Rogue One

[shiznitz]

Taking the wife and 8 kids (not all mine) on Saturday. The bad reviews that I have read (like the one quoted above) do not strike me as terribly credible given their tones. I am highly optimistic.

[Hawkbit]

Just got back from seeing this at the pre-premiere (which is apparently a thing here in Slovakia).

I liked it a lot. I'd probably rate it as the best SW film - including Empire Strikes Back. Huge amounts of fan service but that's actually completely understandable given the plot and the position of the movie in the main series timeline.

It is very dark compared to all of the other Star Wars movies, I read somewhere that it's a war movie set in the Star Wars universe, and that pretty much sums it up. It's still Star Wars so there's no gratuitous gore but it's emotionally very bleak. Younger viewers who are expecting something more like TFA are going to be fairly heavily affected by it I think. I was honestly surprised at the ending, it must have been hard to pitch that to Disney execs.

Thanks for the honest review. I think I'm going to like this one a lot; the premise even from the beginning was something I was interested in. I really hope they can continue with these one-off stories of side characters.

[Velorath]

It's a perfectly ok movie. It kinda wants to be the Dirty Dozen or Magnificent 7 but doesn't really take the time to develop most of the characters beyond very broad strokes (which to be fair even those movies struggled with to some extent). There's not much I can really complain about, but the movie hasn't really stuck around in my head either. I guess it probably doesn't help that I watched La La Land right after and that one really did stick with me.

There's also some cg work which I'm sure is going to be very divisive (can't give any details until more people have seen this).

[Merusk]

So very, very happy. Everything I wanted and a bit more.  On the phone so that's all I'll type now other than to say the CGI was good use except that very last one which felt gratuitous. 

[Bunk]

Yup, was everything I wanted. It is basically a war movie in the Star Wars universe, so character development is a bit limited, but still there. Action was amazing, though they probably could have shaved off a few minutes of fighting. Initial reaction would put it as 2nd best overall, 3rd at worst.

Really slick job of blending in to the timeline without too much shoehorning.  semi-
The way they managed to recreate the original Alliance leaders was crazy how well it merged with my memory of that scene. There were a couple cheesy speeches, but nothing too bad. The aliens present didn't distract, they blended in. The nostalgia bits fit and didn't feel forced like a JJ movie. And Alan Tudyk shone as the much needed comic relief.

Damn, I'm still hyped up. Need to calm down and go to bed.

[Bunk]

A couple more thoughts while they are fresh in my head. There will be people who bitch about little things like retconning female fighter pilots in to the Alliance. Screw them.

Also, first Star Wars movie in 33 years not made for six years olds. There was not a single scene in it that made me think "that was thrown in for the kiddies"

Gonna be a lot of little kid tears at the end of this.

[MahrinSkel]

Should I not take my 8 year old daughter? 'Cause there are going to be tears in that event. And she will probably be sad too.

--Dave

[Bunk]

Honestly, I don't have enough experience with 8 year olds to know. But as should be obvious based on the story, not every character makes it.

That said, characters that do die do tend to die star warsy deaths, so maybe young kids won't realize it.

[Teleku]

 

[Ironwood]

Stay on target.

[Venkman]

Gonna be a lot of little kid tears at the end of this.

There were a lot of adult tears at the end of this.

It kinda wants to be the Dirty Dozen or Magnificent 7 but doesn't really take the time to develop most of the characters beyond very broad strokes (which to be fair even those movies struggled with to some extent).

It kinda felt like one of those old Expanded Universe novels in movie form, which is why I loved it. But to your point, kinda hard to do that in a movie where we can literally say things about how it ended without being ironic

[Nebu]

Saw this today.  Am I alone in feeling it was nothing but a blatant money grab?

[IainC]

Saw this today.  Am I alone in feeling it was nothing but a blatant money grab?

In as much as any movie set within the gigantic franchise that is Star Wars is automatically a money grab, then sure. I felt that it was a decent movie on its own merits - in other words, if you strip out the Star Wars and replace it with some generic SF setting, then it still works, you'd just need a bit more exposition to cover the implied knowledge gaps. The idea of telling stories in the Star Wars universe that aren't centred around the core Vader/Luke arc isn't an automatically bad one even if a side effect of those movies is that Disney will be making obscene amounts of cash from them.

[Threash]

Saw this today.  Am I alone in feeling it was nothing but a blatant money grab?

If by blatant money grab you mean second best Star Wars movie I guess?

[HaemishM]

Saw this today and it was fucking brilliant. Definitely the 2nd best Star Wars movie. If the prequels had been this tone with this tight a writing, practical effects and set in the Clone Wars, I would have been satisfied with them. I only wish we had known the characters more because I really dug some of them. The one criticism I have is the overuse of


because that shit looked jank as hell.

[Riggswolfe]

Saw this today and it was fucking brilliant. Definitely the 2nd best Star Wars movie. If the prequels had been this tone with this tight a writing, practical effects and set in the Clone Wars, I would have been satisfied with them. I only wish we had known the characters more because I really dug some of them. The one criticism I have is the overuse of


because that shit looked jank as hell.

I thought

[Riggswolfe]

Saw this today.  Am I alone in feeling it was nothing but a blatant money grab?

If it was a blatant money grab

[jgsugden]

Loved it. Minor beef: It needed to spend more time earlier on building our relationship with the characters. It was also a bit bigger in many ways than a New Hope... Taken together,  A New Hope is a bit anticlimactic and bland.

[Nebu]

I guess I didn't love it like the rest of you did.  I was pretty bored about half way through it.  Then again, I've never been much of a Star Wars fan and only went to make my GF happy.

[calapine]

Just reading the non-spoiler replies doesn't really help a lot I have to say.

To be honest, I don't fully trust you guys taste with things.


Let's try it that way: Would Plinkett have liked like?

And is the Empire being awesome?  

[Comstar]

Let's try it that way: Would Plinkett have liked like?

And is the Empire being awesome?  

I'm not sure. I couldn't bother watching his last review oif TFA because  he was nit picking it more than the Everything Wrong with Movie X guys do. It's got some rough edges the re-shoots probably tried to clean up and don't quite work.

The Empire is pretty awesome right at the end of the movie.

[HaemishM]

It is darker and grittier than I ever would have expected a Star Wars movie to be. I truly feel it was a better movie than A New Hope and just under Empire Strikes Back in terms of quality of concept and execution. I only regret there wasn't more about the characters because I really got into these characters in the short time we saw them. And the resolution was very ballsy to me, something I would not have expected from Disney in a license like this.

[Threash]

[Ginaz]

I saw this today and I enjoyed it more than the Force Awakens.  I'd still put the all of the original films ahead of it just for nostalgia reasons but it's leaps and bounds better than the prequels. They seemed to have much more freedom to tell their story than the rest of the series.  The way it ended makes me think future SW films will be more "stand alone" like the Marvel ones and only loosely tied together.  It worked for the Marvel movies so I expect them to do it here, too.  The CGI character stuff didn't bother me because it was generally well done except for maybe the last cameo, and even that wasn't too bad.  I might have to see it again since my enjoyment was tempered a bit because it started 15 mins late and I had to go out and tell them it hadn't started.  When it did start the fucking lights stayed on until I, again, had to go out and tell them and I missed some of the beginning.

[MahrinSkel]

I loved it, so did my daughter. Felt more Guns of Navarone than Dirty Dozen to me, but either way it worked.


Much better than any of the Lucas prequels, easily the second-best Star Wars movie. Gives me hope for the stand alone Han Solo movie. If it is Disney "cash grabs", just shut up and take my money.

--Dave

[HaemishM]

Thing is, I'm ok with "cash grabs" if they are well done. I mean, fuck... the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe is a cash grab but I really really like the movies. They are well filmed, mostly well-acted and well-written and they don't insult me. The prequels felt like a cash grab as much because they didn't feel like they were trying very hard to do something worth doing as for the fact they were trading off the nostalgia of my youth.

Disney has a ways to go before they get to cash grab territory with Star Wars - at least with the movies. When we are asked to go see Dexter Jettster's Great Adventure, then we'll have call to object.

[Ruvaldt]

Isn't almost every movie a cash grab though?  Unless we're talking about an independent artsy film, the studio is making a movie to produce profit, and that's the only reason they're making it.  Lucas didn't make A New Hope out of the goodness of his heart.  He did it to make money.  I've never understood the phrase "cash grab" in reference to a film, because, yeah...of course it is.  They're a business, and making films is how they make money.  And I, as the consumer, pay money to receive entertainment.  If I don't like what they're offering, I don't pay, and they don't get my money.  I'm fine with this arrangement.

This was an awesome movie.  More, please.

[koro]

Just got back from it. Loved it to pieces, despite its several flaws and jarring reshoots. The story went about the way I expected it to, knowing in advance it was an old war film set in the Star Wars universe, but like others I was still surprised at
Also I didn't even notice that
As for fanservice and callbacks, I got my  scene, and that was all I wanted.

Probably my third favorite of the movies, behind Empire and TFA in first and second, respectively.

[Shannow]

This was good. Totally scratched the Star Wars itch. Better than 7.

[HaemishM]

One thing that really impressed me about this movie was the personal conflict of Cassian Andor. Not so much the "tortured soul" trope so much as the assassination orders he was given, which seemed to be against Bael Organa's wishes (or at least without her knowledge). It felt like they did a good job showing the Rebels as something more than the completely good, lily white good guys. I mean, they were still the good guys but it gave the Rebellion a lot more humanity than I think they had in the original trilogy.

[jgsugden]

The two from the bar showing up were a bit excessive as well. Unnecessary, pointless and the scene took me out of the film for a bit when I should have been more invested. I half expected to see a CGI Han and Chewie, next.

[Threash]

I think it's a bit telling that almost not a single one of the scenes from the trailer made it to the movie, the reshoots must have really improved things.

[WayAbvPar]

Saw it, loved it. My 8 year old and 4 year old both loved it as well. The battle scenes were very cool, and
I wonder if the casting of more darker-skinned/accented people was an intentional jab at the current political scene, a nod to the huge number of races in the SW galaxy, or just a case of best actor gets the part? I hope that it makes all the shitlord racist fucksticks uncomfortable, whichever reason it is.

[eldaec]

I don't think it is a nod to anything current so much as Disney's well established corporate policy.

And common sense given the setting and flavour of the rebel alliance of course.

[Abagadro]

Same opinion as most. Has some flaws but pretty enjoyable. I found myself grinning like an idiot when the rebel fleet jumped in and Darth tore shit up.