SWNN’s Spoiler Free Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!

death-troopers

It’s been a long time coming and we are finally here. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is the first of hopefully many spin-off, anthology films set in the Star Wars Universe but separate from the main Saga films (Episodes I-VII so far). This review will be completely free of spoilers; at this point in the franchise, keeping the secrets is almost half the fun. Right off the bat I can (and will) say this. This film is great. It had a lot to do; beyond just being average, this film has to impress fans in order to set a standard for the rest of the Star Wars Stories and to make sure there’s even an interest for them. I think they succeeded. I think fans of all backgrounds will find something to enjoy in this film.

 

 

So, without further ado…

 

Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), daughter to the brilliant scientist, Galen Erso, is recruited by the Rebel Alliance to form a team alongside Intelligence Officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) to steal the plans to the Galactic Empire’s brand new super weapon, the Death Star.

 

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Rogue One sees a different start that fans have grown accustomed to. Yes, that’s right, I can confirm there is no crawl but it didn’t matter. I would actually go as far as saying that playing away from the usual Star Wars ‘tropes’ was a strength of this film. It didn’t feel predictable and didn’t feel shackled to certain elements you might have thought were requirements of a Star Wars film. It allowed director Gareth Edwards to truly make his own Star Wars film as opposed to making just any Star Wars film. It didn’t ever feel like a cover song, more of a great new album where the band you love is experimenting in a slightly different genre, and it worked.
I’d love to break down the plot scene for scene and beat for beat, but truthfully I was shocked as to just how much I feel they left out of the trailers and TV Spots (despite it feeling like there was a new one released right after you watch one). It’s because of that, that I’m instead going to talk more about the ‘feeling’ Rogue One gave me.

 

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It gave me enough from the galaxy that it felt like it was set in the same place we all know and love, but it didn’t pander… too much. There are certainly moments where it feels like we’re in Gareth Edwards’ bedroom and he’s telling us a story with his favourite action figures, but it’s a really compelling story and Gareth Edwards is a very good story teller. He of course got the brilliant story from the mind of John Knoll a VFX Supervisor at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic. Rogue One actually started as an idea for an unproduced Live Action TV show and he pitched the idea more than a decade before development on Rogue One had even begun. Once Disney picked up Lucasfilm and revived the franchise, he said he simply had to pitch it again rather than be left wondering “what might have happened if he had”. Now we live in the world where he did. The script was then given to Book of Eli writer Gary Whitta to write before he parted ways in January last year to pass it off to Christ Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy, Cinderella (2015)) and Tony Gilroy who was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (both for Michael Clayton), but more on Gilroy later.

 

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A big concern of this going in for me was the time it was set. It’s such a well known time period for all Star Wars fans. A New Hope is probably the most magical of the original trilogy in terms of the awe it leaves you with when you first see it, so Rogue One had a lot to live up to. Thankfully, it succeeds in making everything feel like it’s not something new they’ve created for this (although, it is) but rather it’s just things you didn’t see before. Every ship feels like it might have just been off camera and every vehicle just feels in place.
(Note: I have a bad feeling that I’m going to use the word ‘feel’ a lot, my apologies, I just really want to highlight how important the feeling is in the viewing experience – especially without talking about certain plot specifics.)

 

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A big concern with everyone else however seemed to be the reshoots. Despite many reporters’ best efforts at calming the mass hysteria that seemed to sweep the internet during the first rumblings of reshoots, there was an undeniable panic. To be honest, even though I was one of those reporters trying to distill the fear, I still couldn’t help but sit down before the screening and hold my breath and cross my fingers – a lot of us Star Wars fans have been hurt before; but please allow me to fully comfort you; breath out, sit comfortably and know that you have nothing to worry about. Tony Gilroy apparently was heavily involved in the process towards the end, and yes that meant some reshoots and yes he was in the editing booth, but yes he was nominated for a couple of oscars including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (as mentioned above). I’d be very interested to know what exactly it was he influenced but rest assured it worked. Edwards, Gilroy, Weitz, Whitta, Knoll, all of them together, made a truly fantastic film.

 

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I could go on, reeling off synonyms about how raw and visceral it is but I won’t (it is harrowing and frankly enchanting though…), instead I want to start talking about some of the fantastic performances this film gives us. First, our leading lady, Felicity Jones as Jyn Erso. Jones is another darling of the Academy as she was nominated for last year’s The Theory of Everything where she managed to take my breath away in almost every scene. I can safely say that she doesn’t fail to deliver here either. She manages to be bold and brave but still intensely vulnerable. Her scenes with her father Galen played terrifically by Mads Mikkelsen will leave you choked. Both actors lure you in and leave you blown away. The drama we got from just one film is remarkable (and enhanced even further if you’ve read Catalyst which I highly recommend as a strong companion piece to this film).
Diego Luna also tackles the mysterious Cassian Andor, a Rebel Intelligence Officer with a mysterious past. With the likes of Poe Dameron and of course Han Solo you’d think there wasn’t much room for a roguish anti-hero with a side character that’s either a large imposing companion, a droid or in Andor’s case, both, thanks to Alan Tudyk’s K-2SO. But Luna proves there’s always room for more Rogues, especially in a film like this (see: the title). In fact, the support from the whole team was welcomed dearly with open arms. From all of their introductions, they feel natural, they are loveable in their own right and have enough depth that no one seems to be out of place or unrefined. Credit where credit’s due for Riz Ahmed, Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen .

 

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I think one of the things Rogue One does best is seamlessly tie in the prequels and other canon materials to the Original Trilogy and the greater story as a whole. Again, I won’t reveal too much of what I’m talking about here but it could have very easily felt like fan service or forcing a square peg through a circular hole. A great example of this is the Clone Wars character Saw Gerrera who was brought to life and given some serious credibility by Academy Award winning Forest Whitaker. If there’s one character that left me wanting more it’s him. I officially want a comic series detailing everything from his last appearance in Clone Wars all the way up to this – I can’t begin to imagine the dangerous yet heroic acts his band of extreme rebels got up to.
None of this works without a villain to truly capture the audience’s hatred. Ben Mendelsohn would have had me booing and hissing if it were culturally acceptable. He was remarkable and had such gravitas it’s hard to imagine any other take on the role. He seemed to really sink his teeth into this role and it looked like he enjoyed it. I would go as far as saying my faith in political characters in Star Wars is not only restored but heightened. I crave more Orson Krennic as much as he craves more power.

 

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This is of course the first Star Wars film to not feature a score from the legendary John Williams. Williams has done so much for the franchise that it could be argued we wouldn’t be here without him. That being said, Michael Giacchino took the reins on this one and delivered. His score was definitely different to the flavour we’re used to but was still in the same family. Giacchino is also in the Academy Award family winning Best Original Score for 2009’s Up, showing just how high Disney and Lucasfilm aimed and with good reason.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was intense, visceral and action packed. It’s the darkest Star Wars film ever made. The action is like nothing we’ve seen in this universe and the acting is of the highest tier. A well crafted film front-to-back and an all round good time.

 

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I think, universally the main criticism with Force Awakens was its close comparisons to A New Hope which, love or hate Force Awakens, is undeniable. But I think the best thing going for Rogue One is how unique it is. It escapes the shadow of the Saga films yet remains true to the core of what Star Wars is. Rogue One isn’t just a Star Wars Story; it’s a story of hope. I now have hope for more stories away from the Saga films, I have hope for the Disney machine working its magic, I have hope that people will never worry about reshoots ever again and I have hope that we will one day see a Star Wars film that will surpass Empire Strikes Back. This isn’t that film, but it’s certainly a step toward it. It proves that for Star Wars to succeed it needs to take big, brave and bold steps in exciting new directions. After all, that’s what George Lucas did in 1977.

 

 

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324 thoughts on “SWNN’s Spoiler Free Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story!

  • December 14, 2016 at 12:58 am
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    Thank you for the review 🙂

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:00 am
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    Due to other commitments I can’t see Rogue One until Saturday. It’s going to be a long week but these kinds of reviews will keep me sated until then.

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:19 pm
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      Friday night for me. I don’t know what to do with myself tomorrow night after work that will stop me from finding a ticket for a smaller showing before Friday….I really will…….lol

      • December 15, 2016 at 3:30 am
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        Yeah. Me too. I belong to a Star Wars collector club that’s having a private showing on Thursday night. And it’s also the night of my little boy’s Christmas concert with this preschool class. So, I’m losing Star Wars points but picking up some dad points. A better deal as far as I’m concerned. That being said, I have tickets for Friday night with a couple buddies and I can’t friggin’ wait!

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:01 am
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    Excellent review. Can’t wait tonsee the film tonight.

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:03 am
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    Great review, I’m even more excited for Friday now! You sure it’s not better than TESB, though? Don’t worry, we won’t kill you if you admit it 😉

    • December 14, 2016 at 2:34 pm
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      Nowadays even the Empire Strikes Back is not as good as the Empire Strikes Back,( or “TESB – good”), but in 1980 TESB wasn’t so good as a Star Wars

      • December 14, 2016 at 6:15 pm
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        TESB (pre-SE, anyway) is a virtually flawless movie. I would be astounded if we ever get a Star Wars movie that surpasses it. The tension, the story, the dialogue, the acting, the romance, the plot twists, the action. Everything about TESB is just exactly what it needs to be.

        • December 15, 2016 at 7:14 am
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          But here’s the thing…. even if ESB came out today masked as a Star Wars movie being similar but different. People would still say it sucks because it’s too similar to ESB, just like TFA gets the too similar to A New Hope treatment even though it still is pretty different. I personally think it’s more like a OT greatest hits movie masked in one new Star Wars film.

          Regardless, that’s the billion dollar question isn’t it? How do you make “The Empire Strikes Back” this day and age without people realizing it’s The Empire Strikes Back? Therefore ignoring the comparisons but still evoking similar emotions and getting the praise that ESB got.

          I heard that ESB was not well liked by critics at first same as Star Wars.

          • December 18, 2016 at 3:51 pm
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            That’s true. A lot of peoiple found TESB to be a big disappointment, and it got lukewarm reviews. It wasn’t until decades later that everyone just kind of decided that it was one of the best movies ever made. i’m not complaining, but it’s interesting to see how mainstream ideas of a film changed so extremely.

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:06 am
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    Good to hear. From reviews I’ve seen so far, I get the sense that Rogue One is rated around a B, or a solid 8 out of 10. Force Awakens territory, but not quite A New Hope. Very much look forward to watching this twice on Thursday.

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:17 am
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    Awesome review

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:40 am
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    Thanks for the spoiler free review.
    I’m now less than 24 hours to finally watch it and I can’t even sleep right thinking on it!

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:48 am
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    What is the bantha count?

    • December 14, 2016 at 8:11 am
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      It’s lookin good..I’ve heard critics give about 5 outta 5 Bantha poodoos all around.

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:56 am
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    This review made my day.

  • December 14, 2016 at 2:12 am
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    Thank you for this great review.

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:16 am
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    84% on Rotten Tomatoes

    • December 14, 2016 at 4:01 am
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      Interesting that it’s going up as more reviews come in. It was at 82% a few hours ago.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:09 am
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      That’s about what I expected. There seems to be this huge disagreement between movies that critics love and movies that “fans” love.

      Like I think that TFA should really have gotten like an 85% but yet it sits pretty high with a 92%

      • December 15, 2016 at 4:22 pm
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        I honestly liked TFA much more… Why? The sense of magic… this movie is too realistic; At times it feel does like save private ryan. I love star wars movies (yes, prequels included) because, even with all their problems, they let me fly and escape reality. This one instead left me just with a sense of sadness at the end. And this is, to me, much worse than any problem that TFA could have.
        Maybe it will get better with a second view…

        • December 16, 2016 at 6:07 am
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          Interesting opinion, the realistic Star Wars movie is what a lot of Star Wars fans have wanted to see for a long time, yet not everyone likes that apparently.

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:54 am
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    Interesting that there’s no mention of Darth Vader in there. Not a concern, just… interesting.

    • December 14, 2016 at 4:54 am
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      There’s mention of him in other tweets. It’s said that what you get to see of him is what you always wanted to see but never realized it until it slaps you in the face.

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:34 am
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      I’m surprised but based on all the OTHER reviews that have gone up, I wouldn’t worry about a lack of screen time.

    • December 14, 2016 at 10:53 am
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      I didn’t want to set expectations too high or too low so I thought it best just to leave it to what is already revealed. If you want a little something to tide you over until release then know this; they nail it!

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:57 am
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    Super Stoked!!!!

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:10 am
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      I’m super-SNOKED.

      • December 14, 2016 at 7:55 am
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        BAH HA HA!!!

  • December 14, 2016 at 5:09 am
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    Great review

  • December 14, 2016 at 5:18 am
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    Editors don’t edit in a “booth.”

    • December 14, 2016 at 10:51 am
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      Yeah haha, I know it’s just an old expression from the music world – I still say things like “on the cutting room floor” as well even though I don’t think they really cut anything like that anymore or have for some time.

      • December 14, 2016 at 8:31 pm
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        I think “on the cutting room floor” is a valid thing to still say because even though most editors don’t literally cut with film any more (a few editors still do) it has a historical meaning. An editing room has never been called a “booth.” Maybe there is such a thing as a recording booth, but if anything an editing room has been called a “bay” in the past.

  • December 14, 2016 at 7:15 am
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    Please don’t label an article as “spoiler free” then proceed to lay out spoilers in the first sentence.

    • December 14, 2016 at 8:07 am
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      If you want to be unspoiled to that degree, you probably should not read ANY reviews at all. In fact, you should lay low for a few days. Turn off the TV and stay off the internet altogether. This kind of information is revealed in the promotional material for the film.

    • December 14, 2016 at 10:49 am
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      The parapgraph I believe you’re referring to was written before the screening based on the promotional material that was already out there. Apologies if it ruined something for you but I didn’t deem that as a spoiler.

  • December 14, 2016 at 8:12 am
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    Nice review! Can’t wait to watch it!!!!

  • December 14, 2016 at 10:09 am
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    A little over 24 hours to go.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:06 am
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      Now only 3 or 4 more hours!!! Are you excited? 🙂

      • December 15, 2016 at 7:25 am
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        4 more hours until I’m in movie Heaven. I’ve avoided the clips, the TV spots, the music, the spoilers, everything. It’s been a long wait, man. Worth it though.

  • December 14, 2016 at 12:47 pm
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    The wait is murdering me slowly, checking this out while on my vacation, probably going to come out with K-2SO as my new fav.

  • December 14, 2016 at 1:45 pm
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    How exactly the absence of the opening crawl “allowed director Gareth Edwards to truly make his own Star Wars film as opposed to making just any Star Wars film”? 🙂 The opening crawl changes in any way the next two hours? 🙂 Oooookay…

    • December 14, 2016 at 1:58 pm
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      It was less about just the crawl (although it did mean the film could open anywhere regardless of time and simply ‘tell’ the story of a crawl with visuals instead of words) but about all elements of traditional Star Wars films like wipe transitions, certain score themes and quotes etc.

    • December 14, 2016 at 2:15 pm
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      You’re taking a really, really literal and limited view of this. In fact, I think you’re being purposefully obtuse. Edwards was trying to convey the idea that he was able to work outside of the established parameters of the brand; the lack of the opening crawl being just a representative example.

      • December 14, 2016 at 11:42 pm
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        I´m sorry dude, I expectedan answer to my simple question. To put away the opening crawl doeasn´t make the movie any different. What follows will. It is easy to avoid the answer by saying “you don´t get it, you have limited view”, yeah, I can do it too. I am not purposefully obtuse. I like the opening crawl, it is a star wars stamp and I don´t see how it changes the movie at all…and since you have no arguments let´s agree that we dissagree…

        • December 15, 2016 at 3:27 am
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          I answered your simple question. If you can’t see that, it’s a wonder you’re able to operate a computer. I suggest you read the entirety of my response.

          • December 15, 2016 at 3:59 pm
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            Well then you probably aren´t old enough to understand what “answer” means. And since your communication is so immature, consider yourself a winner in this “exciting internet battle”, I have better things to do than spend time with rude kids

          • December 15, 2016 at 8:16 pm
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            It’s not an “internet battle”. It’s a conversation. If you can’t have one without losing your temper, that’s your issue.

  • December 14, 2016 at 2:36 pm
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    Nowadays being TESB-good is being so good that even the Empire Strikes Back is not “TESB – good”, but in 1980 TESB wasn’t so good as Star Wars, wasn’t SW-good

  • December 14, 2016 at 2:47 pm
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    Went this morning. I’ll say, its much better than TFA in my opinion!! Really great. Lots of cameos! A great adventure!

    • December 14, 2016 at 3:51 pm
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      Agree it’s better than TFA.

  • December 14, 2016 at 2:48 pm
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    I know is spoiler free but i will read it and the comments in 1 day :p Sorry 😉
    Those who haven’t seen it hope enjoy the movie. Good times! Welcome to the childhood!! OMG, Almost there!

  • December 14, 2016 at 2:55 pm
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    “It’s the darkest Star Wars film ever made.”

    My God… incredible review man. I always hate spoiler free ones because they always manage in someway to spoil something. I feel you skirted that line perfectly. The only spoiler I could gleam is one I honestly wanted. The darkest Star Wars? That coming from a fan who actually knows what they are talking about? Says a hell of a lot!

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:08 pm
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    Guys i’ve seen R1 this morning and I’m not going to do any spoiler. I’d like to point out one thing: the music is great. It was so easy for me to dislike the soundtrack, and when Kristian from Collider said the soundtrack wasn’t good I knew I wouldn’t like. My surprise: the soundtrack is great and fully respects Williams (both when using and not using his cues). I particularly like the way the music portrays Vader (Episode IV has no Imperial March, and R1 manages to music Darth merging IV and V). I won’t follow because this film is full of surprises and I would easy jump on them.

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:17 pm
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      I think we need to stop judging film scores after one viewing. It’s kind of silly. We clamor for the visuals and the drama first, the score is hard to judge after one viewing. I’ve come to love the TFA score more, and even the AOTC score.

      • December 14, 2016 at 5:36 pm
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        Yes you are right with that, and it’s good to hear it without the film too (which I haven’t done yet). Nonetheless, at a certain degree you can judge it, and one thing that Kristian Karloff said I can disagree right now: he said the film loses great opportunities on using leith motifs. I would say the opposite, it really does use them only when necessary, and he delves with that in a much balanced way than Jurassic World.

        • December 14, 2016 at 7:40 pm
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          If that was his words (I’m avoiding the review so far), then that’s a dumb reason. It’s a ‘stand alone’, there’s not going to be much opportunity or nor should they take every opportunity to use such motifs.

          • December 15, 2016 at 7:48 am
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            I dunno about that. After all, it is Star Wars so there is the main theme for a start. Plus it’s the Empire so you have the Imperial March that could be heavily used. Even Vader’s theme. Granted I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I get the impression that there are quite a few scenes that could use traditional themes – and given all the effort they have gone to to try and make it feel like 1977 again, I don’t see that this would be a bad thing.

            Probably the only theme that comes to mind as being suitable for sparing use is the Jedi theme, given that they don’t feature and The Force doesn’t play that big a role.

          • December 15, 2016 at 10:10 pm
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            It comes down to ridiculous and varied notions of how much ‘originality’ people want or don’t want. It’s getting tired. There’s no criteria. Everybody wants a ‘different’ film ‘outside the norm’ and then complain when it lacks something the saga films have. It gets disingenuous at a certain point.

            We survived “I hate sand” and “Life Day” for crying out loud. If its a good film, has no Jar-Jar, then we should be somewhat satisfied.

          • December 15, 2016 at 10:24 pm
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            No, because there is no “we” and that is the point. What of the kids who grew up with Jar Jar and like him? Is their nostalgia irrelevant?

          • December 16, 2016 at 12:12 am
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            It’s just as relevant as: “Oh no, they didn’t use the Imperial March enough in this Stand-Alone, experimental, off-the-beaten-Skywalker-path movie!”

      • December 15, 2016 at 7:44 am
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        This is true. Scores always improve on me after subsequent listens. I thought the prequel scores (with the exception of ROTS), and TFA sucked major balls until I had a few more listens.

      • December 16, 2016 at 11:46 pm
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        My second viewing it was worse. Not everything gets better over time.

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:47 pm
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      “when Kristian from Collider said the soundtrack wasn’t good I knew I wouldn’t like (I’m a JW geek). My surprise: the soundtrack is great..”

      Let this be a lesson to form your own opinions.

      • December 14, 2016 at 6:17 pm
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        Haha. I’m not trying to say that I take whatever coming from Collider. Oh I really gave that impression though. What I meant is that I’m quite critic with John Williams re-dos, therefore when someone says that I’m expecting the worst.

        • December 14, 2016 at 8:15 pm
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          haha I understand.

        • December 15, 2016 at 7:42 am
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          I’m biased because I look at it through childhood eyes, but I don’t think anyone has been able succeed a Williams score since the days of the Superman movies with Chris Reeve. He only scored the first, but the next three scores are very good as well and I think the reason for that is that they borrow a lot of the content from the first movie and just re-orchestrate it, adding new stuff only when necessary. I think in contrast when you consider things like JW, Superman Returns, the later Harry Potter films and so on there is a tendency for the later composers to basically do a new score with Williams music sparingly peppered through. I think that when the composer is generally inferior to Williams this can be quite jarring and, personally for me, makes for a disappointing experience. I found the JW score to be particularly frustrating for this very reason because the originally JP score compliments that world so much.

    • December 14, 2016 at 7:14 pm
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      Can you honestly hum any bit of the soundtrack? I can still do “Rey’s theme” from epVII but Rogue One did disapoint me on that.

      • December 14, 2016 at 9:10 pm
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        We can’t expect a guy will do the most memorable soundtrack in three-four weeks. This was a very difficult situation. I can say Jurassic World didn’t sound like Jurassic Park, but I can’t say Rogue 1 doesn’t sound like Star Wars. You point at Rey’s theme. Well, yes, that’s the best of The Force Awakens soundtrack. But is Jyn’s Theme worse than Kylo Ren’s theme? I don’t think so. And I insist on something because is very important: it was difficult to deal with the empire musically, because A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back musicalize it in a completely different way, and the one everyone takes for guaranteed is the one from Empire Strikes Back. I think Giaccino measured that very well.

        • December 15, 2016 at 7:02 am
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          I have to ask as I will be seeing Rogue One on Sunday, the 18th, what were the “problems with CGI” besides maybe the issues of young Leia, and Tarkin? That’s very hard to do, and to serve as another example I still enjoyed Tron: Legacy even though the CGI of Clu was distracting at first. I got used to it pretty quickly. Also, in Westworld we see a young Anthony Hopkins and it’s noticeable but you simply let it slide because it’s obviously not a real young Anthony Hopkins. Or by saying “problems with CGI” did they simply mean “too much CGI”

          • December 15, 2016 at 7:29 am
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            You’re a mod and you’re asking for spoilers to be posted openly. Is that wise?

          • December 15, 2016 at 7:36 am
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            People read these comments at their own risk. 😉
            I don’t think there is a rule about spoilers actually being posted. If there is I will adhere to it. I just thought posting spoilers is sort of a common courtesy thing, or at least warning people that you will be posting a spoiler.
            I am not going to censor every little thing people put in the comments, only the stuff that breaks the rules.

            I’m just curious is all.

          • December 15, 2016 at 7:36 am
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            Ha ha, okay. So what level of spoilers can we talk about?

          • December 15, 2016 at 10:47 am
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            Actually, Tarkin and Leia are really well done, and one wonders if I didn’t know this actors weren’t there for the film, would I noticed they were CG? Tarkin is very, very well done: the best CG human I’ve ever seen specially in the first appearence. The kind of gray, dark environment and the shape and color of his skin helps, but anyway, it’s incredible what they achieved. Leia is a little lower, but this is what happens: when the story is so good, when you are so inmersed, you don’t care. It’s not like tron legacy where you see Bridges from the beginning and you say “oups!”, here the emotions are built up and the story counts more than the effects.

          • December 15, 2016 at 3:56 pm
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            Dani, be honest here, you can say you “don´t care”, because of “emotions”, or anything els, but you can´t say Leia was “well done”. That is simply not true. Not even “little lower”.

          • December 16, 2016 at 1:53 pm
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            I work on FX. I can say is CG, but I can also say it’s pretty well done and is a step forward for CG humans. You can see Leia is CG because of the eyes and because the finest movements are yet a little bit exagerated. Nonetheless, we were all expecting this. You, as a fan, were expecting to see Leia CG and ready to analize it. Of course it looked fake to you. It looked CG for me, but I know this is very, very well done and people should give it a value, because CG humans are the most complex challenge for an FX team.

          • December 15, 2016 at 3:09 pm
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            I thought the CGI was very well done, and not just for Tarkin and Leia – you’ll be amazed!

          • December 16, 2016 at 12:45 am
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            The CGI on the main was exceptional, especially the vehicles and sprawling vistas. However, in my opinion, both Tarkin and Leia took me out the movie. The technology is not quite there yet. Still too evident both are CGI, and their scenes added nothing to the movie, especially Tarkin who really ground the movie to a halt. Would have been a stronger movie without their presence.

        • December 15, 2016 at 7:34 am
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          Giacchino is an enigma for me. Some of his music is outstanding (the scores for Pixar’s Ratatouille and Up immediately come to mind) but then you get stuff like Jurassic World, which I found very poor indeed. Probably the best example of this is his Star Trek music. His Trek movies continue some fantastic cues amongst some of the more incidently music, but his main Star Trek film I find to be loud, repetitious and no very memorable, and then there’s his version of Alexander Courage’s music, which is just plain bad (and you’d think after 40 years of previous content it’s be hard to screw up the Trek fanfare).

          Given that work will mean I won’t see Rogue One until the Xmas break I am eager to hear the soundtrack in advance so it’ll be interesting to me to see just how I’ll feel about it.

          • December 15, 2016 at 10:43 am
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            I’m not sure how must be to listen to Rogue One score without the film. What I can say is that most of your taste shared in this posts aligns with mine and I’m agree about your statements. I will add that the “re-orchestrations” are usually not satisfying because the leith motifs tend to get in wrongly, and the new cues doesn’t fit. But this is exactly what I liked of Rogue One. John Williams has already taken different approaches in the Star Wars Universe. You take IV and you take II and they are completely different. With that in mind, Rogue One has its own approach, more aggressive and militar, yet it keeps the Star Wars brand on the surface and uses the classic cues in the right way IMO: specially with the empire.

          • December 15, 2016 at 4:18 pm
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            I’ve often heard the music before seeing the film as I never get to go to films on opening day. In fact the OST is available to stream now on itunes so I might give it a listen tonight.

          • December 15, 2016 at 3:08 pm
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            I thought the CGI was very well done, and not just for Tarkin and Leia – you’ll be amazed!

          • December 15, 2016 at 3:09 pm
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            Sorry, replied to the wrong post!

      • December 14, 2016 at 11:35 pm
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        rey´s theme is superb!

      • December 18, 2016 at 3:38 pm
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        I can hum music from TFA, but only because I’ve listened to the soundtrack a few times. I’m guessing that the Rogue One soundtrack will be the same.

    • December 14, 2016 at 11:16 pm
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      the music is not bad, but it´s far from Williams level. But we would all know that even before hear it, right…?

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:10 pm
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    Again: sorry but talking like TESB is the best as accepted by everyone is not respectful…. but good review though… thank you

    • December 14, 2016 at 3:52 pm
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      “I have hope that we will one day see a Star Wars film that will surpass Empire Strikes Back.” Is this the quote that got you so salty?

    • December 14, 2016 at 5:47 pm
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      “respectful”? WTF

    • December 15, 2016 at 11:32 am
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      Hi Michael, I’m sorry if that came across that way. I’m speaking to the fact that it’s the most critically acclaimed of the Star Wars films. My personal favourite is Jedi so I in no way wanted to insinuate that Empire was anything more than the film generally accepted and held in the highest critical regard. I hope that clears things up as disrespect is the last thing I wanted to convey.

      • December 16, 2016 at 2:40 am
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        Yes, I did understand you but it is nice to add this, otherwise it becomes a 100% agreement that ESB is the best in the fan community and it is not true….. Thank you 😉

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:16 pm
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    Okay. I’ve seen it. Left the cinema about half an hour ago. There are no post-credit scenes; I know, since I sat there until the VERY end. I hope this did not count as a spoiler in some people’s eyes.

    In fact, I don’t quite know what to say, not only because I am still processing the movie, but because I find that people’s definitions of “spoilers” vary. Last year I pointed out that The Force Awakens did NOT answer the question of Rey’s family background, nor did we learn whether Snoke is Darth Plagueis. But to some people’s minds, even saying what is NOT in the movie was apparently considered “spoilers”, and some found me horribly uncool for informing them what they would NOT learn from this film.

    I thought I was just saving them from disappointment.

    I won’t say more than what is said and implied in many other reviews that are all over the web now. But if you are among those who find even the “spoiler-free” review article above WAY TOO FULL OF SPOILERS, then stop reading at once.

    Still with me? Okay, very generally speaking: Rogue One is Star Wars for grown-ups. Pre-teens may like the action-filled third act, where the ships and explosions really get going. On the other hand, the first two thirds of the movie would seem very dark, confusingly convoluted and potentially boring to the nine-year-old boys George Lucas famously claimed he was making Star Wars movies for. And even in the third act, kids may find it deeply disturbing to discover that the heroes don’t seem to be wearing the impregnable plot armor children are used to from many other movies.

    The end is deeply meaningful and even beautiful as seen by adult eyes, but the well-known Lucasian saccharine should not be expected. Enough said.

    More general observations: The Rebels are here not quite as lily-white as we are used to. They seem more morally ambiguous and are not above taking a quite innocent life here and there, if that is necessary to further their cause. This film puts the WARS into Star Wars, and war is gritty, nasty and dirty business, though George Lucas often tried to pretend otherwise. In Rogue One, how far we are from Jar Jar bumbling around with a “booma” until he just happens to hit the right target! How far we are from silly battle-droids going “roger, roger!” How little the cutesy Ewoks could have contributed in THESE battles!

    After watching Rogue One, one suddenly has the feeling that even the much-beloved A New Hope is told from an incredibly naive and simplistic perspective, namely that of C-3PO and (later) innocent farm boy Luke. Really, they are quite clueless as regards the true depth and darkness of the conflict they become involved in. It is Luke, the farmboy simpleton, who sees this as just a great “adventure”, and we are seduced into sharing his perspective right up until the happy-happy-happy ending where he gets his medal and even has some prospects of getting the girl (very luckily, the latter did not actually happen).

    Technical issues: As is essentially known already, two classical characters that cannot be portrayed by their original actors are brought back to life/youth in this film. One is almost a blink-and-you’ll miss-her affair (luckily you won’t dream of blinking at the time), but the other has a fairly substantial part. And it must be said, CGI human faces have not quite escaped the uncanny valley yet. On the other hand, the result is not disastrously bad. Nevertheless, let Lucasfilm redo it in five or ten years, just like CGI Jabba has been substantially upgraded in various incarnations of the Special Edition of A New Hope.

    Score: Decent enough, but it is slightly weird to often hear the first few tones of something that sounds like classic John Williams Star Wars themes, only to have the NEXT tones fail to follow up in the way we expect.

    Vader: Some would probably have liked to see more of him, but heck, he has FAR more screentime than Luke has in The Force Awakens and Revenge of the Sith (combined!) And in the live-action films, we have never seen the unstoppable force that is DARTH VADER FIGHTING realized as well as we see him here, whether the relevant scenes are short or long. We suddenly have to conclude that he was REALLY holding back during his fights with Luke, both on Bespin and the second Death Star.

    Some are saying that Rogue One is “better than The Force Awakens”. Personally, I would say the comparison is meaningless. The Episode films will apparently continue to aim for a certain sense of “childlike wonder”. They are generally nice family films and mostly about (what seems like) a pretty simplistic conflict between good and evil.

    Then adults can send the kiddies to bed, watch Rogue One and be reminded that when not filtered through a childlike mind, the great Galactic Civil War is just that : a nasty, deadly WAR, where very many undisputed heroes come to a quite different end than having the lovely Princess Leia hang a medal around their neck while Chewie growls triumphantly.

    • December 14, 2016 at 3:45 pm
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      I’m agree on most of your review, but you sound quite “unrespectful” (for a lack of a better word) on the overall Star Wars saga being childish and naive, and this is actually what does SW so accessible and popular. Star Wars is built on layers. You’ve got the films, which are popular and send messages to the audience. This messages are simple but important, specially for young people. Then you can penetrate to deeper layers and find out more complex stories. It has been happening with the novels (both legends and actual canon) and now we can celebrate it happens with this standalone film.
      What is brilliant about Rogue One is that it gets to introduce many gray tones on the rebellion, yet connect perfectly with Episode IV. I have to see IV now and I wish both movies connected work. In any case, it would help that Han shot first 😉

      • December 14, 2016 at 4:04 pm
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        I didn’t want to sound “unrespectful”, but there are dramatic differences in tone in these movies. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, but we have often been told that these movies are told from the perspective of C-3PO and R2, and that can be a pretty simple-minded perspective. Threepio is not a deep thinker, to say the least.

        We now cover the whole range from children’s movie with funny animals (Phantom Menace) to gritty war movie for adults (Rogue One). A New Hope is somewhere in the middle, but still formats the story in such a way that it is an obvious fairy-tale with no grey nuances whatsoever, and we never needed to doubt that the Central good guys would both win and survive (even Obi-Wan doesn’t really DIE-die). We early understand that the fate of the characters in Rogue One is in far more doubt.

        • December 14, 2016 at 5:40 pm
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          You are right, with no doubt this movie is morally much more complex and rich than any other Star Wars film. but the whole R1 story is based on the idea of hope, which emanates from that fairy tale called Star Wars Saga. Without that, R1 wouldn’t be as good IMO.

    • December 14, 2016 at 6:17 pm
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      Can I take my 5 yo to this? Is the violence beyond anything we’ve seen in other Star Wars films? Like, is there blood and gore, or is the violence similar in style to the other Star Wars films, just in greater quantity? I keep hearing that this is not a kids’ movie, but is that just that because the first part is less action-packed or because the violence is too much for children? I would really like to watch it for the first time with my whole family, but I don’t want to make this a traumatic experience for my younger kids.

      • December 14, 2016 at 7:37 pm
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        Much of this movie would go over the head of a five-year-old. I can’t recall “blood and gore” as such, but plainly a great number of people die, sometime killed rather casually even by the ones we are supposed to think of as the “heroes”. People on both sides are killed with blasters, sometimes execution-style. But the most spectacular deaths tend to involve big (sometimes REALLY big!) explosions. In these cases, we rarely see corpses afterwards, much less mangled and bloody corpses. People are just engulfed. In many cases, I don’t think a young child would understand what is really happening, or the tragic implications.

        Would you let your child sit through the most intense parts of Revenge of the Sith, such as the Jedi purge? If so, the child could likely handle Rogue One as well. The final sequence, where Vader with brutal efficiency makes his way through a group of rebels, may perhaps be the most scary for a young child. The sequence is not very long, but this dark, scary and obviously very violent character might be nightmare fuel for kids.

        • December 14, 2016 at 8:30 pm
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          Thanks for your reply. I let my children watch Revenge of the Sith, so it sounds like this should be fine, too. They are well acquainted with Vader.

          • December 14, 2016 at 10:01 pm
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            Very well. But whereas Revenge of the Sith only has this one, relatively brief montage with Jedi dying like flies, in Rogue One a very substantial percentage of the screentime is of comparable intensity!

            On the other hand, the all-time most “gruesome” Star Wars scene has to be Anakin burning alive on Mustafar, and I can’t say there is any scene in Rogue One that compares to that.

            Vague spoiler: There is one BRIEF GLIMPSE of the unsuited Vader that can perhaps be unsettling, but we don’t really get a good look at his disfigured features, and it is not in a context of violence.

    • December 15, 2016 at 9:51 pm
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      Good review.

  • December 14, 2016 at 3:54 pm
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    I really hope that Galen is the certain reason that a superweapon the size of a moon can be blown up using a very tiny hole. That would be so epic.

  • December 14, 2016 at 4:14 pm
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    Is R1 the best Star Wars film ever? – NO! But its up there with the original
    Trilogy and The Force Awakens.

    • December 14, 2016 at 4:15 pm
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      Indeed!! I would say two specific characters!!

  • December 14, 2016 at 6:12 pm
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    For anyone who has seen it: can I take my 5 yo to this? Is the violence beyond anything we’ve seen in other Star Wars films? Like, is there blood and gore, or is the violence similar in style to the other Star Wars films, just in greater quantity? I keep hearing that this is not a kids’ movie, but is that just that because the first part is less action-packed or because the violence is too much for children? I would really like to watch it for the first time with my whole family, but I don’t want to make this a traumatic experience for my younger kids.

    • December 14, 2016 at 7:10 pm
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      Just saw it (yay for France). No, not for children below 12 I would argue (probably 14 for an american audience) Not much blood but cold murders, and such.

      • December 14, 2016 at 7:37 pm
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        France too! It doesn’t go beyond Episode III, and I would say Episode III is much more graphic than this. I mean come on we’ve got ObiWan cutting legs and hand of Anakin, then watch him burning. Not to talk about suggesting Anakin kills a bunch of younglings. I would say this movie is gray rather than dark. It’s the fact that the lines between good and bad are blurry. I think that’s more impactful for a kid than anything else in the film.

        • December 14, 2016 at 8:32 pm
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          Thanks. Because they’re so young, I don’t think the moral ambiguity will enter the equation for me. I was more concerned about graphic violence, like blood and gore and beheadings and such.

          • December 14, 2016 at 8:45 pm
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            I think in the world we live nowadays, it’s good that movies like this one can be a way to educate on global conflicts in an objective way, without the need of putting real names to countries and politicians that rapidly narrow you in one direction. In the other hand I have no idea what is the ideal age for that.

      • December 18, 2016 at 3:24 pm
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        I’d say most American kids can handle it considering that 5 year-olds tend to eat up the Avengers movies. I’d place Rogue One at 6-10 years-old depending on how emotionally mature your child is.

    • December 14, 2016 at 11:08 pm
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      I have almost 6 years old star wars fanatic and I will show him this movie after he is 10 at least

    • December 15, 2016 at 5:21 am
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      Saw it tonight, was intending to take wife plus 5yr old girl and 8yr old boy in a few days time…. but not so sure now about it for the girl….

      • December 15, 2016 at 5:24 am
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        The violence is in lots of shooting and blowing up and falling down…. plus also a few deaths concerning people we’re becoming emotionally attached to. If they know the context of episodes III-VI, that it all turns out well, they might be okay…. ??? But there is a LOT of ‘shoot ’em up’ violence 🙁

    • December 16, 2016 at 6:35 pm
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      I caught a 10PM screening which was all adults, but as the theater was emptying from the 7PM screening, there were several 5-6yo kids who were visibly distraught.

  • December 14, 2016 at 6:13 pm
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    Who was the sith in front of darth vader bacta tank ?

    • December 14, 2016 at 7:34 pm
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      You don’t want to know… the cantina message board has the answer for you…

    • December 14, 2016 at 7:37 pm
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      Darth Jar Jar was in here. And Snoke is a time travelling Kylo Ren.

    • December 14, 2016 at 11:07 pm
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      just a messenger. Nobody

      • December 15, 2016 at 3:00 pm
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        That was a bit weird – I wonder if it ends up being Snoke or someone? It seems weird that they would put that in the movie, let alone advertise it in the trailer.

        • December 18, 2016 at 3:22 pm
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          To be fair, it was only in one teaser, and otherwise not emphasized. We, the fans, made it a big deal.

          • December 19, 2016 at 11:26 am
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            Ah, yes, we the fans 🙂

            Making a big deal of little things since 1977! (Or 1985, when I first saw ROTJ)

  • December 14, 2016 at 6:47 pm
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    No Star Wars film will ever be as good as ESB. That’s like expecting Christmas at age 40 to be as magical and exciting as it was at age 5. All the people who could’ve made an episode that approaches the quality of Empire are either retired or dead.

    • December 15, 2016 at 12:35 am
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      I think that’s incredibly pessimistic and untrue. You implied it yourself, Christmas wasn’t better when you were 5. It was better *because* you were 5.

      What was it exactly that happened between the 70s/80s and now that made it impossible for people to make great things?

      Face it, there are great things today just as there were great things back in the day. It is us that have changed. There *will* be great movies. The people who have the power to make ESB-quality movies are there. The question is rather whether or not they will work on Star Wars projects or on something else.

      Have faith. It might pay back one day. 🙂

      • December 15, 2016 at 3:41 am
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        Please tell me who in the industry today can design like McQuarrie, create stories and characters like Lucas, design sound like Burtt and compose scores like Williams in his prime? Please tell me what movies today are as good as Empire, because all I see is repetitive reboots, prequels and sequels that lack any genuine creativity whatsoever. Yes it is pessimistic, but I haven’t seen anything to make me the least bit optimistic.

        • December 15, 2016 at 6:50 am
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          There have been a lot of great movies since the early 80s 90s. Think of some of your favorite movies in the past 20 years and you’ll find that there are quite a few that jump out.

          However, I believe you’re right in believing that there will never be a Star Wars movie that will surpass the quality, epicness, feeling that ESB, Star Wars, and maybe even RoTJ for some if only because of nostalgia. I mean, the original Star Wars literally changed the way filmmakers made movies and stepped the quality up for Blockbuster Fantasy/Sci-Fi movies.

          I feel the same way about certain video games and even musical artists. With the Legend of Zelda for example, the N64 Zelda games in my opinion, have still never been passed as far as the feeling I got from them. It’s like those moments that helped define me and made me love those games forever. I still always hope for another game that had that sort of impact on me, and there have been quite a few really good games since then have had a lasting impact on me. Modern Warfare 1 and 2, The Witcher 1, 2, and 3, GTA San Andreas, Thief 1, and 2, the KOTOR games, Dark Forces 1 and 2, Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2.

          I digress, but still it’s rare that something can give you the same feeling and even surpass that feeling you got when you first experienced it all those years ago. Especially within the same franchise. I’m sure many people agree with this too but it’s almost like we are more critical and harder on the newer stuff even if it is objectively good or even better than the previous stuff. However, if you were to experience that new stuff for the first time and then went and watched, played, or listened to the older one. I feel that most people given that scenario would prefer the newer one because it’s more modern.

          There’s only been one time personally that I remember and actually preferred the older over the newer. Mad Max… lol

          I watched those starting with the newest number 4 and then 1, 2 and 3.

          My order would be 1, 4, 2, and then 3.

          I’m curious to see if anybody else has opinions on this, because I find it interesting that so many people, myself included, struggle to enjoy the newer stuff over the older stuff.

        • December 15, 2016 at 9:50 pm
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          I love Star Wars man, and the characters are iconic but it’s still a shallow film. The characters are all archetypes that were played well by an ensemble cast.

          Force Awakens had great new characters too who spoke to the audience.

          I’ve seen movies better than The Empire Strikes Back in the last twenty years. It’s a great Star Wars film, but alone? It doesn’t stand up against other films outside the franchise.

          • December 16, 2016 at 12:00 am
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            It’s not about comparing ESB to other movies. I was comparing it to other STAR WARS movies.

      • December 15, 2016 at 7:21 am
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        “What was it exactly that happened between the 70s/80s and now that made it impossible for people to make great things?”

        A subtle but continual shift towards formulaic, lazy corporate filmmaking, most notably realised today by major franchises, remakes and returns to old properties. While box office has always determined the success of a project, I think that the big studios are more interested in going for the safest option that sees a product offered for the masses who like more of the same (such as the endless spew of superhero movies), rather than putting their money into a truly risky project like A New Hope was, and many of the other films of that era. It’s a true shame because it means that the unwillingness to truly take risks on something new means that true creativity is being limited more and more to independent cinema – and independent cinema will never have the resources to create the modern day Star Wars that will live on for 50 years.

        • December 15, 2016 at 9:48 pm
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          You’re going to gamble 100 million + dollars on a film that could very well suck?

          It makes sense what they do. Movies cost a lot more now then they did during the 70’s and 80’s, and audience expectation for a blockbuster requires a studio to dump cash into a project. In the end, it’s still a business. Why take risk when you can still make hundreds of million dollars on an established franchise?

          • December 15, 2016 at 10:26 pm
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            You do realise that your first sentence makes the case for not making A New Hope, right?

          • December 16, 2016 at 2:43 pm
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            A New Hope didn’t cost 100 million.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:15 am
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      It’s silly to say that no film can top ESB. It’s quite possible that they will make one that does (not saying this is it). But I think what ESB has going for it (as well as the other originals) is the iconic elements. Iconic scenes and images like “I am your father” now live in the global mindset as much as “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” and “here’s lookin’ at you kid”. That’s a benchmark that is hard to overcome, irrespective of quality.

      • December 15, 2016 at 9:42 am
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        No Star Wars film. And the reason I say this is simple. You can’t re-create the specialness of something that is brand new that takes the world by storm with the 9th or 10th or 15th film in the saga. Familiarity does not captivate or excite us like unfamiliarity does and venturing into previously unexplored territory. We currently lack the talent in the industry to come close to achieving what the team who worked on the original trilogy did, and the handlers of Star Wars don’t appear to have much interest in straying away from the familiarity of the pre-existing saga.

        • December 15, 2016 at 9:46 pm
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          Empire wasn’t brand new, it was a sequel.

          I think it’s a very broad and poor assumption to state that there isn’t anyone in the film industry currently who could make a film on par with ESB.

          • December 15, 2016 at 11:57 pm
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            Please give me some names. Who is a better composer than John Williams was in the 70s-80s? Who designs for Star Wars better than Ralph McQuarrie and Joe Johnston? Who designs sound better than Ben Burtt? Who is as a good a creative storyteller as Lucas was then? The only thing I have seen come close to that level in the last 30 years is The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that was using a dead man’s story and world.

          • December 17, 2016 at 12:57 am
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            Agreed, I believe the main problem is that, up to the early 90’s, studios supported artists (directors, writers) in their visions, so we got great artistic expressions. After the second age of the blockbuster (Jurassic Park, Titanic) studios realized they could do what they wanted, and just hire hands to make the movies they (studios) wanted to make, which is what is happening now with SW and most blockbusters and superhero movies (MCU anyone?). KK, Iger and their board decide on a story, then search for the director to craft it, this is no longer the age of the visionary, the artist, the risk taker. While I was pleasantly surprised with R1, I too believe we will never see anything of the depth and emotion of ANH or ESB, for the reasons I just stated. Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion-

        • December 16, 2016 at 2:27 am
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          I believe there is a receipt. There is a way to make it amazing and eventually the right blend will be there….

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:33 am
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      Let’s talk the OT as a whole because there are many different opinions about which is best…… I wouldn’t loose hope yet

  • December 14, 2016 at 6:54 pm
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    It’s not stepping away from the Saga when it features the main character of the Saga in all his glory. Just saying.

    • December 14, 2016 at 7:33 pm
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      No, it does. His screentime is pretty calculated. It really steps out, but in the other hand this is a film I won’t be able to scape anymore when watching the saga.

    • December 14, 2016 at 10:45 pm
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      “features”.

      I don’t think that word means what you think it means.

    • December 14, 2016 at 11:07 pm
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      this is not a spin off. It´s the first 1/2 of A new hope.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:11 am
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      Yeah. This isn’t really a standalone so much as it’s Episode 3.5.

  • December 14, 2016 at 7:15 pm
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    Trust the Force on this one 😉

  • December 14, 2016 at 9:30 pm
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    just tell me: the death star shot with destroyers from the first teaser. is it in the film?

    • December 14, 2016 at 11:05 pm
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      it is, but not all

    • December 18, 2016 at 3:19 pm
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      Yes, but from a few different angles.

  • December 14, 2016 at 11:05 pm
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    8/10. I would give it 10/10, because the whole movie is epic. 2 points down for one short and one two minutes (at the end) continuity problems and for the last 5 seconds (CGI problem). Otherwise the film is really great, a war movie, and I can´t wait to see it tomorrow in IMAX.

    • December 15, 2016 at 6:33 am
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      There are actually continuity problems? That surprises me considering the care they took to craft the story and the Lucasfilm story group.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:10 am
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      Interesting that you didn’t like the CGi “problem” at the end. I’d heard it was almost faultless.

      • December 16, 2016 at 12:34 am
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        It’s really not.

      • December 16, 2016 at 1:07 am
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        I actually thought it was pretty convincing to be honest. All the cgi character work I found astonishing with every scene that features it.

      • December 16, 2016 at 8:02 am
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        Actually, there are way more CGI characters than I was expecting, and I thought it was brilliant (I’m not an expert on visuals though – a few of them, I was just stunned they were in there, because no one is talking about them)

        • December 16, 2016 at 11:27 am
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          Yeah, I just found out who some of the others are and I am also surprised they don’t get a mention. Perhaps they don’t stick out in the memory as much as the main cast.

  • December 15, 2016 at 2:37 am
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    Re: Rogue One Rottentomatoes

    So far it’s sitting right there with ratings similar to “Revenge of the Sith” ( 84% & 79% ).

    Be interesting to see what the aggregate scores will be once the dust settles.

    Can’t wait to see if tomorrow!

  • December 15, 2016 at 5:19 am
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    Just back from a local midnight screening : Wow, exciting, amazing, breath-taking, emotional…. it *isn’t* Star Wars, it *is* Star Wars…. violent… superb nods to the existing franchise, great use of archive footage, amazing casting of ‘youthful’ or now-deceased actors. My only gripe is that James Earl Jones’ voice is clearly that of an old man, as well as a break-neck pace in plot delivery (a little difficult in following who-what-where), but they are very minor criticisms indeed !

  • December 15, 2016 at 7:08 am
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    ” It proves that for Star Wars to succeed it needs to take big, brave and
    bold steps in exciting new directions. After all, that’s what George
    Lucas did in 1977.”

    And yet, no matter how good this is, it’s still playing it safe but setting in during the time of the originally trilogy and basing it around a Saga connected event. In contrast, Lucas has always been about true imagination, which I think is a very important point (irrespective of how well he executed his own ideas later on).

    Much like Force Awakens……in fact more like Force Awakens, this movie feels pitched to fans of a certain age like myself, who want a Star Wars that makes them feel like they did as a kid. That has familiar trappings. I suspect for that reason I will like this movie and probably prefer it to Force Awakens, but I can’t help feel that Disney has yet to deliver something for the kids of today that is truly new and creative but set in the SW universe. I think that’s what the prequels were trying to achieve, even if poorly executed.

    • December 15, 2016 at 7:20 am
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      I sort of agree. Although, I do think that the new generation of kids for the most part really do like TFA, at least the characters, and are looking forward to the sequels just like most of us Star Wars fans are. My cousins who are around that age 12 – 16 really enjoyed TFA.
      The ones who seem put TFA down the most are the older fans who saw the OT in theaters and felt like TFA was a been there done this movie, and also the 17-33 year olds who like to bandwagon hate, or are easily reeled into group-think and dislike TFA because many people on the world wide web do.

      • December 15, 2016 at 7:29 am
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        Oh yeah, I’m not saying that there is nothing for the kids to like. This will be their Star Wars, kinda like how some Trekkies first gew up on Next Generation onwards. But I just feel that they’re bei8ng a little short changed bu having something that partially exists to cater for their parents and grandparents as much, of not more, than them.

        Those of us born in the 70s and who grew up in the 80s had so much more in terms of benchmark content. Star Wars, early Spielberg, the first ever non-campy take on superheroes and so on. I just wish there was more of that today for the kids, rather than recycled stuff.

        Don’t mind me, it’s just a bit of a grumble I have about the general state of cinema today that I often make when discussing SW and other movies. As much as I overall liked TFA and will probably like this, it’s just been a personal frustration of mine that even SW is not immune from the ever increasing shift towards production line cinema.

    • December 15, 2016 at 9:41 pm
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      They didn’t know what to do. TFA deferred to trying to win back the older fans were upset by how the Prequels turned out. It is what it is because yes, nostalgia, and because they needed to bridge a gap. Not of age, but with people like me who had all but abandoned Star Wars prior to 2012 when Disney bought it.

      Until I was 25 years old, Star Wars was my everything. At 25 I admitted defeat and started moving onto to new things and I stopped spending money on Star Wars.

      When the new films were announced in 2012, I didn’t jump for joy. I was pissed.

      I didn’t want another crappy (in my opinion) Star Wars movie. I didn’t want Disney to churn out garbage to further dilute the awe and wonder of my childhood.

      But as time moved on I saw promise. I like TFA a lot, and what short comings it has I can understand the reasons as to why they exist. They needed SOMETHING to come out to get an idea of what fans would respond to. TFA being first actually does make more sense, they wanted to the Star Wars hype engine revved up for Lightspeed, getting the original cast back on the big screen was the best way to do that.

      Had they gone with a spin off first, I think people would have been a lot less excited and asking why another prequel? Why not a sequel? TFA moves the entire Star Wars Universe forward. Rogue One expands on what was already there. TFA changes Star Wars. Rogue One adds to it, no matter what happens in the film, Episode IV still happens exactly the same way.

      I do believe Disney has listened to fan reaction after VII, and I believe (and hope) that VIII is going to the be film you want. Something wildly different, new, and it’s own animal. Taking Star Wars in a new direction rather than riding on Lucas’s coat tails.

      Only time will tell.

      • December 15, 2016 at 10:34 pm
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        I appreciate the effort that has gone into your post, but your last sentence is the be all and end all of it IMO.

      • December 16, 2016 at 2:24 am
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        Let’s see, it is still mysterious…. it is a really hard job to get something as soul touching then the OT but keep trying as it is way better then nothing!

    • December 16, 2016 at 5:57 am
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      They have to play with what they have already, and it is huge.
      One mistake in the prequels was, I believe, too many new stuff creating a new thing that sometimes didnt fit well with the original trilogy. That is my personal opinion.
      They cannot start a new thing “again” for the kids who didnt know SW because they would lose the fans.
      So they had to pick what they think is the best from all the material they had before. And pray for the new kids to love it as we do.
      And I believe they are doing it pretty well.
      Of couse this is my opinion of a grown up person.

      • December 16, 2016 at 11:33 am
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        “They have to play with what they have already, and it is huge.”

        Well, that’s very much my point. What they do have is a huge universe, a huge blank canvas, so there is little reason to play it so safe other than for what I said – quickest way to a buck by appeasing the fans. With Rogue One being an obviously familiar setting, and a story of very close proximity to ANH, I would’ve preferred the second spin off to be more disconnected from familiar tropes and/or the Skywalkers, which a Han Solo film is not in my opinion, since it’s still going to be set in that post Revenge of the Sith era.

        • December 16, 2016 at 12:56 pm
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          I am glad we agree.
          Consider they could have picked Jar Jar, the Senate or Midiclorians… or for example they could make a movie more centered in the Empire inside. Darth Vader at the End of Rogue 1 is starting a chase that will change him definitevly as it changes Luke, Leia or Han Solo. The inner life of Vader should be interesting too.
          Skywalkers appears in R1, but I believe is helping the story, it is not a movie about them.
          I truly would love a movie about Obi Wan, what was going on with him during his years hidden in Tatooine, and also if he was always hiding there. May be he had meetings with yoda, who knows.
          Obviously in that kind of movie Luke Skywalker kid would appear, even Leia could too.
          Well, they have the plot in their hands, it depends on them what to do.

    • December 16, 2016 at 8:05 am
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      On an unrelated note – your username always makes me smile 🙂 Apologies if the name is meant to be serious, but I do find it funny!

      • December 16, 2016 at 11:26 am
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        Ha, no it’s not meant to be serious. When I originally set up this account I did it for the purpose of just posting one comment on a site and so just went with a silly name, which was “Dog’s Mess”. But then I carried on using the account and got known at a site. I wanted to change my name but when I did nobody knew who I was, so ever since then whenever I change it it’s always a variation to some degree of the original name so that folks there know who I am. The avatar is always WIthnail as well for that reason.

        You probably didn’t need to know that, but there you go. 🙂

        • December 19, 2016 at 11:27 am
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          🙂

          Still a good name!

  • December 15, 2016 at 2:56 pm
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    I’ll try and keep this spoiler free…

    Just saw it in Australia – my heart was pounding well and truly after I left the cinema. The last half hour or so is intense! Absolutely breathtaking.

    Quite a few things will surprise you, and you’ll think “wow, they did THAT, and did it WELL”

    THIS is the movie that they should have released first – get all the nostalgia out of the way with this one, and then launch something new and special with The Force Awakens.

    Rogue One has its flaws, but the second half is something that we will all replay a hundred times on DVD/Blu-Ray.

    Rogue One handles the nostalgia WAY better than TFA, pulling off some great cameos that you won’t see coming (I won’t spoil them).

    The space battles are as good as the Battle of Endor, if not superior.

    I thought the music was ok but not John Williams standard (fair enough, Williams is a once in a generation composer), but I preferred the new Star Trek music to be honest.

    Vader makes a “choke” pun that is awful, but other than that was used very well.

    Overall – well done to the filmmakers, you’ve earnt your cash on this one. Keep them coming!

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:20 am
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      I totally agree for the Music. It was nice but John Williams is just amazing. I found it strange that the were so much force theme in the trailers but just a couple of times in the film. Main there was absent too until the credits…..

      The Battle of Endor has wedge, calrissian flying fighters to whom we already had a connection what is not the case here….. In my opinion Ender is still the most amazing one.

      • December 16, 2016 at 7:55 am
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        After sleeping on it, I’ll agree it’s a close call with Endor/Scarif. But boy, my heart was absolutely racing during the last half hour, and the end credits hit me like a slap in the face.

        Next time I want to watch A New Hope, I will be putting in Rogue One (after the DVD release obviously) and watching the last hour. Sets it up beautifully.

        • December 16, 2016 at 8:00 am
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          I went home that night and quickly watched the first 10-15 minutes of A New Hope. It feels so different knowing the events prior to the movie. And knowing Luke, the key to ending the Empire was just a farmer at that point. It’s very refreshing.

          P.s. I bought the soundtrack. The music is growing on me

          • December 16, 2016 at 8:04 am
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            Good idea! When I see it again in a few days, I’ll do just that!

            Just out of curiosity – what were your thoughts on the first half of the movie? I enjoyed watching it, but not sure I would enjoy it as much the second/third time around (only one to find out though!)

          • December 16, 2016 at 8:23 am
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            I can’t explain how much I loved seeing the different locations and creatures. There are a few dull moments but I get a real kick out of just seeing the design of everything from the U-Wing interior to the streets of Jedha. I’ll have to watch it again though. I can’t stop thinking about that 3rd act!

            Btw, what did you think of the opening? I actually really liked it! It catches you by surprise like, Boom! And the movie has started.

          • December 16, 2016 at 9:09 am
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            The opening was fine, it didn’t need an opening crawl, and it was a nice effect. The “Rogue One” title looked a little bit off, but it wasn’t there for long enough to worry about.

            And yeah – that 3rd act! It just builds and builds and builds… Next time I see the movie, if I see another cinema playing it and it’s near the end, I’d walk in and watch the 3rd act again

          • December 16, 2016 at 9:28 am
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            The title looked a bit cheap. The visuals in this movie are absolutely stunning. I’m going to have to examine that Princess Leia moment more closely because people seem to disagree on its quality. I thought it was good.

            Are you more interested in seeing a Boba Fett spinoff or Obi-Wan?

          • December 16, 2016 at 9:39 am
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            Cheap is a good word… like they decided to do it very late. But like I said, it wasn’t a deal breaker.

            Yeah, the visuals were stunning. I thought the Leia moment was great, although in the first second or two when I saw her face, I thought it was just another actor playing her, not CGI, so I’ll have to have another look.

            Re the spin-offs – definitely Obi-Wan, but now that I’ve seen the care and effort they put into making it, and their determination to “get it right” (with costly re-shoots), I am a lot more relaxed. I think they’ll put some really good movies out.

            Also, not sure I’d call Rogue One a spinoff – it’s really Episode 3.5, or Episode 3.99, really… It fits in nicely.

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:47 am
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      A fellow Aussie!

      Move along, move along.

  • December 15, 2016 at 11:42 pm
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    Well I just have watched it in Europe.

    This is a really good movie.
    Who is not a fan of Starwars will watch a nice action movie, very well done. Truly enjoy it.
    And for Star Wars fans it is full of small details and blinks totally amazing, that makes you love it.
    So it has that plus if you know the details of the saga, I am not going to spoil with them the movie to people who are waiting to watch it.

    I just highly recommend to go and enjoy it.

  • December 16, 2016 at 1:34 am
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    Until last month, I had absolutely zero expectation concerning the
    spin-off movies. For me, they were unnecessary and I was planning on
    keeping focused on the episodic movies.

    Last night, the only thing I could think of when I left the cinema was: wow.

    This film surpassed my expectations on every level. I was blown away by
    the impression of gigantism this movie gives off. The serious, dark
    atmosphere of this movie is truly unique and is in total contrast with
    the fantasy / fairy-tale / Manichean tone of the original trilogy, while
    still encapsulating the majesty of its universe.

    The characters are awesome, nuanced, tormented, and serves a great story
    which the mere evocation of the ending leaves me with goosebumps.

    There are so many good things in this movie, so many good elements, that
    I won’t make any list. If you have seen it, you know which scenes are
    goosebumps-inducing.

    Really, the thing that I will remember the most is the unique atmosphere
    this movie gives off. What it brought to this franchise is absolutely
    phenomenal. I discovered Star Wars with the VHS tapes of the Original
    Trilogy when I was 3-4 years old and I always perceived Star Wars as
    this fairy-tale-ish, noble story, this is why I understand some people
    might be shocked by the very different tonal approach. But this new take
    on the universe, this new component… left me speechless. I think it
    is the most epic, the most consistent, the most tragic Star Wars film to
    date.

    It might not have the “magical” fantasy-specific element of the other
    movies, but it is the most humane Star Wars movie. For me, ESB has just
    been topped.

    I invite you to listen to “Jyn Erso & Hope Suite” when you get the soundtrack.

    9/10

    • December 16, 2016 at 5:41 am
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      Yes, I am totally agree, you defined it very well, it is tragic and truth in a way the other movies of the saga are not.

    • December 16, 2016 at 9:25 am
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      Much in agreement…but you lost me at…”For me, ESB has just been topped.”

      • December 16, 2016 at 9:41 am
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        Yeah I get it. ESB has become so iconic that it felt wrong when I wrote that. But at the same time that’s how I feel about this movie. I think RO and ESB have something in common: they both transcended Star Wars. The thing is… I thought Rogue One did it in an even more beautiful way.

        Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, but I do think Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie in a certain way. We don’t have to rank them.

        • December 16, 2016 at 10:59 pm
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          Understood. I do agree with much of what you wrote/opinion of Rogue One.
          As well, might be silly *ranking* the movies….but it’s inevitable.
          I REALLY liked the movie. It demonstrates that SW movies, outside of the main Skywalker saga, can be great.
          ESB, though, was a phenomenal movie. Nostalgia/hindsight aside – from the characters, story & dialogue, to iconic battles/scenes & drama. It really had it all.
          That said, Rogue One absolutely *fits* in the SW universe. It feels like it earned it’s place as.
          Arguably better than TFA, particularly if you remove the “nostalgia points” which TFA automatically receives.
          Just shows was a competent director can do with SW, even outside of the main saga storyline w/mostly new cast of characters.

      • December 17, 2016 at 8:33 pm
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        “but you lost me at…” I think we have to be careful when we say such things. The idea that we hold the OT in such high regard is a good thing of course. The idea that we can’t like films above others considered the “Holy Grail” I think is silly.

        • December 17, 2016 at 9:27 pm
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          Re: “we have to be careful when we say such things”
          Be careful? I was expressing my opinion. If it wasn’t clear – my opinion that ESB wasn’t just *topped*.

          Re: “we can’t like films above others considered the “Holy Grail” I think is silly”
          Who said anyone can’t like films above others? Again, I just disagreed that ESB had “just been topped”.

          “Holy Grail” – you can think that *silly* …but you’re thinking what YOU said was silly, not what I said. I never said *holy grail*, nor implied it. If a SW movie comes along, that imho is better than ESB, I’ll be the 1st to praise it. Never have, never will say it’s untouchable.

          I was doing exactly what you’re suggesting we should be able to do – express “liking a film above others”. After watching Rogue One, I expressed that I liked ESB better.
          And I REALLY liked Rogue One.

    • December 16, 2016 at 10:37 am
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      Jyn Erso & Hope Suite is fantastic indeed… I just love that violin at the beginning!

      In certain points it is really reminiscent of something I’ve heard before… I think it definitely uses a couple of notes of Across the Stars (or another part of the Attack of the Clones soundtrack) and the Luke theme, before moving to something different…

  • December 16, 2016 at 1:48 am
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    “Are you kidding me? I’m Blind!”

    Saw it twice today. Really liked it, but not yet sure if I loved it or not.

    Strengths:
    Story – nicely ties the SW universe together
    Acting – constantly to a high standard
    Visuals, sets, and vehicles
    The majority of the 1st act, and the 3rd act
    Easter eggs – characters (non-CGI), props, and references

    Weaknesses:
    Lacked the emotional impact of the OT or TFA
    The 2nd act really dragged in places
    The two CGI A New Hope characters really took me out the movie, the technology is not quite there yet. Felt neither contributed to the narrative, and the movie would have been stronger without them
    Not enough Vader, his final scene was pretty epic though
    Donny Yen and Felicity Jones fights’ were way over choreographed

    Really good film, but unfortunately not a great one.
    7.8 (generously rounded up to an 8) out of 10.

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:21 am
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      Agree on CGI

      • December 16, 2016 at 3:01 am
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        Same here. For the brief appearance of the second CGI character (okay, everybody understands that we are talking about Leia) they could just have extracted a few seconds from a failed 1976 take of Carrie Fisher and animated her mouth to fit the one syllable they need her to say. The blooper reels are even on YouTube, so the material exists! Using CGI here was quite unnecessary.

      • December 16, 2016 at 8:35 am
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        There was one scene of the Male ANH character that you couldn’t tell he was CGI…. about a 4 second scene, other then that, it kind of took me out of it too. I mean, it was 50% spot on, and 50% just enough that you could tell they were CGI.

        HOWEVER……. Red Leader and Gold Leader looked 100% real to me…. they looked/sounded just like they did in ANH. I thought that was awesome 🙂

        I enjoyed it, but i think i enjoyed TFA more. Excited to see it again Tuesday ^_^

        • December 16, 2016 at 11:11 am
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          SO great! Seing Red leader and Gold Leader was top. In the credits they thank to Skywalker archives. Probably those scenes were lost filmed scenes from ANH. They look so amazing! For me it was not CGI, my opinion (have to see it again but probably were the same scenes from ANH) Great moment.

          • December 18, 2016 at 3:07 am
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            I believe you are correct 🙂 After some further research, i believe they were taken from unused ANH footage ^_^ no wonder they were perfect XD.

            On a different note.. can’t believe how many scenes in the trailers were left out of the film…. like… tons. TFA really only had like 2 or 3 scenes (Kylo Ren from the teaser, and then Maz handing the Lightsaber to Rey, possibly Leia). But like…. so much wasn’t shown in the final film.

          • December 18, 2016 at 4:58 am
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            I think you need to rewatch the TFA teaser trailer from November 2014.

          • December 18, 2016 at 8:42 am
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            So the Kylo Ren shot i mentioned, the x-wing shot (although i think what happened is it was the teaser, so they rushed that, and then for the final film, the X-wing entrance was bigger) and then the part where Rey looks over her shoulder on the thumb-drive speeder.. other than that, rest was in. Rogue One had TONS not in it. Perhaps a product of the re-tooling. Like…

            1. No Krennic in the water
            2. No Jyn Running with the data tape on the beach
            3. No ‘what will you become?’ from Saw (and i don’t think i heard him say ‘the world is coming undone’)
            4. tons of Jyn/Casian stuff. i.e. ‘Iv’e been recruiting for the rebellion for a long time’
            5. Baze – ‘They destroyed our home!’
            6. K-2SO ‘The captain says you are a friend…. i will not kill you’
            7. No TIE coming up on the bridge with Jyn
            8. I don’t think i heard K say ‘there is a 97.6% chance of failure’
            9. No scene with Jyn in the landing officer suit as the lights come on (end of first trailer)
            10. No vader in front of a control panel
            11. No arial shot of ship flying over Jedi rock carving
            12. No Jyn saying ‘I rebel’.

            Also.. could be wrong.. but i honestly don’t remember this….
            http://www.newsarama.com/images/i/000/183/675/i02/RogueOneDeathStarJedha.jpg

          • December 18, 2016 at 5:42 pm
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            1. No Maz Kanata talking with Leia.
            2. No “dark side and the light” from Snoke.
            3. Several shots of Kylo Ren on the SKB and Rey on Jakku.
            4. “Who are you?” “I’m no one.”
            5. No Kylo igniting his lightsaber.
            6. Several shots of the X-wings were gone.
            7. No Unkar Plutt on Takodana.
            8. No Constable Zuvio AT ALL.

            Meanwhile all that Rogue One stuff (minus Jyn running with the data tapes) just amounts to deleted lines and alternate takes. That’s hardly anything that would need to be reshot.

          • December 19, 2016 at 12:59 am
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            I thought i saw all the TFA trailers…. Which one had Unkar Plutt on Takodana and Zuvio?

          • December 19, 2016 at 6:33 am
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            They were featurettes, not trailers.

          • December 19, 2016 at 10:17 am
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            Then we should include C2-B5 and the Jedha camel scene that were both talked about a lot.

          • December 19, 2016 at 4:33 pm
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            To be fair, the Jedha camel can be seen in the background. I’m guessing the same goes for C2-B5. Zuvio appears for literally one frame.

          • December 19, 2016 at 11:46 pm
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            Hmm.. i missed the camel things. I will have to look out for it tomorrow in IMAX

          • December 20, 2016 at 4:18 am
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            Wow. It’s as if they did multiple takes of each shot.

          • December 20, 2016 at 5:02 am
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            LOL, a bunch were just scenes we never got. Like, anything with Finalized CGI (like the overhead mountain Jedi). was just taken out. same with Jyn on the battlefront. I assume that was taken out because of script changes. Instead of a physical delivery, it was switched to radio transmission. And the 3 running in the Subway. And that epic Krennic in the water scene.

          • December 20, 2016 at 5:08 am
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            Yep. Those are the parts that were clearly reshot.

  • December 16, 2016 at 2:43 am
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    Enjoyed it immensely. I thought the Look of Princess Leia was amazing, the technology has come along way.

    My only problems with the movie, and honestly, they didn’t really bother me too much.

    – The music is good but it’s not Star Wars great. I think it’s fitting for these spinoff movies but it’ll have to grow on me.

    – Darth Vader’s voice is clearly that of an older James Earl Jones. It’s not jarring just noticeable.

    I loved all the different planets that were visited throughout the movie. The first time you see Cassian, it looked like he was in the Coruscant Underworld. Overall a very good movie and one I will definitely to watch again and again at home.

    8.5/10
    I can’t wait to watch this movie again.

  • December 16, 2016 at 2:50 am
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    Jyn’s “I Rebel” line wasn’t used in the movie. Disney does listen to the people it seems.

  • December 16, 2016 at 5:07 am
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    After initial viewing, a really good movie. Enjoyed it alot. By no means the best Star Wars movie (or even better than TFA in my opinion), but really good. It could be the best Star Wars movie visually though. The new planets look absolutely stunning. The lack of an opening crawl did throw me off (the title card did look very cheap) and the first 15 minutes cuts between planets every 30 seconds. I didn’t have a problem with the CGI Tarkin. For how much he was in Catalyst, he had to be in the film more than a cameo. The score was not bad but I don’t think I’ll remember any theme aside from anything already in the original trilogy. The action is amazing. The last 40 minutes is pretty much non-stop action. I’d rate it at 7.7/10.

    • December 19, 2016 at 3:15 am
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      I’ve seen it three times now and can form my opinion more now. There are some things I love about this movie and some things I really don’t like at all (#1 so far is that I had to see the Boss Baby trailer 3 times: that’s brutal). The planets and cinematography are just gorgeous in this. Everything in Scariff is so well done but my favorite shot is after they fire on Jedha and the scan up from the explosion almost touching the Death Star. Most of the new characters worked really good too. I wished they would have marketing Bodhi more. His character was a real surprise for me. The action is top notch. Last 40 minutes was a such a fun roller coaster ride and enjoyable to watch on screen. And the end with Vader was something any fan has been waiting a long time to see onscreen.

      I don’t know why I don’t like it so much but showing the name of the planets on screen is one of the things that I didn’t like. Leave that to Star Trek or GOTG. For some reason the deaths of each character didn’t affect me that much. Maybe because since I had a feeling all of them would die but I wished I could of felt more when each died. I still feel more seeing that Ewok die in ROTJ. My main biggest gripe is the music in the movie though. After the first viewing I said it wasn’t that bad but I think the first 30-45 minutes of it are pretty bad now but it does get better throughout. The music when the title card showed up is in my opinion the worst bit of music in a Star Wars movie. It sounds so bad and cheesy. I actually might think it is from Star Trek or Galaxy Quest. I know Giacchino only had a month or two for it but it felt like in someplaces he just reused music from another score he had previously done. First Star Wars movie I can recall that had a piano in it (Jyn listening to the hologram). I actually like Giacchino alot (his Pixar stuff is great) but the music in a SW movie is so important.and this just failed to me on alot of levels. There’s no memorable theme from this movie.

      Overall, its a really fun movie and enjoyable experience to watch in the theater. I can see where some people could think its amazing or some might think its too much fan service. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll like this movie regardless.

  • December 16, 2016 at 8:34 am
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    Saw the movie..Loved it.. Although I walked out of the theater on cloud nine, a few things did bother me…and I will share my opinions. Most of you may not share them, but we all have the right to ours without deserving to get trolled don’t we? Not trying to burst anyone’s Star Wars bubble. Obviously the intro was pretty damn lame and I hated it. The Rogue One Title screen and Music was super cheese and I hope they fix it for blu- ray release. I am a big Music guy, so the soundtrack distracted me quite a bit. I hated the score…I cant even explain how much I hated it and did not think it fit in with a star wars movie, I simply tolerated it. You would have thought they would have at least stuck with a lot of the 1977 tv serial type scores. it was especially noticeable to me when they would cut to the Empire and Death Star scenes. In A New Hope..when they cut to the DeathStar..there was always the same theme…totally absent in this movie. The Score to me is just terrible and such a missed op. This is just me being a picky Star Wars geek…but I really wished they would have Kept the Lucas trademark cutscene sequences between scenes. Just My Opinion…I know they wanted to make this movie stand on its own…BUT…it is a Star Wars film afterall…and I wish they would Keep a lot of these things as a tradition permanently for all SW films…some of the fan service was cool..one seemed really forced to me tho…Walrus man scene seemed pretty forced to me. Although I loved seeing Tarkin and Leia…I cant help but to think they just did not have enough time to get it perfect and I hope they tweak it a bit more for the Blu- Ray release. You can see glitches and twitches in Tarkins body and head when he moves..and when he talks his mouth movements don’t feel right and I know for a fact that they are able to perfect mouth movements these days in animation. Other than that he looked fantastic and I am so glad they didn’t get an actor to portray him. Leia just didn’t seem finished. Her teeth did not look right and her cgi was more noticeable than Tarkins, her nose seemed off . My opinion is they just didn’t have the time to finish it because of the deadline. The Young Tony Stark in Civil War animation was far superior and proof they could have did better. I am hoping they do what Lucas did when he re did Yoda for the Blu- Ray release…( Off topic…what the hell is stopping them from using this technology for the Han Solo Movie? It would make sense and would be so much better than having someone else play Han and Lando. This technology is so awesome that I think they could even do stand alone movies Of Luke Skywalker’s Story between Jedi and TFA ..ANYTHING)____________ OK the last thing I am going to mention is the fact that in Episode 4… Vader says ” Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies. I want to know what happened to the plans they sent you”. Pretty much the most important detail and completely what Rogue One was supposed to be about right?…Only, in Rogue One this is really not the case and it is completely ignored. ( WTF???) The Transmission was NOT beamed to Leia’s ship in Rogue One … The transmission was beamed to the Command ship. The plans were downloaded from a computer on that ship onto a disk that the soldiers carried to Leia’s ship as Vader was chasing them and handed it her before her ship escapes, and this is the disc she gives Artoo.. Someone dropped the ball completely on that one.. Other than these things I thought the movie was Fantastic….but it also proved one thing to me. As tight knit as the story group seems to be, these things tell me that Putting a deadline on these films and Rushing them so we have one a year with a set Date before filming starts is not a good idea. After the dust clears and everyone settles down from the hype of how good the movie really was, these details are going to become the Elephant in the room. Seeing as this movie was based on the first 20 minutes of Episode 4 and considering this movie is about how they got the death star plans to Leia, I can’t believe Pablo Hidalgo completely missed one of the most important details that sparked this movie to begin with and didn’t raise his hand at the meeting and say…” Hey guy’s…cool idea…but..umm…These plans were actually beamed to Leia’s ship in A New Hope, and you are going to fuck up the whole story if you do this.”

    • December 16, 2016 at 9:17 am
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      In total synergy with you regarding the opening title. The font and the short piece of music was totally dreadful. Believe that same piece was used again in the 3rd act (when the rebels triumph). On the whole, I thought the music score wasn’t really that bad, wasn’t nearly as good as TFA’s, more bland than terrible.

    • December 16, 2016 at 10:04 am
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      I don’t think they should have an traditions locked in, per se, they should leave it open to the individual director exactly how much they want to reference or omit. Like, having the Death Star theme play can be used if appropriate, but it shouldn’t be a legal requirement … though it does sound like it would have been appropriate to go ahead and use or at least musically reference it. Though TBF, John Williams dropped the Death Star theme the second he came up with Imperial March to replace it; in Return of the Jedi, the theme is nowhere to be heard; so clearly not even Williams thought much of it; but still SOME sort of carry-over would have been good.

    • December 16, 2016 at 1:22 pm
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      The plans weren’t beamed directly to Leia’s ship but the Tantive was in the docking bay. Vader could surely make the logic leap and assume that the plans had to be aboard that escaping ship. That sounds like a nitpick of information to be honest. What Vader said still applies because the end result would be the same. The plans were ultimately aboard the Tantive.

      • December 18, 2016 at 11:31 am
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        As has been pointed out, sometimes you will simplify stuff and not spell out every detail as you talk. But one could imagine Leia trying to nitpick later:

        Vader: Several transmissions were beamed to this ship by Rebel spies!
        Leia: Weellllllllllll, technically they were beamed to the ship we were docked with at the time, then downloaded onto a memory card which was physically brought on board here …
        Vader: YOU KNOW %&#% WELL WHAT I MEAN!!!!!!

    • December 16, 2016 at 4:36 pm
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      My thoughts on Tarkin since I have a background in 3D design and some personal experience with MoCap. First of all it’s important to know that 3D objects are usually rendered as a whole since the individual elements influence each other. This means that the teeth are not rendered independently from the rest of the model. The only thing I can imagine that the material they used was not optimized. As for the facial movements. Motion capturing is pretty accurate and it gets the more accurate the more humanoid a face is. Since they were using MoCap for a human face the glitches were just normal human musclemovements which you missinterpreted as glitches. The reason why Tarkin and Leia look artificial is because CGI is not perfect yet. We are still to some degree in the “uncanny valley” which is especially obvious when we see a CGI human closeup and right next to a real human. Since CGI is extremely expensive I am 100% sure they wont rerender it just for the BlueRay release especially since it’s top notch by today’s standards. As for RDJ in Civil War. Smoothing and deaging real video footage is completely different from creating a CGI character from scratch. RDJ hasn’t aged that much, there is tons of movies when he was younger to as use as references which is why it looks better and why these SFX are not comparable to each other.

    • December 17, 2016 at 7:04 am
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      Why was Leia there in the first place? Was her mission to get the plans then go pick up Obi Wan and take him to Alderaan?

  • December 16, 2016 at 10:59 am
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    Hi guys. saw the movie too!
    Really liked it!! So many emotions! Probably a great 8/10
    But its a movie with a lot information to process.
    Probably minor spoilers.

    Really loved it because it’s different, it’s dark, the connection is well done. It fits perfectly in the SW world, although sometimes it seems not a SW movie. I think Moff Tarkin is so important, because in ANH had so much power and here has the importance of his acts. Loved the references (the cantina bad guys, the sets and ships, the rebel pilots from ANH, old characters…). Loved to see how dificult is for the rebellion get information from empire. Loved to see the little fights they have to live to built a huge rebellion. Loved the mentions of emperor, old Jedi and the empire problems to built an enormous weaphon.

    All the actors are really good (no exceptions), but probably without the charisma of the OT ones and TFA. Not for the actors. I supouse because there are more and its difficult to empathize with one of them. Rock death was the most painful for me.
    Darth Vader escenes were the top.
    Amazed to see Tarkin. It was well done (thanks to the darkest scenes where he interacts in) but Leia was not good CGI. I would prefer to see it from her back. It was not necessary to show her face.

    It took me a couple of minutes to enter in the movie. The intro was cold and the music didn’t help in the beginning, althought during the film has its great moments.
    I would like to see more from the alien rebels stuff and some of the amount images from the trailers that not appear in the movie.
    The Star Destroyers crash was too much. Disable the first one would be perfect to make a great hole in Scarif shield.
    Chirrut was a great character too, but probably with too much bad ass scenes. Would prefer to use the force in the distance with that switch (he is trying all the movie to do this stuff).
    But at the same time loved how erased the minor Jedi signs from the world (see Chirrut and Jyn with her crystal)

    The war scenes were so great, with a lot of tension and loved to see the Death Star tests to prove its value in the future.

    Hope to see it again in a few days. 😉

    Sorry for my english in this review

    • December 16, 2016 at 12:55 pm
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      Saw it for a second time. The opening scene really smacks you in the face. I love it! Haha

      To be fair, I don’t think Chirrut was ever going to actually use the force. That would unwind his whole demeanour. He believes in the Force and has a spiritual connection not a… “Physical” connection.

      • December 16, 2016 at 2:54 pm
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        Probably you’re right here too 😉
        With a second view probably I will see it like you.
        But when he goes to that switch i really would like to think he uses the force to divert the shots. There are so many and none of them impact to him.

  • December 16, 2016 at 11:15 am
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    Spoiler.

    I know probably there is one more trip to Yavin IV until Vader catches Tantive IV, but… if the connection is just before ANH events (and the film shows close close events), why the left C3PO and R2 in Yavin?

    • December 16, 2016 at 12:52 pm
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      Perhaps they were aboard? It just goes by unseen.

      • December 16, 2016 at 2:43 pm
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        Probably you’re right. I said it because i remember 3PO saying ” Why they have to go to Scarif?” or something like that, as if he didn’t intend to go there.

  • December 16, 2016 at 12:33 pm
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    I sat half the Movie and waited for some kind of male lead actor to occur. Then I realized that the Spanish accent guy was supposed to be it. Jeez. Talk about a miscast actor. WEAK! And the two samuraj japaneese guys?? Come on!!
    The last 15 minutes of the Movie were great! But the actors were incredibly poor choices. Except the bad guy. He was great. But the data animation of T was strange. Can’t they do better CGI these days?

    • December 16, 2016 at 4:32 pm
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      This is satire, am I right?

      • December 16, 2016 at 4:33 pm
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        Sadly, I don’t think so.

      • December 16, 2016 at 9:12 pm
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        According to his profile he’s a frequent visitor of Infowars.

        So yes, he’s serious.

      • December 18, 2016 at 1:40 am
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        Well, the comment in itself is laughable.

    • December 16, 2016 at 9:13 pm
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      They’re Chinese, not Japanese.

      • December 16, 2016 at 10:00 pm
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        Are “samuraj” the Chinese equiv of Samurai? 😉

    • December 18, 2016 at 2:29 am
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      ***SPOILER ALERT***
      So…only the white guy was the good male lead actor? C’mon man…Donnie Yen was great. Diego Luna was great…especially that scene with all the tension between him and Felicity Jones…arguing about the fate of her father. Great stuff in my opinion…

  • December 16, 2016 at 12:51 pm
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    I have no social life so I went and saw Rogue One for the second time. Yep. I think it’s my favourite Star Wars movie to date. Darth Vader’s voice doesn’t bug me at all now, quite like it actually. Still don’t understand the complaints with Princess Leia. This spinoff has pointed Star Wars in a good direction I believe.

    Help me complete the list of Easter Eggs
    – The blue milk
    – Two scenes with the Ghost ship (at least)
    – Red Leader
    – The death of Red 5
    – The Hammerhead ship

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:25 pm
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      Announcement of General Syndulla over the main broadcast system of Yavin base

      • December 16, 2016 at 9:10 pm
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        Did they say General, or Captain?

        • December 16, 2016 at 9:58 pm
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          I definitely heard General

        • December 16, 2016 at 10:54 pm
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          General

    • December 16, 2016 at 2:36 pm
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      If you count this as easter eggs 😛

      -I seriously think i saw Biggs up there.
      -Ponda Baba and Cornelius Evazan
      -Wilhem scream in Jedha
      -Robot 3B6- RA-7
      -EF76 Nebulon-B
      -A game of Dejarik made of wood (really cool) i think in Jedha

      • December 17, 2016 at 12:14 am
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        How I could I miss the Wilhem scream. That’s what I live for! Lol

        Nice list, man!

        • December 17, 2016 at 10:41 am
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          Lol Thx! Love Wilhem scream too! And i really missed some of your list. Waiting for the second view to see it.

    • December 16, 2016 at 9:13 pm
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      Gold Leader, mention of the Whills

    • December 16, 2016 at 10:25 pm
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      Obi-Wan reference
      C3PO/R2
      Imperial Probe Droid

    • December 17, 2016 at 12:32 am
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      Want a really dark one? The Force of Others, in Jedha.
      In the first treatments for Star Wars (later ANH) The Force was called The Force of Others for a brief time.

    • December 17, 2016 at 4:19 pm
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      Blue milk! Yes!!! Totally loved that part.

    • December 17, 2016 at 7:52 pm
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      Poe’s mom in the battle over Scariff?? It looked like one of the xwings had some similar markings to his.

    • December 18, 2016 at 4:29 am
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      – Chopper in the background
      – Ponda Babba and Dr. Evazan
      – “General Syndulla” heard over the intercom at the Rebel Base.

    • December 18, 2016 at 11:39 am
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      – Gold Leader
      – Chopper (from Rebels)
      – Dr. Cornelius and Ponda Boba
      – Pao says ‘Karabast!’
      – Analog version of Holo Chess
      – Vader’s Castle was on Mustafar
      – The planet Wobani is an anagram for Obi-Wan

  • December 16, 2016 at 1:08 pm
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    I think the movie is incredibly beautiful and wait for it… sad. When I left the theatre all I could feel was that overwhelming realization that what looks so cool in the OT, was in actuallity, an incredible waste of lives, dreams and hope, that every war really is. For that Gareth deserves the highest praise. Another thing I took from it, was that the galaxy doesn’t really give a shit about the Skylwaker family story / regardless of its overall consequences to litteraly everything in SW / . It was very refreshing to see people fighting on both ends, out of different motivations, such as self-righteousness, ambition, desperation etc. instead ‘ruling the galaxy as a father and son’ or ‘turning him back from the dark side’. I guess what follows is SPOILER

    Leia at the end was hardly a consolidation to me tbh as seeing Jyn and Cassian die on Scariff was profoundly saddening. Its like shes standing there in the silk gow and with a smile on her face, while all these people just died in the dirt or cold vacuum of space in last couple hours to get that freakin disc on board her ship. It really gives you a sense of perspective, which is ultimately, what the spinoffs are designed for.

    On technical side, Vader was well handed but I felt his first appearance was absolutely unnecessary. Id rather have him do his grand entrance at the end of the movie than that conv with Krennic that does not really push the plot anywhere forward. Tarkin was cool and justified, I just wish they went more for prostethics on the guy who already looks like him, adding a little Cushing-details rather than full head replacement. Leia, for her screen time, should have been done a la Red and Gold Leader, the CGI on her looks creepy af and takes you out a bit in the final seconds of the movie. The music.. well nothing special, but on par with utterly boring and forgettable TFA score, so Ill gvie em a pass here, since Williams these days doesnt seem too capable himself.

    It has its flaws and weak points, but beside that, I think its a great movie, especially for the SW universe. It has an emotional depth none of the Marvel, DC or Harry Potter spinoffs had so far. Someone below mentioned that this should have been first instead of TFA, and while I understand why the saga movie had to happen in 2015, this would serve as a perfect relaunch of the franchise as well, at the same time, showing Disney and Abrams that VII didnt have to be a reboot it was, but could have been something much more brave, intersting and risky. Thanks Gareth

    • December 16, 2016 at 8:58 pm
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      Re: “I guess what follows is SPOILER”
      No guessing required – your 1st sentence after that spoils the most impactful/emotional scene / ending of the movie. 😉

      • December 18, 2016 at 5:03 am
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        I’d say the real spoiler of the movie is the spoiler that used to just be a joke but actually happened in the movie.

        Spoiler alert: Everybody dies.

  • December 16, 2016 at 4:34 pm
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    Non spoiler Rogue One review:
    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Rogue One. It’s simply amazing movie. Battle scenes are most amazing battle scenes in any STAR WARS movie, because you feel for characters and even for soldiers you don’t even know. Characters are very unique and lovable, also, not every character is good or bad, characters have their flaws, and they are not perfect, and that’s what it’s so amazing about them. Last 10-15 minutes are my favorite minutes of STAR WARS movies, space battle is best space battle in any STAR WARS movie, and Vader is simply amazing. I couldn’t even dream to see what he did in last 5 minutes, even he has only 5 minutes of screentime, You won’t be disappointed by Vader. Score is not so great, and especially one character feels weird to look at (You will know why) but after all, after first viewing, for me it is better than The Force Awakens, because they gave us something new, and they are not afraid to risk, while TFA played on nostalgic a lot, even I liked it a lot. There are some cameos I loved, some Rebels vehicles and characters appear or they are at least mentioned, humor is great for the most part, and nothing felt forced. You can literally watch Rogue one, skip A new hope opening crawl, and watch A new hope, cause it ties perfectly together. After second viewing yesterday, I liked it even more, cause I caught some things I missed at first viewing, I think I can confirm that this is my new favorite STAR WARS movie, I would give Rogue One 9.5/10.
    Going to watch it today again, so we shell see if I like it even more.

  • December 16, 2016 at 7:12 pm
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    “no crawl, but it didn’t matter”… But it really did. Score was garbage to boot. Wasn’t a bad movie, but the opening sequence nearly made me want to leave the theater it was so bad. Ending is great.

    • December 18, 2016 at 4:24 am
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      If the first minute of the movie not having yellow words is enough to make you leave the theater, you need to rethink why you saw the movie in the first place tbh.

  • December 16, 2016 at 7:45 pm
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    The slow march into mediocrity.

    • December 18, 2016 at 4:24 am
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      AKA waiting to watch your next “deep” “intellectual” student film. Am I right?

      • December 19, 2016 at 3:23 am
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        I read his post in the voice of Dr Smith from Lost in Space – “Oh the pain, the pain of it all!”

      • December 19, 2016 at 3:06 pm
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        R1 was good, but SW is a yearly franchise now, so the inevitable is coming.

        • December 19, 2016 at 11:38 pm
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          We’ll see.

  • December 16, 2016 at 9:10 pm
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    SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SPOILERS

    I feel like I could watch R1 and ANH and feel it is one film, with an intermission to grab a snack, then begin ANH. The scroll will now feel like an entre-act piece between the 2 acts of a single story. I feel the characters (mostly) made me empathetic enough to make me feel sad for their sacrifice. The main positives for me were the tension between Galen and Krennic and how Galen’s betrayal is gradually unveiled, the new locations and effects were stunning, the gritty feel of the rebellion, and the understanding that Jyn and Cassian developed for one another. Mon Mothma was excellent and there was just enough politics to keep it interesting. Things I could have done without were the cameos for R2 & C3PO (I think they should have been in the room with Leia aboard the Tantive 4 in order for it to make more sense), the names of the planets showed on the screen (or at least have been consistent throughout, since we don’t know the location of Vader’s lair), and the creature that attaches to Bohdi. The things that I did not like at all were the Title screen between the flashback and present action (it actually made me cringe), and the music. I concede that I will need to hear the music a few more times to make a final judgment, but I kept waiting to hear more of the familiar themes to really connect to the saga films. It did happen in a few spots, but more would have been better IMHO. After just 1 viewing, I’d easily put in my top 3 SW films, behind ESB and ANH. It will not surpass ESB.

  • December 16, 2016 at 9:21 pm
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    I am shocked to say this, but, I’m not sure I like it. I only saw it once, was tired out of my mind, still am tired out of my mind, and am about to go see it again.

    But. Yeah. I’ve got some issues with it.

    • December 16, 2016 at 10:17 pm
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      Sadly, it’s not a perfect movie. It did a lot of things right, but it has big flaws – the characters lack the depth of a OT/ST saga movie, the 2nd act, and the CGI Tarkin and Leia. I’m probably in the minority, but right now, I feel I got more out of The Force Awakens.

      • December 17, 2016 at 2:19 am
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        Just saw it my second time. I stopped thinking about it the whole time and just enjoyed it. It’s a great flick. I approve.

      • December 18, 2016 at 4:55 am
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        I’m seeing a perfect split of opinions on the CG, actually. Even I was split, I thought Tarkin was grossly noticeable but I thought Leia looked amazing.

        • December 18, 2016 at 7:44 am
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          On my second viewing, I just groaned to myself whenever Tarkin appeared. I found him too distracting, and in the movie way more than necessary. Leia was like a “wait, what!’ moment for me. Rogue One has the most abrupt ending of any SW movie. The 3rd act redeemed the movie after the poor 2nd act, then promptly shot itself in the foot with the ending. I left the movie feeling very unsatisfied.

          • December 19, 2016 at 11:20 am
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            I didn’t mind Tarkin, to be honest.

            Re the ending – my heart was still pumping hard long after the movie was over. I loved that whole 3rd act.

          • December 19, 2016 at 9:39 pm
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            The 3rd act was really good, I just didn’t like the final scene and the abruptness. Empire, Hope, and TFA were all perfect examples of how a SW movie should end.

          • December 20, 2016 at 12:24 am
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            I’ll have to watch it again, but I’m not sure a long, drawn out ending would have worked? (You know, music but no dialogue, just like Episodes 1-7).

          • December 20, 2016 at 6:24 am
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            I get the argument that ANH starts directly after Rogue One, but so does now Episode VIII after TFA.

      • December 19, 2016 at 11:19 am
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        Definitely not perfect – I thought the first half was a bit slow, but the final act was way more enjoyable (for me) than TFA.

        • December 19, 2016 at 9:43 pm
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          I actually liked the 1st act, recall subconsciously saying this to myself whilst watching the film, then the exact opposite happened with the 2nd act, found myself quite bored. Not wanting non-stop action, just expect to be engaged by the characters, sadly most of the characters failed to hold my interest.

          • December 20, 2016 at 12:22 am
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            I think it was halfway through the movie that I thought “I like this, but I’m not sure how much I’d enjoy watching it a second time”. The second half, though, I think I’ll watch with all subsequent A New Hope viewings

          • December 20, 2016 at 6:26 am
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            That’s an interesting comment. I’ve already seen it twice, I’ll check it out again on the small screen to see if I like it any more.

  • December 16, 2016 at 9:37 pm
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    I saw it last night and really enjoyed it. The scene with Vader kicking @$$ as the end was amazing and something I’ve really wanted to see in live action. When Tarkin showed up, at first I thought we were only going to see him from behind and then just the distorted reflection, but when he turned to face the camera and did a complete scene I was flabbergasted, let alone multiple scenes. I kept looking for flaws and didn’t see any. After the movie I told my 19 year old son that Peter Cushing has been dead for over 20 years and he was all CGI. My son told me after the movie he didn’t even realize they were using CGI until he saw the young Princess Leia.

    I’m sure there are a bunch of small Easter eggs I missed and I’ll get a 2nd viewing in sometime next week when the crowds get smaller to see if I can catch more. I know the Ghost is in there somewhere, but I missed it and I thought at one point one of the female fighter pilots sounded a hell of a lot like Sabine Wren and even looked a bit like her….(anyone else pick up on this)

  • December 16, 2016 at 9:38 pm
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    Non-Spoiler Review

    TL;DR:
    Loved it!
    Quite a bit that I liked better about this than TFA. Shows what Star Wars movies can & should be like, post-Lucas, in the hands of a very capable director.

    More…
    Highlights:
    Acting – well acted & cast, all around…but the leads did not disappoint.
    Characters – well written. Enough information, even the minor/supporting cast, to feel like you knew about about the character’s personality/backstory/motiviations/etc to care about them (or with baddies, dislike them). Brought a humanity to SW characters, sometimes lacking when they can be more one-dimensional. Krennic was definitely a better baddy than Hux.
    Story – they went above&beyond what the story could’ve been, in the hands of lesser talent (writers/directing). Giving us an interesting & logical progression, which developed characters & pushed things forward. Tied in nicely with most all the SW canon material, particularly bridging PT & OT.
    Fan Service/Satisfaction – Edwards/Disney listened – we got great Vader scene(s?), tie-in to canon, characters(/mention)/cameos from main story, seamlessly ties into Ep4 (story+look&feel).
    “The feels” – Humour was great – most always spot-on (not overdone/forced, except perhaps one baddy line – but even that was fitting for the character). More emotional impact than most of the SW movies. TFA had primarily that one death, which admittedly would’ve have weight no matter how poorly executed, but this movie got you to care/feel for all of the characters. As well the action/fighting felt *real* such that the death/carnage (it’s a “war movie” after all) truly felt like you were witnessing countless deaths. And you will feel some of them quite a bit, for me – was saddened for quite some time after 1st viewing.

    (not very) Low points –
    [ feel bad even writing this…as I loved the movie ]
    Music was….*meh* – didn’t really notice it. Which for SW movie isn’t a good thing. The times I did notice it was because I recognized the piece from other SW movies & then questioned whether that music fit that scene/setting [pulled me out a bit]. No bad, just not up to SW standards. Then again, TFA didn’t seem up to Williams’ best days.
    CGI characters/cameos – one had quite a lines/scenes & just didn’t “look right”. It pulled me out of the scene: 1) thinking, “wow, looks *almost* like them” 2) looked off/not *real* so detracted from scene. It’s getting close, but not there yet. Although where CGI cameos were used very briefly in action scenes, it fit perfectly. Key seems to be – brief & don’t dwell on them long.
    Very minor quibbles –
    Opening w/o crawl but just “a long time ago…” was rather stark/abrupt, coupled with the non-SW type *title* seemed out of place.
    Couple of Stardestroyers shots looked a bit too much like *models*. Enough that I thought “oh, they’re using a *real* model, could’a shot/edited that differently”.
    Repeating what someone else wrote, as I did notice the same, that some of Donnie & Felicity fight scenes seemed a bit too choreographed (/perfect).

    Need to watch again before I can rank against the likes of TFA. Quite a bit that I liked better. TFA had nostalgia going for it, so many *points* for the likes of Han, Leia, Chewie, the droids & Falcon….as well as Skywalker progeny/storyline. But stripping away the nostalgia factor, Rogue One was a better film – structurally/story-wise/and even the acting/cast.

    • December 18, 2016 at 11:43 am
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      People keep complaining about the music that they can’t remember any tunes or anything. While it was no John Williams, I actually quite like the Imperial Suite (basically Krennic’s theme).

  • December 16, 2016 at 11:39 pm
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    I’m in love with this movie. That end sequence… Wow. Blew my mind. It’s been two days now since I’ve been and I’ll go again tommorow but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
    So many great moments and so much I didn’t expect. Really surprised that K2SO has become my favourite but he was just fantastic to watch.
    The best parts for me; Scariff, Vader’s Castle, Vader’s fight, space battle and the (not sure of its correct name yet) the rammer. And an absolute big shout out to Saw’s rebels. I’m hoping we will get some novels on them or even a comic series. Liked them far more than the actual rebels, another big surprise.
    I know a lot of people have put down that final cameo of the movie, but I think it left a great final lasting impression. My only concern thinking back on it. Didn’t Raddus leave first for Scariff before we saw the droids on Yavin 4. I’ll have to watch this closer on my second watch.

  • December 16, 2016 at 11:42 pm
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    Anyone else a bit disappointed? Loved TFA but this one left me cold for the most part. Hoping a second viewing will get me there.

    • December 16, 2016 at 11:56 pm
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      Rogue One was not character driven like The Force Awakens. The acting was solid, but the script was poor, and failed to flush out the characters. This was the movie’s greatest weakness.

      • December 17, 2016 at 4:33 am
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        Yeh have to agree. So weird that amazing as it looked for the most part, and with all the OT stylings which I love, missing this element made it (IMO) a lot less enjoyable. Although most people seemed to have really liked it so just a personal preference I guess. Kinda hope future spin offs put some focus back on the script and character development.

      • December 17, 2016 at 9:53 am
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        Absolutely agree. I loved the movie but this was one of the few weakness i saw. I think TFA had more consistency in character development, although actors in Rogue one all are really great.

        • December 18, 2016 at 6:22 pm
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          Have to disagee. The characters in TFA are all over the map, just doing whatever the plot needs them to do at any given moment, without a single thought to development, motivation, or consistency. I never once questioned why R1 characters were behaving the way they did.

          • December 19, 2016 at 11:16 am
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            I tend to agree.

      • December 18, 2016 at 4:43 am
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        TFA has more incentive to flesh out characters because we’re sticking with them. Rogue One doesn’t have the luxury of a sequel so these kinds of movies characters aren’t as dynamic. I still think they were pretty good for a war movie.

        • December 18, 2016 at 8:00 am
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          Being a stand-alone movie is all the more reason for the characters to have more depth. The most important element of any movie for me is the characters, I need to be invested in them. I didn’t experience that with Rogue One. When they died, I felt pretty indifferent towards it. I know I’m in the minority, but I got much more out of The Force Awakens.

    • December 19, 2016 at 11:16 am
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      Honestly – I prefer the first half of TFA and the second half of Rogue One.

  • December 17, 2016 at 4:03 am
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    I thought it was great! effects, action. Seeing the grand moff blew me away.
    I give it a 9 out of 10.

  • December 17, 2016 at 4:09 am
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    I loved the obvious nod to the ‘Han shot first’ controversy early in the film. Cassian Andor definitely shot first.

  • December 17, 2016 at 10:32 am
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    didnt like the location labels , you either didnt need to know or found out in the dialogue fairly quickly , in some cases you got the label and then they told you ….. and they didnt label mustafar , see , i knew were that was , didnt need a label ……. other than that , good film

    • December 17, 2016 at 2:34 pm
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      I didn’t think it was confirmed to be Mustafar. But It makes sense.

      • December 18, 2016 at 4:06 am
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        Pablo Hidalgo basically confirmed it on Twitter.

  • December 17, 2016 at 2:11 pm
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    Thought it was great all round. Minor nitpicks: they’re not quite on the right side of the uncanny valley yet with CGI human characters, but kudos to the attempt. They used the cameos to serve the story which was good. The intro title card didn’t bother me as much as the music over it. A loose variant of the main star wars theme does not work. Either it should have been the actual theme or something unique.

    Vader: awesome
    Krennic: awesome
    Action: fantastic!!

    • December 17, 2016 at 2:44 pm
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      It was based more like the OT. Not to mention lit more like them. Imo this film IS the real PT.

    • December 17, 2016 at 4:17 pm
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      I loved the cgi characters. Even though it was a tad under done, I squealed with joy at first seeing Grand Moff Tarkin. His voice was spot on and mannerisms were very close to Peter Cushings. Loved. It.

    • December 18, 2016 at 6:19 pm
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      Yeah, agree on the score. Particularly the opening felt like someone tasked to compose a Star Wars theme parody.

    • December 19, 2016 at 11:15 am
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      Agree – I thought Act 3 of Rogue One just built and built and built and then BANG! Credits. Such amazing pacing – way more exciting finale and finish than TFA.

  • December 17, 2016 at 2:43 pm
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    Just got back and I feel like this really is the first great Disney Star Wars film. Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher looked amazing, Especially Cushing who I figured would only get a cameo and not a full supporting role. It has me really excited about what they can do in regard to future spinoffs like having an Obi-Wan film with a 40 something Alec Guinness.

    • December 17, 2016 at 2:48 pm
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      I’m still getting caught up on people’s comments but anyone noticed the recycled footage from IV? It didn’t bug me as much as I thought it would since they did such a great job of casting 70’s/80’s looking actors that it was almost seamless.

      • December 18, 2016 at 6:18 pm
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        They were so quick they didn’t bother me either.

        • December 20, 2016 at 7:25 pm
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          Okay, So just found it was unused footage hence why it felt familar but not even though I watched ANH the night before.

  • December 17, 2016 at 4:15 pm
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    Ok. My basic review? This movie rocked.. hard. Gareth Edwards brought a true Star Wars movie to life on the big screen and did not disappoint what-so-ever. The only thing that I hated about this movie is that there will never be a sequel with these characters.

    Now, I was pretty neutral on this film from the get go. I never had over expectations about the film. So many awesome easter eggs that fit nicely into the story. Couldn’t have asked for more… and that ending? Wow. I am going to see it again just for the ending alone. I give it 4 x-wings out of 5. Nicely done.

    • December 18, 2016 at 2:23 pm
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      I give it 76 X-wings, 32 Y-wings and a Hammerhead corvette out of 5. 😉

  • December 17, 2016 at 4:31 pm
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    Loved the movie, the force is strong with this one.Thank you Disney, thank you mr. Gareth Edwards. It’s a great time to be a Star Wars fan.

  • December 18, 2016 at 12:59 am
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    I loved it! I really, really did! It was pretty uncomfortable in one particular scene, but once that wrapped up I felt myself really engaged again. It did basically everything I wanted it to do, and I was the only one applauding at the end.

    • December 18, 2016 at 4:39 am
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      I was applauding with you my friend

    • December 18, 2016 at 8:22 am
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      the hell? i keep hearing about ‘bad audiences’….. from people. like my friend had people talking in her theater last year during opening weekend of TFA…. I guess i am lucky. Whole freaking audience clapped and yelled at the end.

  • December 18, 2016 at 1:37 am
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    OK, so I saw it today. Liked some parts and loved other parts. But holy freakin’ poop. That Darth Vader bit was something else.

  • December 18, 2016 at 3:36 am
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    It was fantastic!

  • December 18, 2016 at 4:38 am
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    Characters were great, humor and easter eggs were on point, great space battle, solid score for such a short notice, and possible the greatest ending in movie history. Ladies and gentlemen, Rogue One is awesome.

  • December 18, 2016 at 9:43 am
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    Rogue One novel confirms Mustafar

    • December 18, 2016 at 6:17 pm
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      Ah, thought we were saving this stuff for the spoilers thread. It seemed obvious, both from the exterior and interior shots – cool to have it confirmed though.

      • December 18, 2016 at 11:49 pm
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        Sorry man, wasn’t thinking

  • December 18, 2016 at 2:21 pm
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    Having finally seen it.

    Wow. Believe the hype. It’s both somehow different from Star Wars… yet the most Star Wars any movie has been since the OT. It’s episode 3.5… but I mean that in it’s worthy of not only being a saga film… it’s better than most of them.

    I’m just blown away. Rian Johnson you poor poor man. I hope Rey has a hell of an interesting story ahead of her because R1 gave us so much of what we wanted it’ll be so hard for Ep.8 to impress us outside of a great story.

    • December 19, 2016 at 11:12 am
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      Absolutely! I’ll definitely be watching Rogue One (at least the 3rd act) EVERY TIME I go to watch A New Hope!

  • December 18, 2016 at 6:13 pm
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    Had to push back our showing until tonight, just got back. Some initial thoughts,stayin spoiler free:
    .

    The not so good
    -first half and a bit is kinda muddy – it doesn’t feel as focused as it
    could be, and I think it suffers from too much location hopping. It
    feels like it could have benefited from eliminating one step in the
    early unfolding of the plot, to tighten the pacing a little
    -THAT character was distracting – why do that if the voice is so far off. I’m not buying it’s them, so just recast.
    -The score is not super. It’s a bit overbearing, with a couple of not terrific, not terrible motifs played ad nauseum. It doesn’t help that it seems it’s often placed really, really high in the mix. It works though, and is pretty admirable for a month’s work. I think it is more successful than the TFA score, and certainly relies on the crutch of previous SW themes way, WAY less than TFA did. It also nicely knitted together the feeling of the PT scores with the SW score.
    -K2 – I didn’t find a lot of his lines landed the way I think they hoped.
    -I’m reaching here now…
    .
    Everything else
    – Well, OBVIOUSLY the whole third act. Holy Christ was that whole section perfectly executed! Amazing, just amazing.
    – The cameos – from the streets of Jedha (HA!!!!!), to all of those quick hits in act 3 (god there’s a LOT of them, and I was laughing out loud at each one – didn’t need to be there, but reflected the care with which this thing was created. DID wish there was one more, mustachioed cameo, but you cant have everything), to every time the Ghost sails past – perfect homages, lightly played, earned, and appropriate.
    -The actual climax and payoff of act 3. Ho. Lee. SHIT.
    -Seeing the character from the climax at home. Hope the full spoiler thread goes up soon – there’s much to talk about with that sequence.
    -the film wasn’t afraid to go THERE wit a certain percentage of our heroes.
    .
    Overall, despite some muddy plotting, and a first act that feels like it could have used some trimming, the film delivers in a huge way – it takes some major risks in the storytelling, but it also delivers everything else you want to see, Characters are compelling (I wish we got to spend some more time with Baze and Chirrut in particular), and consistent. Not an ESB killer, and can’t match the naive charm of SW, but I’ve got a runner up favorite in the franchise.

  • December 19, 2016 at 6:23 pm
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    Saw the film once this weekend… planning to see it again sometime this week. Here’s my two cents… (obviously heavy spoilers for those who haven’t yet seen it).

    I disagree with not using the SW logo at the beginning, not using the crawl was fine though.

    I liked all the new planets a lot, especially Jedha as the Mecca of the SW galaxy. One thing, though, Eadu and Jedha were almost the same visually except for it was raining on Eadu.

    I liked the opening trading post scene with Cassian. It was a cool location and it set up the dangerous, used world we all love from the OT and told us we were watching something different here, something more adult. However, it may be a case of “kill your darlings” because it didn’t really add anything to the story. We could have just started with the breakout of Jyn. I personally believe it was part of the Gilroy reshoots to add a little edge and character to Cassian by having him shoot the information broker in the back.

    Having Tarkin back was cool, he was in it a lot more than I expected. Even though you could tell on the big screen he was mostly digital, the performance and voice were spot on. It would have been nice to see a few other Imperial Officer voices in the movie, given how many there were standing around while Krennic and Tarkin hashed it out.

    Donnie Yen’s character was probably my favorite… it’s close with Cassian and Jyn. But he had a much smaller role and just really stepped up to the plate for me. His relationship with Baze could have been a little more “sweet”, though. I think I just wanted to really see why Baze was so dedicated to him and vice versa. I also would have liked an additional line to really spell out why these two Guardians of the Jedha Temple were tagging along with Jyn and her team.

    Saw was well done, as well, though again, I think the movie needed to do a better job of spelling out why he committed suicide. I think if he would have somehow sacrified himself, like… “we don’t have enough room on the ship for everyone!”… and he volunteers to stay back with the “Save the Rebellion, save the dream” line it would have been stronger.

    The death troopers were sweet. I really liked all the costumes and new troopers and vehicles. I was surprised, however, that the TIE strikers weren’t really scene too much, nor were the Scarif troopers. I wonder if during the reshoots they got lost with the Death Troopers becoming more prominent.

    The Scarif beach fighting also felt small, like it was taking place on a set a lot. I wonder if during the reshoots, they actually used a set versus the original location. I feel like they did. I also thought the deaths were a bit rushed, especially Riz Ahmed. That was kind of off too… the logistics of it. I guess a random grenade ended up in his ship, but I thought it was confusing if he had actually completed his “mission” or not.

    Donnie Yen’s character had an awesome moment though before he got shot down, although you could see it coming a mile away.

    Jyn and Cassian’s death sort of became glossed over to get to Vader’s attack and the set up with Leia’s escape.

    The Scarif battle… I really need to watch again to see the logistics. I thought the could have really clarified if it was supposed to be a suicide mission or if they expected to get off. It just kind of unfolded and the characters didn’t seem to care or know. I don’t remember a big moment where they realized they were screwed and basically realized they needed to give up their lives to get the data off planet. I think when the original script prior to the reshoots have them leave the data vault, meet back up to storm the antena tower, it may have helped with that. We’ll see how it plays on the second viewing.

    Regarding the ending, it just kind of ended. I think they should have ended with Jyn and Cassian to keep the story on them and not Leia’s escape.

  • December 20, 2016 at 5:52 am
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    This could have been a perfect movie if the leads had more charisma than a wet blanket and the fan service was just a little less blatant.
    Visually and tone wise, the movie absolutely hit the mark. The action was spectacular, the pacing was good, the production design was perfect in every regard, it had breathtaking photography…. Disney got much closer to what makes a good Star Wars film with this one. If they could come up with more interesting characters instead of these safe, diverse, cardboard cutout stereotypes (which is clearly something the studio does to appeal to various markets and demographics), then all would be good. Let’s face it: K2 was essentially Drax from Guardians of the Galaxy. The two lead actors had zero chemistry and very little charisma. Felicity Jones has absolutely zero range compared to Daisy Ridley and the male lead… well compare him to a Harrison Ford or Chris Pratt… you see what I mean. Then a blind chinese monk who knows martial arts, really? How much more cliché can you get?

    They should dare to try something different, something fresh. Han Solo worked, because everything he did was unexpected and genuine. Shooting Greedo first, being all about money and then coming back to save the day, the classic “I love you” – “I know” answer. That was a perfect character and he bounced perfectly off of Kenobi’s stoic seriousness, Luke’s innocence and naivité and Leia’s bitchiness. Plus Chewbacca gave him another dimension and an air of mystery.

    Giving the Rogue One a very generous 7/10 for visuals, action and tone.

    PS: A very accurate (but harsh) criticism of the film. I agree with 90% of what they say.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc2kFk5M9x4&t=485s

    • December 20, 2016 at 5:56 am
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      Also something that would have greatly improved the movie: Put the whole Boarding / Leia’s escape scene BEFORE the death star attack on Skarif and end the movie with the two leads dying. It’s their movie damn it. Give the story the closure and gravitas it deserves instead of cramming in more fanservice “and now for something completely different”.
      This is what happens when directors or writers don’t have an uncompromising love for their story and corporate serialization takes over.

      • December 23, 2016 at 10:43 pm
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        The problem with that is that the whole point of the film is ‘hope’ – their sacrifice needs to result in hope that the Alliance might find a way to prevail. Ending on their deaths is, I think, the exact opposite of what they were going for.

        • December 27, 2016 at 7:18 am
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          You spend 2 hours with the characters, you gotta end it with those characters. That’s storytelling 101.
          That 2nd ending is a muddled mess and a pure fanservice porn. There’s no other way of saying it. That horror movie scene with vader is completely out of tone with both the main character’s deaths and the hopeful smile on Leia’s face and was thrown in their to give the dummy fanboys their Vader action scene. Notice how in EPIV Vader doesn’t board the ship on his own? He has his underlings enter the ship (turning Jedi’s to space superheroes is another giant mistake Star Wars made after the OT).
          I get that the hope aspect is important. So how’s this version:

          -Have them beam up the plans to the disabled capital ship as in the film.
          -the Mon Calamari commander gives the plans to Leia and tells her flee.
          -They see the Death Star firing at the base. Realizing the situation is hopeless, Leia leaves as the Calamari commander says his “May the Force be with you” farewell to the heroes. Have some shouting in the background to indicate Stormtroopers are entering the ship.
          -Intercut lead character’s exit from the base with tantive iv espace. No stupid Vader scene.
          -They look at the sky once more, hope on their face that their sacrifice meant something.
          -Hug, death, ending.

          The hope theme is stronger, no idiotic horror movie interlude and the movie ends with heroes and the musical crescendo from the blast.

          Now THAT is how you would edit this movie if you cared about the characters and story. The problem is, Disney don’t give a damn about story. They absolutely don’t understand what made Star Wars great. A real pity.

  • December 21, 2016 at 10:37 am
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    This film went from an average Star Wars flick to an omg Star Wars flick once Tarkin showed up. Noble, bold, and innovative Rogue One was.

  • December 22, 2016 at 12:24 pm
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    Like I’ve stated before,Clone Wars made me like Star Wars again,Rogue One made me love it.
    I want the next Star Wars flick I watch to open with the energy of the 3rd act of RO and build from there.

  • December 23, 2016 at 8:28 am
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    Were the little Jyn scenes during the Clone wars? If so, how does she have a stormtrooper doll?

    • December 25, 2016 at 5:48 pm
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      The Jyn flashback scenes took place after the end of the Clone Wars.

      • December 26, 2016 at 4:56 am
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        Thanks guys.

        Merry Christmas.

    • December 25, 2016 at 8:25 pm
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      If A New Hope takes place 19 years after Revenge of the Sith, and Jyn says to Mon Mothma she didn’t see her father for 15 years, so the prologue of Rogue One takes place 4 years after the end of the Clone Wars 🙂

  • December 24, 2016 at 5:05 am
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    Okay update..saw it again finally..I bashed on the score for the film before..but upon listening to it for some time now and seeing the movie again..it’s grown on me, and I would like to thank and congratulate Michael Giacchino for creating new memorable editions of tracks and themes for the Star Wars universe.

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