Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards, December 16, 2016) Movie • Page 47

The tentacle monster scene should have been replaced with a scene between Galen and Krennic. Show more of Galen's reluctance to build a weapon and more of Krennic's ambition. Probably explain the kyber crystal and it's significance a little more. Maybe that's the Star Wars nerd in me, but it seems like explaining ties of the kyber and the force would have given a little more weight to everything that happened on Jedha.

 

Really enjoyed this, especially the last 40 minutes

 

Is it safe to assume we'll see Jyn Erso in the Han Solo prequel?

 

So, genuine question here. What do some of you mean when you say "i wish we got to understand the characters better?"... like, what dont you understand? im not meaning for that to be harsh, but i know it kind of comes off that way.


I loved it. i loved the ending of the movie. something i liked about this one is i feel like the references and call-backs to episodes 4-6 were done a lot better than in the Force Awakens. like they served more of a purpose and were less cheesy. i loved that the one Empire General was CGI'd, i thought that was so cool to see him up there.

am i the only one that thought when Vader said at the end "prepare a boarding crew" to get onto the rebel ship - i thought that when the door opened and you could see darth vader standing as a silhouette in the door frame that the movie was going to end right there, implying that the was the beginning of the first scene in A New Hope.

 

IDK. The Vader scene was cool but this film just felt more fresh than TFA. Donnie Yen's character was fun and represented the spiritual side of Force followers well. The film also showed the ugly side of the Rebel Alliance and the tremendous sacrifices that the rebels made.

The final battle is the best battle out of any Star Wars film IMO.

 

Interesting.

 

Doubtful. The Han Solo film takes place roughly a decade before A New Hope.

 

Storytelling hinges on emotional investment in characters. We should understand what they want, what they fear, what's most meaningful to them, how their psyche influences their actions, what it would take for them to change, etc. Do these characters have complete and fleshed out psyches?

Jyn - What drives her? We first meet her as a kid and are led to believe she joins the rebellion, then there's a time jump and she's in prison. What changed? What drove her away from the one thing her father and surrogate father held most dear? We're told Forest Whitaker abandoned her during a battle in expositional dialogue, but that fills in literally no blanks as to what kind of person she is when the rebellion finds her. We're kind of told that she's a criminal who's priority is self-preservation, but that's not really dramatized or delved into. She has no questions of moral character. In her first moment of crisis, she sees a helpless child amidst a battle, and she puts herself in harms way to save the kid. Has she always been this kind of person? What does it mean that she's this kind of person and also a criminal? As the movie presents it, she's a selfless person who, upon learning her dad's intentions, is completely 100% into helping the Rebels. That's not exactly an interesting character arc. She's unchanged from who she was when she was a kid, helping out her dad. If this is a film about redemption, she should have to fight back to being that person from the hardened criminal she's turned herself into. She was abandoned by her dad, then Forest Whitaker, so naturally she should have trust issues and a hard time letting people get close to her. But none of that is explored in the film, again, once she learns her dad's intentions, she buys in. Even when Diego Luna, who she knows was ready to kill her dad in literally the last scene, says he's changed his mind, she accepts it and they go out to save the day. So who is Jyn? What drives her? How did she change? There are glimpses of an arc here, but it's not a dramatically earned one.

Diego Luna's character - Same questions for him. When we first meet him he's willing to kill a wounded ally to follow orders and help the rebellion. Outside of his dutiful soldier mindset, what does he care about? What is his flaw? How do his convictions come into conflict with what the story needs him to become, and how does he grow and change? He's directed to kill Jyn's father, and from what we've seen of him, he would have no trouble doing so. Except he doesn't pull the trigger. Why? Because he met Jyn and likes her? Even that isn't really sold in the moments leading up to his having to make that choice. Once he decides not to kill Jyn's dad, he becomes who he is the rest of the film, and there's really not much there. What tough choices does he have to make? He's just giving orders to rebels and helping Jyn. He's not actively doing much that plays into a conviction different than he had at the start - that he's going to serve the rebels and fight the empire. He makes mention of refusing to follow bad orders, but that doesn't seem to weigh on him. He just changes his mind and goes rogue and things play out basically the same from then on.

Donnie Yen - What does he want? Aside from having religious conviction in his faith in the force, why does he help the rebellion? What is he giving up by going with the rebels? Why does he believe the empire is wrong? What character drive does he have independent of Jyn? Does he have any personal desires for his own life, his own reasons for wanting to topple the empire, or is he an Asian prophet archetype?

Wen Jiang's character - Same questions. He and Donnie Yen have pretty good chemistry, but what in their dialogue and actions bonds them? Why is he willing to put himself on the line for the rebellion when he seems completely disinterested in doing so for most of the film? What does he want independent of Jyn and Diego Luna? Is there any hint as to who he was before the film started, or his he just a mercenary who is buddies with Donnie Yen and follows him everywhere with no independent agency?

Forest Whitaker's character - What turned him from rebel to extremist rebel? Why would he abandon Jyn, when apparently he was good friends with her father and was the one her father trusted to take care of her in his absence? What does he want independent from helping Jyn? He's willing to die for the rebellion and redemption, but what is he redeeming? What did he do that makes his death significant? Are we just supposed to care because he's Jyn's oldest friend?

Riz Ahmed's character - I actually really like Riz Ahmed's character and am more or less fine with how he's portrayed, though it would have helped a lot to know why he defected and what it means to him to give up his entire Imperial life and risk death to help the rebellion, outside of "they have a weapon that can blow up planets and that scares me" because that's not really telling us much about him as a character.

So there's the main protagonist crew. How do their wants and needs conflict with each other? What will it take for them to come together as a team and get the plans? What does their sacrifice mean, why does it resonate? We don't really have any personal reasons as to why it matters that they all willingly gave their lives for this. If the film is about them being a motley crew of a bunch of ragtag misfits with nothing to lose, make the film about that. Show us that they have nothing to lose and hate the Empire enough to give their lives to topple them. Or show us how they do have lives and relationships and goals and dreams to lose, and they're still willing to die to defeat the Empire. Make it meaningful that they come together and overcome their troubled pasts and the selfish people they once were to be a team strong enough to turn the galaxy upside down by defeating the Empire. As it stands, these characters are serviceable at best, but I'd argue uniformly underwritten. To return to your initial question, I understand them fine on a surface/plot level, they're rebels fighting the Empire. What I don't understand is who these people really are and how their actions speak to their characters and the theme of the film. There's nothing wrong with simple characters, the original trilogy had those. But I got what Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia wanted, what their flaws were, how they grew to understand each other and themselves better and overcome their flaws, and what it meant for them to come together and triumph at the end. That's what makes A New Hope resonate. Rogue One... I don't think will age well at all, partially due to poor/lacking characterization and partially due to CGI that will date the film and speak larger to recapturing nostalgia for the original films rather than letting Rogue One be its own, meaningful story.

 

yeah idk why you would assume that at all

 

Going to see it this morning. Pretty excited.

 

I think I align with most people in here. This was good, not great, but the final third act is worth the price of admission alone.

CGI Tarkin was a little too close to the uncanny valley for me, but in the end I understand why they did what they did and I'm not super upset about it.

I wholeheartedly agree with @Nathan about how Mendelsohn was handled towards the end. We needed more pathos from him, a bigger arc rather than "bad guy shoots at good guys in cartoon villain way."

This might be the strongest cast a Star Wars movie has ever put to film, which does make it more upsetting that certain characters weren't fleshed out.

Also, dunno about anyone else but Vader just looked slightly off to me? Like his suit was too shiny and he looked more big rather than tall? It's definitely a nitpick but just something that I noticed.

Lastly, curious what people here think were re-shoot scenes. There were definitely parts where the cuts and tonal shifts felt slightly jarring and I wondered if that came from an adverse effect of re-shooting, but it's hard to know for sure what was re-shot.

Overall, I did really like it. Gareth Edwards directed the fuck out of that final battle and that's all I really wanted in the end.

 

I can't stop thinking and laughing about how when Jyn was giving her speech to the rebels someone in the background said "WHAT IS SHE PROPOSING?" -- it was jarring and corny and bizarre. It reminded me of "NO MORE DEAD COPS!"

Also curious as to some of the accent/voice choices for certain characters: the way Yen, Naz, and Whitaker talked was weird/distracting.

 

Why did Vader make a dad joke

 

I hated that pun, but I also liked how terrible it was, lol. Like, it absolutely should not have been in a film like this and sticks out like a sore thumb, but I have such a soft spot for lame humor.

 

Agreed.

 

I have to admit, the Vader pun was an eye-rolling moment, but for whatever reason I kind of liked it. Sometimes i just like dumb shit.

Going to see this again in a couple of hours.

 

She is signed on for one more movie.

 

just because they kept the option for her to come back again doesn't mean that she is going to come back again, or that if she does it will be for a han solo movie.

 

It's for an option of one more movie. Doesn't mean it will ever happen.

Honestly from the look of things the reshoot may have changed some things with the future of that character.

 

Oh my gosh, what movie is that from (no more dead cops), it's driving my insane haha. It's on the tip of my tongue.

 

It's from The Dark Knight.

"NO MORE DEAD COPS!"
*Rabble rabble rabble*

 

I absolutely loved this, more so than I did The Force Awakens. And I actually liked the pacing of the part first of the film. Avoiding any insight into what was to happen in the film, I didn't really know what to expect, so I enjoyed the scenes we got at the beginning; it set the stage for the transition into the rest of the film. And I thought Tarkin was real too; had no idea he was CGI. I saw this on 70mm IMAX, so everything was big and vibrant, especially the CGI. Leia you could obviously tell was CGI, but on 70mm IMAX it was a pretty uncanny representation of her. Excited for more movies from this universe.

 

technically speaking the rebel he killed was not an ally. It was part of Forrest Whittaker's characters radical rebel band which had broken from the rebel alliance. So he really had no allegiance to them. Just an allegiance to keep himself and Jyn alive

 

Wow. Loved it.