Rogue One: A Star Wars Story -- spin-off SW film...

[PC Engine Fan X!]

Finally checked out the advance preview of the new Rogue One: A Star Wars Story movie with an overall running time of 2 hours & 13 minutes last night, 12/15/2016 (some European countries were able to screen RO as early as of 12/14/2016 -- them lucky bastards, hmmm?). Watched it in Real D 3D with a nice Dolby Atmos surround sound system set up -- packs in some serious thundering bass effects for maximum audio punch. Apparently, from watching some of the RO movie trailers of it, they show some scenes that were axed in the editing room floor (which leads me to believe that Disney & Lucasfilm went back and did some re-shoots of certain scenes to make it a worthy SW film for the ages and it does deliver in spades, indeed). There's one little deleted scene of a Tie Fighter slowly rising to meet Jyn Erso while she's walking on a catwalk platform (which wasn't shown in the theatrical release anyways).

Wow, Disney sure pulled out all the stops to give director, Gareth Edwards, with Industrial Light & Magic's almost 1,700 CG FX shots (which took about a year to complete) to tell his vision of what a SW film should be. There are some key & pivotal scenes that will pay homage to a certain SW film in the original trilogy (you'll figure out which one I'm referring to). There are some cool slight visual nods and tributes to past SW films if you have an eagle eye (blink and you just might miss 'em -- see if you can find/spot 'em all).

Yes, the infamous Sith Lord, Darth Vader, is in this new-fangled SW spin-off flick as well -- you'll be in for a treat when he makes his presence known.

The ending of RO is quite something, one that you won't see coming. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it yet.

The all-important question that the media asked Disney & Lucasfilm is, will there be another Rogue One sequel? The answer: There won't be another one and thus, it remains as a separate SW film unto itself with a beginning, a middle and, of course, an eventual ending/conclusion. So therefore, RO takes place after the events of Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith and before what takes place in Episode 4: A New Hope.

Under George Lucas's watch when he was still running his Lucasfilm empire (prior to Disney taking over the reigns in October of 2012), I honestly don't think he would've made a SW film like with this particular SW spin-off movie -- it wouldn't have been greenlit in the first place. So the ol' adage of "Better later than never" rings so true with the SW movie franchise with Disney & Lucasfilm at the helm this time around.

May the Force be with you.....

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[supergrafx77]

Looking really forward to this one PCEngineFX!
A friend of mine's brother, some radio producer who gets to see movies routinely week/s in advance, saw RO, a week or so ago.
He said it was surprisingly great, many similarities of darkness and grit to that of Empires Strikes Back.
I like the cast a lot of RO, but will be honest to point out that I wasn't so impressed initially w/ the past trailers.
But I've been hearing good things from friend's brother, some google reads, and now you, and am excited to say the least.
Bought tickets for my daughter, son and mom for this Sunday/3:30pm showing. Can't wait!

[cj iwakura]

It's phenomenal. Everything TFA should have been.

And that

Spoiler

fleet battle. My god. Almost tops the Battle of Endor. Almost.

[Stevens]

I kind of want to see this.

[Durandal]

I'm still kind of booty blasted that they recycled the Dark Forces plot with Jan- I mean Jyn in the lead, but I like Gareth Edwards' stuff and nobody seems to outright hate this, so I might check this out

[Opus131]

People sounded really exited about Force Awakens as well, and that turned out to be marginally better than the prequels at best. Not buying the hype, sorry.

[nem]

People sounded really exited about Force Awakens as well, and that turned out to be marginally better than the prequels at best. Not buying the hype, sorry.

This.

[Sinful]

People sounded really exited about Force Awakens as well, and that turned out to be marginally better than the prequels at best. Not buying the hype, sorry.

Marginally better? I say the TFAs is easily the worst Star Wars film. Completely ruined Star Wars for me.

But yeah, if TFA has taught me anything, is to never support another Disney movie.

[Squire Grooktook]

I'm not particularly a fan of TFA, but saying it's only "marginally" better than the prequels is definitely inaccurate.

That is not a statement about TFA's quality, bur rather the sheer lack of it in the prequels.

The prequels are unfathomably bad and insufferably boring. They do not work on any level, and have no coherence on either a plot or directorial level. Even as an adolescent I literally fell asleep during them, and that's the demographic these movies are ultimately made for.

For all its failings, TFA could have been ten to a hundred times worse and it still would have been a league above the prequel trilogy. By virtue of actually being a movie, or having some semblance of one.

[Bar81]

Easily the best SW movie since Empire. TFA was garbage, not as bad as I, II and III but garbage nevertheless.

For me, it's:

V
IV
Rogue One
VI
Nothing I ever want to watch again

[neorichieb1971]

People sounded really exited about Force Awakens as well, and that turned out to be marginally better than the prequels at best. Not buying the hype, sorry.

This.

Buying the hype this time around, but agree the TFA was nothing more than garbage dressed up with cameo appearances.

I want Rogue One to have a great musical score similar to the original trilogy. Something TFA didn't have. The best part of TFA was the trailer. The trailer was perfect, but the movie on the whole was a very big disappointment.

[Zen]

People sounded really exited about Force Awakens as well, and that turned out to be marginally better than the prequels at best. Not buying the hype, sorry.

No, no, it's going to be great this time. Really. The screenplay is going to be inspiring. Really it is!

http://www.businessinsider.com/rogue-on ... &r=US&IR=T

Also; a safety pin. Let that sink in for a moment

[PC Engine Fan X!]

According to Hollywood Reporter, RO has an estimated $200 million dollar production budget. Am curious to see how it fares for it's initial opening debut weekend at the U.S. box office.

RO is considered to be a companion film to Episode 4: A New Hope upon watching it during it's advance preview debut for the USA.

----------------------------
According to RO director Gareth Edwards, he was asked by Josh Rottenberg of the Los Angeles Times, about this particular question:

Q: This summer (summer of 2016 in this case), the internet went crazy over reports that the studio was nervous about "Rogue One" and the movie was undergoing major changes. What was it like for you to be in the middle of that -- and how much truth was there to the rumors?

A: It's really hard to read things online sometimes because you want to say something, but it's pointless. It's futile to get involved. What happened was that I'd say a third of the RO movie or more has this embedded documentary style to it, and as a result we shot hours and hours and days and days of material. Normally when you put a film together, it goes together like A-B-C-D-E and you move on. Whereas we had so many permutations, so many different ways it could be constructed, it took longer in the edit to find the exact version. We'd always planned to do a pickup shoot, but we needed a lot of time to figure out all this material and get the best out of it. So that pushed the entire schedule in a big way. Then Disney saw the film and reacted really well, and they said, "Whatever you need, we're going to support you." Our visual effects shot count went from 600 to nearly 1,700, so suddenly we could do anything we wanted. To design 1,000 visual effects shots should take a year, so it was all hands to the pump and we never never came up for air, really, until about a week ago. It would be beautiful if you write a story, you shoot exactly that, you edit it and it's a hit. But art -- or good art -- doesn't work like that. It's a process, and you experiment and react and improve. And if I make more films, which I hope to, I want to make them like that as well, where it's organic and it's not predetermined.
----------------------------

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Opus131]

The prequels are unfathomably bad and insufferably boring. They do not work on any level, and have no coherence on either a plot or directorial level.

That describers TFA to perfection, except you could substitute insufferably boring with insufferably obnoxious. I could barely keep my attention up when i saw the prequels but TFA made me outright angry, since the whole film is basically a scam. J.J. Abrams is a swindler, not an artist. His films feel cynical in a way no Lucas film did to me, and Lucas is quite the businessman himself.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Just seen it. This is everything the teenage me, sat playing Star Wars games on PC, wanted from more Star Wars. Throws back to the original without rehashing it, the sort of feeling I got playing Jedi Knight and X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

It has an excellent score too, something sorely lacking from The Force Awakens that even the prequels managed to get right.

[Sinful]

Anyone who doesn't think TFA is the worst Star Wars, should watch this video breaking down the movie; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g9cJ5WKZeU

Also that feminist nazi agenda seems to continue in Rouge One too. Not a fan of this agenda being shoved in so many movies these days. Completely messes with suspension of disbelief and makes for cringe worthy unnatural acting.

[soprano1]

Just seen it. This is everything the teenage me, sat playing Star Wars games on PC, wanted from more Star Wars. Throws back to the original without rehashing it, the sort of feeling I got playing Jedi Knight and X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

It has an excellent score too, something sorely lacking from The Force Awakens that even the prequels managed to get right.

I would love an adaptation (CG cartoon, or live action series) of Knights of the Old Republic.

[Sinful]

Just finished watching a bootleg of this film so now I a can enjoy some of the YouTube reviews of this movie. And the first one I found at 3 minutes length pretty much sums up my thoughts too; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O65un5F-wQ

[neorichieb1971]

Just finished watching a bootleg of this film so now I a can enjoy some of the YouTube reviews of this movie. And the first one I found at 3 minutes length pretty much sums up my thoughts too; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O65un5F-wQ

This is what I am afraid of thinking after seeing it in 2 hours.

After watching the TFA at the cinema everyone said "what do you think?" in a kind of excited fashion. I said it was "ok". And even then it was an ok ok. Not an enthusiastic ok.


So hopefully this Rogue One gets me buzzing even a little bit. Not asking for much.

[Sinful]

The Star Wars movies just don't have a soul anymore. Just fan pandering, some CG action, no plot and hype slapped together from here on end. Because it works.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Just seen it. This is everything the teenage me, sat playing Star Wars games on PC, wanted from more Star Wars. Throws back to the original without rehashing it, the sort of feeling I got playing Jedi Knight and X-Wing/TIE Fighter.

It has an excellent score too, something sorely lacking from The Force Awakens that even the prequels managed to get right.

I would love an adaptation (CG cartoon, or live action series) of Knights of the Old Republic.

That would be pretty sweet and I'd hazard not entirely off the cards given Dave Filoni is heading up the animation division now.

[supergrafx77]

Just saw it.
It was beautiful in every way.
Couldn't have been done better.
As great as the originals. 5 out of 5.

[Opus131]

^ Poe's Law and all that.

[Sinful]

Just saw it.
It was beautiful in every way.
Couldn't have been done better.
As great as the originals. 5 out of 5.

Well since you've seen the movie, so no need to fear spoilers, you might as well watch this well done review of the movie and have a few good laughs with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBzDHv5g0jY

The best part in the video is when he talks about Darth Vadar.

[Pixel_Outlaw]

So is the film supposed to be some semi-subtle contemporary social commentary for people who consider themselves intellectuals?
I've not seen it yet, no spoilers please.

[neorichieb1971]

Just watched it. 5/10 for me.

I'll tell you where it goes wrong for me. You have an empire capable of building a death star and all these war machines, yet all of it is canon fodder. The people that write this stuff have obviously ignored the fact that Empire Strikes back is the highest rated SW movie. Yet, they never write anything that remotely shows any real power besides the death star. If I were Vadar i'd do a runner because literally all of the Imperial Empire are baffoons. Without spoiling Rogue I will say until Vadar showed up I thought it was utter gob shite. A gazillion storm troopers shooting lasers everywhere except where a hit would be concerned, falling all over the place dying. Some of the storm trooper death scenes might as well have been taken right out of a Scooby doo movie.

I suppose if your 10 years old you would like a movie like this.

On the bright side, some technical marvel achievements are on display here.

[Leandro]

Even as an adolescent I literally fell asleep during them, and that's the demographic these movies are ultimately made for.

Same here. I fell asleep on the movie that Anakin is a kid and engages in pod races. What an awful film.

[Mischief Maker]

So is the film supposed to be some semi-subtle contemporary social commentary for people who consider themselves intellectuals?

No. One of the writers made a personal tweet where he said the galactic empire was white supremacist and the alt-right snowflakes got triggered and went full-on Sarkeesian against the movie.

[copy-paster]

I remember someone here calls TFA is like 'Gradius IV of the SW series', has a good and bad moments. The first half was so good until the second-final half which is a bit letdown.

Still a good movie on its own. Can't wait for Episode VIII hope it's much better. Also I'm looking forward for RO, since it's an 'optional' movie I don't want to take it seriously.

[Opus131]

So is the film supposed to be some semi-subtle contemporary social commentary for people who consider themselves intellectuals?

No. One of the writers made a personal tweet where he said the galactic empire was white supremacist and the alt-right snowflakes got triggered and went full-on Sarkeesian against the movie.

So the writers of this film are SJW lunatics and the people who despise SJWs took objection to that. Who would have thunk?