Star Wars: Rogue One

[anais.butterfly]

We got a female Han Solo in the house!!!!

[Henry88]

so this movie is pure kill them all eh and darth vader dose all the killing?

[Asbestos Bill]

I guess I'm in the minority who hated the CGI for
Tarkin and Leia (is this a spoiler? I guess he's not in the trailer...)
But I'm really picky about that stuff.

I can't wait to see the movie again in IMAX 3D. I normally wouldn't care, but Gareth Edwards does it very well. I loved that the Rebel Alliance got dirtied up a bit, the fact that everyone in the movie is in a big moral gray area, that they
retcon-ed the flaw in the Death Star design, the complete lack of Jedi and no force powers for the main character, Alan Tudyk
he is a leaf on the wind , the catty imperial in-fighting, and basically all the new characters.

What I didn't like, (aside from video game models starring in the most human of all the Star Wars movies), was some of the music choices – not having Williams was mostly fine, but it kept teasing recognized themes and then veering away from them in the last few notes; it didn't feel like playing with recognized themes so much as trying to get away with barely-not-infringing, "Can't Touch This" versions. It was distracting. Aside from that, there were also some name dropping and cameos that felt shoehorned in. Was that literally supposed to be Dr. E that she bumps into? On not-Tatooine?

Spoiler

The ten-million disk drive RAID tower was a little odd, as was the idea that there's an amount of data that would require a 200ft satellite to send it to a ship in orbit around the same planet... and didn't their pilot have to send a signal through the shield in order to tell them to take down the shield so they could send the signal? That said, the movie was made to fit in with the 70s movies, so I can forgive some of the outdated technology ideas as pastiche, but it was still a bit odd.

Also, it's hilarious that they talk about how prohibitively huge the files are, and then what pops up on their screen is this:

But honestly, those are about the only problems I had.

[The Lurker]

The weird thing that it's not even like they didn't have a body double they could use.

[Asbestos Bill]

The weird thing that it's not even like they didn't have a body double they could use.

Exactly, like, we understand he's dead, nobody's going to fault you for not resurrecting him to reprise his role.

[Darth Geek]

I liked that they used the old computer graphics from the original movie for the Death Star plans. I just thought it was funny that we went from such a ridiculously elaborate system for computer databank storage (that seems to be designed based on a claw game), to get a hard drive box of a reasonable size, and then after it is transferred to the Rebels it's written on a small flexible piece of plastic.

[Asbestos Bill]

I liked that they used the old computer graphics from the original movie for the Death Star plans. I just thought it was funny that we went from such a ridiculously elaborate system for computer databank storage (that seems to be designed based on a claw game), to get a hard drive box of a reasonable size, and then after it is transferred to the Rebels it's written on a small flexible piece of plastic.

Yeah, that too. I guess they had more than just the Death Star plans on the drive? Or this imperial facility hasn't updated their tech in about 50 years.

[Darth Geek]

The weird thing that it's not even like they didn't have a body double they could use.

Exactly, like, we understand he's dead, nobody's going to fault you for not resurrecting him to reprise his role.

Exactly. If they had found someone who looked like him and maybe used prosthetics a little. We would have bought that a lot more that the CGi.
That being said, the CGI was really good. Honestly it was mostly the mouth movements that made it obvious.
What I don't get is why they even had the other weasely middle management guy as the primary villain. Say what you will about the effects for Tarkin, but they had him in several scenes, often in closeup. If they are going to all that effort, they should have just done more and had him be the main villain. Because even just as a special effect, Peter Cushing was more threatening than the other guy.

[The Lurker]

That was one of the things that actually impressed me about Episode 3.  That they actually found someone that was a dead ringer for him.

[Darth Geek]

I found the Carrie Fisher CGI much worse. The mouth movements were more noticeably off, and THERE WAS NO REASON WE EVEN NEEDED TO SEE HER FACE! We know who it is just by seeing her there in that robe, from the back.

[goflyblind]

the cgi was okay, but the only thing that really bugged me was...

vader's "don't choke on your ambition" line. felt really out of character.

[Darth Geek]

the cgi was okay, but the only thing that really bugged me was...

vader's "don't choke on your ambition" line. felt really out of character.

I thought the same thing!

[Asbestos Bill]

What I don't get is why they even had the other weasely middle management guy as the primary villain. Say what you will about the effects for Tarkin, but they had him in several scenes, often in closeup. If they are going to all that effort, they should have just done more and had him be the main villain. Because even just as a special effect, Peter Cushing was more threatening than the other guy.

I don't think that would have worked. Krennic getting kicked around made him slightly sympathetic, and having Tarkin, who is only defeated in A New Hope, as the main villain would have made the ending far less satisfying
than having everyone involved die.
Plus I loved the guy's performance, and as I mentioned, the in-fighting was very entertaining for me. It added to the messy human-ness of the tone.


Edit: ohhhh, yeah, I forgot about the "choke" pun. I support the sentiment, but find some way to say it that doesn't make it seem like Vader's going to be chuckling to himself about it in his bacta tank later.

[Pak-Man]

Well don't forget, he WAS Anakin...

[Pak-Man]

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.