Rogue One Thoughts

This weekend, the first of the Star Wars spinoff films, Rogue One was released. Being a big Star Wars fan myself, I figured I'd share my thoughts on it like I did with Episode 7 a while back. So, let's jump on it. Oh and by the way, SPOILERS FOLLOW.

Did I mention that there are spoilers below?

A Long Time Ago...:
So let's talk about the opening of the film. Oh no, not the scene where Krennic comes for Galen. I'm talking about the first few seconds there. When I saw The Force Awakens, I was surprised at how OK I was with there being no 20th Century Fox fanfare and how I enjoyed the silence that accompanied the Lucasfilm logo. The same goes for here. However that's old news. Yes, the crawl is gone and I'm glad it is. This being the first Star Wars spinoff film, I'm glad to see that there was a conscious effort here to distinguish the spinoffs from the main series. While I love the crawl, I'm happy to keep it exclusive to the main series. What I am happy to see back is "A long time ago in a galaxy far far away..." I wasn't necessarily expecting to see it at the start of the film, but it was a welcome surprise. While the spinoffs are definitely different from the main films, this is a nice way to tie everything together and remind us that these films, while different, all take place in the same world.

K-2SO:
Probably my favorite new character of the film (my favorite Star Wars character is in there but we'll get to that later), K-2SO was a treat. He had a lot of the more humorous lines of the film and was always a treat when he was on screen. Even though he was totally CG, it didn't really distract or detract from him at all. He was a lot of fun.

The Death Star: 
Boy does the Death Star look great in this film. It has a wonderful massive looming presence and looks fantastic. That shot of the Super Laser being installed is wonderful and such a cool moment. The interior is recreated so faithfully and looks great as well. Seeing the Death Star fire was such a fascinating experience. Obviously no planets were destroyed but I'm glad we got to see it in action again. Seeing it fire with 2016 special effects was kind of bizarre. The shot of the laser going down the tunnel in particular really stuck out to me. Obviously it was pulled right from A New Hope but it's wild to see it redone like this.

Grand Moff Tarkin: 
Perhaps no part of Rogue One is as talked about as Grand Moff Tarkin, brought to life once again by Peter Cushing through the magic of CGI. When I first saw Tarkin in one of the TV spots I was pretty sure they'd keep his involvement in the film light. In the TV spot, we only see the back of his head. I wasn't expecting much more then that in the film itself. Then when we see his reflection in the film, I was pretty sure that would be the most we saw of him. And then he turned around. This was somewhat of a shocking moment to me. It's sort of like the film makers were breaking the rules. It felt like we had been seeing as much of Tarkin as we were going to see and then suddenly, BOOM there he is. It was a really surprising and really neat moment.

Now as for the CGI itself, I'd say it ranges from pretty darn good to ehhhhhh... In some shots, Tarkin looks perfect. In others I could definitely tell that something was up. Is it a perfect effect? No I don't think so. Despite that though, for what it is, it's amazing. To think that they were able to recreate an actor to this level of detail is pretty spectacular. There's a lot of hard work and attention that went into this and you can tell.

While I am pretty impressed with the effect I feel like perhaps Tarkin should have been used a little less in the film. Like I said, I don't think the effect is completely perfect and using him a little less would have helped to mask this a bit. Either way, I am glad that he's in the film. A story about the Death Star (especially one this close to A New Hope) without Tarkin would feel wrong and I'm impressed that the film makers went to such extreme lengths to make sure he was a part of it.

Rebels References:
I can't say I really caught any of these in the film but seeing all of the Star Wars Rebels references in the film really does my heart good. While I can't say I really caught any during the film itself, I'm defiantly looking forward to seeing them upon my next viewing. Seeing such a close connection between the show and the film makes me really happy as I feel that it makes the whole world of Star Wars feel that much more connected. It's easy to forget sometimes that the events of the animated show exist in the same world as the films and Rogue One does a great job of connecting the dots. It's the kind of connection that I've been wanting from Marvel for years and I was so happy to see it done so well here.

R2-D2 and C-3PO:
Oh man. I was not expecting these two to show up here. Sure it takes place so close to A New Hope but I still didn't think they'd pop up. Boy was I happy they did. Sure it was just a quick cameo, but it was one of my favorite surprises of the film. I love R2-D2 is my favorite Star Wars character and C-3PO is defiantly up there as well, so getting a chance to see them on the big screen again was a treat.

Scarif Battle:
In my opinion this was easily the best part of the film. It was exciting, action packed, full of great easter eggs, and just a whole lot of fun. Every moment of this battle was absolutely thrilling and I loved every minute of it. It was so great, I'm gonna break it down into a few subtopics.

Red and Gold Leader:
That little bit at the beginning of the battle checking in with the ships was such an awesome, classic Star Wars moment made even better by the surprise appearances of Red and Gold leaders. The fact that they used original archival footage is really cool especially because they were able to make the effect so seamless.

Hammerhead:
I mentioned earlier how much I loved the Rebels references but really didn't catch them in the film. Well I definitely caught this one. Seeing the ships from the show on the big screen and knowing their backstory was defiantly cool, but the whole ramming the Star Destroyer bit was fantastic. I've always thought that those ships had a nice design and I was super happy to see it getting put to perfect use here. Simply wonderful.

Admiral Raddus:
Seeing another Mon Calamari heading a ship was really neat and I enjoyed Raddus a lot. It was cool to see Admiral Ackbar again last year but I really enjoyed seeing another Mon Calamari at the head of a ship again. It reminded me of some of the best parts of Return of the Jedi. Shame he doesn't have any lines as memorable as "It's a trap!" though.

The Death Star Plans:
I really appreciate the little details here. Having the plans sent as multiple transitions ("Several transitions were beamed to this ship by rebel spies.") and having that wireframe animation of the Death Star with the super laser in the wrong spot were great little touches that perfectly tied this film to A New Hope.

Everyone Dies:
I'm really glad that our main cast is completely wiped out at the end of the film. Not to say that I didn't like them, but I thought that it needed to happen to emphasize how treacherous of a mission this was. (Plus they don't show up in A New Hope or any other films.) Special props to the upper management at Lucasfilm/Disney for letting them go through with this. Also I was really glad that Jyn and Cassian didn't kiss at the end. I would have been super easy for them to go that route (and it almost looked like they were going to) but they held off and I'm glad they did. A last minute romance like that would have been kind of stupid.

Darth Vader:
Oh man, how about Darth Vader? First of all, a castle on Mustafar? Awesome and great way to tie in the prequels. I know some people were a bit put off by the whole "choke on your aspirations" line but I liked it. When Vader started to choke Krennic I started to fanboy a bit. When he said the line I started to chuckle a bit, still in awe of seeing Vader choke someone again. Speaking of lines, it was wonderful to hear James Earl Jones as Vader again. It was great hearing him again on Star Wars Rebels last season and to hear him again on the big screen was simply fantastic. Of course the real Vader scene that everyone is talking about is that last one. Dang. The shot of the dark corridor with the lightsaber igniting was spectacular. I remember as that shot started, I was so giddy because I knew what was about to happen. Man, the music, the action. It was perfectly done. I could watch that scene all day.

Princess Leia:
Some people have given this effect flack but I think that it looks perfect. What a cool moment to have the Princess appear and what a great way to tie things in to A New Hope. The sight of the white corridors of the Tantive IV combined with the music from the first moments of episode IV was a wonderful throwback. And man, when Princess Leia turned around I could barely believe it. It was amazing to see such an accurate and detailed Princess Leia up on the big screen. They absolutely nailed it. Now I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the elephant in the room. When I first saw the film, Carrie Fisher was still alive and well. Even when I first started writing this blog post she had not died yet. (Yeah I know, I'm quite the procrastinator.) That being said, I'm glad that to hear that she got the opportunity to see the finished product before she died. Having Leia in the film really is a loving tribute to Carrie Fisher and her iconic performance.

Overall, I had a blast with Rogue One. It was a unique take on galaxy and provided us with something very new and unique as well as a touching tribute to the one that started it all. I eagerly await the next Star Wars Anthology film.