Rogue One: A Star Wars Story [Official Thread]
- Thread starter CHL
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Veteran
Yeah thats what I thought.
THASTUNNA
All Star
Clayton Endicott
Superstar
Katarn was a stormtrooper that defected from the empire, then became a mercenary and spy for the Alliance before becoming a Jedi.
Bruce Wayne
THE GODDAMN BILLIONAIRE
I'm not the Biggest Fan of Star Wars bur I don't hate on it at all. I went to see it the other day and it looked Great.
you all really don't understand that JJ had to introduce new characters, story and mythos to span over 2 more films? he had to be very careful about not covering too much ground to give the other two directors something to work with. and yes there are plenty of similarities with a new hope, that was on purpose, but it's also not a carbon copy of it either. of course it's easy to make a one and done spin off film have a definitive start and ending. no one could've handled TFA better than JJ.The 2 trilogies plus rogue one make for a complete story. Start and finish. Damn shame TFA was made to marginalize everything done
Damn non creative creatives. Got a whole universe to play with. An infinite timeline and we get a new hope the remix with tons of the same players
Scottie Drippin
Should Never Mention Me
Remember in ANH hope, that scene of Luke looking longingly at the two suns setting? That perfectly sums up the mundane nature of his life, and how he dreams of seeing, doing, and being more. ANH hope has just a few minutes of Luke’s normal life before things begin to escalate, but those few minutes paint clearly what he is, a smalltown kid with dreams.
Jyn never gets that moment. We see WHAT happens to her as a child (but not necessarily her personality, but we do see her mothers so we can understand where she gets her adult traits from), but when we cut to her as an adult, she’s a prisoner immediately being broken fee and things start to escalate. We get things flatout explained to us through dialog later (she was a good soldier, Forrest wanted to protect her or something). She talks about being lonely, but all we see of her she is surrounded by people.
People say she is selfish and a criminal and so on, but from the jump all we see of her is being heroic. She attacks the people who tried to break her out, but that’s just the most minute glimpse of a moment.
When people talk about the lack of character development in this movie, it’ll be because we never see just who she was before her heroic turn, and thus…it’s really not much of a turn if we don’t know what we’re going from.
Yes she was in a prison transport, but how did she get there? Was she an unwilling criminal? A shrewd one? A robin hood? Cold blooded? Taken in by a band of crooks who were her only family? Was she happy? Did she want to change her life? Was she a natural leader? Follower? How did she get captured? Made a sacrifice for someone? Sold out by someone she loved, that she hated? Had she tried to escape? Do it by herself? Try to organize a riot? Try to get people to start some shyt to draw attention so she could selfishly escape herself? Did she hate capture? Feel she deserved punishment for her life? Deserve to be alone?
You don’t need all of that, but like, one or two scenes at 2-4 minutes total illustrating any one of those things before she’s broken out of that transport just so we have a base and can identify with her on some level before this adventure begins.
Only other character whose development bothered me was the pilot. Defecting from the Empire is a massive deal, but he kinda just does it. And he suffers for it. He gets tortured by an extremist for wanting to do some good in the world. If we really felt and understood where he was coming from, knowing he was going to be tortured just to find out he was telling the truth could have been one of the most gripping scenes in the movie. It also hurts Forrest’s character, because we know nothing about the pilot, we don’t feel any type of way really about it happened.
We see Finn through his entire decision to turn sides. Imagine if when he got to the rebel base he was tortured for lying about being a rebel? Whoever made that decision you’d have a strong feeling either way about them then there, as you’ve seen exactly what sacrifices Finn went through just to get there, including saving the lives of random strangers.
I loved Rogue One, think it’s better than TFA and the prequels hands down. But when talking about character development, those are the things people are talking about (even if they don’t know exactly quite how to articulate it). Even just coming down to feeling, there’s just something missing in the movie until everyone gets together at Jeddah. And that something is great establishing scenes that really draw you into the world we’re in and the people in them. Which is a shame, as the opening is amazing, and Cassian’s introduction is perfect. You know EXACTLY who he is from that scene in the alley.
Can’t say that for the main character.
EDIT: Wow this turned into an essay.
Acting is trash - the big debate scene in the second act was the epitome of over acting. Watching this in comparison to some shyt like Westworld, GOT or even Civil War was fukking embarrassing. Can't get away with corny acting in these sci-fi/superhero/fantasy genres - the bar has been raised to high.
I AM WARHOL
Veteran
You're being disingenuous. Everyone knows jj played it super safe. Dude coped out, decided not to take any risks. Literally copied ANH almost beat for beat. I'm not giving him a pass for adding 2 poorly developed characters. He didn't add to the mythos or Star Wars. He undermined it.I personally thought it did. Why should I give 2 fukks about a ROBOT? He took one for the team and I could respect it, but the MISSION to pull it off was still at play. No time to feel for it. Jyn and Cassian's death I felt more for a number of reasons. They're lives were implied never ever filled with any kind of happiness. Cassian been an rebel insurgent and spy since the age of 6, Jyn was part of Saw's terrorist group since 16 and was abandoned. All their lives they were doing things that were immoral or unethical and finally they were able to achieve something that is worth DOING for and even with that with their implied physical attraction, they still couldn't embrace it because they're about to die! They were the ones that I would of WISH had a happy ending with them surviving, finding love and live on their lives.... but it was to never be. They're the unsung heroes that barely been commemorated.
the story was going to be the same whether jj directed it or not so maybe blame Lawrence kasdan? how are the new characters poorly developed?
I AM WARHOL
Veteran
I blame everyone involved. Go look at my posts in tfa thread. Got very detailed posts about why I think they are terrible characters and my views on the movie
I LOVE this film, but I did have an issue with the opening sequences. 1st of all, I'm not tripping about there not being an opening scroll. This is because why have an opening scroll about a part of ANOTHER opening scroll? So, I had no qualms with that. That said... there shouldn't of been a title opening PERIOD. The score for it was terrible and the title design looked weak and it was a bad transition in between scenes.
The movie should of opened as it did with the prelude of Jyn being a child, her mother killed and father captured then transitioned to her waking up as if she was dreaming about it in her cell.
Then it goes in introducing Cassian and him killing his informant, reporting back to the Rebel Base and telling him his next assignment. Then back to Jyn being escorted to the Imperial prison base and Cassian's crew rescuing her, then they head for Jedha where we're introduced to everyone else. That whole pilot introduction/interrogation unnecessary. If you want to show Saw as an extremist have it after they're captured with Jyn trying to plead for herself and the rest not to be tortured. Saw already viewed her suspiciously initially.
So, in a nutshell... it would of flowed better with Jyn dreaming about her past and waking up in an Imperial prison, Cassian introduced and assigned and rescued Jyn, they get instruction by the Rebel Alliance to go to Jedha to find Saw, and everybody else introduced from there.