc.

My 10 year old daughter said it was the worst one. I asked her why, and she said she liked it up until everyone started dying.

Can we make a CG version of Ken B yet?

Msample wrote:

Mad Dog wrote: One thing the Vader scenes solidified for me is that I regret ever being shown Anakin Skywalker, his story and persona, and will never watch anything with pre-Vader Anakin in it again. It was like this movie brought Darth Vader back to being one of the greatest movie villains ever.

I do have a fear that the Adam Driver/Keylo Ren character is heading down the whiny emo path in the new trilogy, we'll see . When Vader gets pissed, he force chokes some poor fucking officer, not whip out his lightsaber and trashes his office.

I'm hoping Keylo Ren in Episodes 7-9 will follow what Luke did in episodes 4-6 or Darth did episodes 1-5. Wimpy, let me kill him now character in the 1st episode into an amazingly powerful character by their 3rd or 4th episode.

The really interesting thing about Kylo Ren- something I think is missed by some folks- is that he is a really different kind of SW villain. We think he's going to be the next Vader. He's introduced as just as ruthless and scary. But we find out that he's a much more tragic and even pathetic figure. He's a misled kid that for whatever reason (that Skywalker gene?) has become enamored of the dark side and its consuming him. I _especially_ liked that once unmasked, he was vulnerable and even weak. We don't even really get a sense that he gives a shit about the First Order...he has no moral compass, nothing steering him except for a very deliberately teenage anger, the source of which is still not clear. Out of everything in TFA, Kylo Ren is the one big risky gambit. He turns out to NOT be the new Vader or Boba Fett or anything like that. He's too broken and deluded, and I hope that over the next two films we see more color and context applied to him so that even the haters will come to appreciate his characterization as fresher, more compelling, and less overt.

In a way, he reminds me of Gollum.