The Official STAR WARS Thread

Jyn was incredibly well developed. From her being despondent due to the loss of her parents, to her total indifference that war is even happening. By the time the beach scene comes at the very end of the movie, I'm hurting. I felt Cassian grew a ton as well in a relatively small window of time. He was tasked with the impossible decision and really let his heart drive him the back half of the film. These were all pieces of the story that truly made me feel loss when the two of them were sitting there embracing their fate.

The Rebellion was done. I think that's the element of this story I enjoyed the most. They were a small, but loud, millitia, but you physically see how the Death Star is about to put an end to their uprising. The Rebels are almost like a tall tale in that regard. They were seemingly more of an idea than an actual army. Which is why everything Jyn did, and more so Galen, was the catalyst for the entire OT. Jyn was the only person who could tell Luke where to throw the stone in order to take down Goliath. It was the perfect 3.5 story to tell.

Seeing Grand Moff Tarkin was pretty amazing. I think the cgi looked pretty good on him. We've seen that trick with Tron Legacy, and we know it works, and I think it worked here as well. Leia looked a little too video game-y to me. I thought there was a better way to do that scene without showing her whole face (a half turn), while still getting the full effect. I liked Krennic as well. Him pandering to Vader and almost begging for the Emperor's approval on building the Death Star was a nice representation of the Empire's "corporate structure."

I wasn't really a fan of K-2SO. I get it, dry humor ha... ha. I just don't think forced humor is funny. If you go back and watch Episode 7, a ton of Finn's jokes really hurt the film. I think K2 will end up being the same way. I do think his scenes with Jyn near the end when they're actually stealing the plans were great though. So yeah, I love Alan Tudyk, Wash4Life, but I just wasn't as giggly as most seem to be over his character.

Donnie Yen's character was the surprise stand out for me. He was super hokey, but I love force wielding non Jedi characters. I also think his relationship with Baze was a far more natural and organic comedy dynamic. They both played an extremely large part in the Scarif battle and it brings up the Force being this "no coincidence" type of power in the universe. Expanding on the idea of the Force, the Whills, and even dipping a toe into the kyber crystal pool was great. We see that stuff on Rebels and it's great to see it in the films.

Lastly, the Vader scenes. I totally agree that the first Vader scene was fan service, or at least the Force choke element to it. I don't have a problem with it for two reasons. One, we got to see a Sith sanctuary where Vader is still very much a machine but focused on harnessing the power of the Force (Dark Side). Second, we needed to see Krennic in his desperation to impress the Emperor. That's a huge motivator for his character. Was the Force choke illogical? It's questionable but we know Anakin was a hot shot, and ANH Vader is still technically a younger man who doesn't have the maturity of ROTJ Vader. The second scene and end to the film was perfect Vader though. No explanation needed and it really tied the beginning of ANH to this film. Vader mowing down Rebels, Jedi, largely just anyone, is what people want to see, or least that's what I want to see. This is how they need to stick to using Vader. Don't over expose him, and make him the boogeyman who seems more like a myth until he shows up on screen.

So yeah, I thought the film was great. A suicide mission of tragic proportions, but with that silver lining that you know their sacrifice was worth it. Still though, that scene with Cassian and Jyn holding each other stuck with me as I left the theater. I felt it. That makes me appreciate A New Hope more than I already did. As far as ranking the films, as I've seen people default to that, I don't really have a place for it. As I said, I think it's a different animal than what we've seen before. If Episode 7's job was to reignite the franchise by giving us a little old, but largely injecting new characters to follow towards the future, then it succeeded. So like Ep7, I think Rogue One accomplished what it intended to do by being this really emotionally driven companion story to A New Hope.