Post
by aTm » Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:58 am
So I watched Rogue One. It was probably the most satisfying Star Wars experience I remember from a first viewing in a theater. It wasn't a really great film or anything, but honestly it doesn't have to be amazing for me to enjoy, just don't serve me up a sack of shit with lightsabers.
[spoiler="Rogue One"]Like the prequels, the characters were kinda shitty. I liked the Jyn Erso character, but I expect for most she was pretty fuckin bland and boring. Her father tells her to run away, and Forest Whitaker picks her up. That's like her entire backstory. Kinda at its heart this is more of a "war movie" so it would have been a lot better if she was always in a military unit with all of these secondary characters we are never gonna really give a shit about. Her sparse backstory would be better, if in the first act we get more of a "squad building" type feel, of seeing this team in action together, rather than an hour of shit happening before you even have "the gang" all together and ready to go. The military unit could have served as a "character" that we cared about, as it was, the audience pretty much has to dig into what they already know and place "The Rebel Alliance" as the thing that they care about, and the problem with that is the audience already knows the Rebel Alliance wins. We already know they get the plans. We should have seen all the characters that made up the squad fighting together from the beginning, perhaps only adding in the imperial pilot when it became necessary to move on to the main objective, or the whole squad including Jyn should have been fighting from the beginning to help this pilot defect, or something. Then when we see them all essentially dying for each other it means something more than just "yay, alliance"
The climax/final act of the movie is great. It felt far more like "Star Wars is back" to me than the action sequences of Episode VII. You don't need a bunch of lightsabers to have a nice space battle. The final battle for the plans is almost basically a callback to the Battle of Endor from Jedi, except it looks like an actual war down on the planet rather than playtime with teddy bears.
I thought some of the callbacks were unnecessary and distracting. Did we need to see Vader dress down someone? We already know he's kind of a bad ass. We could have lived with just his cameo at the end. R2D2 and C3PO...Jesus Christ, just make one fucking film without shoving these guys down my throat, please. Princess Leia's character also gets shoved into this, in what also would have been a "shove down the throat moment" but actually that scene, for at least a few weeks, at least gets a response because Carrie Fisher croaked.[/spoiler]
tl/dr version...characters kinda sucked, very nice space battle, satisfying film
The film did unsettle me about the future of the industry. We already have people continuing to remake shit (like Star Wars, Ghostbusters, etc) because things that already have strong brands sell well. What I learned in this movie is that not only will we have retread stories in 10-20 years, but its apparently also gonna be all the same asshole actors "brought back to life" as CGI. Michael J Fox is going to be playing Marty McFly in a film 50 fucking years from now, just watch.
Sure, I could have stayed in the past. I could have even been king. But in my own way, I am king.
