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Saw it this afternoon. I was more than pleasantly surprised. I definitely consider it better than the Force Awakens and its probably in the running for "top Star Wars movie" in my book. I need to go re-watch ESB to give it a fair comparison. It certainly wasn't perfect. There were a few spots that I found a bit "forced" (no pun intended) and there may have been a bit much droid based comic relief. I laughed though, so it wasn't Jar Jar Binks bad, by any means.

It gives me hope for the upcoming Han Solo movie and any others that may flesh out the Star Wars Universe. Much as I dislike saying it, Disney seems to have done a pretty damn good job at not screwing it up.

--SS

I might just go see it because of this recommendation.

Graci!

I agree completely. Also keep in mind that all of Marvel's cinematic shenanigans started AFTER Disney bought them. The House of Mouse clearly has a very good understanding of entertainment.

We've got seats reserved for Tuesday afternoon. I hate waiting that long, but coordinating 4 people's work schedules can be a pain. Tick, tock!!

IMO the nice thing about Rogue One is that it's clearly aimed at the hardcore Star Wars fan. We got a bunch of early tickets, and friends who weren't really into SW fell asleep through the first half of Rogue One, but for those of us who were invested in the lore it was one tasty treat after another.

In a time when movies (and games) are increasingly aimed for the casual viewer (player), something that caters to the hardcore so unapologetically is a welcome change.

jihadjoe wrote:

IMO the nice thing about Rogue One is that it's clearly aimed at the hardcore Star Wars fan. We got a bunch of early tickets, and friends who weren't really into SW fell asleep through the first half of Rogue One, but for those of us who were invested in the lore it was one tasty treat after another.

In a time when movies (and games) are increasingly aimed for the casual viewer (player), something that caters to the hardcore so unapologetically is a welcome change.

One thing I need to know above all else- how many Bothans died???

I think the Bothans dying line is from RotJ/the second Death Star.

kvndoom wrote:

One thing I need to know above all else- how many Bothans died???

Wrong Death Star

Forge wrote:

I agree completely. Also keep in mind that all of Marvel's cinematic shenanigans started AFTER Disney bought them. The House of Mouse clearly has a very good understanding of entertainment.

Do you mean the ramp up or the MCU as a whole?

Because Disney didn't have too much to do with Phase One...

NTMBK wrote:

how many Bothans died???

Not enough. Not enough.

NTMBK wrote:

kvndoom wrote:

One thing I need to know above all else- how many Bothans died???

Wrong Death Star

Ugh, shows how long it's been since I've seen the original trilogy. Shame on me!

In case anyone is wondering, this would make the current extended Machete order: Rogue One, ANH, ESB, Episode 2, Episode 3, ROTJ, TFA.

I might be the only one but I wasn't impressed. I thought the charter development was lacking for the two lead characters. I didn't feel for them at all. On the other hand, I was very interested in some others who were ancillary.

I liked The Force Awakens more, though I thought the main point of the movie deserved more than a few lines.

I was very happy with it. It helped explain why the Death Star had such a fatal flaw. I agree that a little more character development would have been beneficial. The movie really seemed like a Star Wars movie to me. Using Tarkin and ANH Leia was really fun. I liked seeing Bail Organa involved.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

I was very happy with it. It helped explain why the Death Star had such a fatal flaw.

Fast, cheap, or good...pick two.

Well, DS1 was slow (plans in episode 2, construction underway in Ep4, still was ultra expensive and vulnerable... DS2 upped the scale a ton and was lightning fast, but vulnerable and cripplingly pricy.

So I guess DS1 was none of the above, and DS2 was fast and good (or would have been once completed).

RO gives new weight to the throw away line in ROTJ about the DS2 design having corrected the errors in DS1's design.

It's like the Death Star was designed by Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

Definitely had the most WAR of any of the star wars. Loved actually seeing diverse planets across the empire, though it still seems like each planet is only good for hosting one city or prime spot.

This really was a movie for fans; if you played the games and/or read the books, you've had a cinematic window opened up that you may have been waiting for, for decades.

Liked the movie. Didn't love it, but liked it. I have to say, though, is there some rule of Star Wars that orphan protagonists must live on desert planets? Environments that are functionally identical to Tatooine are getting stale.

Hawkwing74 wrote:

I was very happy with it. It helped explain why the Death Star had such a fatal flaw. I agree that a little more character development would have been beneficial. 

Agreed on both counts, I saw it today and enjoyed it. Wasn't what I expected from a star wars movie and that made it better than I had anticipated. I actually thought the first 10 seconds of the movie was for some theater advertisement tie-in about turning off cell phones or something, since it skipped all that junk and jumped straight from the previews to the movie. 

Predictable yes, and could've used more character development as always, but still well done. I much preferred this style of bot humor over say C3PO. Now I will have to suffer through the urge to play Xwings vs Tie Fighter again for awhile...  

 Is there a more seriously bad ass 10 or 15 seconds of Darth Vader kicking ass like no ones business in any movie other than this one?

I mean OMG!! That was freaking awesome!

Losergamer04 wrote:

I might be the only one but I wasn't impressed. I thought the charter development was lacking for the two lead characters. I didn't feel for them at all. On the other hand, I was very interested in some others who were ancillary.

I liked The Force Awakens more, though I thought the main point of the movie deserved more than a few lines.

No, you aren't the only one.

The lead was bland and that character's conclusion was total: meh.

Speaking of characters, the ONLY one I liked was the droid - and I didn't think the character particularly funny (..nor did most of the audience I was with).. BUT that didn't matter - the character had real personality.  (..Forest Witaker's character was pretty bad.  Just a few jumbled scenes to tell you that he was himself "jumbled" and used as a backstory for the main character's lack of upbringing along with division within the alliance.)

The first scene was "wtf?".  I think I'd need a team of writers trying to explain that scene.  (I mean, you have just about an entire planet to hide in and the best you can do is confront something like 8 people when you have 3 (that could be trained to snipe from just about anywhere), have had all the time in the world to plan/plant traps etc.. and the person hiding is the engineer when it comes to weapons design, etc..)

The second scene (..at least I think it was the second scene) introduced a totally uninteresting secondary lead character - with poor acting chops to-boot.  (..ex. two different scenes (this second scene and a latter scene) where making a decision to shoot or not: a prolonged close up shot of face showing empathy - where you can see the final decision that's been made and a witty or thought-provoking comment? NO. Just some minor hesitation and one scene showing a brief moment of hesitation with a trigger. ..WAY to get me invested in the character director!)

The next 3 scenes nearly caused epilepsy they flashed-by so quickly. Planet A something unremarkable happens.  Planet B something unremarkable happens. Planet C something unremarkable happens.

At some point we ..um .."stablize" on a desert world/moon/whatever - it's only at this point where the script itself actually stabilizes into a movie with a congregation of the primary characters. It's not bad here.. but it's not good either.  Prop.s though for the look and feel of the movie as it continues.

Perhaps worst of all: everyone already knows the outcome of the movie.  When a movie is done like this you really need interesting characters/dialog to develop the story, and this movie had almost none.

Scorpiuscat wrote:

 Is there a more seriously bad ass 10 or 15 seconds of Darth Vader kicking ass like no ones business in any movie other than this one?

I mean OMG!! That was freaking awesome!

..that was the best scene in the movie. I wanted him to "win".

It was so amazing. The ending transitioning into the original Star Wars was seamless and perfect. And yes, for that brief moment Vader was the Vader we always knew him to be.

TFA was too much of a fan service (mind you, I loved it, but still). It felt like JJ Abrams was afraid there wouldn't be an Episode 8 if it flopped, so he threw in the kitchen sink (a new "Death Star," Luke, Han, Chewie, Leia, R2D2, etc), and while it was a grand experience, it leaves you wondering "where do we go from here?"

Rogue One didn't have the stigma of needing a pre-story or worrying about a sequel. Without those restrictions it could work outside of a vacuum. And yes, there wasn't enough fleshing out of individual story lines, but in the end everyone dies. This was more about the importance of their sacrifice than the lives they lived.

I've seen it. I enjoyed it. Action really gets rolling in the last 10 minutes.

CScottG wrote:

The first scene was "wtf?".  I think I'd need a team of writers trying to explain that scene.  (I mean, you have just about an entire planet to hide in and the best you can do is confront something like 8 people when you have 3 (that could be trained to snipe from just about anywhere), have had all the time in the world to plan/plant traps etc.. and the person hiding is the engineer when it comes to weapons design, etc..)

It's a bit hard to take the rest of your criticism seriously when this slipped you by: he went for the singular purpose of making sure that there would be some way for the rebels to destroy the station. If he'd not gone, they'd eventually have finished it without him; killing the dudes that came for him wouldn't have changed that and would have put his family in more jeopardy.

That was his sacrifice.

I enjoyed the movie greatly. I felt that the lack of character development helped it more than it hurt it mostly because it created this sense of empathy for how much the early days of the rebellion had to slum it. The disjointed and questionable/unsavory/unknown backgrounds of the squad helped keep the ending suspenseful by not allowing you (the viewer) time to put trust in the squad, leading to a stronger sense of "how the hell are they going to pull this off". Even the way the council treated them lent into this and I felt it made the ending watchable and enjoyable even despite already knowing how it would all end.

I also felt like the movie added far more depth and gravity to "the plans" that extend into the original trilogy. I went back and watched ANH and had a completely different ride. The entire time they were in the DeathStar I had this overwhelming sense of anxiety I hadn't felt sense the first time I saw ANH, mostly because I had visually seen what everyone went through to get the plans and now the plans were strolling around the enemies base in the data banks of a helpless droid while the protagonists were off on their hero errands.

Airmantharp wrote:

CScottG wrote:

The first scene was "wtf?".  I think I'd need a team of writers trying to explain that scene.  (I mean, you have just about an entire planet to hide in and the best you can do is confront something like 8 people when you have 3 (that could be trained to snipe from just about anywhere), have had all the time in the world to plan/plant traps etc.. and the person hiding is the engineer when it comes to weapons design, etc..)

It's a bit hard to take the rest of your criticism seriously when this slipped you by: he went for the singular purpose of making sure that there would be some way for the rebels to destroy the station. If he'd not gone, they'd eventually have finished it without him; killing the dudes that came for him wouldn't have changed that and would have put his family in more jeopardy.

That was his sacrifice.

Exactly. I was rather dubious, but when he defended his action/reasoning in the holo it clicked and the movie was much, much better for it. It also makes IV seem so much better now