Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) (1 Viewer)

[SamT]

Jyn was supposed to be a rebel right? Before the re-shoots. Especially we see it in the trailer. In the final movie, she is not at all preoccupied with the rebellion and even doesn't want to do anything with them. It's only after she sees her father that she starts to change.

At first I thought Cassian killed Krennic but then noticed they show him alive for a split second which was really unnecessary. Jyn tells Krennic the big secret, why would she do that and compromise all of her father's work?

 

[TravisR]

Jyn was supposed to be a rebel right? Before the re-shoots. Especially we see it in the trailer. In the final movie, she is not at all preoccupied with the rebellion and even doesn't want to do anything with them. It's only after she sees her father that she starts to change.

Jyn had been with Saw Gerrera's group but was never in the Rebel Alliance proper. She was with Saw at a time before the various rebel cells had come together to form the Alliance. Eventually, Saw's group was completely separate from the Rebel Alliance because it was much more militant and violent (something that will be seen more on the Rebels TV show next year). In the movie, they say that about 5 years before, Saw had abandoned teenage Jyn out of fear that someone from their group would realize that she was the daughter of an Imperial science officer (presumably, they could have tried to use her as a hostage or ransom her or kill her, etc.). After being left by Saw's group, she survived on her own as a criminal and had nothing to do with fighting against the Empire until the Rebels busted her out of jail at the beginning of RO.

At first I thought Cassian killed Krennic but then noticed they show him alive for a split second which was really unnecessary. Jyn tells Krennic the big secret, why would she do that and compromise all of her father's work?

Yeah, she's like a bad Bond villain in that scene. I'll give her that it looks like her number is up so she has nothing to lose by 'bragging' but she hasn't sent the plans to the fleet yet and she actually describes the flaw to Krennic. If Cassian hadn't saved her (and she had no reason to think that he would), Krennic could have had the flaws fixed and protected the Death Star. If you want to stretch, maybe you could try to say that she knew the Rebels would never get a chance to steal the plans again so him knowing or not knowing the specific flaw didn't really matter but that's a helluva stretch.

 

[WillG]

I don't think it has to do with the movie's apparently tumultuous production because there's plenty of existing EPK promo stuff that they could have put on the disc and didn't. It's just that the disc is going to sell the same with 75 minutes or 4 hours of behind the scenes stuff.

EDIT: Also, they're putting out a book called Making Rogue One: A Behind-The-Scenes Oral History in October. If LFL/Disney can put out a book that is unlikely to get into any real dirt (assuming it even exists), they can put out a bunch of special features that avoid potentially problematic areas.

Oral histories are almost always lightweight (no one is ever willing to truly go into the shit)

And I do believe dirt does exist. Disney is extremely image conscious. They have vehemently denied the reshoots were anything outside of normal. Edwards has gone on record saying they shot a completely new scene only 4 months prior to release. You have to imagine the limits that people were pushed to to make the release date.

 

[SamT]

Do you think they changed Jyn's character after the re-shoots? In the trailer she says "I rebel". Maybe she was part of the rebellion before the re-shoots.

 

[TravisR]

Oral histories are almost always lightweight (no one is ever willing to truly go into the shit)

That's most likely true but if people can keep quiet or Disney can judiciously edit what people say for a book, there's no reason that they couldn't do the same thing for the Blu-ray special features and have more of them if they wanted to.

Do you think they changed Jyn's character after the re-shoots? In the trailer she says "I rebel". Maybe she was part of the rebellion before the re-shoots.

The teaser is from before the reshoots and the dialogue describing her criminal background & footage showing her in cuffs as she's brought in to see Rebel leaders doesn't support that idea. If I had to guess, they may have reshot that scene to tone down her attitude but not to rework how Jyn was brought into the main plot.

 

[WillG]

I don't know, 75 minutes is a lot! It's not like it's nothing. The Phantom Menace documentary was 66 minutes.

And it was a very good documentary. And on top of that there was also audio commentaries, deleted scenes (that, I believe were "finished" specifically for the DVD release) and other various features on top of that.

For R1, the 75 minutes look like they're going to be mostly "character profile" fluff and very little about the making of the movie. Which doesn't surprise me considering the behind the scenes drama. Another studio may have allowed an honest look at what went on, but no way was it going to be Disney. They are way too image conscious.

 

[SamT]

Now that we are talking about this, it's fair to say that those Rogue One rumors were mostly true. The movie was in trouble evident by the re-shoots.

And the last Vader sequence which is probably the best part of the movie was a last minute thought. Now imagine Rogue One without that ending, it would have been unsatisfactory.

 

[TravisR]

And the last Vader sequence which is probably the best part of the movie was a last minute thought. Now imagine Rogue One without that ending, it would have been unsatisfactory.

Personally, I'd have found the ending downbeat since the cast had all just been killed but I don't know that I'd have found it unsatisfactory. I was happily shocked that they had the balls to kill off the entire main cast (gotta worry about more potential spin-off movies) but the Vader scene undeniably adds an adrenal rush to the end of the movie that nearly everyone loved. Between that punch of Vader and the hope of the Princess Leia scene (which I'd assume was planned prior to reshoots since the CG was probably too complicated to bang out in a few months), the movie definitely takes some of the dour edge off the fact that the characters we just watched for 2 hours were all dead.

 

[Wayne_j]

I saw the documentary on iTunes and thought it was pretty good. The lack of a commentary track and deleted scenes are a problem though.

 

[Tommy R]

I may be in the minority, but I think Rogue One was better than The Force Awakens. The Vader scene in the end was an amazing part, but I hardly would have been disappointed had it been absent.

 

[SamT]

I'm trying to play the end in my mind without the Vader scene. It is perhaps great but it is also a great shinny distraction. It makes you forget about all the people who sacrificed their lives and died throughout the movie. If the movie was more solid and satisfying on character development, we didn't need the Vader scene. It would have been counter-productive actually.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I may be in the minority, but I think Rogue One was better than The Force Awakens. The Vader scene in the end was an amazing part, but I hardly would have been disappointed had it been absent.

I can understand that sentiment. The detractors and supporters of this film have been very vocal in this thread. So much so, they've lately been repeating themselves again.

 

[TravisR]

I'm trying to play the end in my mind without the Vader scene. It is perhaps great but it is also a great shinny distraction. It makes you forget about all the people who sacrificed their lives and died throughout the movie. If the movie was more solid and satisfying on character development, we didn't need the Vader scene. It would have been counter-productive actually.

I don't see those issues as being related at all. Without the Vader scene, people would have left the movie feeling bad no matter how much character development there had been. With that scene, they left the movie feeling energized by seeing Darth Vader kill 20 guys.

 

[SamT]

I don't see those issues as being related at all. Without the Vader scene, people would have left the movie feeling bad no matter how much character development there had been. With that scene, they left the movie feeling energized by seeing Darth Vader kill 20 guys.

Which is all wrong. It would have been perfectly ok and perhaps necessary for people leaving the theater feeling bad.

People were all happy and energized because the bad guy killed several people (the good guys)? It sounds all wrong.

 

[TravisR]

Which is all wrong. It would have been perfectly ok and perhaps necessary for people leaving the theater feeling bad.

It's Star Wars so it's a fantasy and not a realistic look at war. It can treat the situations in a more adult manner but ultimately, a Star Wars movie is supposed to be a fun adventure and not a downbeat look at the horrors of war.

People were all happy and energized because the bad guy killed several people (the good guys)? It sounds all wrong.

It does sound sick but it's not the act of Vader killing that people enjoyed, it's the excitement of seeing the most famous movie villain in history unleashed for the first time. Plus, the thrill of the last second hand off of the plans that makes the sacrifice of the characters we spent the movie with worth it. Those things added up to people walking out of the movie feeling that they saw an exciting movie rather than a depressing movie where everyone died.

 

[Joel Fontenot]

The teaser is from before the reshoots and the dialogue describing her criminal background & footage showing her in cuffs as she's brought in to see Rebel leaders doesn't support that idea. If I had to guess, they may have reshot that scene to tone down her attitude but not to rework how Jyn was brought into the main plot.

Who knows if that scene was re-shot at all. Could have simply been the product of further editing of the initial shoot.

 

[Alf S]

It's Star Wars so it's a fantasy and not a realistic look at war. It can treat the situations in a more adult manner but ultimately, a Star Wars movie is supposed to be a fun adventure and not a downbeat look at the horrors of war.


It does sound sick but it's not the act of Vader killing that people enjoyed, it's the excitement of seeing the most famous movie villain in history unleashed for the first time. Plus, the thrill of the last second hand off of the plans that makes the sacrifice of the characters we spent the movie with worth it. Those things added up to people walking out of the movie feeling that they saw an exciting movie rather than a depressing movie where everyone died.

And it still kills me to think that under all that badassness is this douche.

 

[WillG]

And it still kills me to think that under all that badassness is this douche.

I wish Fassbender was around when those prequels were being made. I think he would have killed it as Anakin. He could have walked that light side/dark side line (without blatant overacting) in his sleep.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I wish Fassbender was around when those prequels were being made. I think he would have killed it as Anakin. He could have walked that light side/dark side line (without blatant overacting) in his sleep.

Fassbender is only a little older than Christensen but it looks like he just started acting around 2001, so he wouldn't have been on the casting radar, I guess.

Not sure how much Fassbender - or anyone - could've helped those characters, though. Portman couldn't redeem Padme and she's awfully talented!

 

[Hanson]

Between that punch of Vader and the hope of the Princess Leia scene (which I'd assume was planned prior to reshoots since the CG was probably too complicated to bang out in a few months), the movie definitely takes some of the dour edge off the fact that the characters we just watched for 2 hours were all dead.

That reminds me -- that little crying girl Jyn risked her life saving in the middle of the firefight in Jedha? And that girl's mom?

Dead.