Star Wars Thread (a Galaxy Far Far Away) Obi-Wan Movie In The Works! (36)

It looks so damn good. When Vader walks into the room through that mist or whatever, wow. Could be me reading into it, but he looks on a mission.

 

I thought the exact same thing. he looks like he's ready to crack skulls. We know they get the plans and get them to Leia, so I want to see Vader wreck as much s*** as possible. And it was nice to see Felicity Jones show some emotion and give us an indication she has a pulse.

 

I love the trailers for this movie. This looks amazing. I can't wait.

 

She is a babe, and she seems really charming in real life, but she is about as wooden an actress I have ever seen. Danny is a cool character on Game of Thrones, but she is not a great actress...or even good. I am not looking forward to this movie at all. I am a giant SW fan, and I couldn't care less about this. I'd rather watch Ewoks vs Jawas in a WWE cage match.

 

We are now in the single digits in terms of days until opening. I have my 7:30 Thursday night tickets. I will be wearing my ugly Star Wars Christmas sweater to the premiere!

 

The first impressions of Rogue One have hit Twitter tonight after the premiere in Hollywood, and they are overwhelmingly positive. Seen multiple comments that some liked it better than Force Awakens, and that it ties into Episode 4 seemlessly. All I've read is what I want to hear, it's dark, it's a gritty war film, it's beautiful, there are twists and turns and so much more to the movie than we have seen from the trailers. I can't wait for this movie, getting one SW movie a year is freakin awesome.

 

5 more hours for me.

 

Here's my take. There will be semi-spoilers...as much as there can be in a film where we know how it ends, but reading this isn't going to ruin anything significant.

Spoiler

Like Kenzo said above, it starts a little slow. It's not like Mad Men or something where it's just people talking, but it starts slowish. Everyone I saw it with said the same thing and everyone agreed that for the first 1/3 of the movie you kind of have to keep reminding yourself that this is a Star Wars movie cause it didn't have that feel.

Then it gets going and doesn't really stop. You hit Yavin 4 and it IS Yavin 4. The ships, the control room (which you do see briefly early in the movie)...it all feels like you're back in A New Hope. The Death Star has the same nobs and display screens the original had despite the fact that they were going off of a 1970's vision of future technology in A New Hope. They really nailed the original trilogy feel and aesthetics for the last 2/3's of the movie. The story is solid and there are some amazing shots that a paint by the numbers director like JJ or Lucas couldn't have dreamed of.

Tarkin was done as well as I have ever seen a CGI human done. There has been a ton of advancement since Tron Legacy. He's not perfect, and you can tell he's CGI at times, but if you aren't looking for it, it won't take you out of the movie at all.

I did not like the score. It felt like someone who was being asked to do the Star Wars music, but insisted on forcing changes as opposed to just doing tiny variations. There were times when a classical Star Wars riff would start and then the music would veer off into some generic crap. I have read a lot of people crapping on the score. It deserves it. I don't know if it was his ego or what because Michael Giacchino is a talented guy, but it felt like he insisted on doing his thing as opposed to just sticking to the music that made Star Wars what it is. I hope in the future (since Williams will be gone soon) they hire people and tell them to just pretend you're John.

One thing that I started realizing towards the end of the movie though; It was fun, it was well done. The action was very solid. But because I knew exactly what was going to happen, the lack of real drama I think hurt my overall impression as I exited the theater. I didn't expect that to matter to me at all. I went in knowing they get the plans, and they get them to who they need to, but the lack of intrigue ended up hurting my overall experience. It has me concerned going forward with all these standalone films. I was already blah about the Han Solo film, now I'm even more blah. I think they really need to get out of this original and prequel trilogy era and tell stories that are either parallel with the current saga films or go so far back in time (Old Republic) that they can do anything they want because almost any action and it's repercussions would be inconsequential due to the passage of time.

Overall, I give it a 7/10. They left some stuff on the table, and the lack of any real drama or intrigue kept it from reaching the level of Episodes 3-7.

 

I'm the other way from Savory. I found the movie to be incredibly fun. The first two acts are okay, but the third act blows everything out of the water.

The third act is some of the best Star Wars ever made.

I give it an easy 8.5/10 if you're a big SW fan. If you're not into it as much, probably lower like 7 or 7.5 but that third act had me on the edge of my seat. It was fantastic.

 

You're thinking the 2nd Death Star

 

I don't think they left anything on the table in terms of what THIS story could tell. There was about as much drama as you could get from a story in which you knew the outcome. I don't disagree that they should branch away from known stories, but as far as what THIS was, it was about as good as it could have possibly been. They built sympathetic characters, they introduced new characters that fit an old story, they gave fan service that fit within the confines of the story telling. I'm not sure what they could have done better, especially that last act. The first two could have probably had more, but I actually thought the general slowness of the first two acts helped make the third act something special.

Spoiler: SPOILERS DON'T CLICK UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THE MOVIE

I also loved the cameos that FIT perfectly into the storytelling. This wasn't Lucas forcing in C-3P0 as a character that Darth Vader built because... nothing. This was Bail Organa being a part of the Rebellion. This was multiple characters referenced from the cartoon show Rebels (Syndulla is referenced, Chopper is supposed to be in it but I didn't see him, and the Ghost ship is seen among the Rebels attacking the shield). This was Red, Blue, and Gold squadrons where the actually spliced in footage of the original actors for the Red and Blue Squadrons.

And c'mon... No mention at all of Darth Vader's absolutely epic moment? That was FANTASTIC. The shot of him in the dark corridor and then the lightsaber ignites was gorgeous. The cinematography in this movie was on point throughout. I understand not fearing that the mission doesn't get accomplished, but the road to that end was spectacular.