Also, the trailers already showed cameos by at least Mon Mothma and Bail Organa . I also read that Tarkin as bad CGI and Leia played by a human are in the movie.

Tarkin looks amazing in most shots, but there are few that seem a bit off, or his voice doesn't really match correctly. I was more impressed with Vader's voice sounding much more like younger JEJ instead of the more recent older JEJ in Rebels.

HOWEVER, I am very disappointed with the fact that several Vader scenes were not in the final cut.

I make an effort to only go see movies in theaters at obscure micro theaters or arthouse places, because then the experience fits the film. Otherwise I watch it at home, in lingerie, with drugs and alcohol, and company of my choosing.

Though, I suppose a giant, stale smelling, poorly placed theater with a parking lot so big you can't see the theater from the edge filled with obnoxious children (some of them adults) and only frozen personal pan pizzas for food within a thousand yard radius fits the experience of most contemporary movies just fine.

I have a fantasy of having a small micro theater. But I would have to find a real city for that

I thought it was fantastic. Significantly better than FA. The space battles made me angry that they aren't going to make a modern X-Wing game. Jedha made me angry we won't get another game like Jedi Knight.

I liked it wayyy more than I was expecting to. I loved TFA, but this holds it's own in the list of movies. It makes ANH a better movie too which is the real fun thing about it. Also absolutely worth going to a theater to see (wait a week if you want it to not be packed. seriously.)

Checking out of this thread until tomorrow. I got tickets for 1:30 PM. My wife and I are looking forward to it but my 10 year old son is not. He said, "Star Wars sucks, dad."

They thought it was just another normal day at the House of Lozier, but such serenity was not meant to be...

That's pretty great. I guess they're not so special from the perspective of a relatively new human.

All the stuff being marketed to him does suck. That being said, I duno if a ten year old would be able to follow Rouge One's plot all that well.



That was my take away too. That's a real challenge to do, but this did it. It raises the stakes so much, and it really shows the Rebel's position to be truly desperate. I think they should have released this movie before FA, and made FA less heavy on the OT tie-ins. This movie connected with the original trilogy without simply rehashing it.

Here to say.

SEE IT.

It has some fundamental pacing issues. But, the cast is on point and it honestly makes for a great little "capture" in the moment of Star Wars history.

I won't lie, when Vader had his second scene I just thought of "They were like animals, so I slaughtered them like animals."

Welcome to Massassi, snoopfighter.

that second scene with vader really makes me want a vader stand alone film... just him hunting down jedi shortly after ep3

p. good ****

I would agree, mainly at the beginning. We saw like 5 different places and times in the span of 10 minutes. Luckily, it slowed down and became more manageable. I quite enjoyed it, other than the lack of Kyle Katarn.

Just finished it... well... uh... I dunno. I mostly enjoyed it, I guess. My wife and son were lost most of the time. My son fell asleep as did a guy sitting behind me who was snoring the last 1/3 of the movie. The last battle scene was pretty cool. The story was ok. I am 100% against using CGI to insert actors who have been dead since 1994 into movies. They need to never do this again. The cameo by Ponda Baba and his partner, whatever the name was, was a little jarring and not appreciated. It was definitely darker. Pretty much every newly introduced character died. I pretty much knew that was going to happen. I did enjoy the new droid (can't remember the name) and the increased role of the Mon Calamari. What I did enjoy was the return to the old-school Star Wars aesthetic. I love the older (newer chronologically I guess!?) ship designs. They are much more utilitarian and they look beat to hell already. I also liked those super-old looking stone temple places the rebels were hiding out in ??? not sure where those are exactly ???

ha ha ha never heard that joke before good job wil wheaton ha ha

Brian: the Massassi Temple is Tikal, Guatemala.

The CG people I honestly thought were really good. Perfect? No. But given the story they wanted to tell, I think it would have been far more weird to avoid using those characters.

The technology is not new (Superman Returns) but for some reason (probably fear of becoming obsolete?) it doesn't get as developed as others. I for one want to see this technology advanced far more until they get it perfect.

Meh, I don't think they should bring dead people back. After you're dead, are you going to be happy if facebook makes CGI versions of videos of you to advertise to your still-alive friends? It's the same thing. I think if they had wanted to make a movie with Peter Cushing in it they had until ~1994 to do it. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, I don't know.

What do you mean? It gets developed. It's getting developed. It's improving markedly as time goes by.

Sounds like a moral/ethical viewpoint.

In a way, I understand, but these actors are living legends. They are forces within film that take on a wholely greater meaning than just being an "actor" in that they are the character they are representing.

I felt in no way was the visuals in regards to Tarkin or Leia disrespectful. To me, it was an ode to the source material we all know and love. I started perusing Massassi in 1999. I remember downloading "Old Ben" along with Ep 1characters to play in multiplayer on MS Gaming Zone. He was long since dead by then. Yet, to play as HIM, it was a nod to Star Wars as a cultural form since he still existed in the art that he portrayed.

Anyways, I appreciate the CGI. Thought it was cool and didn't take me at all out of a film series that originally used a 7 foot "walking carpet" who had no real lines as a main side character.

Hmm, good point about using (Old) Obi-Wan Kenobi or even Tarkin in video game mods. I guess there's a difference in the case of JK because this game is not photo-realistic and because none of us are selling the mods. But after reading your post and thinking about it further I guess I feel less strongly about it. However it still creeped me out while watching it. The Leia scene actually creeped me out more for some reason. Hmm.

If it changes anything, actors own their likenesses, so they/their families got paid for doing nothing.

Not always. Contracts can be quite in depth and specific on what rights you give up. And studios/line producers/etc are well aware of any loopholes they can exploit to achieve what they want.

For example, it's against the law to force anyone to work a set amount of hours in a week. However, some films will put it into the contract that if you sign you hereby waive that right, which is why you often hear about people working 18 hour days, etc. And I say this with personal experience as someone that works in the industry and has both signed and written those contracts.

This can also lead to quite a few disputes, as in some places you cannot actually "contract" someone to waive their rights, or bypass certain laws. The law is the law. Here in Toronto, you can and will be given contracts that state you waive such and such, but if you REALLY wanted to cause a stink you could take them to the labour board and they'd fine them and punish them for trying to circumvent the law. However, you do that, and you're going to have a very very hard time. It's simply not worth it. Actors do the same thing with their likeness.

I'll give you another example - I appeared in an episode of the TV series Mayday, I never gave them permission to use my likeness outside of Canada, in fact it was never something I was advised of (that it would be shown globally, nor was I ever given any contract for the acting to sign, merely a daily sign off sheet for actors), or show me in a certain way (my character by editing - For example they could make me something my character wasn't even written as against what I agreed to), etc. Yet, the show and that particular episode is broadcast all over the world in places like China, UK, etc. There's nothing I really can do aside from try to go up against a huge corporation with some of the best lawyers they can buy. It's simply not worth it. And I would also prefer to keep a good name for myself in the business, rather than having word passed around that I will raise guff about random things (Which ultimately won't necessarily STOP you from getting work, but it will definitely impact it).

So in essence, actors do not own their likeness, and it's probable there was something in a contract somewhere (whether it be his family or Peter Cushing himself) that explicitly pointed that out.

It sounds ass backwards and contradictory of even itself, but that's simply how it works in the business.

I would suggest that you always approach any project with the idea that your client intends to maximize profit in every possible way with your work. It avoids misunderstandings like the one you mentioned, and it's worked perfectly for me.

Unfortunately while that sounds good in theory, it is not always applied in practice. Not to mention that studios, producers, etc are worried about their own profits, and not what their clients wish to attain. You would not believe how often things are cut or shortchanged simply because they want to save money or are too cheap to spend any more, regardless of the fact that they're fully aware it'll adversely affect their product.

Here's an example again from my own experience:

Season 13 of Mayday - Art Department of 9 personnel, budget almost unlimited - You need to get what? Sure, here's some money, spend a little extra to get the best of the best as well.

Season 14 - Art Department cut to 5 people, 1 of which is a daily that would come once a week for the big shoot days. Budget limited.

Season 15 - Oh you guys managed to do it last season with 5 people, and a limited budget? Let's cut that to 3 people, 1 daily, and half the budget from last season.

Season 16 - Oh yeah, the show somewhat suffered and looked limited/cheesy in certain areas that the seasons prior it would not, but ratings were still strong and you had to work longer hours to achieve what we wanted, but you somehow did it, even if just barely. Let's see if we can cut the department to 2 people, 1 daily, and you can get back to us. Oh and your budget? Non existent. Recycle old **** from previous seasons. PS, you're now working 6 days a week when we aren't shooting, 7 when we are, so you'll get 1 day off now every 3 weeks. You want a 10-12 hour day? GTFO - You're working 16 minimum. Oh and you're also not getting overtime or paid hourly, you get your flat weekly or daily rate, which we are also now looking at cutting. Wanna complain? Go ahead, but we're one of the biggest producers of media in the entire country, and we guarantee that while you'll work in the industry, it will never be for us again. And we'll make sure everyone we know has your name (which unfortunately, as big as the industry in Canada/Toronto is, EVERYONE knows someone that you do - I have never worked on a single show or film that I did not know at least 2 people from prior jobs, and at least another 2 or 3 that knew people that I did - so they can and will screw you).



Look up Hollywood Accounting if you want to see exactly what I am talking about for just another example of many ways studios screw over their employees, even the literal face of their product. It's common practice. So no, while most of the time Jon C would be correct in the sense of using someone's likeness, that is not always the case. It's entirely plausible that Cushing's family got zero from this film.

Implying thine peasants shall be bequeathed a single farthing.

I liked this movie a lot.

I saw the numbers this morning... $155 million box office over the weekend, compared to $247 million for TFA. I wonder what made the difference. Difference in marketing? The movie itself? Competition? It's still a lot of money. For reference the budget for Rogue One was ~$200 million (gah!!!!).

I saw it this afternoon and eeeeeeeh, it was ok I guess?

I find it quite jarring that I walked out after it ended and immediately thought "I genuinely can't remember the name of a single one of those characters." There wasn't anything particularly memorable about any of it.

All the wee fan service throwbacks tossed in really took me out of the film, as did the CGI characters.

The most memorable character for me was the droid but I don't remember his name. I think they didn't say it enough; like they only said it maybe when he was introduced and that was it? K-something? And of course I remember Mon Mothma and Grand Moff Tarkin and a lot of the secondary characters but you're right about the main characters; I don't remember their names.

Thinking back, my favorite scene has got to be when Darth Vader was plowing through the rebel soldiers trying to get the plans, right there at the very end. He was just so intense and menacing. I wish more of the movie could have been like that. The bad guy in the white uniform was fine. The actor, I thought, did a good job, and the character was ok. But he wasn't a good enough villain. I didn't really believe at all that he was going to succeed in winning at anything. He wasn't a strong enough character to overcome anything. He was just "meh."

Vader is a plot device. The story is about humans struggling to fight something bigger than themselves. If you had more Vader, how would ever expect the humans to win?

That's the whole point though. That generates despair. Only through enormous sacrifice can you prevail.

It didn't have to be vader. It had to be someone strong enough to make the struggle real. As it was, it was a struggle against a giant war machine ("the empire"), not against a single, strong villain. Which was ok, I guess. But it just... I don't know. It was missing something.

I think that was the point of the Director (Krennic or something). An incompetent villain you could throw away and let die without it looking too unrealistic. I really liked the scene when the Rebel attack on Scarif started and every Imperial officer (including the Director himself) had this certain look to them as if they were all thinking "great, a big attack has started and that idiot is the most senior officer present" . Or maybe I imagined it, as it was what I was thinking.

I liked the movie. It had some weaknesses. I didn't like Tarkin that much either, sometimes still a little too much fanservice (but not as bad as with TFA), and other little things. But overall I enjoyed it. After over 11 years we finally got a new Star Wars movie. And the story ties in so well with ANH that I can forgive the lack of Kyle Katarn.

Many reviews I read lambasted the lack of characterization of the minor characters but I thought it was enough. You gleaned character-motivations from their actions and dialogue. If they had given every character a thorough backstory the movie would have been twice as long. When the whole point was to see how they got those damn Death Star plans.

I also liked that it was shot differently from the other movies. Scene composition and direction was different and this is exactly what I wanted from the Star Wars Story movies. An opportunity to see something different in the Star Wars univers. Maybe I can still get used to the new EU. We'll see.

Also, what did Tarkin sound like in English? He (and unfortunately Vader as well) had a new voice actor in the German version. That's actually what took me out of his scenes the most.

And I thought that Vader's movements in his fortress looked a bit off. Perhaps a little coaching by Prowse would have helped.

I find that this is more and more true with movies (maybe just blockbusters) these days.

Just saw it. I felt it was an alright movie. If I can summarize it in few words, I felt it abused too many action film cliches, and I feel it was much better when it was serious and bad when it tried to be clever/funny. Especially the Darth Vader line, holy **** that was embarrassing. Darth Vader's dialogue was bad, for some reason they made him sassy when he was a commanding, direct, powerful bad guy in the original films.

I feel they also tried too hard to make us feel about certain characters when there wasn't enough time to. The blind Asian guy and Islander guy could have been completely cut from the film with literally nothing lost. Those two literally don't even talk to the main characters, yet when they split up they created it as a dramatic, emotional scene and really played up their death scenes, when I didn't even know their names and there was no development. I felt like they tried to introduce characters in a funny way, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, but forgot to write in the parts where the characters become characters and you start caring about who they are.

Now for the good: visual effects and audio were on point, and like I said, the serious parts of the movie were very good.

Also did anyone find some of the action scenes jarring to watch? I almost want to look away because shots last a couple seconds at times and you get them in rapid succession, and with the shaky camera and visual onslaught it's not pleasant on my eyes.

Edit: also the "bad guy tower" which is literally black and has a lava waterfall thing. Come on now, Disney, it's a little cliche.

I really enjoyed it. It's what I wanted from the prequels, darker, slower paced, closer to the originals.

There was an actor at the beginning who luckily gets shot by Cassian after a few lines, the guy who tells him about the pilot who's acting ability can generously be described as abysmal and i thought "oh dear, here we go...", honestly I have no idea how anyone saw that scene and thought it was a good idea to leave it in the movie. Luckily I was unfounded in my suspicion that this had set the tone for the rest of the movie.

I was not a fan of Episode 7, I actually think it's worse than the prequels on many counts but rogue one is a hundred times better than both the prequels and the force awakens. I love that the rebels are shown with more in-fighting and less organisation, I like that they blur the moral lines and it's not just "good guys vs bad guys" in places. The pace of the film seemed more like ESB and ANH which are slow in places, I think it adds some contrast to the fast-paced fight sequences. The sense of scale of the movie is incredible, the ships, cities and death star actually feel huge. I liked Tarkin but I think they could have easily cut down the number of scenes he was in.

Here's some things I didn't like:

The plot makes no sense, (i only saw it once so i may have missed something that clears this up but) a couple of minor dialogue changes could fix it: Why did the rebels suddenly decide to help rogue one after they had initially decided not to? Why didn't cassian kill galen? Why do ships need to fly onto the imperial planet through that shield? Just land on the other side and fly through the atmosphere???

The robot comic relief. Although better than C3POs "this is such a drag" type puns in Attack of the clones, really added nothing to the movie and I found him annoying.

Fan service. There are times when it just screams "Hey do you remember this from the original movie??" They bring Bail Organa on screen like he's some major character we should be cheering to see, he's always been an incredibly boring minor character and he doesn't add anything in this movie. That said, I did enjoy the way they used footage of the pilots from ANH

Boring ships. None of the new ships are particularly interesting, I'd have liked to see something cool like the millennium falcon. I half expected the imperial shuttle they stole and took back to the rebels to be shuttle tydirium, I'm not sure whether this would have been a good thing or not though but it would tie in to RotJ and "it's an older code"

Vader's helmet. Seriously what is with his fat neck?

An asian guy who of course knows martial arts? Are they trying to make it seem like the movie was filmed in 1977?

Overall though, I really enjoyed it and think it's a hell of a lot better than episode 7. The overall atmosphere of the movie just makes the SW universe feel bigger than we saw in TFA which felt like there wasn't really much other than what we see on screen.