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

So many Original Trilogy plot devices hinge on 70s-era mainframe computing, as discussed in that gloriously nerdy storage article linked earlier in this thread

Another Disneyfication problem might be this: we don't really get to see the Empire's atrocities at a vivid enough level for the characters' motivations to make sense. They blow up that city, which is obviously a horrible war crime, but c'mon, give me a T2 shot of people disintegrating, or idk have the kid that Jyn saves be playing with a doll and then the doll's horribly burnt head comes flying out of the wreckage or something. The Empire's exploiting the planet and mining its crystals? Go Temple of Doom and show us the kids getting whipped and the families impoverished by this colonial imposition, or have the guard at Saw's base talk about how his aging father had his hands cut off for publishing forbidden literature, or something.

I think this would all help make Jyn's arc make more sense: she starts out thinking her life's story is about individual survival and is grimly satisfied with that, and gradually she comes to realize that these other people's suffering is hers too, she gets her consciousness raised and she realizes she needs the Rebellion. TFA has this problem a little bit, but Finn's horror at the slaughter in the opening scene is able to stand in for a lot of this because it's so immediately human - a lot of it can just happen in the acting.

That evil empire stuff has already been established in the other six movies...

Though I think the alternate Jyn arc you're talking about sounds like what the movie would have been in the original, pre-re-shoots version that was hinted at in the trailers

Curious about that, because I didn't find the Jyn character particularly interesting or fleshed out. She kind of seemed to flow with whatever the plot needed her to flow with, and other than "generally rugged survivor", I'm not exactly sure what her personality is supposed to be.

the last two are the first that actually have Imperial motherfuckers defecting.

Late to responding on this thanks to being on holiday flight, but yeah, as mentioned above, Vader has a faceturn at the end of Jedi to redeem himself.

Minor stuff here but I loved the scene where we first see Bodhi getting delivered to SG's gang out in the desert. The aliens were weird and threatening and the sound design was just right ( loved the lumbering sloth dude) and for a second there's a musical echo of Williams' EP4 R2-meets-Jawas music. Really perfect little SW moment.

I will say I'm glad I skipped all the later trailers, as I was pleasantly surprised and bemused that they went that big with the space fight at the end. Watching in the theater, I did have mixed feelings of excitement and almost embarrassment at how over the top self-indulgent it was. "Best fanfilm ever" really does hit pretty close to the mark.

Also, I can't recall the last time I disagreed with the RLM guys so much. I was impressed and happy to see the Gold Leader/Red Leader appearances not out of just ref-spotting, but that they figured out a way to scan and integrate footage from ANH into something filmed four decades later, and do so in a clever way.

I do agree that a Donnie Yen/Wen Jiang buddy adventure movie would be awesome, too.

I like how the dude with two tubes on his mask really was named "Two Tubes" like this was some Goodfellas shit or something.

http://i.onionstatic.com/avclub/5892/33/16x9/1200.jpg

http://www.avclub.com/article/meet-rogue-ones-edrio-two-tubes-guy-two-tubes-239898

Didn't somebody really similar-looking show up in the Jakku marketplace in TFA?

so long as they can the "I am the Force" twaddle

xpost

Or pay it off

Hey which one of you moonlights at io9

http://io9.gizmodo.com/i-have-problems-with-rogue-one-1790413691

I may choose to refute this article later, at some length

The moral of the story is that meter data can take perilously long to download. Make sure to test your internet speed before embarking on suicide missions.

Then a high-ranking Rebel officer orders him to assassinate Jyn’s father Galen, even though the complete destruction of Jedha City is all the proof they need that Galen’s work is done and the Death Star is up and running—killing him will achieve nothing. Why?

This order came prior to the destruction of Jedha City, and the officer clearly indicates it's also to prevent him from continuing to supply savage weapons of this type to the Empire, operational or not.

More gallingly, when Jyn and Cassian tell the Alliance about the dangers of the Death Star, and that they need to stage an assault on Scarif, the Rebels decide to sit this battle out, at least in part because Jyn is a “criminal.”

Gahh, it's not because she's a criminal, it's because she's a criminal they've known all of ten minutes who largely has been acting out of self-interest to that point to avoid reincarceration, whose father built the fucking Death Star! gee can't think why they might not want to go to Scarif based solely on her word with no empirical evidence whatsoever other than a hologram that only she saw.

Narratively, what’s the point?

story gains more gravitas when a lone rogue ship begins an unsanctioned assault that quickly gains momentum and inspires the rest of the Rebels to join in. it doesn't have to WORK for you personally but lord it's not hard to understand.

Sure, the Star Wars movies have never been strangers to killing characters, but Rogue One’s dedication to watching its characters die is relentless, and usually to no great advancement of the plot.

sure, except if they hadn't, you'd be saying "gee what kind of continuity horseshit is this, if Jyn and Bodhi, and Baze and everybody survived the assault, how come they don't appear in A New Hope! What, did they get pensions and retire immediately after?". and ffs how many appendages get severed in the original and prequel trilogies? visually, most of these deaths were of the innocent old school Star Wars type, bloodless, etc - other than the one headshot Baze takes. AFA is the one that actually had blood!

Most egregious is the death of Saw Gerrera, who allows himself to be vaporized for no good reason.

he's an old crumbling warlord who is practically almost dead to begin with and his home is being destroyed, gee can't think of why he might be ok just peacing out

I mean jesus, while Forrest is chewing scenery he even says "There's not much of me left" right before he sucks oxygen out of a machine

fwiw I assumed that was painkillers he was sucking out of that thing, not a breathing apparatus

(would also help explain the speech pathology, perhaps)

possibly painkillers. either way I'd have thought article writer might have surmised through his frailty and the obviousness of his lines that dude who probably can't take a crap without a machine might be ok getting Kevorkianed once Jedha City blows up.

btw very good job fisking all his sad arguments, could not have done it better, I will be your wingman any time

I did enjoy the misdirection of the trailer implying someone saying that the Force would "make ten men feel like a hundred," when that line is actually Cassian telling his tiny squadron, "I need it to look like you guys have an Army out there."

Saw just needed a little bacta tank spritz at the Mustafar spa to pull him out of his doldrums.

XPs

possibly painkillers. either way I'd have thought article writer might have surmised through his frailty and the obviousness of his lines that dude who probably can't take a crap without a machine might be ok getting Kevorkianed once Jedha City blows up.

Indeed, he couldn't have outrun the disaster even if he'd wanted to

can't wait for the reveal that Finn is Saw's grandkid or something in the next movie

Finger Era

Shhhh! I haven't yet had a chance to publish my Saw Gerrera/Mon Mothma fanfic yet

xp

glad Lucas wasn't allowed near this flick, during the Evazan fan service moment he probably woulda thrown in a line like "come, Jyn, we don't want things to get out of hand"

I couldn't watch Whitaker without thinking of "Blue Velvet," tbh.

glad Lucas wasn't allowed near this flick, during the Evazan fan service moment he probably woulda thrown in a line like "come, Jyn, we don't want things to get out of hand"
― Neanderthal

it's "don't choke on your aspirations", get it right GOD

Saw this today, enjoyed it. Local coffee guy this morning said to me "It's not a great film but it's a kickass good film" and I'll go with that. Might like it better than TFA at this point. More later when I've caught up on this thread properly.

If the saga must continue, then I guess Disney will do a better job of cranking out new material than Lucasfilms could. George ran out of good ideas. But to my mind the preferable alternative to either Disney or Lucasfilms continuing to tread over old Star Wars ground would be just letting the series die after eight feature films and a bunch of ancillary junk. That seems like enough.

Why let it die when it is in the rudest of health?

Anyway I really enjoyed this, agreed with some of the points above - weirdly jumpy beginning, stupid master switch macguffin, ludicrous technology design forcing characters to (literally) jump through hoops - but thought they were minor quibbles not major flaws. Re: the ludicrous technology design, really this is a feature of the SW universe - the chasm in the death star with a retractable bridge that luke and leia have to swing over; the shield control that obi wan turns off stuck there in the middle of nowhere on the far side of a large pod with a narrow ledge over another chasm; the chute that luke falls down in bespin; the poor death star techs who have to cower as the giant laser shoots past them.

I thought this film really pointed up the difference between a star wars film and a film set in the star wars universe. TFA was definitely the former, this just did not feel the same, emotionally or visually. It was grittier, colder, didn't seem to have the same clarity or simplicity in shot framing - and was there even a single wipe in it?

Important questions yet to be addressed: 1) All these gung-ho rebel types keen for action and penance joined up with jyn and went to scarif, and left the ship to provide distraction for jyn and cassian. So who were the cowering youngsters left on the ship who had to be ordered by bodhi to go off and find the master switch? 2) What are those giant pens everyone carries in their shirt/poncho pockets? 3) Whatever happened to canary wharf tube station?

1) they were protecting the only transport they have?
3) it's in there, team "vaguely blend in" rush through it left-to-right as every one else is running right-to-left.

Who, where, on Scarif? Jyn & Cassian aren't in their imperial garb in the trailer footage iirc.

Sure, if you're asking "where's this footage from the trailer" the answer is the same as the rest of the footage - it isn't in the film. Canary Wharf is though.

alright, i'll look out for it next time. despite enjoying the film i won't be rushing to see it again in the cinema, unlike TFA. possibly because it was less emotionally compelling, possibly because I have a baby now.

it's on 123movies already...if you dare!

The tunic/sleeve pens are apparently code cylinders, which technically match with the weird technology of the rest of the series by going with something akin to a USB stick as a secure log-in rather than a password.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Code_cylinder

Carrie Fisher in critical condition after a heart attack :(

Dang, just saw that news.

Stable, last I saw ...

the "stable" message was unsourced, her brother mentioned not knowing where that came from. she's in the ICU
:(

Well, she's alive, at least. But there were reports she went a good 10+ not breathing. Good luck, Carrie Fisher!

God, this year has sucked so bad I forgot that Muhammed Ali died.

honestly got chills when red leader/gold leader called in

kinda weird they had these glorious HD views on the screen in the death star but then switched to ANH grainy views to show continuity i guess

i liked that the uniforms were of a continuity with ANH - everybody has these stupid little five sided die pins or w/e

Much like with Force Awakens, anybody notice the mirroring of shots from Star Wars? Stuff like the rebel dude in his crows nest at Yavin 4, who was shown twice, once to match the earlier movie, the second for a much different moment where they jack the impounded imperial ship.

One of the many, many callbacks: when Jyn is hiding in her bunker, she fiddled around trying to light what looks like the same type of lamp Luke uses on Dagobah.

― THE SKURJ OF FAKE NEWS. (kingfish), Sunday, December 18, 2016 2:57 AM (six days ago) Bookmark'

blue milk at the beginning, stolen imperial shuttle with wonky security codes

Anybody else get "Xwing"/"Tie fighter" flashbacks in this? They mention Admiral Thrawn by name, and several Y-Wings use ion torpodes to deactivate a star destroyer
yup, i grinned like a motherfucker when this happened
― Nhex, Sunday, December 18, 2016 3:04 AM (six days ago) Bookmark

ion torpedos weren't in any of the space sim games!

i totally thought the u-wing was a skipray blastboat though

Also, is this the first SW with progress bars on a screen?

― THE SKURJ OF FAKE NEWS. (kingfish), Sunday, December 18, 2016 4:52 AM (six days ago) Bookmark

i always thought this was kind of a progress bar

https://i.imgur.com/tBWOxEL.jpg

The weird ethnic casting bothered me a bit, i.e. "Let's cast actors who look like the citizens of countries from which we want to extract mega profits!"

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, December 21, 2016 12:44 AM (three days ago) Bookmark

this is a weird cynical take - it's more about taking the original empire being composed of humans / rebels are humans + the aliens that the empire disdains and recasting that in a 2016 diversity light