Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

[Julius]

Well, well, well...can you feel it too? Because it's that time of the year again fellow Force users!

 

Teaser trailer April 2016

 

 

First official trailer July 2016

 

 

Second official trailer October 2016

 

 

Synopsis

From Lucasfilm comes the first of the Star Wars standalone films, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves.

 

And, for those not in the know...tickets go on sale tonight in the U.K. at midnight!

Edited November 20, 2016 by Julius Caesar

[somme]

Got my tickets! Odeon were nice enough to put them on sale 40 minutes early (though I only noticed at 23:55).

 

Midnight screening! And not long to wait now at all.

[dazzybee]

Yeah, booked, 12:01 screening, BFI imax!!!

[Mr-Paul]

Another one in the midnight crew, did the BFI IMAX last year, this time the Cineworld IMAX in Leicester Square!

 

Annoyingly just went into my email inbox to get my eticket and saw I actually won tickets to go and see it last night, a day early, and totally missed it! Ah well, ended up busy anyway, and better that I noticed it now rather than Monday morning after the RSVP time!

 

Not long to go!

[Londragon]

Good movie with an excellent payoff. But CGI people still not a reality for modern day computers I guess.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[dazzybee]

It was as good as I initially expected as soon as I knew Gareth Edwards was directing..... oh boy.... and that CGI, what the hell were they thinking!!!

[ReZourceman]

Another one in the midnight crew, did the BFI IMAX last year, this time the Cineworld IMAX in Leicester Square!

 

Annoyingly just went into my email inbox to get my eticket and saw I actually won tickets to go and see it last night, a day early, and totally missed it! Ah well, ended up busy anyway, and better that I noticed it now rather than Monday morning after the RSVP time!

 

Not long to go!

 

But then you would have seen it a day early, but perhaps not watched it at midnight.....with the cast! Things happen for a reason (I believe that they do not actually, but this was a happy coincidence).

 

I really enjoyed it. I share the sentiments of others regarding CGI. Should have been more in shadow/less movement.

[Mr-Paul]

 

But then you would have seen it a day early, but perhaps not watched it at midnight.....with the cast! Things happen for a reason (I believe that they do not actually, but this was a happy coincidence).

 

I really enjoyed it. I share the sentiments of others regarding CGI. Should have been more in shadow/less movement.

 

So true! (For those who don't have me on FB, Gareth Edwards and the cast turned up to introduce the film!)

 

Really enjoyed it, have to say on first viewing that I preferred The Force Awakens, mainly because of the absolute joy that film gave me. Still very good though and am looking forward to seeing it again, probably some time over the weekend.

 

Compared to the rest of you, I actually really liked the CGI Tarkin and Leia! It was such a nice surprise and although I could tell they were digitally created, I thought they worked really well. It was great that they had these characters in the film rather than them inexplicably not being around when it's set immediately before the original.

 

I did like how it literally ended at the start of A New Hope.

 

[Julius]

Well, well...what can I say? That film was nothing short of superb! Now, mind, it did have a few problems for myself, but the last 30 minutes or so - and ESPECIALLY the last 5 minutes - is probably the biggest pay off I've ever seen in a film. I grinned non-stop for three minutes at the end of TFA when Rey arrived on Ahch-To and was clearly walking up to Luke, but in this case, it was probably the last 20 minutes or so. Ear-to-ear. My cheeks really hurt. I read Catalyst[/b last week: easily the bestcanon-related decision I've made since the restructure! So, just a few things I want to say after my first viewing - and SPOILERS, obviously:

 

• lack of an opening crawl was not only jarring but made the start of the film...a bit underwhelming?

• the title card (Rogue One being flashed on the screen) is one of the worst I think I've ever seen. A yellow outline of the logo you already have? Why not just USE THE ONE YOU ALREADY HAVE!

• planet names and locations turning up in the corners to give some context; not a fan of this. If people cared enough about this, I'm sure they'd be more than willing to find it by digging through some other canon material, but it's made even more confusing, perhaps, when the names of the planets are mentioned, making their labelling completely useless.

• some lines were very much given out of context, in my opinion, and showed signs of the reshoots. For example, Baze calling Jyn his "little sister". Uh, what?!

• some of the CGI seemed a bit...choppy to me? Didn't look as sleek and surreal as CGI did in TFA, for example, Krennic's ship landing at the start of the film.

 

 

• Jyn bumping into Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba (two guys from Mos Eisley cantina in ANH, the former throwing Luke and the latter losing an arm to old Ben).

• CGI Leia (in my opinion the worst of the CGI), Tarkin, and Gold Leader (in my opinion the best of the CGI), who leads the run in a Y-Wing in the Death Star attack!

• as many had speculated, Galen Erso is the one who added that fatal flaw to the Death Star.

• an Asian guy in an X-Wing gets shot down over Scarif; if you pay close attention, he is called "Red 5" - Luke's designation in ANH. Ouch.

• Project Dark Saber (a nod towards the lightsaber of the very same name that has appeared in both TCW and Rebels), mentioned just before Project Stardust in the archives on Scarif.

• naked limbless Vader. Seems to be located on Sullust, the place where Nien Nunb originates from and also where much of the Imperial Fleet is formed.

 

 

I feel more a fan you are of the franchise, the more you'll get out of this film, and you can tell Edwards is telling nothing but the truth when he says he was at the point where he could quote the entirety/majority of the original. So many Easter eggs! And the last five minutes...are nothing short of perfection!

 

Furthermore, my current ranking of the films after one viewing of Rogue One (plenty more required before this is finalised by any means):

1. The Empire Strikes Back

2. A New Hope

3. Rogue One

- 4. Return of the Jedi

- 4. The Force Awakens

6. Revenge of the Sith

7. The Phantom Menace

8. Attack of the Clones

Edited December 16, 2016 by Julius Caesar

[somme]

The entire last act was nothing short of amazing - the slow beginning certainly paid off. I'm much more eager to run back into the cinema to see this than TFA, and I loved TFA.

 

Only let downs for me were the lack of a slow crawl, though I understand why they did it, it seemed to start too suddenly. The font for the Rogue One title and the planet names was awful! Who chose that font? And the music seemed lacking. But then again most modern movies have forgettable scores.

 

I loved the CGI. I wasn't the only one, the entire screening seemed to gasp at one point at the end and it wasn't in horror as a round of applause and cheers erupted very shortly after.

 

It's early days but this may be up there in my top 3 Star Wars films.

[dan-likes-trees]

It was as good as I initially expected as soon as I knew Gareth Edwards was directing.....

 

Same. It was fantastic.

 

Thought he pulled off a Star Wars with a real sense of immensity and scale that I haven't seen from the films before, whilst getting pretty great performances out of the cast despite a script without much space for characters

 

Loved it for all the reasons that I loved KOTOR - fantastic worldbuilding, zipping between different planets and enclaves, all with terrific set designs, costumes, extras and the like. Also felt truley StarWars-y, particularly in the visuals (one of the few sci-fis not to be overloaded with naff FUI and HUD stuff). It all genuinely felt like a story about the minor characters and tiny side stories, which tFA puported to be about, but ultimately wasn't at all.

 

Thought k2SO was brilliant, though struck me to be the most obvious evidence of reshoots / reedits / shoehorned in extra lines.

 

Great to have such an epic story, all contained in one film. Up there with Empire for me : peace:

Edited December 20, 2016 by dan-likes-trees

[Charlie]

Absolutely fantastic film. Far, far better than The Force Awakens - it's actually an original story rather than destroying another Death Star!

 

It seemed far more adult than any other SW film to date. People forget how childish even the originals were at times (the Ewoks being a prime example of this) too.

 

I didn't mind the CGI at all. I just enjoy films for what they are rather than nit picking on things like CGI. Loved seeing Tarkin again and thought they'd done him really well. Leia was good too for the brief moment we saw her.

[Agent Gibbs]

Simply a superb film, the last act of the film was amazing, the syling and cinematography were fabulous and the last 5 min of the film were sheer nergasm

 

The characters were amazing, Jyn and K2 being my favourites

 

and the CGI wizardry in this was just brilliant (although the first bit was more noticeably CGI)

 

gonna have to book some more tickets

[Will]

Loved it. Tarkin and Leah were great, for me still a little bit uncanny valley but my gf didn't even realize they were CGI so I guess the tech is good enough for most people. Great story, good action and really felt like it fit well with the originals. I'd say I'm now looking forward to these original stories more than I am the new trilogy.

[Cube]

I loved the film. The pacing at the start was a bit poor, but the final part was awesome. I think the biggest problem was the music (making it one of two noticeably bad soundtracks in recent years, the other being Doctor Strange).

 

• Jyn bumping into Cornelius Evazan and Ponda Baba (two guys from Mos Eisley cantina in ANH, the former throwing Luke and the latter losing an arm to old Ben).

• CGI Leia (in my opinion the worst of the CGI), Tarkin, and Gold Leader (in my opinion the best of the CGI), who leads the run in a Y-Wing in the Death Star attack!

• as many had speculated, Galen Erso is the one who added that fatal flaw to the Death Star.

• an Asian guy in an X-Wing gets shot down over Scarif; if you pay close attention, he is called "Red 5" - Luke's designation in ANH. Ouch.

• Project Dark Saber (a nod towards the lightsaber of the very same name that has appeared in both TCW and Rebels), mentioned just before Project Stardust in the archives on Scarif.

• naked limbless Vader. Seems to be located on Sullust, the place where Nien Nunb originates from and also where much of the Imperial Fleet is formed.

 

• Vader lives on Mustafar, not Sullust.

• Red/Gold Leader were not CGI. That was unused footage from ANH.

• General Sendula was called for on the intercom (Hera from Rebels)

• Chopper from Rebels can be seen (and heard) in a shot.

• The Ghost (from Rebels) is seen about 4 or 5 times.

• The Erso's live on Coruscant in one of the flashbacks.

• The Clone Turbo Tank is being used as a prison vehicle (makes sense to use old military tech like that).

• Saw had an Onderon flag on his back (he's from Onderon, and helped liberate it in The Clone Wars, and was trained by Anakin and Obi-Wan).

• The tactics used in the fight on Jedha is actually similar to the tactics from those Clone Wars episodes

• The Hammerhead Corvette was previously features on Star Wars Rebels, and is based on a design from Knights of the Old Republic.

 

 

[Fierce_LiNk]

Saw this yesterday and thought that it was fresh and exciting. Yes, it takes a while to get going, but I thought that was easily forgiveable as there were new locations, characters and plot points that were being established. If we get more Star Wars stories like this, then I'm not complaining! I thought the Rogue One crew were great additions to the series and particularly enjoyed the characters of Chirrut and Baze. I love it when films have these "buddy" characters and hint that there's a bit of history there. It reminds me of Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's characters of Eames and Arthur from Inception, who aren't the main focus, but are enjoyable characters who could have little stories or films of their own.

 

No complaints from me. I have absolutely no problems with the CGI-ing of certain characters, especially when the film makers have been given permission by the family's estate and they've been involved in the whole process, right down to the tiniest detail!

 

The bit that excites me about this film is that it shows that there are lots of stories in the Star Wars universe that are left to be told. I do feel that they captured that true essence of what makes Star Wars tick. The locations were stunningly created, the tone was different to other films in the series and the set pieces were well crafted. All in all, I very much enjoyed it.

[dazzybee]

Watched it again, and much preferred it. It's pretty good, at times very good, at others frustrating. But it was much better than my first sleepy watch. Still think it has underwritten characters, the most unthreatening pointless bad guy, terrible CG characters (I really wish they didn't do this, so stupid) , Darth Vader punning like James Bond, sometimes slow; but the story, action and Vader make it more than worth it!

[Fierce_LiNk]

I've found myself craving to see this again.

 

It's quite humorous to hear people out there who are confused where this fits in the Star Wars timeline. It's so fucking simple! @Eenuh tried (in vain) to explain this to her Dad and he wasn't getting it.

[soag]

I've seen it twice now and I'm dying to see it again!

[Jon]

Loved it. My favourite Star Wars film. Really don't understand any negativity regarding CGI, it was absolutely on the money. You simply cannot make a film like that on that scale without the use of much CGI and when it looks as good as it did on Rogue One, it's not even an issue.

 

Absolutely the proper way to make a prequel.

[dazzybee]

Loved it. My favourite Star Wars film. Really don't understand any negativity regarding CGI, it was absolutely on the money. You simply cannot make a film like that on that scale without the use of much CGI and when it looks as good as it did on Rogue One, it's not even an issue.

 

Absolutely the proper way to make a prequel.

 

I think the nativity stems from the fact that they look like CG characters, not real humans, and it is insanely jarring. What makes it worse is it is completely unnecessary. The CG is only going to look worse over time too.

[Retro_Link]

I think the nativity stems from the fact that they look like CG characters, not real humans, and it is insanely jarring. What makes it worse is it is completely unnecessary. The CG is only going to look worse over time too.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CGI got an update in a future anniversary/whatever follows Blu-Ray, edition of the film.

 

I was a little surprised they needed to CGI Leia. I would have thought for essentially a head turn and one word they could have used some footage they already had and perhaps just CGI'd/dubbed over it.

[Jon]

I think the nativity stems from the fact that they look like CG characters, not real humans, and it is insanely jarring. What makes it worse is it is completely unnecessary. The CG is only going to look worse over time too.

 

I disagree, didn't think it was jarring at all. I can understand the negativity from a moral point of view but everyone was on board with it in this example so that's not an issue. The Leia cameo was so short I didn't have time to wonder how they did it, I just took it in. Tarkin was in it way more and the only way I knew consciously that it was CGI because I recognised the actors as some dude from Holby City.

[dazzybee]

I disagree, didn't think it was jarring at all. I can understand the negativity from a moral point of view but everyone was on board with it in this example so that's not an issue. The Leia cameo was so short I didn't have time to wonder how they did it, I just took it in. Tarkin was in it way more and the only way I knew consciously that it was CGI because I recognised the actors as some dude from Holby City.

 

You recognised the voice from the guy from Holby City? Impressive you can tell a voice from a naff soap opera yet can't see a cartoon character mixing with humans

 

I think the CG, while technically impressive, is really terrible; most people I know (and most reviews have said) that it is pretty bad. Good some can't see it though I guess.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if the CGI got an update in a future anniversary/whatever follows Blu-Ray, edition of the film.

 

I was a little surprised they needed to CGI Leia. I would have thought for essentially a head turn and one word they could have used some footage they already had and perhaps just CGI'd/dubbed over it.

 

Maybe, I feel after the original changes backlash they wouldn't want to touch it; doubt it'd help though; it was a stupid idea to go through with it... Never mind the fact it's terrible, it's a hideous gimmick too; Mon Mothma is in the original film too, why didn't they do the same with her? You create a rule you stick to it.

[Jon]

You recognised the voice from the guy from Holby City? Impressive you can tell a voice from a naff soap opera yet can't see a cartoon character mixing with humans

 

I think the CG, while technically impressive, is really terrible; most people I know (and most reviews have said) that it is pretty bad. Good some can't see it though I guess.

 

I can tell a voice from a man who is a very accomplished actor, regardless of your opinion on one of his roles. Quite a few reviews have also hailed the CGI work, obviously you're not a fan.

 

Please don't make assumptions on what I can and can't do thanks.