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Old 12-16-2016, 12:39 AM   #21
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Isn't the whole plot of this one a bit ridiculous anyways? Why didn't he just tell them what the flaw was in his message?

"I've put a tiny little flaw in the system that no one will find -- I won't tell you though, but if you take a look at the plans that are held on this highly secure planet, you should be able to find it."

Or have sent the schematic out with the pilot himself. Or something. Why do half the job and leave the rest to a near-certain suicide mission when you had literally all the information they would need? I was also amused that in this highly futuristic society, they keep all their information on CDs in a giant tower, with a manual retrieval system.

Sorry, I'm nitpicking, it was an entertaining movie. The final battle was excellent and the Death Star quarter power blasts were really well done.

The "wanted in 12 systems" guy and his butt face buddy must've been on their way to a transport out of town.

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Old 12-16-2016, 01:06 AM   #22
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Probably because in order to visually show where the weakness is, you'd need to show the schematics/design to pinpoint the ducts which were not in his possession when recording the message. I dunno if discussing it would accurately direct the fighters well enough. And he was taking a risk sending the message in the first place, assuming he was being held captive and closely monitored, so taking a large amount of extra time to describe the structure and the points to hit would probably be too risky. I don't think he even thought it would get to his daughter. But maybe his hope was the rebels would support the mission in the first place and it wouldn't be as suicide-y as it was. If they weren't forced to go in alone, they probably would've had adequate enough support to get out.
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Old 12-16-2016, 02:18 AM   #23
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Sorry, can someone explain why the Alliance wanted to kill Galen Erso so badly? The weapon was complete, his role in its construction was done. If anything he would be a key person to extract, with complete information on its design. He was clearly worth more to the rebels alive than dead, he had shown signs of being sympathetic to their cause, and they had emotional leverage on him since they had his daughter.
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Old 12-16-2016, 06:45 AM   #24
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Great show.

No roll at the beginning, no goose bumps with the opening theme. They definately decided to make this a Star Wars story and not part of the main series. That was cool.

So many good things in this. Vader was epic. Didn't have a problem with the cgi probably because it was kept to a minimum. These movies are so much better without Lucas!

I can't see it drawing even close to TFA though. We all talked about how TFA was fan service, but this one is for the true fans, the ones who want anything and everything Star Wars.
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Old 12-16-2016, 08:16 AM   #25
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Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube View Post
Isn't the whole plot of this one a bit ridiculous anyways? Why didn't he just tell them what the flaw was in his message?

"I've put a tiny little flaw in the system that no one will find -- I won't tell you though, but if you take a look at the plans that are held on this highly secure planet, you should be able to find it."

Or have sent the schematic out with the pilot himself. Or something. Why do half the job and leave the rest to a near-certain suicide mission when you had literally all the information they would need? I was also amused that in this highly futuristic society, they keep all their information on CDs in a giant tower, with a manual retrieval system.

Sorry, I'm nitpicking, it was an entertaining movie. The final battle was excellent and the Death Star quarter power blasts were really well done.

The "wanted in 12 systems" guy and his butt face buddy must've been on their way to a transport out of town.
Normally I understand looking at the little things, except each and every gripe was specifically addressed in the movie.
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Old 12-16-2016, 08:40 AM   #26
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"Are you kidding me? I'm blind."

That was fun. I went to the 1:20 IMAX show. When I left I was like "why did I do this, I'll be up until 4". When I drove home I was actually happy I had. That's a good sign. I liked it better than ep. 7, and I liked ep. 7. Droid character was pretty great, made me want them to do a KOTOR movie so they could introduce HK47. I also enjoyed that the cameos were fairly subtle, though the fact that Jimmy Smits is polarizing - I like him as an actor, but it was an unwelcome reminder that the prequels existed. CGI tarkin didn't bother me at all, maybe the 3d made it feel less weird.

The pacing was too quick in the first half, though; I wonder if there'll be a director's cut to smooth some of that out. Also they didn't do enough to make anyone give a damn about Forest Whittaker's character... though somehow Mads Mikkelsen made his character's death fairly heartbreaking with about five total minutes of screen time. Dude is just an acting god.

I'll say this though: the show was scheduled for 1:20 and didn't start until 1:46 a.m. That's a full half hour of commercials I had to sit through given I was five minutes early to my seat. That's ####ing ridiculous. At minimum, the trailers should start at the ticketed time; they didn't come on until well after 1:30. We were just sitting there watching Nissan ads and such.

The GOTG2 trailer was pretty fantastic though.
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Sorry, can someone explain why the Alliance wanted to kill Galen Erso so badly? The weapon was complete, his role in its construction was done. If anything he would be a key person to extract, with complete information on its design. He was clearly worth more to the rebels alive than dead, he had shown signs of being sympathetic to their cause, and they had emotional leverage on him since they had his daughter.
This was the only plot item that really bothered me while I was watching. When what's his name says "who knows what he might be building for them now", I physically mouthed "what". Made zero sense. They've got a planet killing uber-weapon, whatever he might be scheming on as a follow up is kind of immaterial because none of you will be around to see it. There were a few other nitpicks but they were really just that, nitpicks.

Anyway I'm going to be tired today.
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Old 12-16-2016, 08:49 AM   #27
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I'm shocked to read the responses here.

I thought it was a total turd.

Boring as F for the first hour where hey jump from character to character and place to place with no development, and the last hour a huge meaningless battle lacking tension, anticipation or surprise.

The director was the same as Godzilla, which I hated, so maybe it just wasn't made for me. I loved Force Awakens, but the callbacks in this one seemed forced (Vader was appalling, and R2 C3PO cameo simply annoying), and the deaths of all characters at the end was a relief more than anything else.

Did like the Imperial Droid. Only real positive for the film.
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Old 12-16-2016, 09:01 AM   #28
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Sorry, can someone explain why the Alliance wanted to kill Galen Erso so badly? The weapon was complete, his role in its construction was done. If anything he would be a key person to extract, with complete information on its design. He was clearly worth more to the rebels alive than dead, he had shown signs of being sympathetic to their cause, and they had emotional leverage on him since they had his daughter.
The Rebels had no idea the weapon was complete. All they knew was that he was critical to it's development, and they didn't even know what "it" was. Also, Mon Mothma's marching orders weren't to kill him - it was to extract him, the other general was the one who gave the kill on sight order.

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Isn't the whole plot of this one a bit ridiculous anyways? Why didn't he just tell them what the flaw was in his message?

"I've put a tiny little flaw in the system that no one will find -- I won't tell you though, but if you take a look at the plans that are held on this highly secure planet, you should be able to find it."

Or have sent the schematic out with the pilot himself. Or something. Why do half the job and leave the rest to a near-certain suicide mission when you had literally all the information they would need? I was also amused that in this highly futuristic society, they keep all their information on CDs in a giant tower, with a manual retrieval system.

Sorry, I'm nitpicking, it was an entertaining movie. The final battle was excellent and the Death Star quarter power blasts were really well done.

The "wanted in 12 systems" guy and his butt face buddy must've been on their way to a transport out of town.
If he had blurted out the Death Star's weakness, he would have been risking it's discovery. Krennic was specifically back on Scarif to view any transmissions, which had he been able to, he would have found the weakness thanks to it being in a message. Their information was clearly being stored on some sort of physical media (looked like it could have been a good ol' spinning disc solution), not "CDs". Also, this fits perfectly with the humble/crappy sci fi setting of the original trilogy.

...complaints, invalid. They're addressed within the film itself.

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Old 12-16-2016, 09:48 AM   #29
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Thought it was better than TFA though still flawed. It's a pretty damning indictment of how underdeveloped all the characters are when all of them die and the only one you remotely care about is the Droid.

I did like how the movie felt like it had consequences and that there was an actual war going on with good and bad sides and actual casualties and sacrifice.

In almost all of the other movies the reality of the war is either ignored or made to look silly and heavy handed.
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Old 12-16-2016, 09:51 AM   #30
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I thought it was good but not great.

Preferred Episode 7 more - but mostly because Rey and Finn were more likable developed Characters IMO. Also think it's easier to invest more time developing the characters when you know you have 3 parts to a movie - and it's not clear that all the main characters will be dead by the end of the movie.

Overall I think calling it a "Star Wars Story" was very fitting because it did feel like a short story. With how the story is paced and directed it's almost like you can imagine this being Leia telling the story of how her team got the death star plans at a future date - wasn't really about the individual characters but how a group of people risked it all for the Rebellion.

You didn't see very much background of the characters outside of what was in the main timeline (just the brief background for Jyn) and really I think the biggest thing here is that it wasn't supposed to be character driven. Probably makes it jarring for a lot of Star Wars fans since those films are usually so focused on the characters making the story.

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Old 12-16-2016, 10:12 AM   #31
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I found it interesting how dark this movie was in comparison to Episode VII. I mean...everyone dies. I went with some friends last night and we discussed whether we would take our (single-digit aged) sons to a future showing. Afterwards, we all thought it might be too dark for the boys.

It took me a while to get into it, but loved the final battle on all the different fronts. And that last scene with Vader...fantastic.

I also liked that I didn't know who many of these actors were. Nice to have some fresh faces.
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Old 12-16-2016, 12:31 PM   #32
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I thought the characters were really weak in this one. Maybe it's because I knew they were all going to die, but I couldn't care for any of them.

Action was good though.

One thing that really bugged me was JEJ's voice for Vader. I know he's the original, but the accent seemed completely off to me. I think there are other people now who can do Vader better than JEJ.

I also didn't like how Krennic went into a typical villain speech when he could have easily just have killed Jyn. And of course he got shot during.

That ending Vader scene though... almost worth the price of admission by itself.

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Old 12-16-2016, 12:39 PM   #33
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I liked the characters and I was happy they spent way more time in this movie establishing the characters and their motivations than they did in TFA.

To make this a character study it would take way more time than they had since there were so many support characters.

Jyn was really the only one that mattered and I thought they did a good job with her.
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Old 12-16-2016, 01:00 PM   #34
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I liked the characters and I was happy they spent way more time in this movie establishing the characters and their motivations than they did in TFA.

To make this a character study it would take way more time than they had since there were so many support characters.

Jyn was really the only one that mattered and I thought they did a good job with her.
Yeah, as a whole the characters were treated more or less a lot like how the Magnificent Seven have been traditionally treated. "This character is cool because of this", "this character has heart because of this" etc., annnd GO GO GO GO!

It's effectively a war time Star Wars movie. I think they did a spectacular job of making characters interesting, charismatic, and ultimately, tragic.

I'm going back in tomorrow for a 2nd screening (IMAX this time), interested to see it in that format.
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Old 12-16-2016, 01:03 PM   #35
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I thought the characters were really weak in this one. Maybe it's because I knew they were all going to die, but I couldn't care for any of them.

Action was good though.

One thing that really bugged me was JEJ's voice for Vader. I know he's the original, but the accent seemed completely off to me. I think there are other people now who can do Vader better than JEJ.

I also didn't like how Krennic went into a typical villain speech when he could have easily just have killed Jyn. And of course he got shot during.

That ending Vader scene though... almost worth the price of admission by itself.
The sad thing is that JEJ isn't getting any younger and his voice is getting weaker. Scott Lawrence who used to be on JAG voiced Vader in the Darkforces games and you couldn't tell the difference. Matt Sloan was great in the Force Unleashed games as well.
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Old 12-16-2016, 01:14 PM   #36
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I really liked the show.

I did wonder, however, why the hologram of Galen was a hologram, and not the actual Death Star plans. Why go through that effort to send a message that said, 'the DS has a flaw, but I won't tell you now! Go find them yourself and risk your life instead." Just give Jyn the damn plans. That would't have cost the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Rebel fighters.

Also, I couldn't take Tarkin seriously. I kept trying to focus my eyes on how that CGI character was interacting with real actors.

K-2SO, with his passive aggressive comments to others, was the best character in the movie.
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Old 12-16-2016, 01:14 PM   #37
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Still thinking about the movie today, which is always a good sign. One question or nitpick I wanted to ask was about the data storage tower at the end. Didn't it end up getting blown up? Did the empire send all the data electronically to another location before blowing it up? I must have missed something there.
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Old 12-16-2016, 01:18 PM   #38
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I really liked the show.

I did wonder, however, why the hologram of Galen was a hologram, and not the actual Death Star plans. Why go through that effort to send a message that said, 'the DS has a flaw, but I won't tell you now! Go find them yourself and risk your life instead." Just give Jyn the damn plans. That would't have cost the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of Rebel fighters.

Also, I couldn't take Tarkin seriously. I kept trying to focus my eyes on how that CGI character was interacting with real actors.

K-2SO, with his passive aggressive comments to others, was the best character in the movie.

There was a chance that if he had transmitted the plans or the flaws that the Empire could have intercepted it and merely nailed a plywood sheet over the secondary exhaust port.
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Old 12-16-2016, 02:18 PM   #39
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Still thinking about the movie today, which is always a good sign. One question or nitpick I wanted to ask was about the data storage tower at the end. Didn't it end up getting blown up? Did the empire send all the data electronically to another location before blowing it up? I must have missed something there.
No, you didn't miss anything, they blew their whole library up. Maybe they had it backed up on the Cloud. I think the Death Star has all their data on it too, so it's safe for a few more months.
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Old 12-16-2016, 02:34 PM   #40
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It's clear that this is one of the more divisive SW films. People that loved TFA were a little more lukewarm or even disliked this one. People that were unsatisfied by TFA were more won over by R1.

I'd say that this movie is more of a treat for those diehard fans of Empire Strikes Back. Being the darkest and most mature of the SW films prior to this, R1 brought a lot of similarities.

Some people prefer their SW to be 'feel good', lighthearted and fun with likeable/loveable characters, and probably appreciated the Disney touch that was brought to TFA. I don't think these characters were necessarily meant to be as likeable, though. And this movie was very un-Disney for having the label on it. It focused very much on the brutality of the Empire.

This was I think meant to be strictly a war film, set in the universe of Star Wars. Not a film about jedi/sith. I mean just look at all the military text captions when moving from location to location. The subtle hints are there.

As a poster had discussed in another forum about the film, and I agree, I think the movie characters are meant to be relatively undeveloped, because it's supposed to be about the "faceless soldiers" that make a sacrifice for the greater good. If R1's characters had the same depth and likeability as characters in the main saga, people would expect their names and sacrifices to be discussed in the following films with more importance, and it would be an even darker film with them all giving their lives (perhaps too dark). The point is this was the story about disposable soldiers that were forgotten in the war, who gave their lives for something bigger than themselves, which I think that parallels with war in real life and the sacrifices soldiers make. And I think that was meaningful in its own right.

With that in mind, I could appreciate the movie much more.

All that aside, I think R1 despite having less meat on its characters still managed to have more intensity and maintain a feeling of higher stakes and better action sequences that were fun to watch, and that's impressive. TFA's battles felt more hollow and without substance, despite an entire star system being at risk. I just didn't feel the weight/importance of that battle. Maybe because the characters were cracking jokes when there was supposed to be suspense? I dunno, that part of the film sort of rubbed me the wrong way. I'd argue the "fan services" were better done in R1 too, because of all the subtle details that brought the OT universe to life again, and the cameos fit into the story nicely, as opposed to being shoved in the viewer's face purposely (In a "See? Look we just did that!" sort of way). I appreciated how nonchalant R1 was about that.

I love the Saga characters more, hands down, but this story was more original, and more satisfying..maybe due to it being all encapsulating to one film. Props to Disney and the writers for killing off the entire squad. That was bold, and it gave the movie an emotional payoff.

Really good movie, IMO. The fan in me is giddy.
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