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No, I have not seen it yet, as I am not that preferential. And I'll probably not see it to its been open for a week here in the U.S. Actually, Christmas Day might be a good time to see it, as everything in my area will be closed, except for the cinema. Which seem to be open every day of the year.

Though, what I did see from the cast list . . . There are two Texans in it.

Alan Tudyk (El Paso)
Forest Whitaker (Longview)

Oddly enough or not, you can hardly get farther apart in the state unless you leave the state.

And just as John Ratzenberger has become the voice of Pixar, so Tudyk has become the voice of Disney animation, voicing characters in . . .
Wreck-it-Ralph -- Frozen -- Big Hero 6 -- Zootopia -- Moana -- and the sequel to Wreck-it-Ralph, which should be out sometime in 2018.

No, Rogue One : a Star Wars Story, looking at the cast list, has to be one of the most international films made, as we have . . . born in . . .
Ben Mendelsohn . . . Australia -- Diego Luna . . . Mexico -- Eunice Ohmide . . . Scotland -- Fares Fares . . . Lebanon -- Felicity Jones . . . England -- Geneviene O'Reilly . . . Ireland -- James Earl Jones . . . Mississippi -- Jimmy Smits . . . Brooklyn -- Mads Mikkelsen . . . Denmark -- Riz Ahmed . . . England -- Valane Kane . . . Northern Ireland -- and Warwick Davis . . . England.

Looking at some of the trailer, this film reminds me of those old WWII films that take place in the South Pacific, especially Cornel Wilde's Beach Red from 1967.

This is the 1st of what has been called the Star Wars stand-alone films. Though, if it is successful, it is likely not to be the only one. We already promised a Han Solo and Lando Calrissian film in 2018 with Alden Ehrenreich as Han and Donald Glover (no relationship to Danny) as Lando.

And there are rumors of others featuring more of the characters from Star Wars.

Boba Fett
Followed by the rumor that it has been canceled.

Darth Vader
Which will cover the years between Episode III and Episode IV.

And Yoda.
Which is the one that interests me, as the rumor has the plotline being a science fiction version of the Seven Samurai in space and covering the years before Episode I.

And what films are made are determined by 3 factors.

1st the comic book, and if that is successful, then . . .

2nd the book, and if that is successful, then . . .

3rd the film.

As for Episode VIII,  which will be out in 2017, rumor has it that Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) will be chasing after Ren (Daisy Ridley) to get back the light saber he lost to her in Episode VII Which makes some sense with everything then being concluded in Episode IX.

And when we see Rogue One : a Star Wars Story later this month, we'll have a report on it.

There are only two reasons why I want to see this film.

The first is Donnie Yen, one of the best Hong Kong action stars and over 50 years old, kicking a$$ in a major Hollywood movie.

The second reason is that this was shot on the Arri Alexa 65, which is a simply fantastic new digital cinema camera.

Donnie's character will undoubtedly die.  Not just because that is the fate of most Asian characters in Hollywood movies, but because no one from the team that stole the Death Star blueprints survived.

Well, it looks like I am the first of our merry crew to see this one, and as a first generation STAR WARS fan, I am happy to report that it was AWESOME!  One of the best STAR WARS films ever made; strong performances all the way around, with  some marvelous cameos from the original movie's characters thrown in that drew open applause from the audience.  Great character development, beautifully shot, this is one to see in the theaters for sure!  My only complaint was that the movie did take a few minutes to get going, but once the plot kicked in, it was a nailbiter from then on.  5/5 for sure!

I saw it last night.  I thought it was a good movie.  I too liked how they were able to work in many of the original movie characters to integrate the story more tightly into the rest of the canon.

I've got my Star Wars fix until next year when Episode VIII comes out.
 

Went to see it yesterday. I enjoyed it, although it isn't exactly the happiest movie I've ever seen. My brother and sister in law are off seeing it today. It was killing my wife that I wouldn't let her give any spoilers about it when we saw them last night.

I watched it two nights ago and loved it. It did have a slow build and a lot of location switches in rapid fashion, but then I thought to myself, this is galaxy-wide, so it makes sense (and I always want to see even more worlds). It was much grittier than most, but I tend to like that kind of thing. And of course, the action was outstanding; a lot of combat sequences were reminiscent of various wars and combat environments (many terrains).

The references were cool, yet not overdone, which is good. Nice characterizations, motivations, and explanations of a few questions raised in the past by Star Wars fans. The deadpan and very light humor was welcome for what it was. Also liked the Imperial-Imperial interactions as well.

Great tension and a fun ride. I'd say it's one of my favorite Star Wars.

And the final scenes, one in particular, were outstanding. I was wishing I could rewind the film right then and watch it another few times.

Watched it online yesterday... Really liked it... I just love Felicity Jones

Two words:  uncanny!!  Valley!!   (Both were soooooo unnecessary.).   If I give Force Awakens an A- (which I do) this squeaked a B-.  Mostly on Wash's voice and space battles. 

Now this was a REAL Star Wars movie!  In fact, it was just a REAL GOOD movie, period!  I didn't have to lie and tell myself, "Ah, it was okay.  I guess," like I did with The Force Awakens.

Watched it again.  It was even better now that I've had time to think about it and catch a few things I missed the first time.  I don't even care about any sequels to The Force Awakens, anymore, just give me more Star Wars movies like this!

Some thoughts on Rogue One. Although the story meandered a bit in the first half, the last part was pretty exciting, so I'm not complaining.

SPOILERS FOLLOW!

It was nice of Sauron to let Darth Vader use the mansion on the slopes of Mount Doom.

Crow's nest duty on Rebel bases must be some kind of punishment

Peter Cushing looked very cadaverous. I'm not sure whether that was CGI, or they somehow actually reanimated him. That being said, kudos to the art direction for capturing the look and feel of the original trilogy.

Finally some bad guys have the sense to use their firepower and nuke things from orbit instead of sending mooks down piecemeal.

General remarks

This was an honest to God war movie. Hardly any mysticism or Shakespearean politics. Also no cute characters for the kids, and the both the comic relief and the love story were cut down to a minimum. The last part is a good thing, because, as has been remarked Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang have more history and chemistry than the official couple.

Introducing a bunch of unknown characters has the advantage that the audience doesn't know which of them will survive. However, I never dreamt that Disney of all people would greenlight a movie where each and every one of the good guys dies.

Talking of the good guys, in this universe Han would definitely shoot first. Now, I understand that want to get back to the gritty atmosphere of the original, so that even the 'good guys' might do questionable things out of expediency (but have a change of heart at the end). However, did they have to make all of the Rebels such jerks? Their basic assumption seems to be that you can solve most any problem by blowing things up, except when they don't like the odds and then they run and hide.

Talking of blowing stuff up. I can seen the rationale for vaporizing Jedha, but going to all the trouble of constructing a clearly very important central archiving facility and then obliterating it for what is at that point still a minor and containable threat, is surely counterproductive.

On a more general note, it does really seem as if the creative team has given up on trying to tell other stories in the universe, and now simply gives us action movies with the familiar mix of Star Wars elements such as droids, intrepid pilots, rogue heroes, rersourceful heroines, sarcastic imperial officers, dogfights between X-wings and Tie fighters, an infiltration of an Imperial Base, spaceships attacking an impregnable fortress with one weak spot, desert planets, lightsabre swordplay, odd looking aliens making funny noises, etc etc....
Mind you, I'm not complaining. James Bond has gotten along tremendously by reusing a limited set of tropes each time. It is just that the ambition seems to have shifted from telling a story in a certain universe to making just another Star Wars movie, as if it was an episode in a TV show.

Agreed.  It works, but one wishes it were a bit...more...than "pewpewpew BOOM" and a familiar-sounding score.

On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the best), I give this about a 2 (maybe 3).
At over 2 hours long, I found this movie slow and uninteresting until the action moves to Scarif. (about 90 minutes into the film)

If this film was a non Star Wars film (but otherwise equivalent) that I was watching at home, I would have switched the channel to something else.  I would not wait until 90 minutes into the movie for it to get better.

For most people, save your money and see this film when it comes out to video. (Actually this is one film that could be skipped without any impact on the rest of the SW universe. The opening scroll from SW:ANH(1977) tells all that one needs from this film.)

I would only recommend big SW fans seeing this film at the theatre.

Positives:

• Effects, costumes, scenery
• Vader's presence at the end was visually impressive though very brief
• End of film tied in well to start of SW:ANH (1977) but had some minor issues
• Robot (Potassium Sulfate K₂SO₄) was better than I expected
• Nice attempt at telling a story about non-force attuned people -- it was not done well.
• Cameos ok, but seemed somewhat forced.


Negatives:

• Grand Moff Tarkin -- CGI made him stand out too much in his scenes (Think Legolas in Bakshi's LOTR) and he was in several scenes. If the technology was better it would have been better and more polished -- the same for Leia, but she was in one short scene at the end so I did not mind as much.
• Tale too long for what was presented. The movie could have been trimmed down about 30-45 minutes without diminishing the essence of the tale.
• Except for Jyn no background info given for any characters.
• I would have preferred more info about Jyn's father. It would help if movie explained why he and his family were at the farm when found by the empire.
• I never really felt any emotional pull with any of the Rogue One party. Did not give me a reason to care about what happens to the characters so I did not care much when they died on Scarif.
• Would have like Vader to have larger role in film. Perhaps have him take down most of Rogue one.
• AT-ATs seemed way too flimsy compared to SW:ESB(1980)
• Some of the deaths at the end were pointless. If I cared more it might have had more impact on me, but movie did not provide me reason to care.
• Jyn's mother dying really made no sense. Way to be a good parent and leave your child orphaned. She really listened to her husband to run away with their daughter. Did she really think one blaster would win the day against a small group of armed soldiers?.
• ST armor is useless against a stick and hand blows
• There must have been better stories than this to make a film about. Since SW:AHN(1977) exists we (the audience) know the mission (getting the DS files) will succeed and that those that stole the files paid a heavy price.
• Tarkin and Vader really were not needed in this story.
• Vader joke seemed out of character for him. but a minor quibble.


My biggest complaint is that I was not entertained. Regardless of my problems with SW:TFA(2015), it was an entertaining story. I was not bored for ¾ of the film as I was in Rogue One. If the makers of the film did a better job setting up the film, then the film would have been more entertaining and better for me.

On another point, I think I have seen enough Death Star related story lines in the Star Wars universe.  How many times will the same story line be retold? (Currently 4 (IV, VI, VII, Rogue One) of 8 films

I'm quite disappointed with the movie, to be honest. I expected a different take on the Star wars universe and an entertaining flick, and got none. They seem to have followed DC's guide on how to suck any fun out of a movie by tryin to make it way too serious. With a shorter cut and more charismatic characters (the only one I liked was the new android) it may have worked.

Interesting things? Well, there a few. They do take a less sympathetic look to the rebels, going as far as to point that there are different factions. The way they developed it is less than stellar, but it could be interesting to learn more about the rebels themselves in future SW films. Also, the look of the film is grittier, it resembles more "A New Hope" that the rest of the SW films. And in the final scenes things take a more pessimistic turn than you may expect.

2/10, wouldn't watch again.

It's par for the course that there is a variety of opinions about a movie, here on Badmovies.  I finally saw it on Saturday, and I was much more impressed with Rogue One than The Force Awakens.

TBH, I wasn't expecting much.  For some reason, I had this idea that it was the movie equivalent of a non-canon novel, rather than being a part of the universe proper.  No idea why, but it just seemed that way to me, perhaps because it didn't have the same fanfare as The Force Awakens.  My primary reason for seeing this was Donnie Yen, my favourite HK action actor for years.

Donnie's role and level of engagement was highly satisfying.  He and Jiang Wen weren't just the token Asians, nor was Riz Ahmed the token Pakistani/other person of colour.  They all had engaging and vital roles.  And letting Donnie Yen do his own fight choreography was a great move.

The nods to future movies, via cameo appearances of characters, was excellent.

Darth Vader's fight scene - more like slaughter scene - showed just why he was so feared by the Rebels in the first movies.  It was one and a half minutes of unrivaled badassery that indicated his ferocity and brutality.  Nowhere else has Vader been portrayed to this level.

And the final scenes which lead up to the conclusion were deeply emotionally satisfying.  For me, this movie placed a lot of Episode IV into context, and tied together lots of threads.

In summary, I've much happier with this Star Wars movie, and I'm hoping that future movies will maintain this level or greater.

Ended up seeing this three times due to different groups of people wanting to go see it with us and not all being available at the same time. Saw lots of posts on facebook from people who had seen it multiple times as well, so it wouldn't surprise me if this one breaks the billion mark at the box office. Enjoyed it and really felt it was a worthwhile addition to the canon, although I do have to admit I am undecided on the CGI Peter Cushing. Will they simply do the same thing when time comes for episode 9 with Carrie Fisher?


****SPOILER ALERT****
And I know it would never happen but I so wanted the robots last words to be "I am a leaf on the wind".

(IMHO!)
But first . . .

For those who want more detail than found in the film. Then read the novelization. Read the novelization. Did I say read: Alexander Freed's Rogue One : a Star Wars Story. While it is nothing something that I have read. Though, it is on my list to read. Those who have read it do say it goes into more detail about the story and the characters in the film.

As for my opinions . . .

Different
That is the 1st thing I noticed about the film. How different it seemed from the other films in the series.

Emotions
(Seemingly more the sleeve, then in the past.)
the anger -- the courage -- the doubt -- the hate -- the humor that keeps us going -- the love -- and the attitude toward violence. Should we use it or should we not use it?

Emotional impact
Thus the film had a more emotional impact on me than the other Star Wars films I have seen.

Realism
If Star Wars was Star Wars fact instead of Star Wars fiction, then this film probably comes nearer to being a realistic portrayal of that fact then the other Star Wars films I've seen.

Violence
(Boys, what we have here is the Alamo in outer space.)
In regards to body count, probably the most violent of the Star Wars films that I've seen to date. Actually, in regards to body count, probably the most violent science fiction film that I have ever seen. Beating out the previous Star Wars : a New Hope, as this is at least twice as violent as that one.

And what I noticed, that while we were aware of the death of most of the major characters in the film, each death occurs slightly off-screen.

And there is a question, that I wonder if someone can answer. When Saw Gerrera sees that he is going to die, he unclips a couple of items from his clothes and tosses them aside. Does anybody know what those items were?

Cameos
Some nice cameos in it. Recognize Red Squadron Leader? Apparently the same actor who led the Red Squadron 39 years ago in Star Wars : a New Hope.

Box office
(Still the film everyone wants to see.)
Nine days after opening on a Sunday afternoon in 2D the theater where I saw it was still half full of people. Which is good news for . . .

Han and Lando which will be out sometime in 2018. For if people go for this film, then it is a good possibility that they will go for another stand-alone film And for Ahsoka : the Movie. We have had Ahsoka : the graphic novel and Ahsoka : the Novel, which I am reading. So will step 3 be Ahsoka : the Movie. Which is  bad news for . . .

The competition, if there is a limited amount spent on theater tickets, and it is going to this and other Star War films, then it won't be going to the competition, which includes last year's Sing. Which seemed to have a good chance of topping Disney/Pixar for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. And how will its standing in competition with Rogue One : a Star Wars film affect the Academy Award voters?

As for the Disney/Pixar films of last year, Zootopia, Finding Dory, and Moana, at this moment, the odds on favorite to win is Zootopia.

As for my final opinion . . .
Interesting. I have seen so many films over the years, the only thing I ask of a film now is for it to be INTERESTING, and Rogue One : a Star Wars Story, while not a perfect film, and we'll go more into that next time, it certainly was one of the more interesting films I have seen to date.

Loved the cameos from different actors, although I missed the one with Red Squadron Leader.

Saw Gerrera was regularly breathing from some kind of gas cylinder, ostensibly to help keep him alive.  His body was largely robotic implants and grafts, keeping him going in his fight against the Empire.  Unclipping those things showed that he was ready to die, and that his fight was over. 

I absolutely agree about the emotional impact.  While the original movie was an emotional revelation to a young boy, I can imagine a lot of kids being quite emotional about this one, too.  Although, deeper emotional effect is derived from the retrospective understanding of the context of Episode IV.

And I will definitely read the book.

Thank you for your response to my question, Archivist. I couldn't figure out what Saw was doing, but your response makes a lot of sense. Thank-you again.

While I enjoyed the film well enough, there was one thing wrong with it, or at least one aspect of it that could have been better. I must admit I am not the only person to think this, though I was slower to come to this than others. It was not only till I saw the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Though, I had seen it on TV and on You Tube, this is the 1st time I had seen it in person. Thus, a little background, maestro.

I don't know how long it has been on-going where I saw it, but it has been an annual seasonal presentation for over 50 years at Disneyland. And while the talent varies, it normally consists of . . .
4 trumpeters
2 choirs
--an adult choir
--a children's choir
1 string and percussion orchestra
and a narrator who varies from year to year and week to week, who reads the Story of the Nativity from the Holy Bible. And the week I saw it, it was Cal Ripken, jr. Who did a fine job as the narrator.

And it ended with a standing ovation, as all the performers, except for the narrator, broke into Handel's Hallelujah Chorus, and whatever the Medved Brothers and others may think, for me one of the greatest moments in film is the use of the Chorus in The Greatest Story Ever Told. Which is when I realized what was wrong, or what could have been better, with Rogue One : a Star Wars Story, was the music. Which if nothing wrong with it, could have been better.