Star Wars Franchise

When are we getting the Rogue One review simple?

I loved Mando, but as a Saturday afternoon show of old. Andor is on another level. It's a serious show with incredible tension, story telling, themes, dialogue and acting.

Make time to watch the first three in the one go.

You don't look a thing like your profile picture

Hang on, Nick ISN'T Vincent Price?

No. Make it go away. I don't like picturing you lot having faces.

Its excellent. Easily the best so far in terms of pacing, dramatic stakes, characters, action, even comic relief and referencing previous films.

I always like seeing the Empire as a credible threat and despite hundreds of casualties they feel very effective here. Plus more cool Trooper variants which is a plus.

I remember being underwhelmed first time I saw this because of the hype it had been receiving but its a full-on war film isn’t it? I think that’s part of what elevates it above the previous four films. Each of those was trying to do something other than just be a good film in its own right, either as part of a narrative jigsaw or as a vehicle for stripping the mystique from a classic character. This film isn’t there to overexplain anything, yes it has ties to ANH but otherwise its free to do its own thing.

It feels like rather than meddling executives designing by committee that its the product of someone very cine-literate being allowed to stretch their legs. The Battle of Algiers, Dirty Dozen, Platoon, Apocalypse Now and more than even the ones Lucas made, Star Wars are all combined into something that doesn’t feel like a checklist of references.

Obviously, its a darker and more grown-up film than ANH but it borrows so much from it in terms of visual and sound design its the closest anything has come in this rewatch to feeling like its directly connected to the originals. Practical effects, music cues, little subtleties in its direction (like those cockpit shots) it all feels like, unlike the last four films, the people leading this one have actually watched the originals not just read the Wikipedia.

Strong characters too, considering how the others are all based on classic character it seems like this is the one which actually makes you care about its cast in their own right.

The deepfakes are a bit dead-eyed but only other minor gripe would be that the epic battle to retrieve the Death Star plans seems to contradict the impression of spycraft given in ANH.

As much as I’ve enjoyed parts of the others this is the first film, chronologically, to hold up fully as both a standalone film and as part of the wider franchise.

EDIT: another thing - the music. Basing the score on John Williams score for ANH was an inspired choice. I could be wrong but it feels like it uses more of it than any of the prequels did. And we all know the music is pretty much the best thing about any of these films when it comes to pushing narrative and emotional buttons.

I cant tell if this is a joke or not

Hmmmm........ I think it probably feels like what it probably is/was. Something that started off with good intentions and was kind of ruined by executive meddling. The last 30 minutes is nothing *but* a checklist of mandatory references for people to point at like Leonardo Di Caprio.

To be fair, all of those issues do stem from the fundamental issue of 'how do we jazz up a story that doesnt need telling and nobody really gives a fuck about?', so it probably did need to raid the toy chest at the end.

The last act is the best Star Warsing in any SW product ever made.

Watching RO after eight episodes of Andor makes me convinced that by the end of the series there’s going to be such a complete interconnected story that the film will be elevated to undisputed best SW movie eva. Andor is easily the best TV show, although Mando, while not of the same uniform top tier creative quality, is still the best SW romping on telly

I don't get the love for Rogue One at all - I found it incredibly boring and couldn't remember the background, arc or even name of a single character.

I've seen the film twice too.

Guiness was 62 when he made Star Wars, McGregor is 51 and wearing a lot better.

I haven't started Andor yet, as I wanted to watch Rogue One again first (esp as the boy hasn't seen it). Must get to it...

Rogue One was fine as a spectacle but it's devoid of any interesting characters or plot, relying on character archetypes to avoid having to actually create any characterisation.

And that's fine sometimes.

It's a better realised film than The Last Jedi, but it's also less original.

Rogue One is the kind of Star Wars film that Zack Snyder would make (although Snyder would add copious slow motion). I say that as somebody who mostly enjoys Snyder's films.

Rogue One is basically just a Navarone style WW2 movie in a lot of ways and thats why it worked for me. They set out to make a war movie and then made a war movie, it wasn’t diluted by trying to do a load of other stuff.

Compared to Solo where it felt like the idea was ‘lets explain where Han got all his gear from’ and then having to find any old plot that might accommodate that.