Spoiler Maybe I've been too influenced by ASOIAF, but I'm glad no one survived. Knowing that these were brand new characters without plot-armor was refreshing. In a way, it was really cool imagining how each of their sacrifices would be immortalized by the rebels in the subsequent movies. It almost felt like how the characters are treated in an RPG (KOTOR, Mass Effect, etc.) I really hope that they continue this style with the other two stand-alone movies
For me, it can be one way or the other. Either the characters can make the movie or the story can make the movie. Good characters and a boring plot to me is less interesting than bland characters and an awesome plot.
The characters are more of an ensemble cast that all give you something as opposed to a few characters. The grittiness of the film and the dark war aspect of it give it a totally different feel than the other films. It had good pacing, good action, good lines, etc. the robot gets mentioned a lot because he was funny, but I bet most people will agree that the monk and his bodyguard were good and the main male character was good too. All of the characters were good to be honest, they just didn't have a whole film of character development like a new hope
Movies like this one and a dark Vader standalone are necessary to re-establish the Empire as bad. Watching the prequels and you can sympathize with the Emperor taking over. The Republic WAS broken. Wouldn't do a damn thing to help a world being occupied. The only thing that got them riled up and ready to go to war was some worlds wanting to leave lol. Imagine OPEC assembling an army and invading some African nation and the world doing nothing, but then building a grand army of Earth to invade and destroy a handful of African nations who decided to leave the UN. The only "bad thing" the Emperor did in the prequels was take command and then kill the Jedi. But I mean come on, the Jedi were not easy to root for in the prequels. Arrogant elitists who didn't do much to stop the chaos. The Republic was a total sham. Heck even Anakin becoming Vader was all about "love." Only bad thing he did was kill the jedi kiddos. They hid his kids from him too. Lucas really did a piss poor job with the prequels. His prequels push the idea that not being a democracy is enough of a reason for why we should hate the Empire. This movie helps re-establish that the Empire wasn't good for people and not just because it wasn't a democracy.
I'm fine with just a 2 hour movie of him killing non jedi's. That hallway scene was possibly the most badass thing I've ever seen. I'm going back to watch the movie again just for those 5 minutes. That scene made me hate the prequels so much more. You see that George! They made a force user so bad ass without all the stupid flippy stuff. Dude was just a ****ing tank.
The flippy stuff was so dumb omg. The prequels existing makes me so mad. I wonder if Disney will ever "reboot" the prequels lol. Vader in the hallway was done exactly the way it always should have been done. Wrecked shop. The rebels were terrified. Only thing that I saw as a mistake: Spoiler Leia's ship breaking away and making a run for it right there makes the opening of a New Hope non-sensical. When she tries to claim they were on a diplomatic mission, lol, how stupid? They were literally chased from a war zone. Would have been better to have the Mon Cal ship beam the data to a ship that was "standing by" just outside of the battle, a game of hot potato that ends with the plans being received by Leia.
Really liked the darker tone of this movie. The SW universe is so fascinating overall that it's really hard to make a bad movie as long as you don't try to do too much. This film had a simple story with a few characters and that's it. It didn't try to be a grandiose spectacle. The scene on Eadu was my favorite. I just wish there was more Vader because he's a badass but I understand how they didn't want to put him in here much. He alone could have stopped Rogue One if he was present.
Hmm.. Spoiler I think it made the characters more meaningful, if they made another 2 stories with these characters then they didn't sacrifice anything. Sure more would be fun, but I was happy they stayed true to it being a suicide mission
Anyway... this was definitely one of the better star wars I've seen recently and was a lot darker. And Vader needs his own movie
