Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

[SIP]

Perhaps he was a bit distracted, returning to the planet where he began his descent to evil - I mean what are the odds, this upstart Alderaanean rebel fleeing with the stolen plans to the very planet furthest from the bright centre of the universe where he himselfwas from? What is the Force playing at, eh?

I thought it was an interesting little addition that [spoiler]Bail Organa was still in contact with Kenobi and reaches out to him before the plans are stolen.[/spoiler] I'm not up on what has or hasn't been established outside the immediate movies/ Clone Wars/ Rebels continuity... is that new?

Im yet to see the last rebels series, but other than that I'm up to date and I think that was a new snippet.

[TordelBack]

I thought it was an interesting little addition that [spoiler]Bail Organa was still in contact with Kenobi and reaches out to him before the plans are stolen.[/spoiler] I'm not up on what has or hasn't been established outside the immediate movies/ Clone Wars/ Rebels continuity... is that new?

Hmmm, I read that scene differently: I thought [spoiler]Bail was using Leia (his most trusted agent) to contact Ben in hiding [/spoiler]for the first time, now all-out war with the Empire had begun... which she didn't do until after the flick ended.

Now I'm not too up to date with the New Continuity, but there used to be whole series of books and comics with Obi-Wan interacting with the wider galaxy during his exile, and despite it making no sense I'm sure the new spin-offs won't be able to resist either...

[Jim_Campbell]

Hmmm, I read that scene differently

You could be right. I'll have to watch it again! :-)

[The Legendary Shark]

I suppose it makes sense for certain people to have emergency contact numbers for each other. A quick message might explain why a certain old fossil just happened to be on hand to aid a certain young farm boy in the middle of a bloody great desert.

Or maybe it's all just the Will of the Force. Or blind chance. Or scriptwriting.

[TordelBack]

Hmmm, I read that scene differently

You could be right. I'll have to watch it again! :-)

Ditto!

[The Legendary Shark]

Hmmm, I read that scene differently

You could be right. I'll have to watch it again! :-)

Ditto!

Tritto!

[Jim_Campbell]

Just to belatedly give my spoiler-free review of the film:

Comfortably the best of the modern era SW films, by a mile. Keyed into continuity without forcing the viewer have extensive knowledge to understand the plot; unmistakably a Star Wars movie, but very much its own beast. A very welcome widening of focus in the cinematic SW canon.

I can't judge it against the original trilogy, simply because I'll never be twelve again (also, I don't venerate Empire or dismiss Jedi in quite the way that seems de rigueur these days).

[Mardroid]

Hmmm, I read that scene differently

You could be right. I'll have to watch it again! :-)

Ditto!

Tritto!

Uvavu!

Actually I will be seeing it for the first time after shortly after Boxing Day. I just couldn't resist...

[Jim_Campbell]

Uvavu!

IRANU!

[JamesC]

I can't judge it against the original trilogy, simply because I'll never be twelve again (also, I don't venerate Empire or dismiss Jedi in quite the way that seems de rigueur these days).

Sky have a Star Wars movie channel at the moment, which just shows all of the older films on a loop.
in my Xmas TV Guide film's are scored thus:

TPM **
AOTC ***
ROTS ****
ANH *****
TESB *****
ROTJ ***
TFA ****

I've never written in to a TV guide before but I've got a good mind to after seeing those scores! ROTJ on 3 stars, equal to AOTC? It's a disgrace!

[SIP]

That is a disgrace.  And the force awakens is NOT better than Jedi!

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I'm sure it's a professional listing, with the star ratings assembled after critical perusal of the films and consideration of their artistic merits. Not, y'know, random.

[Colin YNWA]

It's got that Hobbit problem for me where they wrongheadedly try to top the scale of the original movie in the prequel. Why does EVERY SINGLE blockbuster now have to end with 30 numbing minutes of explosions? After a while its all just noise to me.

Saw it last night and while I can't talk to the Hobbit movies as I've not seen them I think Radiator's point really hits home to me. The originals really hint that this was the job carried out by spies and hence with stealth. The film really seemed to be moving things in that direction until [spoiler]they throw the whole fleet at the problem[/spoiler] for no real reason I could surmise. While it does explain why there wasn't much of a fleet in Star Wars, surely the answer to that could well have been they'd dispersed it to reduce its vulnerability to this new super weapon?

Anyhoo all that said I quite enjoyed it. It wasn't great but was certainly better than The Force Awakens and the prequels. Its biggest problem is that they threw a lot of characters in which didn't allow time to really bond with many, or for many to develop the charm and warmth of those in the originals. Also some of the characters returned via CGI were pretty weird and creepy looking, which I guess in one case isn't a bad thing, but in another (the one right at the end) just looked horrid.

As others seem to be saying (have quickly looked through here, after avoiding for a while now prior to seeing it) I really enjoyed the scenes with Darth Vadar. The fan service, while in a few cases was a bit grating and unnecessary, wasn't anywhere near as bad as in The Force Awakens and for a long time it really had much more courage about being its own thing until the bits I discuss above and Radiator better expresses than I could. Man its bleakly honest at its climax, loved big black imperial android chap and over all a pretty good war film, if not fantastic.

[Pyroxian]

The originals really hint that this was the job carried out by spies and hence with stealth.

The original crawl for Star Wars specifies:

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy...

So I'd say that Rogue One was very accurate in that case.

[Colin YNWA]

The originals really hint that this was the job carried out by spies and hence with stealth.

The original crawl for Star Wars specifies:

It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.

Whoops - yeah that does kinda remove the point I was making - I'd forgotten that line in the trawl.