[SPOILERS] Rogue One: A Star Wars Story Discussion Thread

[The Jedi Council]

It's that time of year again!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the first anthology Star Wars film, is due to be released globally imminently.

The Jedi Council have established this thread for the purpose of allowing all members of the community (and guests) to enjoy discussing the events of the film, without spoiling it for others who have yet to view it.

Other threads containing details regarding Rogue One will be deleted from the ::JEDI:: Comport without prior warning. Any member or guest caught deliberately posting spoilers for the film on either the servers or the forums (outside of this thread) shall be reprimanded and shall also expect to face harsh consequences enforced by the Jedi Council.

Additionally, while Skype is not an official platform endorsed by the ::JEDI:: Community, we ask our members to please be considerate of others before posting status updates that may potentially spoil Rogue One before others have had the chance to see it.

Once you have viewed the film, you are welcome to respond to this thread and prompt thoughts and discussion. The Jedi Council would like to wish everyone an enjoyable experience at their local cinema!

We also invite discussion about Rogue One: Catalyst written by James Luceno, which is directly tied to the film, but please give a warning beforehand, as it isn't written in the title. Also, discussion about TV spots, interviews, and trailers are permitted in this thread.

[Alehk Thol]

Won tickets. Saw today. You're in for a treat.

[Wrennin Vae]

I look good for a grey arrow.

Since it was a world premiere (suckers), I'll keep it spoiler free despite the title.

Pros
Great weaving of all the loose threads from before A New Hope.
The best cameos I've ever seen.
Thrilling, well paced action with some incredible heart dropping moments.
That ending. Like, for real.

Cons
The same old archetypes.
Where are the women and the aliens?
My 3D glasses kinda hurt.

I imagine no one here was planning to not see it and after The Force Awakens, I was tentative. But seriously. A lot of fun.

[Amalia Feyn]

I meaaaaaaaaan... the Force awakens was better. But I still liked it. It was different from other Star Wars films and had a much darker tone which I liked. It served its purpose as distinguishing itself from the trilogy movies. Also.. the Darth Vader scenes were everything

It's a shame they decided to kill off literally every character featured in the movie who doesn't show up in the originals, but I get why. My friend was like to me "don't give me spoilers!" and I said "everyone dies" and we laughed it off... he doesn't know I wasn't joking

[Dariun Antane]

I was incredibly impressed by the CGI work they did with "Resurrecting" Peter Cushing as Moff Tarkin, bringing in a younger Princess Leia, and using stock footage for Red and Gold Leader.

Vader was ****ing SCARY! Especially that hallway scene!

All of the new characters were interesting, I understand they all had to die, no one is immune to death in war.

I love all of the star wars movies, but I think this one has beaten Empire Strikes Back for me, TFA came close, but this one did it.

Only question I have though: Was that lava planet Vader was on Mustafar or Sullust?

[Duncan Therin]

Just got back some twenty minutes ago, this is the first place that came to mind - after using Bing (yee, Bing boys) to find out who directed the film (Gareth Edwards, by the way). I can't say that I'm in awe or as amazed with Rogue One as I was Force Awakens, but that's to be expected, it's hard to live up to that with a standalone film. That said, there are notable highlights, as well as pros and cons to the film, not amazing, but it was good. If you're looking for a good meme, I recommend paying close attention to K-2SO, he gave me a good laugh - it was, a meme intended by the writers, intentional that he would say a few lines from back in the day - one of my favorites: "K-2SO: I have a bad feeling about thi- Just shut up K2!"

It was a running joke with my friends and I, we kept saying 'oh, SPOILERS everyone is going to die', little did we know, literally everyone died. Well, not everyone. Just anyone that would have to have an addition to the actual trilogy, all the trilogy characters were obviously safe. So that crew that we all got moderately attached to, well, all dead. I think nearer the end the deaths felt a bit rushed - not a bit, really rushed. I get why they did it though, I mean, it was either everyone dies the same death with the base getting blown up or they are each offered a unique, albeit dry and stale, death. I know a grenade killed off at least three people - the Jedi (right, or was it a blaster shot?), his heavy gun friend, and the Imperial pilot. Really disappointed with the Imperial pilot's death, but, hey, what're you gonna' do?

I think that the writers tried something a bit new with this film in contrast to the others, some may not have understood the whole 'where is the crawling text??!?!?!' idea at the start, or the funky music play, but I can appreciate what they were getting at. I mean, the title was introduced after the background was set - they took the cinematic route, instead of the crawling text. Different, not necessarily better, but different. Right from the start we get to see a number of plots unfold, which I think the movie handled extremely well - juggling the various plots that is. I think when it came time to end all of those plots, that's when things got a bit messy - I mean, all the plots were terminated, everyone died. They could've taken time from other places in the movie that seemed a bit drawn out and long to allow for more unique deaths with the characters we got to know, but I think that the battle at the end itself was rather long, a good battle, but not in need of added length.

Quite frankly, whilst I believe that all of the characters served a role, I don't think that all of the characters were actually necessary. If they had not implemented so many characters, they could've focused more and put energy into a smaller group, rather than spread the butter thinly across the bread. Though, again, something new which I can appreciate, they wanted to portray the everyday struggle of the rebellion and rebels, so they added more spice by adding different characters from different backgrounds. Too bad those backgrounds weren't gone into for depth; suffice to say, I think we got a general gist, but it would've been nice to know where any single person actually came from besides Jyn and her foreign accented friend.

The death of H-2 was rather amusing, it was done really well in my opinion, I enjoyed it. Fitting end for him, the first death had to be the strongest and they did well by him. The only character death I particularly felt for, the others seemed not clunky, but most certainly rushed. A bit of a rough transition, but I could also appreciate the quick grab for power that Tarkin was going for which we saw when he spoke to the director.

Probably some of the best parts in the film were the parts which included our one and only friend, Darth Vader. Hence the reason I saved it for last! Every scene with him I was paying close attention, really grabbed my interest, I was intrigued. Naturally, being an original trilogy character he was bound to garner more attention, but I think they handled him nicely. Especially at the end when he was in pursuit of the stolen Death Star information, that scene with the rebels really got me pumped, only part in the movie that really got a shiver going down my spine, the flash of the red lightsaber and the terrified looks on the countenance of each rebel fighter.

All of that said and done, I'm sure others will disagree with some of my points, others in agreement. For those that went tl;dr, I wouldn't blame you, part of me really wanted to get my opinions typed out somewhere, the other part wants to have a fruitful and interesting discussion about the movie! I think that it set a great precedence for Star Wars: A New Hope, it takes right off and you can see where it would be picked up with the original trilogy. That was likely the most masterful thing they were able to do, I can't say I had the best of times, but I didn't have the worst of times. Then again, I also had a row of friends, one on my right hand side whispering jokes during every scene, so that definitely contributed to the effect! Think if I had to give a rating, it would be a seven out of ten - some of the people I was with were saying six out of ten, but I think it deserves a bit more praise. Let's get a discussion rolling!

Side note: Personal question of mine, I feel like I know the answer will be a yes, but feel I should ask anyway: Will we include this movie in our own lore and canon? Pretty simple question, given it happens before "A New Hope", it doesn't really impact us too much with any drastic changes. Just for clarification!

Also, where are the damn Bothans that all died to being us this information?!?!

[Zechs Demming]

Bothans died getting the plans to the 2nd death star.

[Cael Dan’kor]

Overall, I liked the film. But my reaction of it besides a few scenes is... *eh*.

The pacing was a serious issue in the beginning. It felt like it was oddly cut together. The second and third act ran more smoothly.

I have plenty of mixed feelings about the film. I think I cared more about the villains than the heroes - Krennic, Vader, and Tarkin.

I enjoyed the dynamic between Krennic, Tarkin, and Vader, and I wish that they gave Krennic more of a chance to be a villain, as he's superb in Rogue One: Catalyst.

CGI Tarkin is great. Mainly because he was able to sell it to me. CGI Leia is awful.

Another thing that I liked about this movie was all the different locations and designs for ships, armor, planets, etc. Although, I do feel like they went to too many places for me to appreciate every location.

I had a feeling that they would all die, but I didn't think Disney or Lucasfilm would go that far. They proved me wrong. It was kind of amusing how they died

Jyn was okay, tad preachy.
Cassiun or Cassion was unlikable.
Churrit? was great.
K-2SO was amazing.
Can't remember the other two character's names - didn't care about them.

Saw Garrera was laughable. I didn't like him to be honest. I get he was supposed to be crazy, but damn did I think his performance was bad.

Galen must've passed down his ability to preach to Jyn - because damn. He was a lot better in Rogue One: Catalyst, so is Krennic.

The action scenes were fantastic. The best parts of the movies, while I feel the characters fell flat. A nice gritty depiction of Star Wars battles. The amount of characters that died via grenades became a meme, though. That space battle and battle on Scariff were great. The previous action scenes were awesome, too. I enjoyed the Rebels easter eggs throughout the film with the ghost in the space battle and also a mention of 'General Syndulla (Hera)' in the base.

The fact that all the main heroes died so close together made it exhausting and I ended up not caring to be frank.

The John Williams score is missed. I get the guy had a few weeks to make the score, and it definitely shows. It wasn't terrible, but it felt sloppy.

OKAY, NOW TO THE MAN OF THE HOUR, DARTH MOTHERFU**ING JULIUS VADER. This guy stole the show for me. The scene where he chases Leia and mows down Rebels in the hallway made me require new pants and a new seat. Also his scene in his castle was great.

I think I will watch that scene on repeat a thousand more times.

Anyway, all in all, a meh movie with a few good scenes.

I need more time to sit on this movie, but this is how I feel leaving the theater. Regardless, I'm probably gonna watch this movie a billion more times because I'm a Star Wars fanatic. Maybe my opinion will change.

[Saren Kast]

The film was good in my opinion, but nothing more, and nothing less. It wasn't really too amazing, but I really liked how they handled the world building with the introduction of all the new locations. That was mainly what I was paying attention to 80% of the time (what was going on in the background, the details, etc) and I thought that was good for the most part. But aye, my favorite is definitely the Vader Hallway scene. It was done so well - and it certainly did him justice. I'm hoping scenes are more like that in Episode 8, as that was incredible.

The score was alright, not too noticeable. It seemed to be mainly just editing of old themes and only a few original pieces here and there.

But yeah, major props on the World Building aspect, that was great for me.

[Jao Ryn]

Um wow. A very good link between EP III, Rebels, and EP IV. I honestly could have done without the Leia appearance but that Vader though. Exactly what I wanted to see. Excuse me while I wash my clothes and pay the theatre for any damages I might have done during that scene.

[Coren Ran]

I'm on the fence if I enjoyed Force Awakens or Rogue One more.

Like a few others have said, the pacing in the first act was just bad. I get trying to introduce multiple planets and new areas we've never seen, but the pacing and jumping around was terrible.

As far as the characters, they were all pretty lackluster, and none aside from Jyn got any real development. Donny Yen's character had some humour and awesome fight scenes, but that's it. K2-SO was obviously a standout, and my new favourite droid, and was easily better than any of the human characters.

What sold me on this film as being as good, or on par with Force Awakens was the connections to the other films, both Originals and Prequels. That the apparent "design flaw" and weakness was actually engineered makes this movie stand out more. Darth Vader's scene was perfect, and flows perfectly to his first appearance in A New Hope.

Easily the best looking Star Wars (even taking into account the relative era of each film), with everything looking and feeling as real as it ever has.

I still need a second viewing, but I can easily watch it as often as I have Force Awakens this year.

[Motoko]

Overall I loved it. I'll stick to major things for me.

1. Reframes the struggle against the Empire
In the EU lore, the Rebellion, in particular the fleet, was always presented as being rather strong, which raised questions about why the Empire had such difficulty if they were supposed to have such a massive numerical advantage. (Speaking as an avid X-wing games player) This changes that in a big way. Quite literally the ONLY engagements where the rebels are victorious in all the movies, they still suffer massive casualties, and the fighting is desperate.

2. Chopper cameo. <3

3. Explains why there's a crippling design flaw in the Death Star.
Makes perfect sense now that it was put there intentionally and kept hidden.

4. Darth Vader.
Granted, that pun was just.... horrible.

5. Tarkin.
OMFG. <3