My thoughts (actual spoilers): Spoiler Least favorite parts: - Tarkin's face. I loved having Tarkin in the movie, I think he's a great, strong character. I wish there were more like him later on. But the CGI hurt the movie. I wish if they were going to have him play such a big part he would have been more the shadows and stuff to gloss over the fact that the actor is dead - The first time you see Vader and he force chokes that guy... was completely unnecessary and kind of cheesy - I loved the new droid and his humor, but it was a little TOO much at times - I don't know why they can't help themselves and insist on shoving in as many references as they can. The stormtroops talking about the T-15, R2D2 and C3PO making an appearance, the guys from the Cantina (how did those guys survive anyway?), random stuff like that... it was too much and heavy handed Best parts: - The final scene! Holy crap! Vader/Leia/the soldeirs... wow - The new droid guy was a scene stealer... really enjoyed him more than I thought I would when they first introduced him - The 2 monk guys were great, as was the pilot - I loved seeing Red Leader and Gold Leader, very nice touches
Saw it last night and can't stop thinking about it. The beginning felt rushed, I had a little trouble keeping up with all the places they were at. But seriously, the last 30 minutes or so was epic. The ending is worth the price of admission alone. Can't wait to see it again!
It won't disappoint. I wasn't expecting much and found myself grinning throughout the movie out of pure joy. It's 1a 1b with Empire Strikes Back
I think that's where I'm at too. There are some parts in the early going that don't really work for me, but they put it all together and it's amazing for the last 30-45 minutes. For me, the payoff is well worth a few things that don't really work as well as I'd like them to earlier in the movie. Spoiler When I realized that they were going to have the balls to kill off EVERYONE including the main 2 characters, I was sold forever on the movie. People b****ed about TFA not taking any chances....well this is them taking one hell of a chance. I know it sort of "has to be done" because you never see these characters again, but they could have easily come up with a cop out reason why they could still be alive and yet never seen again. The fact that they didn't, and instead killed everyone off to highlight just how much was sacrificed and lost to get the plans confirms my faith in Disney to make these movies better than George Lucas ever dreamed of doing. I also like that this movie goes right into A New Hope, you could play them back to back and it would fit perfectly.
I wrote review for Rogue One here. I found it to be a different and moving Stars Wars experience. Vader was a beast!
I can't wait for this thread to really heat up. There's gonna be some folks out there who thought this movie was a complete borefest and lack character development and whatnot. I don't mind it, I love a good debate.
As a standalone film, I think it succeeded. The acting was top notch. The emotions were there. The SFX was great. The second half of the movie was PERFECT! MUCH MUCH better than the Force Awakens, which is just a rehash of the original and using old characters for sentimentality.
Holy ****! What an amazing movie! I should probably watch episodes 4-6 now for the first time.... The last 30 minutes were some of the best action scenes I've seen in a movie. And the last minute and a half...oh lawd!
Best Star Wars movie in 35-40 years.. the best since ESB and it is close. Best movie I have seen in 5 years. Exceptional... amazing.
Better than TFA, but still has a generic cgi action summer flick to me. It's def. a step in the right direction. Spoiler Action-7.5/10 Nothing spectacular. Nothing really stands out. Generic shoot at the bad guy stuff. Of course the ending with Vader was sick. Acting-7.5/10 Actually better than i expected. Chemistry? I didn't really feel like Diego Luna and Felicity Jones(FUUU. NEW CRUSH. That sexy ass pouty mouth) worked well together but it got better at the end and their final scene was beautiful. Honestly, they could have cast someone else as Cassian. Riz Ahmed was pretty bad too. I like Riz but he did a poor job. The 2 Chinese actors was kind of too obvious of a China money grab. Would have preferred Donnie Yen's character to be an alien instead. Tudyk as the droid voice was meh. Mikkelsen and Mendelshon were fantastic as they are in everything else. Visuals- 8.5/10 The Tarkin and Leia CGI faces were unnecessary IMO. They could have just done the voices or from the back view with only a bit of the side of the face to tease you. Hell, even in hologram form it would have looked better. Uncanny Valley. No way to get past it. Everything else was great except the beach final scene. It turned into a pretty cgi generic place whereas the other places look like they fit in perfectly into the OT. Story- 7.5/10 Pretty basic stuff. References to the OT- Horrible. So lame. Cornelius Evazan and his pal starting the same crap with the same line? Another "i've got a bad feeling about this." Randomly throwing in R2 and 3P0(wouldn't it have been better if they were in the same room with Leia at the end and not just in a random scene?) They have to stop this stuff. I can already imagine Han Solo ...solo...movie quoting everything from the OT. Vader- Really the only reason to watch this movie. That scene on Mustafar and him in the healing tank with what appeared to be Hayden Christiansen's head shape from ROTS(after he was burned) was very cool and the only scene that made me get up in my seat to pay extra attention. The end was great, but kind of poorly executed. A better director could have done so much more than that.
Spoiler SCORE- Michael Giachinno had only 4 weeks to finish this and that's why i give it a pass. It wasn't memorable. Did have some nice tributes to John Williams. But, honestly need Disney to step up in this department. John Williams was rushed for TFA and for that he ended up with his worst SW score and now again another rushed project for a talented composer(though i get that they can't help it that Alexadre Desplat had to leave because of reshoots and scheduling). I'm actually listening to it right now and it might end up growing on me though it has more of a SW video game feel to it for me. I just fear Disney has a bad track record with scores on all of their Marvel stuff and i hope it doesn't leak into SW because without the music SW is just isn't SW. They seem to think Marvel can get by on just the product and not put much care into the score and themes. Rushing the music for SW is a no-no.
Seriously guys, this one was awesome. A ton of fun and way better than force awakens. Definitely worth the time and money.