Patrick’s Spoiler Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Rogue One

At long last, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opened around the globe the week of December 16th. Now that everyone’s had plenty of time to give it a first watch (or three), it’s review time!

 

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

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

 

And there it was. Since 1977, Star Wars fans over the world  have known, at least in broad strokes, what immediately preceded the brief but galaxy-changing space battle over Tatooine. Over the course of nearly 40 years since then, several stories have been told that purported to expand upon these three sentences. The 1981 Star Wars NPR radio drama penned by Brian Daley presented a gripping episode in which the Death Star plans were stolen by a rebel spy on the planet Toprawa, with Princess Leia’s consular vessel (identified here for the first time as the Tantive IV,) dropping out of hyperspace and feigning a hyperdrive malfunction while the plans were transmitted to Leia’s ship. Then in 1995 the classic first-person Star Wars shooter Dark Forces included a level in which the game’s protagonist, Kyle Katarn, infiltrates an Imperial base and steals the Death Star plans.

 

 

Now, with Lucasfilm Ltd. having chosen to drop all previous “Expanded Universe” stories from the ongoing Star Wars canon, we have a brand-new version of the tale of how the Rebels came into possession of the Death Star plans. At the same time, we also have the first of the interstitial stand-alone “Star Wars Story” films promised by LFL. So, after all of the hype and anticipation, how did Rogue One turn out?

 

After my initial viewing on Opening Day, my response to that question was, “Yeah, it was good, I liked it.” After seeing it a second time, though, I’d like to amend that assessment just a bit – I really love this movie!

 

Let me assure you, this isn’t a knee-jerk gush based purely on novelty (though it certainly may look that way in passing.) I had some real reservations about Rogue One after the first time I saw it, and often that means that my opinion ends up being more critical on subsequent viewings. So I was genuinely and very pleasantly surprised when I walked out of my second viewing feeling even more positive about the film. Yeah, there are a few rather glaring flaws which are always going to be there. But on the whole, Rogue One feels to me to be the most solid and consistently enjoyable Star Wars movie since 1980.

 

 

In many ways, Rogue One is a clear departure from Star Wars films as we’ve known them up till now. In other ways, it’s classic Star Wars at its very finest. The final third of the movie, in particular, features what may rank as one of the best space battles of the entire series. But Rogue One is certainly its own animal, perhaps more than any other Star Wars movie to date. Rather than indulging in the often self-conscious kid-friendliness that has marked many of the previous Star Wars films, Rogue One skews slightly in the opposite direction, with the more serious, often grim tone of the traditional war pictures that director Gareth Edwards has stated that he and the production team used as their inspiration. I won’t go so far as to say that this is a Star Wars film that’s JUST for grown-ups, but it’s clearly designed to appeal to older fans. There are no teddy bears with pointed sticks waiting in the wings to bail out the Rebel strike team this time around.

 

But it’s not just the more serious tone that I enjoy about Rogue One. Like the best Star Wars films, it’s also just a very fun movie to watch. No, there are no lightsaber-twirling Jedi (unless you count Darth Vader’s scene at the end of the movie), and none of the ongoing Skywalker family soap opera. And yet, it still feels very much like Star Wars.

 

 

That’s actually what struck me the most about my second viewing. Gareth Edwards managed to tie Rogue One very closely to the original 1977 film, and it’s not just the obvious “fan service” scenes that do it. It’s also the overall FEEL of the thing. No, it’s not a lighthearted romp through the “galaxy far, far away”, but in many regards neither was the original film – take away the one-liners, and it was mostly the story of average people thrust into an impossible situation against a bloodthirsty and seemingly unbeatable enemy.

 

And that’s what we have here in Rogue One.

 

As most of us now know, Rogue One follows Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of the Imperial scientist responsible for developing and refining the Death Star’s planet-killing laser, and a small team of freedom fighters who ultimately take it upon themselves to infiltrate an Imperial archive to steal the Death Star plans for the Rebel Alliance. Jyn has been on the run, living as a resistance fighter and petty criminal since her father was taken by the Empire and her mother gunned down in front of her, all when she was a young child. Freed from Imperial custody by Rebel agents, the Rebellion persuades Jyn to help them to locate her father, Galen Erso in hopes of somehow halting the development of the Imperial superweapon.

 

 

In classic war movie fashion, we’re introduced to an unlikely team of heroes throughout the film’s first act. Captain Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) is a young Rebel intelligence officer torn between his conscience and the questionable acts he’s had to perform on behalf of the Rebellion. His metallic companion, K-2S0 (Alan Tudyk) is a former Imperial security droid, reprogrammed by Andor to serve him and the Rebellion. Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) is an Imperial cargo pilot who, desperate to redeem himself, has defected to the Rebellion, carrying vital information about the Death Star project. Chirrut ÃŽmwe (Donnie Yen) and Baze Malbus (Wen Jiang) are warrior-monks from the planet Jedha – the blind Chirrut initially appearing far more monk than warrior, with the heavily armed and spiritually disillusioned Baze as his bodyguard.

 

 

At the same time, we track the progress of Imperial Commander Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn), the officer who oversees the Death Star project. Krennic, a mid-level Imperial official who aspires to become part of the Emperor’s inner circle, is driven (and ultimately undone) by his own insatiable ambition. He is also tied closely to Jyn Erso through Jyn’s father and Krennic’s old colleague, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) the engineering genius who has spent the past 15 years helping, albeit unwillingly, to design and refine the Death Star’s primary weapon.

 

It’s a fine lineup of characters, and the casting is exceptionally good. I particularly enjoyed the performances of Felicity Jones as Jyn and Donnie Yen as Chirrut, but the real standout for me was Firefly alum Alan Tudyk’s portrayal of K-2SO. The tall, lanky droid provided virtually every one of Rogue One’s admittedly limited number of laugh lines, largely through the conceit that Cassian’s reprogramming had left K-2SO with absolutely no social filters, with the result that he tends to blurt out whatever happens to come to mind.

 

 

This, coupled with the droid’s penchant for gallows humor, added the perfect amount of lightness to some of the film’s more serious moments without seeming overly frivolous. One particularly well done scene has K-2SO making a rather clumsy attempt to convince a squad of Imperial stormtroopers that he is taking Jyn and Cassian into custody. When Cassian tries to interject in an attempt to support the cover story, K-2SO backhands him across the face, with the improvised rejoinder, “And there’s a fresh one if you mouth off again!”

 

Aside from Jyn, we really don’t see a huge amount of character development in this film, although it can certainly be argued that Star Wars at its best has rarely relied on deep character study. Like the old-school war movies on which Rogue One is based, we learn just enough about each character to connect with them. The payoff for this comes during the third act in one of the true surprises of this movie – everybody dies.

 

 

Not the characters who carry over into the original trilogy, of course, but every last one of the new Star Warriors we meet in Rogue One sacrifices his or her life during the final battle to retrieve the Death Star plans from the Imperial archive on the planet Scarif. It’s an unexpectedly ballsy move, both for director Edwards and for LFL/Disney, to portray the theft of the Death Star plans as the suicide mission that logic has always suggested that (to me, at least) it must have been. I never expected them to go with such a dire outcome for the Rogue One protagonists, and I’m glad that they chose to do so – it results in an incredibly satisfying ending for the picture.

 

The deaths of our newly met heroes are made even more dramatic by the production team’s decision to stage those deaths against the backdrop of an Imperial-held world that more closely resembles a Caribbean paradise than the front lines of the Galactic Civil War. As Jyn and Cassian embrace for the first and final time on a white-sand beach as the fiery impact of the Death Star’s superlaser rushes inexorably toward them, it’s difficult not to imagine a vacationer sitting just out of frame, contentedly sipping a piña colada. The stark contrast lends an unexpectedly bittersweet undertone to the moment.

 

 

This juxtaposes brilliantly, in my opinion, with the triple-decker helping of fan service that Rogue One cooks up for us. Since the events of the film lead directly up to the opening moments of Episode IV – we’re talking minutes here – Gareth Edwards and his production team have gone to great lengths to create both visual and plot-based links to the original 1977 movie. Most of these links work very well, and some of them were downright jaw-dropping the first time I saw Rogue One.

 

Yes, we get X-wings, Y-wings, star destroyers (in their original Episode IV configuration, no less), TIE fighters, the Rebel base on Yavin… all of the cool little tie-ins to Episode IV that I think we all expected from the get-go. But then there are moments when you may as well actually BE watching the 1977 film. For example, Rogue One ends aboard Princess Leia’s blockade runner, the very first starship we see in Episode IV. But more than that, we see the same Rebel soldiers in the same teardrop-shaped helmets dashing to their stations down the exact same white metal hallway with the exact same red-alert klaxon blaring in the background that we see at the beginning of Episode IV, moments before Vader’s stormtroopers blast their way into the ship. It’s the kind of thing that only a shameless Star Wars geek like me (and probably like you) would flip out over, and the hair on my arms still wants to raise up at the thought of it.

 

Red Leader and Gold Leader

 

I had the same reaction during the space battle over Scarif when the fighter pilots were reporting in and suddenly – there were Red Leader and Gold Leader from Episode IV. Not just their voices or actors dressed like them, but the same actors in 40 year-old outtake footage from the original Death Star attack, blended almost seamlessly with the rest of the scene. It was an ingenious little touch on Edwards’ part that not only added another perfect little visual link between the two movies, but which also caught me off guard enough on my first viewing that I actually did a double-take at the screen.

 

 

And then… there’s Tarkin. As most of you probably already know, Grand Moff Tarkin, commander of the Death Star as played by the late, great Peter Cushing, appears in Rogue One. A lot. I had somehow managed to avoid this particular spoiler until I saw the film on Opening Day. The initial over-the-shoulder shot of Tarkin had me thinking that maybe they would limit his appearance to a convincing sound-alike voice and indirect shots like this one. Then he began to turn around, and I thought, “Oh, interesting. I wonder who they got to play him.”

 

And there he was. Peter flippin’ Cushing himself, in the virtual flesh. Obviously, the guy has been dead for more than 20 years, so what I was seeing was clearly CGI. And yet, as I watched and waited for the wires to begin showing and for the initial impact to fade, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that they had done an unexpectedly slick job of digitally recreating the Tarkin character almost exactly as we saw him in 1977. And I thought that it served the story very well indeed. There were, of course, moments when the CGI didn’t quite capture all of him. His mouth movements weren’t always exactly spot-on, for example. But after seeing the movie twice now, I’d say they hit the mark by about 95% to 97%. It was certainly enough to impress me, even though I had gotten so thoroughly burned out on gratuitous CGI flash during the prequel trilogy.

 

 

The same effect wasn’t quite as effective during the last few seconds of the film when we saw our dear departed Princess (may she rest with the Force) as she appeared onscreen in 1977. Well… ALMOST as she appeared in 1977. I didn’t feel like they got her face quite as close to the real thing as they did with Tarkin, and perhaps part of the reason was that the shot of Leia was far more brightly lit than the Tarkin scenes were, thus showing off the rough edges of the CGI sculpt a bit more. But, overall, it was still a pretty well done effect, and that moment in the film has become even more poignant now that Carrie Fisher is gone.

 

Now, lest you think that I’m just gushing uncritically here, I have to admit that on Opening Day, it took me until about halfway through Rogue One to really begin to connect with it. Part of this was likely due to the tendency for the narrative to shift rapidly from planet to planet for the first half hour or so as key players were introduced and various plot points were set up. In retrospect, to a certain degree this harks back to films like Kelly’s Heroes and The Dirty Dozen, where a motley assortment of heroes is assembled during the film’s first act before being turned loose on the enemy in the second and third acts. But in Rogue One’s case it did make for a slightly hectic, vaguely disjointed beginning to the movie – the first time I saw it. The second time around, however, it seemed to flow quite a bit more smoothly than it seemed to have during my initial viewing.

 

Evazan and Ponda Baba - ANH

 

I also have to say that not all of the fan-service scenes worked for me. There were a few “mugging for the camera” cameos that I thought felt shoehorned into the film. For instance, in one scene Jyn is walking down a crowded street on the planet Jedha and bumps headlong into the same two goons who try to pick a fight with Luke in the cantina scene in Episode IV. The pig-faced human of the two even responds to Jyn’s clumsiness with one of the exact same lines he gives in the 1977 film. A neat little idea, but it ended up coming across as a bit too “wink-wink” for my tastes, on top of which it left me wondering (while I should have been paying attention to the next couple scenes) why this pair of lowlifes happened to be on Imperial-occupied (and locked-down) Jedha a day or so before they ended up in that cantina on Tatooine, and about half an hour before the Death Star nuked the entire city. Personally, I could have done without that scene.

 

Likewise, Threepio and Artoo’s cameo. I love seeing those two as much as the next ol’ nerd, but their Rogue One scene just seemed too much like an afterthought. Placing them at the Rebel base on Yavin IV after the fleet had already left for Scarif hit a real klinker of a note for me, since the two droids should have been on Princess Leia’s ship, where we first meet them in Episode IV. I personally think it would have been far more appropriate and effective to have their cameo aboard the Princess’ ship right at the end of the film, with the Rebel troopers running past them and Threepio doing his trademark fretting about all the excitement. Perhaps Gareth Edwards considered it, but was concerned that doing it that way would pile too many Episode IV links into the film’s final moments.

 

 

Now, this one I’m sure a lot of folks will disagree with me on, but… “Saber Vader” just seemed too much like a “contractually obligated” fan-requested scene to me. Yeah, it looked bad-ass as hell to watch Darth Vader firing up his crimson lightsaber and viciously slicing up a hallway full of Rebel troopers, and it was a fun little moment in and of itself. BUT… it’s such a radically different tone from what we see of him less than an hour later at the beginning of Episode IV that I don’t believe that it’s going to wear particularly well for me in the long run, especially once I get this on Blu Ray in a few months and run it back to back with the original 1977 movie.

 

That said, I REALLY liked Vader’s first scene in the movie, especially once I realized that we were in Vader’s castle – something else that we’d never seen onscreen before. During my first viewing, one area where I’d felt that composer Michael Giacchino dropped the ball in the first half of the movie was in not using the ominous (and untitled) “villain theme” from the Episode IV score during Rogue One’s Imperial scenes. But then, as they drained the bacta tank and we saw who was in there… there was that exact musical passage! I was glad that Giacchino thought to work it into the score after all.

 

 

And overall, I thought the whole scene was very well done and gave us an excellent moment of interaction between Vader and Krennic, especially since it established Krennic’s tendency to overreach in his zeal to gain the Emperor’s favor. By the end of this scene, I couldn’t help but to see Krennic less as a classic movie villain and more along the lines of the feckless and ultimately doomed nebbish that William H. Macy played in the movie Fargo. Okay, so the Rogue One costume designer bricked it as far as what Vader costume pieces went over which other pieces, and Vader’s exit line was a rather Schwarzenegger-esque groaner of a pun. I still really dug that scene overall.

 

There was one other thing that made Rogue One take awhile to grow on me at first, and this was the fact that, with all due respect to composer Michael Giacchino, the movie just didn’t sound quite right. Close, but still just a bit off. And herein lies one of the few elements of Rogue One that I fear will always be a bit jarring.

 

 

For me, going all the way back to my first viewing of the original film in 1977, Star Wars has been at least 30% to 40% a musical experience. Imagine Luke watching the suns set on Tatooine without that sweeping version of the Force theme swelling in the background; Han being put into carbon freeze without that stirring take on Han and Leia’s love theme; Vader finally getting Luke to snap and attack him in the Emperor’s throne room without that goosebump fest of a strings-and-chorus piece driving the action forward. Star Wars has many scenes like that where, at least in my opinion, the music IS the scene.

 

I just didn’t feel that the Rogue One score had all that much of this. It worked somewhat better for me the second time, of course, and Giacchino is certainly a very talented composer in his own right. But to my ears this score just didn’t clear the bar that John Williams has set over the past four decades, and this sometimes ended up taking me out of the movie a little bit.

 

Now, I understand that Giacchino was given all of four weeks to compose the entire Rogue One score – a truly unenviable situation, particularly for a composer who is new to scoring the series. I also realize that the folks at Lucasfilm made an executive decision to try to set Rogue One and subsequent stand-alone Star Wars movies apart from the numbered “saga” films by dispensing with the classic main title theme and opening crawl, and by moving away from John Williams epic, theme-driven sound in favor of giving the film its own musical identity (with occasional nods to Williams’ ANH score.)

 

 

The problem with that, for good or ill, is that Williams’ bombastic leitmotif approach is and always has been a key ingredient in the Star Wars “special sauce”. And you just don’t go screwing with the special sauce after 40 years. Give the stand-alone films their own identity, sure. There are countless other ways to do that, and I think Edwards hit on a lot of them in ways that worked. But IMHO, the musical score is not the place to do that.

 

To be fair, I think there are a lot of decent pieces in the Rogue One soundtrack, and Giacchino did create a few very nice themes. He also worked some classic Williams themes into his score, which was great to hear. I’ll say it again, Michael Giacchino is an excellent composer. So why wasn’t I thrilled with his Rogue One score? I’ve had a few weeks to think about this, and also to listen to the soundtrack independently of the film, and I think I’ve got a handle on why I’m hearing it this way. If I might wave my ol’ freak flag for a moment here…

 

As an old Deadhead, people very often assume that since I love the Grateful Dead’s music, then I must also love the jamband Phish. I don’t. I respect what Phish does, but it’s not my cuppa joe at all. Yes, both bands stretch their music out into improvisational jams. But the Dead start with these great little songs and melodies, which are as much a part of what I love about that music as the exploratory journeys are, on top of which the band was also always very good at playing with dynamics. They could go from the whisper of a fingertip across a drum head to roof-raising musical armageddon and back, while visiting many different places in between. Phish, on the other hand, excellent musicians that they are, generally tend to focus more on pushing endless waves of sound at the audience, each more intense than the last. It’s a different musical sensibility entirely, and not one that has ever really kept my attention.

 

That’s what I feel about the Rogue One soundtrack. Where Giacchino isn’t quoting Williams, I’m hearing a lot of sustained dramatic chords and repetition of his three or so new major themes, but what I’m not hearing is much in the way of distinctive little secondary and tertiary passages with their own unique flavor and character. In short, I’m really missing Williams’ melodic sense here.

 

 

All of that being said, I think that Rogue One is a fantastic movie, and not just as a one-off, stand-alone picture. I realize that Lucasfilm is hell bent on establishing some sort of corporate “product differentiation initiative” between the stand-alone films and the numbered “saga” films, but in my view this is a huge mistake. Far from existing in its own parallel continuum, Rogue One, for all of its unique elements, feels to me to be as much a part of the ongoing Star Wars saga as any of the episodic movies.

 

Rogue One isn’t just “a Star Wars story”… it’s Star Wars!

 

 

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42 thoughts on “Patrick’s Spoiler Review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

  • January 8, 2017 at 11:27 pm
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    You were basically inside my head in every single way up until Vader’s scene. I can agree it’s clearly fan service but damn it… it’s what needed to happen. I’ve never once seen any Jedi fight in a way I cared for until that scene. I should say Sith…

    It finally felt right. I hate flipping Yoda, Overwhelmed by the swarms of Jedi in the PT, I thought duel of fates was… ok. Don’t get me started on Obi versus Anakin on Mustafar.

    To me Vader felt weighty… slow but methodical. He just systematically tore them down. Best damned infantry versus Force user I’ve ever seen. That makes the scene worth it just for what it brings to the SW universe. I hope more Force user conflicts feel like that. Not these flipping ninja dancers doing the unbelievable.

    Great review though.

    • January 8, 2017 at 11:40 pm
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      I will say, I didn’t HATE that Vader scene. I just didn’t feel that it matched the tone of the opening battle in ANH very well.

      My favorite bit of that Saber Vader scene was actually the poor sod at the end of the hallway who’s desperately trying to get the door open while bedlam is breaking loose behind him, and then trying desperately to at least get the damned plans to somebody on the other side of the door before he bites it.

      • January 9, 2017 at 12:18 am
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        I’m not having a pop at anyone here, but I want to put my two credits forward over the Vader scene. My personal feeling is that people need to get over the sluggishness of the New Hope Vader/Obi Wan fight. We’ve waited years to see Vader kick ass, I for one didn’t want to see him dothering about New Hope stylee.

        My thoughts are that, understandably, the New Hope duel has aged quite poorly, in exactly the same way the rubber masks in the Cantina scene have. We accept the limitations of those those, so why not that scene? We are all adults and we know that when Lucas filmed that duel all those years ago, he didn’t expect people to still be dicking around in his universe some 40 years later. Let alone that there would have been loads of awesome lightsabre fights since.

        The (fairly) rapid way Vader dispatches the rebels reflects modern Star Wars, it’s as simple as that. To moan that this is different to the original Death Star duel is like saying the creature shop shouldn’t have made creatures like Pao or Weeteef and should have stuck to giant mice like Kabe or pipe smoking twits like Dannik Jerriko.

        Yes, it would have been great if Lucas had a crystal ball when he made ANH, but he didn’t. Not everything can fit absolutely perfectly in a bunch of films made over a 40 year period, we just need to suspend our disbelief a bit. Rant over!

        • January 9, 2017 at 1:45 am
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          That’s all well and good, but of course I didn’t say a thing about the Vader/Obi Wan duel. What I was comparing the Rogue One Vader slaughter scene to was the battle on the Princess’ ship at the beginning of Episode IV.

          In that case, Vader let his stormtroopers go in and take care of all the wet work, after which he came aboard and led the search for the DS plans. He didn’t immediately kick the door down and go all flippity-floppity-floo on the Rebels with his lightsaber. Like any strong leader, “he’s got people for that.”

          So now, less than an hour before that, we’ve got an entirely different Vader in an almost identical setting and situation. It may be excellent fangasm material (as I said in my review, it looked really cool) but it doesn’t really match up with what we see of Vader at the beginning of Episode IV.

          As far as that Rogue One scene fitting in with the Vader/Obi Wan duel in Episode IV, I think it works just fine like that. Fortunately, Edwards didn’t go TOO prequel-backflippy with his Vader scene. Vader swatting blaster bolts aside is naturally going to look a bit different from Vader dueling an old Jedi master and trying not to get his ass sliced and diced again.

          • January 9, 2017 at 2:29 am
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            I have a theory. After all the screw-ups caused by, ultimately, Krennic, Vader was all like, “If I want something done right I’ll have to do it myself!” So he goes in and tries to clean up the mess himself mostly out of rage. But he fails, too, so then he calms down a bit (only a bit) and goes back to standard imperial battle tactics (stormtroopers in first) when he intercepts Leia’s ship. You’ll find this situation in manager’s offices around the country, except with slightly less human carnage.

          • January 9, 2017 at 11:39 am
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            Well, the Tantive IV is indeed a consular ship and Leia a member of the Senate which is still active at that time. I feel like it would not be a very smart move from Vader -politically speaking- to enter the ship and just blast everything apart. It’s not the same context as the battle of Scariff.

          • January 9, 2017 at 4:04 pm
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            Right, except for the fact that Vader’s stormtroopers did, in fact, enter the ship and just blast everything apart. ;^)

          • January 9, 2017 at 4:16 pm
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            They didn’t kill passengers. They killed the people who were shooting at them when they boarded.

          • January 10, 2017 at 12:12 am
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            They didn’t kill everyone though they took a lot of the Rebel troopers prisoner.

          • January 9, 2017 at 4:15 pm
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            The reason for that is simple: Vader is trying to kill them to get the plans.

            Once they get away and are on the Tantive IV, he doesn’t know where they are exactly. He could SEE them in R1, but now they are hidden somewhere else.
            So he sends his troops to search the ship.

          • January 9, 2017 at 10:43 pm
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            In Rogue One there was more urgency – Vader knew that he could stop them getting away with the plans, and it’s unlikely he’d want one of his flunkies messing it up, whereas in EP IV, they have the ship captive, time was on their side, why not send in a bunch of expendable Stormies?

            Vader does the important stuff himself, as in the trench run – That’s my take.

      • January 9, 2017 at 3:22 am
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        A friend of mines who is not a Star Wars fan loved the Vader scene in Rogue One and stated that in ANH he was tapping blades with OB1 because they had not seen each other for so long so they were feeling each other out. basically talking…. I’m paraphrasing what he said but it made sense.

      • January 9, 2017 at 4:14 pm
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        It’s not supposed to match the tone of ANH’s opening battle.

  • January 9, 2017 at 12:30 am
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    not sure if people are aware of this, but rogue one is a war film.

  • January 9, 2017 at 1:17 am
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    I’m just happy that this guy Patrick is not a filmmaker because if he directed Rogue One it would have been a pile of shit.

    • January 9, 2017 at 3:36 am
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      Ditto here: Only real standalone among the lot – ESB a close 2nd though…

  • January 9, 2017 at 1:43 am
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    Nice review!

    I was taken aback by the Tarkin CGI the first time I saw it and thought, oh god they may ruin this character by doing this. Happy to say the second and third time I had no problem, and think it’s a great moment when Tarkin realizes that Krennic is on Scarif and vaporizes him. What a turncoat scuzzball—I love it.

    Giacchino’s score didn’t do much for me early on. But, boy, has it grown on me. I absolutely love it and I think it fits in very well. The new imperial themes and the Jyn/Hope theme, the Vader fight scene…and omg that amazing “Rogue One Fugue”…are welcome additions and serve the film well. (Also cool to hear John Williams’ brother Don’s super timpani work.) It is a far more complex score than I initially gave it credit for, and I’ll never figure out how he did it all in such a short time. He earned every penny.

    For me Rogue One’s biggest achievement is adding immeasurable gravitas to Episode IV and the rest of the saga. I didn’t expect that, and Gareth Edwards deserves all due accolades for succeeding so wildly. Can’t wait to see what Episode VIII has in store.

    • January 9, 2017 at 1:55 am
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      Thanks, Bill. Yeah, my first viewing when I realized they’d recreated Tarkin via CGI, I kept waiting for it to fly off the rails. But it really never did. I realize that some fans were put off by it on general principle (disrespect to Peter Cushing, etc.) but to me it looked very good and added a lot to the movie, both in terms of how it moved the plot forward, and how it linked Rogue One to Episode IV.

      I’m still underwhelmed by the score, and probably always will be. God love Giacchino for scoring the entire thing in less than a month’s time, though, regardless. To my ears it’s inoffensive incidental film music that incorporates just enough key John Williams themes into it to stop it going too far afield of the classic SW scores. Maybe not a grand slam, but a solid single to advance the runners. ;^)

      As for the last paragraph of your post, I agree with you 1,000%. Gareth did something pretty damned amazing with Rogue One, and I can’t wait to have a back-to-back viewing of it followed by Episode IV when the blu-ray comes out in April!

    • January 9, 2017 at 3:27 am
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      There are allot of things pointed out in this review that bothered me because I am a big ANH fan but the review was rather good. I loved the sound track because it was different, I love John William score and its a big part of star wars, and love the Dr.e/ponda baba scene I don’t understand why it takes people out of the film i think it was a nice touch to us ANH fans.

  • January 9, 2017 at 4:15 am
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    All I can say is watch the movie and then immediately listen to the track “Hope” on the soundtrack. Pure gold.

    By the way, it is inexplicable that they left the end credits music off the soundtrack. Fortunately, you can get the end credit music (minus any John Williams themes) on the “For Your Consideration” soundtrack that is given to Academy members. You can find the complete set of tracks here: http://www.waltdisneystudiosawards.com/#/rogue-one/music

    I figured out a way to download all the “FYC” music as mp3 files, which is basically Disney giving away most of the soundtrack for free. There are some tracks from the official soundtrack that you don’t get. You need to look at the source HTML on the page, and you can find the name of the mp3 file in there. It takes a while, but you can do that for every track, and the names of the tracks can be fixed by inserting the right spaces and punctuation into the file names.

  • January 9, 2017 at 5:21 am
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    Why wasn’t Vader in the movie more? They could have taken a couple scenes away from CG Tarkin and given them to Vader and then they only gave him like 7 minutes of screen time.

    • January 9, 2017 at 4:13 pm
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      Because that wasn’t the story they wanted to tell.

      • January 9, 2017 at 8:59 pm
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        I just think it would have been better with less Digital Tarkin and more Physical Vader.

        • January 9, 2017 at 9:14 pm
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          It would have been different, for certain.

  • January 9, 2017 at 11:51 am
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    This review – √√√√√√√√√√√√√√√√√√
    Especially the comments on the extra cameos and the vader saber scene.

  • January 9, 2017 at 2:55 pm
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    Is it just me or this last week this website has been crashing/freezing and basically impossible to browse?

  • January 9, 2017 at 3:25 pm
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    Nice review. I couldn’t agree with you more about the score and music of the film, especially the crawl and opening music. There are so many ways to differentiate this from a saga film besides changing the opening crawl and intro music.

  • January 9, 2017 at 4:14 pm
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    I wish more people would notice how ballsy of a move this was for Disney. The fact that all the characters were killed in a Disney film is so shocking to me. That’s not a shot at Disney. They also managed to pull off all the deaths without it getting too gruesome. It was just a group of Rebels making the ultimate sacrifice for the greater good.

  • January 9, 2017 at 4:24 pm
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    The score was definitely the weakest point of the film for me, but at the same time, it did lend the movie a different feel. If we had a classic Williams’ score, I think it wouldn’t quite fit the tone of the movie. That said, I think Giacchino landed somewhere in the middle. He should have, IMO, departed even further from Williams’ style in this film. Going with a more classic war-film-type score. And then just include a few leitmotifs here and there that hearken back to the OT (Imperial March, the Force theme, etc.). In other words, I don’t think he went far enough in differentiating this film from the saga films. He got caught in the middle.

    • January 9, 2017 at 10:34 pm
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      I’ve listened to this in isolation quite a lot recently and my initial opinion of it has changed from disappointment to appreciation, there are a number of little passages and subtle inflections that remind me of the original classic Star Wars score (New Hope).

      That all being said, why reinvent the wheel when it comes to the Empire’s theme? Replacing the instantly recognisable Imperial March with something much less recognisable weakens the impact of the score at vital points in the film.

      All in all it’s a better score than I originally thought and I would like to hear what Giacchino does given a reasonable time to produce something for another Star Wars film later down the line.

      • January 10, 2017 at 12:41 am
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        This
        Stop dismissing the music it’s the best thing with Rogue One together with Felicity

      • January 10, 2017 at 1:43 am
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        Felt the same way re: new Imperial theme. It was good, just…unnecessary. Would’ve been a great theme for the First Order and Kylo Ren in TFA instead of Williams’ kind of generic 5-note decending motif. But it feels out of place here.

  • January 9, 2017 at 5:09 pm
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    If all the complaints about this movie was it did too much different, then they nailed it. My complaint about Ep 7, they didn’t do enough different.

  • January 9, 2017 at 7:38 pm
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    The space battle were seriously the most epic compared to all the other SW movies and I wish it lasted a lot longer. My complains is that the ground battle scenes should be more violent and the demise of the heroes to be more poignant. But I love this movie a lot and even the music!

    • January 10, 2017 at 7:56 am
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      Oh the ground battle with its random important Imperial machines and stations placed around the beach (despite having a protective fortress nearby); with its menacing, awesome and cool close-up of a walker, which doesn’t end up doing much and also kind of undermines the awe of first spotting the AT-ATs on Hoth. Some good choreography and design, but mostly forgettable. Space battle was awesome, though, it really felt more ‘spirited’ and inspired.
      Now, I do think I get it: Implausible constructions and wonky designs are part of Star Wars, but the rest of the film exudes this great grittier tone and as such the Scarif battle (with its beautiful, but dull/non-threatening landscape) felt out of place like a Gungan in a scene

  • January 10, 2017 at 12:40 am
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    I wish I could be so positive about the film. Still haven’t bothered to see it again though. But…The EpIV X-Wing pilots..That was anything but seamless

    • January 10, 2017 at 2:05 am
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      I don’t know, Remy. After the novelty of seeing them in the film that first time, I went into my second viewing thinking that those two were going to stick out like a pair of sore thumbs due to the older film stock looking different, the shots being lit differently, etc. But they really didn’t. Not to me, at least.

      Actually, the one pilot who looked rather out of place was poor “Red Five”. I’m not sure what exactly it was about him, but he looked almost like his shots were lifted from somebody else’s fan film.

      But hell, to me that space battle is more than cool enough to make up for a few shots here and there that may not work for some of us.

      My advice (and I say this because I wasn’t nearly as positive about Rogue One after my first viewing as I became later on) is to find the time to see it a second time – unless you absolutely hated it, of course. There’s a much better movie there, IMHO, than I think some of us saw the first time through.

  • January 10, 2017 at 1:26 am
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    Excellent reviewI’ll be honest; I adore this movie. This movie to me renewed my faith in the franchise from a movie perspective. I stress movie, because, really outside of TFA; I’ve been enjoying the new canon. It’s hard to compare it to legends which I’m a fan of, but really it is really been solid.

    I’ll be honest; I was like you when i walked out of the theater. I was hyped, but I was a bit confused. But once the hype died down(it’s like a sugar rush. You’re up and at it, but not thinking straight) and I rewatched it; I found myself loving it.

    I guess why I enjoy it is how different it is. I’m a big EU/ new canon fan and I liked when legends did different genres. Shatterpoint is an excellent psychological thriller and one of Stover’s best books. And this movie felt like something from Legends.

    No crazy scene wipes. No quippy dialogue. It was a lot more grounded and serious. And I liked that. There was a degree of subtly to this movie. Whether it be in the actor’s expressions and mannerisms or even the sequence of events. And I know that kind of stuff irritates people, but to me it was brilliant.

    But this movie isn’t perfect. I feel like this movie’s first act is a bit of a chore. It’s slow paced and while I loved the new locations; I think that the movie would have been better if some of those places were cut and we got right to the mission at hand.

    Also, the characters. I really do enjoy them, Jyn and Churrit being my favorites in their personality, motivations. But they weren’t that developed. I think we needed something like what Luke, Leia, Han and Chewie had with that trash compactor scene.

    A chance for the characters to really bounce off and we get to know them. That’s something I’ll give TFA credit. For while the characterization was piss poor, the chemistry and camadarie, while a bit lacking was there.

    But make no mistake; I prefer RO’s team a lot more. Why? They acted like a team! TFA’s biggest fault was that aside from Rey nobody was really that useful/ had a defined role.

    Here, because it is a war movie, everyone had a point. Churrit was wise, but also competent with hand to hand skills/ Base’s big guns. K2S0 was skilled at navigating imperial computers, Bodhi knew imperial com signals and equipment etc.

    The list goes on. That third act really made me adore these characters as they were acting together. And I won’t lie; I teared up when they all died. I wished we could have gotten to know them more. But that third act really was the thing that brought the movie together.

    it’s the anti- SS; where that movie fell a part at the third act, but this movie didn’t. And Krennic was amazing as well. Ben Mendelsohm did an excellent job. And knowing what happened to him in Catalyst, I love this sociopathic performance we get.

    And really, Krennic’s demise was less his fault and more of having a really,really bad day. CGI Tarkin I like it, but it isn’t perfect. Something about the eye and lip movement. It’s better than CGI Leia, but aside from his initial appearance; he was solid.

    Darth Vader was used perfectly in this movie. What a lot of people, cough Chris Stuckmann, fail to acknowledge that this isn’t Vader’s movie. Vader’s overpresence would take away from RO. He’s the Empire’s fist, but he really only showcases it when crap hits the fan. And James Earl Jones’ lines with Krennic were nothing short of perfect. And Yes, I loved that pun

    But that hallway sequence always has me gripping me at the edge of the seat. Easily, the best sequence of Darth Vader we’ve seen in live action. And the way this movie connects to ANH is nothing short of amazing.

    In short, despite the weak soundtrack, sluggish pacing, and not as fleshed out characterization; the stylistic choice, team effort, and third act of a war movie really pull this movie well together. This movie easily is in my top five and will be in my Machete order.

    Score: 83/100 It’s a great SWs movie that to me did what I wanted. And it makes me hopeful for the future of the franchise. 🙂

  • January 10, 2017 at 3:44 pm
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    Well Ree Yees, ya ol’ bantha gelder! How ya be? ;^)

    First off, intercourse the bloody 3D! Go see this thing old school, in a good 2D theater. I know that 3D has gotten a lot better, but it still can make a good movie look gimmicky. We grew up watching Star Wars movies in 2D, and IMHO that’s how they come across the best.

    It might not hurt to watch an old war movie or two first (like Dirty Dozen, The Longest Day, or one of those other 1960s era WWII flicks) to get your expectations tuned a bit more. Because that’s really what Rogue One seems the most closely related to.

    And high expectations always hang heavy on an initial viewing of a new SW film. Especially for those of us who felt burned by the prequel trilogy. See what a second round does for you.

    • January 10, 2017 at 6:56 pm
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      I will, my friend.
      ROGUE ONE wasn’t a soul-crushing experience, fortunately, it just didn’t grab me or excite me as much as I wanted/expected it to 🙂 Maybe I’ve been holding off for fear that I would like it less, but maybe you are right.
      I’m still pretty happy with TFA despite its flaws, so its not that I can’t see past flaws or anything, so yeah. Rogue Two it must be. (And a happy new year!)

      • January 10, 2017 at 9:59 pm
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        I’m right with you on TFA. I can see plenty of the flaws in that film that pooched the deal for some SW fans, but I just find the story and the characters and the overall execution way too damned charming to not like the thing.

        Rogue One doesn’t have that same kind of charm – I like it because it’s a hell of a fun war movie set in the SW universe, and the third act of the film does a surprisingly good job of dovetailing with the beginning of Episode IV – to the point where I personally consider this to be a new saga film, despite whatever “product differentiation initiative” crap LucasMouseCo wants to hang around its neck.

        You may not end up agreeing with me on that, but I suspect that a second viewing without all that 3D codswallop might be a more enjoyable experience for you on at least some level.

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