Star Wars Anthology shit talk (Rogue One, Young Solo, TBD)

I guess I appreciated what a bummer this was (it might be the most downbeat blockbuster ever) but I didn't really enjoy myself at any point. Maybe the final moments. Up until the final final moment that is

i'm stunned by this 'bad CGI' talk maybe my eyesight is fucked because i was wowed. i couldn't even tell it was cgi straight up.

'Star Wars On The Beach' was a good idea too.

downbeat-ness of (spoilzz) killing off characters one by one reminded me of The Dirty Dozen

shocking just how much from trailer 1 hit the cutting room floor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wji-BZ0oCwg

reshoots eh.

If this is a war movie, do they smoke cigarettes? I'm about to find out so shut up

i thought the cgi was noticeable, and i didn't know about it going in --- everyone else i saw it with had no clue

They left Fantastic Beasts in the projector. This crowd is never going to let them live it down.

Not perfect but lots of fun and definitely the best looking SW film by far. But the music --- yeesh. This needed Williams or someone who didn't just know "generic fanfare styles" composing. Liked it far more than FA.

Giacchino trying to be different didn't help, I agree. When he'd work in an echo of Schifrin or Morricone, it was pretty neat, but otherwise not great. It didn't matter much though!

The CG puppets of Spoiler and Young Spoiler were distracting. The first moreso than if they'd just gotten another actor, I think, and the second just completely unnecessary imo. Felt like putting that superfluous button on all the preceding action actually diminished things. Let the little people have their moment!

I loved it, of course.

The guy who played Vader did a great job

The "Leaders" also definitely didn't need to put in more than one appearance each - we all got it the first time, thank you!

I kinda hope the guys driving the hammerhead corvette made it out alive, though it seems unlikely. Should've given that crew southern accents IMHO.

xxpost Bad music / too much music def distracts me just as much as bad editing or acting. There was so much great stuff to take in here, though, that I managed to block it out. Once the final act took off I realized the scoring was infinitely better! I have to This is so packed with badass visuals and moments and feels so completely weighty and lived-in that I almost wish all future spin-off films and Episodes stick to this one as their template.

i think we might as well acknowledge that things will be spoiler-filled from here on, right? i can't be arsed pussyfooting around details anymore

i thought digital peter cushing was both a) the best-looking cgi actor i've seen to date and b) still nowhere near convincing. there's just something off about the way the eyes and mouth move that i can't quite put my finger on which gives the trickery away

weirdly, digicushing didn't look nearly as cadaverous to me in rogue one as he does in star wars - maybe the stress of losing the death star plans hollowed him out a little, i dunno

i think it's the digital actors which are going to date this film fastest - i was really, really impressed with the rest of the cg but i suspect in five or ten years we'll look back at digicushing and digifisher and wince a little

and yeah, looking again at the trailers it's alarming how much stuff didn't make the final cut - at the end i kept waiting for that heroic shot of jyn limping towards the terminal on the comms tower as a tie fighter rises in front of her and it never showed up. i hope there's a decent deep-dive postmortem soon which goes into what the reshoot process was like

yeah that shot was a big miss

on the Cushing issue, I feel like they could have been more creative. Just use him a little less or keep him in the shadows or whatever. And Leia they didn't need to use at all. The shot of her actually ruined what I thought was a pretty cool ending otherwise.

oh and the scene in Vader's castle was TERRIBLE. JEJ's voice sounds so different now. Plus that godawful choking pun

when digicushing shows up first and you see the back of his head and his reflection in the window i thought maybe they knew their limitations and they were going to minimise his presence. then he turned round :(

thing is, they recast Mon Mothma (not to mention Han and Lando in their upcoming flick) so why not do the same here? I know Cushing was a pretty distinctive looking actor but surely that would have been preferable. Felt like they did it to prove they could.

saw this last night, enjoyed it -- more than Force Awakens. For me, the movie got more engaging, more fun, and I had a stake in the characters more as it went on. No spoilers, but I (and the rest of the theater) cheered at the end, so chalk it up to good pacing, and the director telling a story well.

Regarding the music -- I wouldn't say it was distracting, but multiple times I had the thought, "this is obviously going for Star Wars feel without actually being traditional Star Wars music" (except in a couple of spots where it did actually quote Star Wars themes). Not actually sure why they didn't just get John Williams to do this, except that there does appear to have been a conscious effort to distance Rogue One from the other films, as being somehow a different thing.

Acting generally good, tho IMO Felicity Jones, while not bad, also not terribly interesting onscreen, which is odd considering the things her character had gone through. Diego Luna was very good, and Ben Mendelsohn was a good villain. Totally disagree about Leia thoughts above -- her moment was kind of amazing in the theater.

the scene in Vader's castle was TERRIBLE

this has me most hyped. i remember reading that from the early ESB scripts and thinking it sounded so amazing.

agree that the digiactors will age this v quickly

the rest of it is gorgeous, though, def the best looking SW movie. also really nails the (as someone else said upthread) "lived-in" feel, totally captures what i think is the best part of the whole aesthetic

and yah JEJ's voice sounded...weird. and really a lot more clearly like himself (i guess) than Vader. the castle was dope, that scene was goofy

forrest whitaker is a cornball

^ agree on all points here

Oh yeah - loved the Cthulhoid Octo-thing

Vader's Castle made me go "wow". Remember seeing McQuarrie art for it - I think - as a kid and didn't expect to see it here. Lots of little "wow" moments in this.

"the emperor and the army are building some sort of super weapon! if we show proof to the senate, surely they will act"

"omg shut up they built a giant weapon thing, this is the time to openly rebel, not do a powerpoint presentation"

*five minutes after this movie*

"the senate has been dissolved"

This was pretty good. Had my problems with it in the first half or so but once they get on the beach planet it gets really good.

Like most people I wish they hadn't bothered making a cgi Grand Moff Tarkin and princess Leia. Even Darth Vader looked kind of weird, his suit looked a bit too much like cheap plastic.

These are minor quibbles though, overall.

One thing that speaks to how much fun this was: when they landed on Scarif, I thought "aw man, this is the last place"

I like how Vader in his flotation tank mirrored Luke in his Hoth tank

Pig Nose and his buddy Ass Face on Jedha!

Supposedly loads of cameos in this including some SW Rebels stuff (Chopper, the Ghost) that will hav eto wait for home viewing, Iguess, since the frame is usually *full* throughout the film.

Also loved the use of perspective once they were on the jungle planet (Scarif?) : from the pilot's view looking down in the space battle to Jyn on that transparent platform and the "Data Room" scene which called back Obi-Wan and the Tractor Beam. Good stuff.

oh and the scene in Vader's castle was TERRIBLE. JEJ's voice sounds so different now. Plus that godawful choking pun

― Number None, Friday, December 16, 2016 5:21 AM (eleven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i didn't find vader's "ambitions" comment to be a groaner...it didn't really strike me as going for humor. i thought it was pretty badass tbh

there was however too much humor in this movie, same as with TFA. the humor is just too...modern? i don't really know how do describe what i mean. it took away from the gravity of the film. on that same note, for a movie in which literally every main character dies, i didn't find myself really caring about any of the deaths. i guess as a side-movie where we weren't going to see the characters again anyway that matters less, but i really just couldn't bring myself to care about any of them

also...what...the fuck was forest whitaker's character? was he a magical crackhead in the comics or whatever too?

I like how Vader in his flotation tank mirrored Luke in his Hoth tank

https://j.gifs.com/n5Wg8Y.gif

best callback cameo in this was the blue milk in the urso family kitchen right at the start

I actually did care about the characters by the end of this, tho admittedly it took about half the movie before that started to set in. And the cameo stuff makes me want to see it again -- which is the first time I've felt that about a SW movie since the original trilogy in a LONG time.

Also, was anyone else impressed at how seamlessly this ramped up to ep IV? If it hadn't been so late, I'd have watched it straight away when I got home.

It took me a minute to realize what they did with whitaker's character. he was completely paranoid and half robot after being a guerilla fighter for over twenty years. the secrecy, breaking with the alliance because they refused to sanction overt action, living in a stronghold in a place the imperials were fully dropping the military hammer. the kid he pretty much raised shows up and he still can't tell if it's real or just another point of a plot to take him down

in the cartoons it was twenty years earlier and he was trained to fight using guerilla tactics by a few jedi and iirc had all his original limbs and a family

thought 4 sure DV was going to come out of the shuttle when mendelsohn & mikkelsen had their exchange

also was 2 hours of DV just icing dudes

Xpost to Dominique -- Yeah those last 10-15 minutes were spot on. Though still on the fence about Leia's "look".

Vader just completely tearing through dudes in a hallway was very good

Especially surprising since Dirty Vicar stopped posting about 3 years ago

Vader just completely tearing through dudes in a hallway was very good

by far the best bit of the movie. Which says something about it I think. Or maybe about me

Yeah that was good. Though it bothers me that at the beginning of a new hope (15 minutes later) he just sends some storm troopers to take out the rebel soldiers. It doesn't really make sense, continuity-wise.

I figure anybody who chooses to spend their leisure time immersed in a bacta tank probably has a lot of "off days"

"the emperor and the army are building some sort of super weapon! if we show proof to the senate, surely they will act"

#TrumpEraResonance

lol yes I think Disney is probably going to turn out to have been behind the Russians, so this movie would seem extra trenchant

also that early scene where cassian is on an intelligence mission, meets with the paranoid dude, and takes him out when it's clear he'd be unable to avoid capture

saw that and though, wow, they're going to really go for it

yeah thought that was great too

They got the balance just about right on Vader. The choke line felt in character. Several excellent shots - his shadow looming over Krennic, his lightsabre ignition, the tank scene, his staring into space at the blockade runner. I thought the film might even end right there and was almost hoping he'd say "Follow that ship...".

But I was surprised how much I loved the Leia moment and she did seem to look better in those few seconds than Tarkin who got way too much light. I expect they'll be able to refine the look of Tarkin progressively though - he should look realer over time.

K2's 'bad feeling' line was too clunky even with the cut off from Jyn. Didn't need it. Didn't need the 3P0 and R2 cameo either but I guess they have to be in every one.

Episode 3's most enjoyable aspect (of few) was always going to be its juggernaut career towards the visual language and culture of the next installment and it did it relatively well with its final scenes to the extent that Rogue One had few obligations there, allowing it to focus on a lot of great environmental enrichment (locations, background accessories and folk). I was sceptical of the desire for it to end so close to the start of Episode 4 BUT a) it surely does this as well as possible and b) boosts the proposed immediate pick-up of Episode 8 from 7 more as an introductory approach too.

Most 'whoa' visual shot maybe the Star Destroyer emerging from hyperspace to block retreating Rebel ships. So good on 70mm IMAX.

saw this and fucking fell asleep (5 hours of drinking and an 11:30 pm show will do that to you)...going again today in IMAX.

Vader just completely tearing through dudes in a hallway was very good

― mh 😏, Friday, December 16, 2016 7:35 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wonder how much that was influenced by the just-concluded Marvel Comics run, because that's about the closest on-screen depiction I've scene of Vader fighting that way. Just an absolute, unstoppable juggernaut.

Drew's reaction is hilarious. I can't believe he didn't realize how it was probably going to end, though!

http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/holy-shit-we-gotta-talk-about-the-end-of-rogue-one-1790223282