Rogue One Thoughts (Spoilers inside)

[superme80]

I really liked it. The CGI didn't bother me. I did pause and think, "Isn't he dead?" I think I enjoyed it more than The Force Awakens. I love the Force Awakens, but this one really got me.

 

[Skywalker]

I watched it, LOVED it....better than TFA in my opinion and connected so well to Episode IV, considering it could be a new "must watch" for new people to watch Star Wars who haven't seen it, before seeing Ep IV

Yeah my son and I were debating this lol. He says it should be watched before A New Hope, I think one of the thrills of A New Hope is being dropped into the chase without really knowing what's going on and just letting the story unfold around you...I don't even know what order I would tell people to watch the films anymore. My son says chronological order I say release order. Not that you can go wrong either way.

Anyway, loved this movie a lot. I wasn't excited for it going in (just because I am looking so forward to Episode 8) but I was pleasantly surprised and found it to be an interesting story (after a kind of choppy start). But that last half hour had me emotionally all over the map. It was really sad, thrilling, awesome, everything. Felt like a kid in '77 all over again.

 

[BrianL]

... found the 3D downright horrific. TBH, the poor quality of the 3D may have played a major role in my unenjoyment of the the movie. The blurriness was literally giving me vertigo.

This is why I never watch movies in 3D unless they were specifically filmed in 3D using 3D cameras. Rogue One was not. They do a conversion job on it and it always looks terrible. I actually love 3D movies when done right, like Avatar or The Hobbit films. Animation also usually looks great in 3D. These cheap conversion jobs though are why so many people hate 3D and why it is becoming less popular. It's like colorizing a black & white movie. Just don't do it.

 

[sam_gordon]

To me TFA was a reboot of A New Hope.
* Loner stuck on a desert planet? Check
* Han Solo and Chewbacca smuggling things? Check
* Empire has a "planet destroying weapon"? Check
* Need small personal fighters to blow up weapon? Check
* The weapon is destroyed just before it wipes out the rebels? Check

Even knowing how Rogue One would have to end, I liked the way they tied everything together. I honestly didn't know Tarkin's actor was dead. I thought the CGI for him (and Leia) was pretty good. I wasn't looking too closely though.

 

[ChrisFL]

Even knowing how Rogue One would have to end, I liked the way they tied everything together. I honestly didn't know Tarkin's actor was dead. I thought the CGI for him (and Leia) was pretty good. I wasn't looking too closely though.

Agreed, it took me a moment to think about it, then realized that we're looking at entirely CG and I think they did it VERY well.

 

[sam_gordon]

One thing that's bothered me all these years...

When they display the "Death Star plans", the weapon is always centered on the equator. However, when built, the weapon is either north or south (depending on the orientation of the Death Star). Now, you can make the argument the original plans called for it on the equator and they changed while building. But if that's the case, you can't trust the plans for really anything.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

One thing that's bothered me all these years...

When they display the "Death Star plans", the weapon is always centered on the equator. However, when built, the weapon is either north or south (depending on the orientation of the Death Star). Now, you can make the argument the original plans called for it on the equator and they changed while building. But if that's the case, you can't trust the plans for really anything.

Well, that's something else to add to the "things that don't make any sense in Star Wars list."

My personal pet peeve is, "Who in the Empire ever thought that AT-AT walkers were a good form of transportation, let alone warfare? He must have been a secret Rebel collaborator."

 

[PollyannaMom]

Just saw it today, and loved it!!

I did think they did a good job bringing a young Leia back (I'm assuming CGI).

Not only young Leia, but Tarkin were done using motion capture actors with CGI overlays so we "see" Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher. I assume you also noticed that Red Leader and Gold Leader were also in the final battle, the same actors who appear in Episode 4. We think they used the same shots as from A New Hope with some new dialog. They seemed to do the same trick as the pre-show on Tower of Terror, where we would see them say certain words, then they would cut away for the new dialog.

I had no idea about the CGI going in! I just thought they found a really close look-alike for Tarkin (though now that someone mentioned it, I do see Thicknesse) and the Leia scene (though deeply emotional in the context of yesterday) DH and I both assumed was cutting room floor footage from the original.

I loved K2, and actually enjoyed this movie more than Episode 7, even though I did realize they weren't going to make it out. (I even thought there was a line in the original about the sacrifice of the rebels who stole the plans.)

I came home and popped in my old VHS tape of Episode 4, so I could "finish" watching the last scene.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I just saw this on DVD last night. I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't like it. It actually annoyed me. Characters were underdeveloped and the plot seemed to skip around, which meant that all of them dying at the end (throughout the movie) wasn't as sad as it was annoying. For example, Saw gets killed about 1/3 of the way through the movie. So somewhere along the way he changes from being a rebel who cares for Jyn to some guy who's too radical even for the rebellion and is willing to rip somebody's mind apart to get the truth. Why? How? Oh, he's dead? Too late to find out now. Let's move along to the next battle scene.

I felt like a lot of the callbacks for nostalgic purposes were to cover up holes in the movie. I also thought the CGI Tarkin and Leia were creepy (serious uncanny valley stuff going on there). I've been watching these since seeing the original one the summer it came out--it felt like they just kind of phoned this one in.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

And, once Leia's ship escaped by going into hyperspace, why didn't they jump into hyperspace at the beginning of Episode 4?

At that point they were too close to the gravity well of Tatooine to make a jump.

 

[BrianL]

At that point they were too close to the gravity well of Tatooine to make a jump.

Right. Not to get all SW nerdy but Hyperspace jumps in Star Wars have to be done in segments and you may have to drop out, recalculate, and then re-enter Hyperspace at a certain location (and it is usually not near planets - it CAN be done, but is considered pretty risky). There is sort of a galactic traffic standard too. Add to it that they were being pursued by a faster, and more heavily armed ship and being fired upon, they may have chosen to drop out just to drop the plans on Tatooine in the hopes they'll get to Kenobi, then had their light speed engines damaged by fire from that Star Destroyer. It wasn't too long that they were caught in the tractor beam anyway. Hey, it all worked out, eventually!

 

[sam_gordon]

Add to it that they were being pursued by a faster, and more heavily armed ship and being fired upon, they may have chosen to drop out just to drop the plans on Tatooine in the hopes they'll get to Kenobi, then had their light speed engines damaged by fire from that Star Destroyer.

But I thought ships couldn't be tracked through hyperspace. So the Tantive does a (or multiple) hyperspace jumps and ends up near Tatooine. How did the Star Destroyer (with Vader on board) get there? Lucky guess?

 

[BrianL]

But I thought ships couldn't be tracked through hyperspace. So the Tantive does a (or multiple) hyperspace jumps and ends up near Tatooine. How did the Star Destroyer (with Vader on board) get there? Lucky guess?

This may go above my nerd paygrade. I'm actually not sure about this, though it seems like they do. Obi-Wan followed Jango Fett using a tracking device so I don't know if an external device is required.