Star Wars: Rogue One

[Asbestos Bill]

Double-posted to add:

I loved it. My only complaint is an odd one. I found myself geeking out over the movie to such a degree that I'm not sure I entirely followed the plot. It was all there, for sure. That's my fault, not the movie's. I got the gist of it, but I feel like I need to see it again before I can properly declare it my new obsession and best movie of 2016.

I felt that way, too. If we hadn't gotten a super sudden winter storm here in CO, I probably would have tried to go again today.

[Darth Geek]

I was able to follow the plot itself, but I had trouble keeping track of all the different people and places they went to. It seemed like this movie jumped from place to place a lot.

Oh, and was I the only one that thought of the planet oxygen gate in Spaceballs when we saw the forcefield barrier gate thing on the final planet they were on at the end?

[goflyblind]

the death star's gone from suck to blow!

[Darth Geek]

So where the hell was that awesome Hammerhead Corvette ship in the original movies? They really could have used it there! It pushed those Star Destroyers around like a schoolyard bully.

[Compound]

Heh.

Movie image of a Rebels cameo under the spoiler .

Spoiler

That orange droid on the left? Chopper from the current CGI series on Disney.

[Compound]

So where the hell was that awesome Hammerhead Corvette ship in the original movies? They really could have used it there! It pushed those Star Destroyers around like a schoolyard bully.

They borrowed those from KOTOR. Seriously. It's the ship used in the tutorial level in the game and shows up a few times more in KOTOR and the sequel. The design got dusted off and started getting used in Rebels a season or two back, presumably because they knew that the movie was on the way and wanted evidence of it in a canon show prior to the movie.

[SJP]

I enjoyed myself going to see it.  If I have to gripe, it's that I didn't really feel any attachment to the characters other than the robot and the blind priest.  Even the main character, with all her backstory, didn't get me emotionally invested.

But what I liked most is that it corrected a big flaw for me in VII: the importance of the battle scenes.  I liked the way, during the final act, that it followed around EVERYONE from scene to scene.  We had cameras following after X-Wings.  We then cut to stuff happening on the ground.  We have the search for the plans.  It's all going on at once, and none of it gets lost of the shuffle.  It made me feel a lot better than when the X-Wings show up in the middle of Force Awakens and then...well, they do...something.  That felt like the return to Star Wars I had been waiting for...while we're focused on a group of individuals, there is a bigger picture going on, and Rogue One's finale reminded me of that.

If I could have the character investment of VII and the pacing and urgency of Rogue One in one movie, I'd be incredibly happy.  Maybe VIII will be that movie.  I'm just way happier about the direction the series is taking than I had before.

My friend did point out a critical plot flaw in the end:
If the ship with Leia in it left the battle scene in Rogue One, and they knew the Empire had seen them leaving, that makes Leia's "diplomatic mission!" line in Star Wars one hell of a whopper to be telling to the guy she just escaped from.  That's like being caught by the bank guards, after robbing a bank, and telling them, while still holding bags with dollar signs on them, "How dare you stop me?!?  I was just walking down the street, minding my own business, and here you are accosting me!"

[Darth Geek]

I enjoyed myself going to see it.  If I have to gripe, it's that I didn't really feel any attachment to the characters other than the robot and the blind priest.  Even the main character, with all her backstory, didn't get me emotionally invested.

I'm with you on that. The main woman, Jyn, really didn't have much personality. Which is the big advantage Force Awakens has over this, because I thought Rey was awesome. And not just because she has the Force. And while I did enjoy the blind priest, it's all because it was Donnie Yen.

[Pak-Man]

Saw it a second time and I felt a bit more attached to all the characters this time around. The nerd energy wasn't as strong and I was able to focus on the plot and characters a little bit more. I liked it way better this time.

[Imrahil]

Saw it on Mon.  My new #2 favorite Star Wars film, after the original.

[Zeether]

Saw it Monday. I liked the cast and there were some great moments, especially the Scarif fight, but

my god, did they really have to pull the "everyone died" ending? I had a bad feeling about it (heh) and expected at least one or two characters to bite it, but man, EVERYONE died? Especially when I barely got to know some of them? I wanted to see more about the guy with the beam chain gun and Donnie Yen's character, I wanted to know more about Cassian...hell, he and Jyn could have been picked up by a shuttle in the time it would have taken for the fallout from the Death Star laser to reach them. Just because them being alive would have probably created issues with IV-VI doesn't mean it couldn't be explained away with "they were elsewhere in the galaxy" or some other supplemental material a la EU...

Overall I'd say it's not bad but not good, and it's certainly not better than TFA because TFA blew my mind with stuff like the planetside air combat and this almost did but not really.

[Henry88]

$687,878,705    
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=starwars2016.htm

could be on track for a billion.

[Asbestos Bill]

Jhonen V. agrees with me (rev. chron. order)

[Imrahil]

I fucking loved seeing Tarkin again and thought it was done really well.  Added to my enjoyment of the original movie!

[Darth Geek]

While the CGI of Tarkin had issues, most notably when his mouth moved, I still got the threat from him. A Peter Cushing watered down by being digital is still a hell of a lot better villain than the main one we got.