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Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

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Something I like about AOTC as a title is  that it's a total mislead so when Yoda shows up leading the clones to help the heroes in the final battle, it's an effective surprise.

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4 hours ago, dium said:

It's just one thing but, honestly, I probably would've enjoyed the movie considerably more if the CG dead actors weren't in it. What an expensive, technically impressive mistake. I can recognize the level of craft and the dollars on display but it's still not good enough, and it's only gonna look worse with every passing year.

You're absolutely right. I, like many, was so distracted that I actually missed most of Tarkin's lines. Just showing the backs of their heads would have been conspicuous in another way (i.e. it would be impossible to keep the "I know why they're doing that" thought out of your mind), but it would be less distracting and avoid the weird incongruity. I guess they wanted Tarkin to play a significant role in frustrating Krennick, which I think is a good motivation, but they could probably have achieved similar by making him aloof and dismissive. If they need more details for plot reasons or whatever, Tarkin can relay them via subordinates, refusing to even deign to speak with Krennick directly. Maybe it'd be a bit naff, but I think it could work.

 

It's occurred to me that this sort of thing might actually benefit from the kind of Lucas-style meddling that harmed the original trilogy so much. There's definitely a case to be made for leaving a complete work as it is, but if you are going to fart around with stuff, fart around with the stuff that's already CG, and try to smooth over the edges so that it's less obviously thus. A truly inconspicuous stand-in for a speaking human face could be a long way off, though. Or maybe not. Who knows?

 

On the subject of fan service, while I'm probably fairly forgiving and perhaps something of a sucker for some forms of that kind of thing, there were some pretty egregious cameos in this one. While they do have proximity to the plot, I was hoping this would be the first film not to feature C-3PO and R2-D2 on-screen, especially after they were so pointlessly crowbarred into the prequels, and while them bumping into the guys from the Mos Eisley cantina scene made me go "ha", it really didn't belong in the film at all. It was cheap and dumb, which I suppose is what fan service is.

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I'm not really a Star Wars nerd beyond seeing the original trilogy a couple times and thinking it was pretty good and seeing two out of the three prequels so I had no idea who Tarkin was. I was a bit confused because I was like "this guy looks a little bit weird, is he supposed to be a robot or a ghost or something?" Leia, who I was more familiar with, struck me immediately as looking fake, though I'm not sure if that's because she was worse or because I remembered the character more.

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Yeah I didn't buy the cgi humans either, though it wasn't a huge problem for me.

What did bother me was hanging threads like chekhov's mind control insanity octopus. Also there's abrupt character stuff like a scene in the final act where Jyn and the heavy weapons guy have a dialog that seems to be concluding a relationship arc.  Unless i missed it I don't think they had even spoken with one another on screen so it came off as sudden and weird.

I'm guessing theres some cut scenes on a computer somewhere that fill in the blanks or maybe I just missed it and should pay more attention. 

 

All that said I still enjoyed it, I'm sure plenty of kids got to go get excited about Star Wars too so whatever. 

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On 27/01/2017 at 3:34 AM, James said:

On the subject of fan service, while I'm probably fairly forgiving and perhaps something of a sucker for some forms of that kind of thing, there were some pretty egregious cameos in this one. While they do have proximity to the plot, I was hoping this would be the first film not to feature C-3PO and R2-D2 on-screen, especially after they were so pointlessly crowbarred into the prequels, and while them bumping into the guys from the Mos Eisley cantina scene made me go "ha", it really didn't belong in the film at all. It was cheap and dumb, which I suppose is what fan service is.

 

See, I really didn't like Rogue One but that one scene had me go off on a complete tangent about the Mos Eisley guys. In my head, the reason they are pricks is because they have heard through back channels that something is going on on the planet so they are make a mad dash for their ship to get out of there.

 

It is a heroic success and the two of them, demoralised and freaked out by watching a planet obliterated they try and drown their sorrows in the Mos Eisley cantina and some fucking yahoo farm boy bumps into them. The altercation is them explaining their 100 yard stare and how this blonde innocent pisses them off.

So after being wanted on multiple systems, escaping an exploding planet only to get cut up by an old man with a light saber in a miserable little bar feels like the most meaningful story in Rogue One.

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On 28/01/2017 at 11:49 AM, twmac said:

 

See, I really didn't like Rogue One but that one scene had me go off on a complete tangent about the Mos Eisley guys. In my head, the reason they are pricks is because they have heard through back channels that something is going on on the planet so they are make a mad dash for their ship to get out of there.

 

It is a heroic success and the two of them, demoralised and freaked out by watching a planet obliterated they try and drown their sorrows in the Mos Eisley cantina and some fucking yahoo farm boy bumps into them. The altercation is them explaining their 100 yard stare and how this blonde innocent pisses them off.

So after being wanted on multiple systems, escaping an exploding planet only to get cut up by an old man with a light saber in a miserable little bar feels like the most meaningful story in Rogue One.

That's a great reading, and that kind of fill-in-the-gaps narrative is something extensively developed fictional worlds like Star Wars offer in abundance, but I still don't think it serves the film well as a dramatic whole. Since that's not what the film is about, I think it's too distracting. Kind of like how some video I saw on YouTube went on at length about how actually the prequels show that the Jedi's flawed code of emotional detachment in fact caused all of the galactic strife, and is full of allusions to Buddhism or whatever; that's all fine, but they're still bad films that don't work.

 

I guess the fact that you didn't like Rogue One meant that you were willing to be taken on an ultimately irrelevant* mind-tangent about minor characters, whereas I, being largely on-board with the film, kind of wish they'd left that out. I do love that one of them does a "leave it, it's not worth it" gesture, though, which is entirely in-keeping with your theory. Their behaviour on Mos Eisley seems more vindictive than harrowed or demoralized, but I guess people process that stuff in differing ways.

 

Maybe it's also that it's played as a gag. I mean, that's the only way they would realistically do it, but if they had established that these characters were there for whatever reason, and then had the main characters bump into them, I think that probably would have taken me out of the moment less. But it would be a very strange use of screen time.

 

* (from the perspective of the film; from a "world-building" perspective it's interesting)

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I totally agree with you.

 

You pretty much surmarised our two perspectives

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FWIW, this is on Netflix streaming now if people hadn't seen it (like we hadn't).

 

This was kind of a fine in the moment action flick, but it's really not a good movie.  This and the other new Star Wars movies just end up feeling so empty for how frenetically busy and non-stop they are.  They never take a real moment to just breathe and enjoy the characters or scenery.  I just watched it last night, and I think I can only remember one of the new character's names.  It all just flies by. 

 

I had also presumed that this would be more like a stealth/spy movie, not a giant galactic battle with Darth Vader and shit running around. 

 

I just don't think I care at all about Star Wars anymore.  Like I'll probably watch them once they hit streaming services and I want to just chill for an evening.  But it's impossible to get excited for them now. 

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