Other Media Review

Movie Review: Rogue One

Rogue One is the first movie in the Star Wars anthology – not officially within the Episodic Saga, but filling in some blanks. Rogue One takes place in the days before Episode 4, A New Hope, and follows the story of the operation to get the Death Star plans so Luke can blow it up. It stars Felicity Jones, Diego Luna, Donnie Yen, Jiang Wen, Riz Ahmed, Ben Mendelsohn, and Mads Mikkelsen, and is directed by Gareth Edwards, who was most recently seen as the guy that did the Godzilla movie from 2014.

We spoil a lot of things, so if you haven’t seen it yet, be warned.  If you have small children who are Star Wars fans, especially if they are of a sensitive disposition, I STRONGLY encourage you to pre-screen.  It’s a lot darker and more intense than other movies in the franchise.

Spoilers begin….NOW.

 

 

 

 

 

RHG: SO MANY FEELINGS

Elyse: That was so good. It was so so good. It was dark and adult and OMG. One of the things we’ve been talking about a lot on the site is how we’re seeing more stories about female rage and this definitely fits that category. Jyn basically decides to take on the Empire herself because she’s had enough, goddammit.

RHG: Oh my god, I needed this. We needed this. Something about the costs of fighting a good fight, and only having the hope that it’ll be enough is….super timely right now? It helps that we’ve already seen the sequel to this movie and know that it works out for those scrappy Rebels in the end.

Elyse: And the fact that it had a diverse cast was amazing. I mean, there still weren’t enough women or people of color in the background, but at least we had main characters who were representative of a different people.

RHG: Star Wars, as a franchise, is improving on diversity in casting (Diego Luna is SO HANDSOME- they are really knocking it out of the park on introducing these amazing Latino actors to a wider audience) (HE’S SO HANDSOME ELYSE). There’s a long way to go, and the improvements are maddeningly incremental, but they exist. Now if we could have a couple of a women of color who get more than bit parts…?

I’m taking hope where I can get it.

Jyn saying Hope? skeptically

The response: Yes. Rebellions are built on hope.

I am frustrated that the two Asian actors, Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen, played variations on warrior monks, but I loved their relationship, and I could watch Donnie Yen beat the crap out of Stormtroopers with a stick ALL DAY. We also got Riz Ahmed (who is also on the Hamilton mixtape! I didn’t realize that!) who is a delight. I’ve seen so many people around the internet talk about how important it was to them to see a Pakistani man or a Mexican man being heroes: “Someone who looks like me got to save the day!”

I fear nothing. All is as the force wills it

Elyse: I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid, which is when no one was doing anything Star Wars related. Basically I had the original trilogy and some Timothy Zahn novels. And I used to imagine myself as a heroine in that universe. I would make up stories in my head about how a woman Jedi could fit into that universe. I think having Jyn Erso (or Rey) would have been huge for me as a girl.

RHG: I was talking with some friends last night, and they were excited that Rogue One told a different Star Wars story. Like, we were all thrilled with The Force Awakens (we’re on the record) but it is rather similar to A New Hope. Rogue One is a completely different story and tone- showing the gray underbelly of choices you have to make when you’re part of a Rebellion. Noble causes still need to make terrible choices for the greater good.

But Star Wars isn’t political. Nosiree.

Elyse: Noooo not at all. I will admit that I kind of expected one of the characters to make it in the end because Disney. Also where were the the Bothans? I thought many Bothans died? Also what’s a Bothan?

RHG: Bothans died for the plans for Death Star Two. Mon Mothma isn’t in A New Hope – she utters that line in Return of the Jedi.

This is a Bothan. There’s an answer for everything.

SERIOUS SPOILERS NOW, people – all of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a huge body count here, and unlike in A New Hope, you get the up close and personal destruction of what the Death Star can do, on the ground. And while we know that this mission was ultimately successful, our main characters can only die with the hope that they did enough.

Hope might be the theme, here.

What did you think of the cameos?

Elyse: The CGI ones were creepy as hell. What was going on with Tarkin? It was like major uncanny valley. Very icky.

RHG: I spent his first scene going “I thought he was dead. Not Tarkin, but whasshisface. Cushing. I’m like, 97% certain he’s dead. Maybe 93%.” Then I couldn’t unsee the CGI. It was better the second time around, because I wasn’t surprised by it.

I thought that tossing in C3PO and R2D2 was mostly unnecessary.

Another thing I noticed was that Krennic’s cape was TOTALLY a poseur cape. It was too light and utilitarian to be suitably intimidating, which makes TOTAL sense. He’s not the badass he wants to be, and he’s too low ranked enough to get a truly scary bad guy cape. He’s gotta stick with the lightweight one that wrinkles. BRILLIANT COSTUME DECISION. You cannot be a truly scary dude with a wrinkled cape. Fact.

Krennick in a wavy, wind whipped wimpy looking cape

Elyse: I think for me the most interesting cameo was Vader, specifically because we see him floating in that tank of …whatever. In the original three movies there was so much mystery about what and who he was–robot, man, both? Then all his badassery went out the window with the super whiney awful Anakin Skywalker in the “first” three movies.

He was suitably terrifying in this movie–and they didn’t have to hide what he really looked like. He was just as scary in the tank as he was when he was killing rebel soldiers. They made him terrifying again! It made my heart happy!

RHG: Just enough Vader is perfect.

Show Spoiler
I was wondering just what the hell Leia was doing at that particular battle. If she was supposed to be taking a “Hey, Obi Wan, come help us out” message to Tatooine, whyyyyyy would they risk her and her ship to go to Skarra? This is my only major plot question.

I mean, sure, it was SUPER convenient that Krennic kept going BY COINCIDENCE to where the Rogues were going, but whatever. That’s not a plot hole, that’s a contrivance, and I care less about those when the movie they’re occurring in is GOOD.

Elyse: I also loved that there was no love story. You get kind of a moment between Jyn and Cassian but I think it’s more a mutual realization that they’re both going to die.

I also thought it was really significant that at the end, Jyn was the one looking at the explosion to come, facing it down, not Cassian.

RHG: Alan Tudyk said that he was worried, as K2, that he’d be the next Jar Jar Binks.

Now, I caught a few minutes of Phantom Menace a few days ago, and a) it’s still bad.

And 2) a lot of that is because of Jar Jar. MY POINT IS that K2 is not a Jar Jar. He’s basically an imperial droid that was reprogrammed and now is like your asshole cat who can also do calculus. Imagine if Dewey could talk. IMAGINE.

K2 saying QUIET and there's a fresh one if you mouth off again after hitting a dude in the nose

Elyse: Dewey doesn’t need to talk to be an asshole. He’s that good. And K2 was like my Patronus. I loved his cranky ass so much. “I’m here for you Jyn. Because Cassian told me I had to be.”

K2 saying I'll be there for you. The Captain says I had to.

New movie idea: K2, John Boyega, and Harrison Ford movies. John would be so happy and excited and happy and Harrison and K2 will just be adorable curmudgeons.

K2: Would you like to know the probability of her using the blaster against you? It's high. It's very high.

Okay, so aside from WTF is Leia doing here, do you think they tied all the loose ends up? Did it fit into the franchise timeline?

RHG: The greatest nit pick, the one that’s been an issue with fans since 1977, is “why would your REALLY FUCKING HUGE SUPER WEAPON have a flaw that can blow it up with one torpedo?”

Mads Mikkelson looking miserable and dampWell, because your weapons designer sold his soul to make sure it did.

So, while sure, Galen Erso has a LOT of blood on his hands, he made his awful choice for the good of the Rebellion (Mads Mikkelsen is EXCELLENT). I like that there’s an actual answer to this question, and I like how we got there.

How about you?

(I am also delighted by the thought of the Imperial IT guys going “You blew up our entire data repository because why? WE HAVE NO DOCUMENTATION FOR ANYTHING ANYMORE.”)

Elyse: I love that the movie sticks with the theme of “The Empire: building terrifying falling hazards since forever.” Do we need railings?! No! Incredibly dangerous catwalks!? Yes!

I also loved the parallels between Vader and Saw Gerrera. They are on opposite sides of the war but both have become radicalized, both are more machine than man, in constant pain, and they even went the breathing route for those of us who needed to be hit over the head with it.

I also LOVED that they kept the 70’s aesthetic but somehow made it fresh. Mad props to the costume department.

RHG: Right? Pornstaches for everyone! (Also, in my reading up on trivia, Saw is from the Clone Wars animated series, so they tied a LOT of things in, which I think is neat.)

I think the last thing I have to say is that I enjoyed this Completely Randomly Timed discussion on the costs of war, even when you’re the good guys. Also how maybe it’s easy to not be political and to not see flags if you never look up, but that doesn’t mean that they won’t come for you. At some point, one must make a decision.

Elyse: But it’s true the message Star Wars has always had–that scrappy little rebels and goodness can destroy tyranny and fascism. I mean, that’s nothing new. It just feels very relevant.

And even IF you don’t like sci-fi or political movies, this is an awesome action movie starring a woman. You can enjoy it just for that.

A- for me. You?

RHG: A- as well. That Tarkin CGI was just a bit much.

Rogue One is in theaters now and you can find tickets (US) at Fandango and Moviefone.

Add Your Comment →

  1. Francesca says:

    I saw it last week and enjoyed it so much – probably more than The Force Awakens. Yeah, Cushing was kind of creepy, but Tarkin is such a nasty character it didn’t really detract. Imagine if they’d tried to do that to Alec Guinness. That would have been too distracting.

    I loved that there was no romance – just respect between comrades-in-arms. It’s so refreshing to women portrayed as strong and courageous without having to end out in some guy’s arms at the end. Between this and Moana, Disney is getting it right. And I was so pleased that the ending was what it was. Anything else (a miraculous rescue) would have been a cop-out.

    There were moments when I felt like I was in the middle of A New Hope. I’m old and cranky now, so getting to feel like I was 15 again was a real treat.

  2. Lostshadows says:

    My main issue with Tarkin was that it didn’t sound like Peter Cushing. Granted, I understand why not, but it was a huge disconnect for me.

    Otherwise, I really liked the movie. Something about The Force Awakens felt a bit… not Star Warsy to me, but I didn’t have that problem here.

  3. ClaireC says:

    I wish there had been at least one kiss between Cassian and Jyn. Just a desperate one at the very end, pretty please?!?!?! I feel like the SW movies do not handle romance well – look at Anakin and Padme, Han and Leia, and now Cassian and Jyn didn’t ever get a chance. Though I understand that romance is not the focus of any of the movies, and could in fact alienate some fans. I just want someone to be happy and in love! (also, maybe I just want to see more of hot hot hot Diego Luna, ok?)

    I love that they’re showing a darker side to the Rebellion and bringing a little grittiness to the world. Agree completely that parents should think about taking younger fans to this movie – it’s very different in tone than The Force Awakens. Also agree on the point about the background characters needing diversity too. They did such a good job with casting the leads, but the entire strike team on Scarif is mostly white dudes? I find that a little hard to believe – though somehow having the Death Star engineers be older white dudes feels okay? Probably says something about the engineering field in our world.

    I saw it opening night, again on Monday, and am seeing it again on Christmas. I’ve cried both times already, and fully expect to again. Rogue One is very close to overtaking Empire Strikes Back as my favorite Star Wars movie!

  4. chacha1 says:

    Haven’t seen it yet, undoubtedly will see it. If anyone wants more Diego Luna doing hot guy things, there is always “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” which is not at all a good movie but it has Diego Luna. And some dancing.

  5. qqemokitty says:

    I LOVED this movie. I thought it better than The Firce Awakens, which I also loved. I’ve seen a lot of complaint about CGI Tarkin but I thought he was great, CGI Leia bothered me more.

    Diego Luna was amazing. K2 was amazing. Death Vader was amazing. (The “whatever” he was floating in was probably bacta, btw. Bacta tanks are used for healing. Source: have played too many Star Wars video games.)

    I loved how dark this story was. This is what war really looks like even if you’re a good guy. You do shitty terrible things that stop you from sleeping at night and you do it because you believe in your cause. This movie drove home the truth of the Rebel Alliance: squabbling bureaucrats paralyzed by indecision / fear while sabateurs and assassins and foot soldiers (and mon calamari) get shit done.

    It was amazing and I need more please. that’s the only downside, that there can’t be anymore. 🙁

  6. jimthered says:

    I saw the movie and enjoyed it enough for a B rating (full review up at http://thearmchaircritic.blogspot.com/2016/12/rogue-one-star-wars-story.html ). While I thought the characters were a bit thin, the action was pretty good — and seeing Vader go savage was pretty awesome. And it was pretty gutsy to limit the merchandising by having EVERY SINGLE NEW MAJOR CHARACTER die!

    However, there are *many* plot holes. Here’s a pretty thorough list from Scott Kurtz, of PvP http://www.pvponline.com, listed below:

    Nothing in this movie makes any sense.

    If Galen Erso needed to be kidnapped because they couldn’t finish the Death Star without him, why does he tell Jyn in his message the only reason he stayed was because he knew they would finish it without him anyway?

    If the Rebel Alliance is willing to shoot an informant in the back and break Jyn out of jail and risk a mission to Jeddah to get this defected pilot from Saw, why do they suddenly not care what Jyn or the pilot have to say? Suddenly they’re like…”meh. Nevermind.”

    So Tarkin isn’t the guy who spearheaded the Death Star now? He stole it from Krennic? So now Tarkin is just a dipshit who took credit for someone else’s work? Why rewrite the original trilogy like that?

    Kyber Crystals power the Death Star???? So it’s a giant lightsaber?

    Why did Saw need a Truth-octopus when he had a message from his oldest friend on a hologram?

    Why didn’t Galen give the pilot the plans instead of a hologram explaining the plans?

    Why are the Death Star plans not kept on the actual fucking death star? Or in several locations?

    If Rebels are attacking your base because they want to steal the Death Star plans, step one would be deleting the Death Star plans right? Even if you don’t have a backup, you delete it before they get the plans.

    Why is Galen and a whole team of engineers working on some remote planet instead of on the actual Death Star?

    Why couldn’t the Rebel Alliance stop the attack on the platform? They said the pilots had already started the engagement? So what? Use the comms and tell them to stop! Clearly communications can make it from that planet to Rebel Command.

    If the Death Star plans are so big of a file that it needs to be stored in a giant data center, and needs a huge dish to broadcast it, how does it fit on a 2×4 key-card that can be inserted into an R2 unit? Is Alliance compression technology that much more advanced that the Imperials have?

    If you can communicate with people outside the shield to tell them to destroy the shield, just send the data through that connection. Right?

    How did Vader know that the plans had made it onto that Corvette? How did he know that the plans had been absconded at all? The Force? Was it the Force?

  7. marjorie says:

    I thought B- when I saw it (for me, the lack of women of color was a major issue, and I found Jyn pretty boring, and I got WHY the color palette was so dark but I found it dreary to look at until we got to the tropical beach of doom, and I HATED HATED HATED the Oriental Warrior cliches, and I thought Forrest Whitaker was so hammy I was embarrassed for him, and Oscar Isaac is SO MUCH HOTTER than Diego Luna, sorry) while my family all loved it. But now, having read your review, I like the movie more! (I especially appreciated your observation that Jyn is facing the horizon while Cassian is turned into her in the “girl” role…and also those too-true CAPE notes) and will bump it up to a B. Thanks for making me reevaluate.

  8. Abi says:

    I just saw it this afternoon, and honestly was a little disappointed. I wanted some more warm happies at the end. A kiss, or a survivor, or anything. Dark stories are just not my thing, I guess. Also, while parts were incredibly beautiful, other parts felt choppy or looked half assed. Vader’s costume looked like shit to me and his helmet looked like it’d sprung a George Lucas neck. The CGI humans were uncanny and unnatural looking. On top of all that, I was watching the space battle at the end worried that the Rebels (cartoon) characters were in there somewhere getting blown up. 🙁 I need them to get a happy ending more than anything, as unlikely as that may be.

  9. Jill-Marie says:

    So here’s my thing: Why are the stories so out of order? I, like pretty much everyone else of my era, saw the first trilogy as it came out and loved it. But I never got into the books, the cartoons, the graphic novels.

    So along comes another trilogy, and it was bad, with a bunch of people I had no clue about. The movies were so bad I can’t really even remember them (while I can quote whole scenes of dialog from the first series).

    So now comes THIS set of movies. I rather liked the first one, enjoyed “catching up” with the characters who’d aged like the rest of us, still fighting the good fight. But this second movie is actually THE ONE BEFORE the other one? WHY?? And is the last one gonna be another prequel or wrap up all the loose ends of the first one.

    GAH!! My head explodes like the Death Star.

  10. Redheadedgirl says:

    You may have noticed that Rogue One doesn’t have an episode number. It isn’t within the original trilogy ( episodes 4-7) or the prequel trilogy (1-3) or the sequel trilogy. It’s in the anthology trilogy, where we will have the young Han Solo movie out in 2018 and another in 2020. As for why things are benign. Made in this way, I really can’t say, except that Disney knows they’ll make a BUTT load of money releasing a Star Wars movie every year.

    But the anthology movies don’t have a crawl and they don’t have a number, they just fill in some gaps.

  11. Theresa says:

    I saw it last week and Ben Mendelson was sitting next to us which was cool. He kept pointing out to his friend when his scenes were which was funny. I thought the movie did a great job of being original but tying to the Star Wars story line. In some places it showed different parts of aa scene from A New Hope but we never got the same scene which was cool.

  12. Heather T says:

    Not only is this movie probably not appropriate for young children in terms of it being a darker film — it is a bit difficult to follow at first. I don’t think that young children would be able to follow the plot.

    The CGI Grand Moff Tarkin amazed me — it looked just like him to me (perhaps it’s been a while since I saw A New Hope). The CGI Leia looked slightly off to me.

  13. Kim W says:

    I loved it! I thought it was maybe the best of all Star Wars movies. I was so afraid there was going to be a kiss at the end and happy they didn’t do it.

  14. Doug says:

    For the authors: any thoughts on Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus (Donnie Yen and Jiang Wen) being a couple, or at least the movie hinting at it? Because at the end I was almost certain we were going to see the first confirmed gay couple in a Star Wars film.

  15. denise says:

    can’t wait to go see it

  16. Olivia M says:

    Totally agree with all points in this review. It was a great movie. And it was a story we need right now – hope in the face of hopelessness.

    (jimthered: There are good answers to every single one of your questions, at least the ones that are relevant. Unfortunately, I am in no mood to type them all out.)

  17. Msb says:

    Haven’t seen this yet, but will because (1) I like SW and (2) the American Nazi party is boycotting it (“too many bad white guys”).

  18. Raven says:

    I appreciated the wartime darkness of this one, felt it was fitting that sometimes all one can do is die hoping one has done enough. Was kind of worried for kids in audience, but most seemed to like it. (Heard one saying afterward, “That was so sad and good!”) Think I saw someone arrive late with little girl, then leave short time later, so, no, it’s not for everyone.

    Appreciated that Jyn and Cassian were comrades-in-arms and didn’t get romantic at their end. Facing their end together as they did felt oddly to me like love or respect on its own, but I’m not wired quite “right”…

    I’m embarrassed about loving Chirrut, because the enigmatic, superpowered Asian is such a terrible movie trope, but his relationship with Baze was lovely and got me all tearful.

    Really didn’t like CGI resurrection of Peter Cushing as Tarkin; I’ve been wondering about doubtful ethics of bringing dead actors back to life since before CGI was advanced enough to pull it off reliably “well.” (Also not thrilled about CGI’ed young Leia.)

    “Krennic’s cape was TOTALLY a poseur cape. It was too light and utilitarian to be suitably intimidating, which makes TOTAL sense. He’s not the badass he wants to be, and he’s too low ranked enough to get a truly scary bad guy cape.” LOL, what popped into my mind while watching was, “Oh, man, you’re trying so hard to be a white-suited Vader, right? Leave being Vader to Vader.”

    Cool to see Vader in terrifying action, but I’ve had a strange fascination with him since 1977.

    Don’t worry, Alan Tudyk, K2 wasn’t Jar Jar. He was much better.

    I got the point of Forest Whitaker’s Saw being Rebel Vader, but his acting/writing were so clunky. This movie was at least 40% reshot, right? Why did none of it seem to fix that aspect? …Also, yeah, nothing entirely made sense, but has SW ever made complete sense, really?

    Oh, the American Nazi party is boycotting this? I obviously need to go see it again!

  19. Kate says:

    The thing I liked the most was that at no point when Jyn was showing off her badassery did we get the usual reaction shots of the men around her being impressed like they thought a girl couldn’t do it. She never had to prove herself as a woman soldier, it was just accepted when she was a one woman invasion party.

    That was what made this woman-led movie different to me. They didn’t even include a throw away “but she’s a special woman so she’s different” line. I want a woman to kick ass and the fact that she’s a woman doing it to not even be commented upon.

  20. LZ says:

    @Doug, I had the same question about Chirrut and Baze. For me, their relationship or friendship (bickering but loving and deeply loyal) was quintessentially Star Wars.

    As an Asian American, I don’t mind “warrior monk” roles in the Star Wars universe. What’s a Jedi, after all? I guess what I mean is that they’ve made this trope (the priest/warrior) a mainstream part of the world and something that belongs to many different people. And Donnie Yen’s choreography was beautiful. And he got all the best lines.

  21. EC Spurlock says:

    Rogue One reminded me of nothing so much as one of the old WWII movies they used to pump out in the 50s and 60s like The Great Escape, or even The Magnificent Seven. All the broken, morally questionable people redeeming themselves through personal sacrifice. They told Gareth Edwards they wanted a war movie and that’s exactly what he gave them. And I do like that Jyn was just “one of the guys” and nobody tried to protect her or treat her in any way different. I can’t pass judgement on the CGI because we had terrible seats, but at the angle I was at I thought it was pretty impressive. My one jarring moment was the lack of physics in the space battle — this tiny ship is going to push a massive star destroyer which likely has much stronger stabilizers? And that star destroyer is going to crash into another one that has a void next to it and nothing to stop it from just moving out of the way? Seriously?

    @ClaireC, that was a conscious decision from the beginning of the SW universe, that the Imperial forces are pretty much universally made up of white human males at this point, while the rebellion accepts all races, genders and species. Yes, the Empire is pretty much supposed to be Space Nazis, so yeah, it makes more sense that their scientists are all older white dudes than that the attack squad should be too (although they did include a dwarf so — yay?)

  22. EC Spurlock says:

    PS – concerning Donnie Yen, I not only loved watching his choreography as he blithely wipes out half a dozen stormtroopers with a stick, the best part was how afterward he casually SITS ON ONE to have a conversation!

  23. LZ says:

    @EC Spurlock: They did such a great job mixing in physical humor and funny quips with the serious stuff his character embodied. To me, the movie had two main themes. The first (Jyn, Cassian and Bodhi) was about morality and choice. The second (Chirrut and Baze) was about hope and faith. I may carry a sign reading “I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.” to the Women’s March in DC.

  24. I loved it! I thought it was maybe the best of all Star Wars movies
    Totally agree with all points in this review. It was a great movie.

  25. My wife and I just got back from seeing this movie tonight, finally.

    When the credits rolled, we took off our 3D glasses, looked at one another, and saw we’d both been crying. We nodded knowingly, and came out of the theater talking about how we both had ALL THE FEELS. :~}

    I’m going to go write a ginormous reaction post now!

  26. ReneeG says:

    I think someone at Disney/LucasFilm had tremendous intestinal fortitude to a) kill everyone and b) not have a dying kiss at the end. This was a fabulous SW movie, perhaps because it isn’t part of the main movie arcs. By stepping aside from the expectations of a trilogy, this story shines. Hopefully there will be an awesome longer director’s cut in our future.

  27. Miss Louisa says:

    I just saw the film tonight with one of my best friends. Ladies, you were spot on in your review on all counts. The warrior/monk thing? I saw them as a couple. I didn’t read this post until now so I didn’t know Peter Cushing was in it, and it took me out of the story for a minute. Besides being super creepy, I leaned over to my friend and said, how is he here? He’s been dead for 20 years! (Actually, it is 22. Thanks IMDB!) Then I saw the weird looking Carrie Fisher at the end and it made me sad all over again. RIP Carrie and Debbie.

  28. cleo says:

    I finally saw it. I was a bit disappointed. I liked a lot of it but I wasn’t swept away by it.

    I was so glad that I read your initial spoiler so I knew to expect a high body count.

    Did it bother anyone else that two of the POC main characters (i.e. most of them) were physically disabled in some way (Saw and the blind warrior monk) and none of the white heroes were (although they were all flawed in some way but not physically)? Once I noticed that during the movie I couldn’t unsee it.

    I am embarrassed that I missed the Saw / Vader connection – perhaps because I was too busy being annoyed by the above realization.

  29. Janine says:

    Finally saw this on streaming. I really, really liked it, although it helped that I was spoiled for the ending. If I had been expecting a happy ending I think I would have walked away more disappointed. Oddly, even though I already knew the general outlines of the story, I preferred it to The Force Awakens–maybe because I was expecting more new storytelling from TFA whereas in Rogue One I was pleasantly surprised by what they found in a storyline I already knew. Also, TFA’s main characters seemed very young to me and I enjoyed the more adult complexity here. Maybe it was the difference of watching at home, but the CGI Tarkin wasn’t particularly egregious…especially since he’s always seen in low lighting. The CGI Leia was much more obnoxious and honestly I wish they had shown her from behind or just heard her voice, etc. But that may also be from the perspective of knowing that she had passed away.

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