Saw it last night with the staff of ILM Vancouver.
All the reports are true...Rogue One
is the STAR WARS movie us "adult" fans have been waiting for.
Gonna try to be spoiler-free here...
K2SO steals the show.
Felicity Jones impressed me, despite my reservations.
I was shocked by how faithful it was to not only the Original Trilogy (Ep IV ANH in particular), but also to what was established in the Prequels as well.
Non-John Williams score was not a problem. In fact, it was fitting. Williams' style suits the sprawling nature of the Saga films, whereas Giacchino has more of the rousing "martial" feeling of a ensemble war movie even though the music was a little too "nuStar Trek" at times.
The movie actually paints the events of ANH in a new light knowing what had to be done to get the plans into Princess Leia's hands.
I did have some minor gripes:
The much heralded "U-Wing" is just plain ridiculous. Is it a troop transport or a snub figher??? It cannot be both.
I've never followed the The Clones Wars series or Rebels so I had no investment in Saw Gerrerra as a character. I do understand why they chose Forrest Whittaker to portray him (to convey the danger and gravitas of the greyer than grey character), but I feel like he was TOO big in the role. I felt like he should have dialed it back a bit.
Kinda wish Donny Yuen's character had more to do. It almost felt like he and Jiang Wen were thrown in there to cater to the much-desired Chinese movie market.
Oh...and what the fuck is up with Stormtrooper armor not being able to withstand stick and baton strikes??? Back in my junior varsity football days I used to take shots to the head with my helmet from other helmets and I walked away (a bit dazed), but in this universe you can knock out and maybe even kill helmeted Imperials with sticks. Dafuq??? Anyways, still gonna see it 2 more times this weekend.
It's great, you guys. It's not perfect, it's not Empire, and thankfully it's not down in the basement with the Prequels. Dare I say...it's slightly better than The Force Awakens when you remove all the fan service TFA was obliged to show.
Now...if only there were lightsabers in Rogue One
.
