I liked it quite a bit. thoughts and spoilers follow Spoiler First half had some serious pacing issues, and the digitally reanimated corpse of Tarkin and Youngified Carrie Fisher were a bit too uncanny valley for me, BUT the second half of the film was fantastic. The scene between Krennic and Vader in Vader's Doom Fortress was fantastic, bar the awful pun at the end. The entire sequence on the tropical planet was great. Great tension, great action. I'm surprised and pleased with the restraint that the Gareth Edwards showed in a lot of places. I'm super, super glad that blind guy didn't end up in a lightsaber duel with Vader. I really worried that they were telegraphing that that was going to happen, and it didn't. K2-SO was fantastic. I'm glad they all died by the end. It made the storyline very impactful. The fan-servicey scene with Vader massacring rebel troops was also done well. It could have been very over the top, but they, again, had some restraint. I was delighted with the space battle and Admiral Mustard or whatever his name was. It was all awesome and exciting and tense, with great effects. I liked that the rebels are morally ambiguous in this, and have some seriously questionable methods. I loved that Forrest Whittface's rebels are basically the Mujaheddin. oh. The soundtrack was kind of disappointing.
if the first half had been as solid as the second, I'd say this might be the best Star Wars movie, period.
it's a definite contender for favorite star wars with me. more viewings will determine but that first one was a helluva ride Spoiler: spoilery thoughts my favorite part of rogue one was how much it enhances a new hope and, to a lesser degree, empire. it really sets up the fight the rebels are waging in a whole new, far more desperate light. i can't wait to watch a new hope again with the understanding that they could only pit a few dozen fighters against the death star because that was literally all that was left of their fleet. it felt like the first star wars war movie. cassian's casual blasting of his informant to cover his escape certainly set the tone of the stakes the rebels were dealing with. things obviously hadn't been going well for them either with how quickly most of the alliance's leadership was ready to give up when learning of the death star. hell, the opening crawl of a new hope indicates that the battle over scarif was their first real victory over the empire. shit was bad for the rebels, and they did a solid job of conveying that the CGI characters i thought were the weakest part of the flick, mostly tarkin's movements (his face wasn't terrible), as they were a bit jarring at first and reminded me i was watching a movie and not experiencing this story alongside them. leia was pretty good, seeing her face only for a moment was probably helpful in that regard though. also krennic's pun leaving vader's castle was also pretty bad, haha tons of great fan service nods though without being over-the-top, loved the scene at the end with the rebel troops scrambling to get the data to the tantive iv with vader just annihilating them in pursuit. great characters, great acting, great story. felt like the whole movie was done by superfans wanting to quash every tiny complaint people have had of a new hope for the past 40 years the biggest question i had leaving the theater was whether i'll tell future star wars newbies (including my offspring) to start now with rogue one or continue to suggest starting with IV, haha
I know my entire issue with force awakens. yes it was basically the first one (episode 4) again. But to me it felt like they were trying to reboot/regain interest in the series when they didn't need to.
You should visit kendo club sometimes. People below dan ranks constantly hit themselves in the head either with the guard (tsuba) or with the blade part. Sometimes they also hit themselves in the back with the blade and stuff. That would be quite amusing with a light saber. Cutting the top of your head in half as you're about to make an epic swing. Spoiler I realy liked Dihm's performance in the movie.
Spoiler It was a good movie. So many great scenes and shots: the Death Star's destruction from the ground and space Vader's ship crashing into the rebel fleet from light speed the entire assault on Scarif. It looks like a lot of great scenes were cut to save time. I hope to be able to experience those as well. An A+ movie that left me wanting more. The only knock would be the CGI. It wasn't bad, but took me out of the moments. Edit: I just loved the assault on Scarif. I want a movie of just that; Saving Private Metal Jacket's Top Gun: a Star Wars Movie.
I refer back to this quote from June: And in response I will, in fact, NOT be going all Derek Smart on somebody's ass.
It definitely felt like the first half was missing scenes that got edited out to keep the running time down. I'll be interested to see what missing footage there is in the DVD.
IMHO, it was "good". Too slow in the first half, and crammed too much into the 2nd half. And the CGI of the last shot....Uncanny Valley to the extreme. Liked TFA much better. Loved K-2, obviously, though.
The only real CGI I had a big problem with was Tarkin. Most likely because they did a lot of closeups and he had a lot more screen time than the others.
Did anyone read Rogue One: Catalyst before seeing the movie? I did and it does a great job of helping set up the background and motivations for some of the characters, Krennic and Jyn in particular but also Galen, Tarkin and to a lesser extent Saw.
Before I saw the movie I read about someone complaining about his CGI. Therefore, my expectations were pretty low. So, in the end I was pretty satisfied with their effort with bringing a man who's been dead 12 years back to life on screen. But, I completely agree with your statement. They should have stopped trying to impress themselves and stuck to long shots. Would have been imperceptible. Should have done the same with Leia.
