Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

I went into this expecting an enjoyable movie, but I had my doubts about how seriously I would take it as being part of my head-canon. Was it going to assert itself as the definitive way that stealing the first Death Star plans must have happened? Well, the end, where the Empire nearly suppresses the release of the plans, and then Vader himself almost stops them from being taken into hyperspace, that ties straight into what I mentioned in the ANH thread, where the Rebellion's chances of stopping the Death Star are incredibly thin throughout the movie. So, yes, this connects pretty solidly with ANH for me. It feels all of one piece.

And that Vader scene was pretty good. None of the later Jedi hijinks, just old-fashioned lightsabering and telekinesis and blaster-blocking like we saw from him in ANH and ESB. I think that was a good choice to make as well, to further make this feel like an organic addition to the OT storyline.

Tarkin looked fine in 2D.

Yeah, it was a little jank, but better tban Jar Jar and it moved the story well. Leah was only for a second so I don't mind.

Finally saw it last weekend. It may be my favorite Star Wars flick yet! Only gripes were CGI Tarkin (a necessary evil, I think), and CGI Leia (unnecessary and distracting).

Saw it again last night, this time in 4DX (3D plus your chair moves with the action -- pretty cool during the battle scenes).

Definitely enjoyed the movie better the second time around and, having now seen it in both 2D and 3D, I can confirm that CGI Tarkin looks like total shit. We're close, but we're just not quite there yet with full-on CGI human "actors".

I think CGI Tarkin was a bad decision on the part of the director/producers. They could have easily brought in a lookalike actor, as they did with Mon Mothma or General Dodonna. No one would have kicked up a stink if the actor did a good job.

http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2017/01/big-winter-movies-part-2-part-45.html

So, these guys didn't like it. I gotta say, their shows are long winded.

1. By the time TFA rolled around, they could go to hyperspace inside a ship with a monster on the windshield. It's possible that the Falcon, which we know is a model at least as old as AotC, just didn't have the upgrades to the navicomputer until sometime after RotJ.
2. Sure, why not? Repulsorlift technology, the EU called it. Same thing in speeder bikes and land speeders, writ really really large.

They've got artificial gravity, so moving in gravity wells is just a matter of power consumption. You'd effectively generate your own temporary, moveable, Lagrange point. And it's the kind of thing an Empire would do, not because it's sensible, but because they can as a statement of power.

Plus, Star Wars isn't really science fiction, it's more space-based fantasy so I find technical quibbles a bit pointless. So long as things are internally consistent, I don't see the problem with them doing things physics would wag it's finger at. In the SWverse, physics is the Force's bitch and plots plaything.

Why this shot, was never in the movie.

More at the link.

There's obviously a lot they cut out.

Saw it in IMAX 3D.

Tarkin's eyes is what ruined it for me. His eyes for some reason just did not look right. Leia wasn't onscreen long enough for me to really notice but you could tell she was CGI.

And sure they can take a Star Destroyer into a atmosphere. Look at the prequels. They had ships landing. In Star Wars they've got complete control of gravity. As long as you've got power to the gravity generators you can do whatever you want.

Going into hyperspace while in a atmosphere.... well I think that's your typical Hollywood screw-up.

One thing I didn't like was the Stormtroopers getting their asses killed by a blind guy with a stick and a girl with a baton. That was too much even for me. That armor should provide enough protection from attacks like that.

And it must really suck for the Beachtroopers. That planet looked like a sweet posting. The type of posting you look forward too as a solider. It's supposed to be safe. It's got great weather. Probably great fishing. I bet they had some excellent R&R for the stormtroopers. You go your whole career and then manage to score a transfer to that planet only to have it fucked up by stupid rebels and Imperials.

Why Leia was at the Battle of Scarif.

I thought R2 and C3PO were with Bail on Yavin and that Leia was sent to either contact Obiwan or receive the plans, then contact Obiwan? Didn't Bail and Mon Mothma believe the story of the Death Star? It was her idea to contact Obiwan and of course Bail knew Luke would be on Tatooine too.

Wow. Excellent question, and I totally missed that point when I saw the film.

The answer in the article makes sense but it's not explained in the movie (much like why C3P0 and R2D2 were on Yavin instead of the Tantive IV.)

@Paladin

What did you think of "ROGUE ONE"?

caught another Rebels cameo of The Ghost at 17:30ish. They've got her parked in the top left of the shot.

Da

Dak Forces

Is the blue ray out?

alternative home viewing
found a good 2D copy.

Pretty darn good, I thought. Characters were a little bit generic, but I still liked them. I liked the darker aspects of the Rebellion, showing that not all of its members can be lily-white good guys. K2SO was surprisingly funny, and I liked Imwe and Baze (whose relationship I did not read a gay subtext into). The 3rd or 4th best Star Wars movie of all time.

Luke Groans

I wish they had made his fate unclear, because it would've been really cool seeing him resurface in THE LAST JEDI.

Well, you never know with a droid. Perhaps he might've been repairable...


...but I'm sure that blast from the Death Star made that possibility moot.

One of the latest HISHE had that he secretly copied his personality into that identical droid, came back to life, and hotwired an Imperial shuttle.

Now THAT would've been a great post-credits scene.

Now that I think about it, a great twist would've been that as K2SO is hooked into that other droid and the characters are talking about how unlikely they are to survive, K2SO does a subtle thing to the other droid (think: Spock doing the "remember" mindmeld bit with McCoy at the end of TWOK). Later, after K2SO is destroyed, and things are looking bad for Jyn and Cassian, the other droid shows up--making you think things have gotten even worse--and suddenly starts blasting imperials, revealing himself to be a "clone" of K2SO.

So, there's a new home video version. How many of you are going to get this to complete your collection?

Finally saw it last night.

I liked it a lot, much more than TFA (and I liked TFA quite a bit). The last 20-30 minutes of the film are excellent.


CGI Tarkin actually seemed more realistic to me in the better-lit scenes, which is usually the opposite of how CGI stuff goes. What always kills CGI character realism for me isn't their eyes, but their mouths. The technology to mimic all those muscles just isn't there yet.

I watched it on Blu Ray on my 60" LED screen a few nights ago and thought the CGI characters actually looked better on the small screen.

They looked like total shit in the theatre.

Finally saw this on the small screen. Netflix has it. Surprised it popped up there and not HBO/Showtime.

I loved the original Star Wars movies even though I hate what they did for science fiction. Rogue One is good. I can imagine watching it again (that's not true of all the installments). WaB is right: cgi Tarkin isn't distracting. I found myself wondering if he was still alive. Carrie Fisher as a young Leia was creepy even on the small screen.

This may have been discussed elsewhere but shouldn't the death star have giant uncompleted sections?

And wtf is up with imperial engineers having control consoles outdoors, sometimes on scary catwalks?