StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I would not be surprised if the basics (everything but the superlaser and reactor assembly) were merely "logical fractals engineering", where the parts are merely standard design components that only need curvature adjustment on fabrication. Yes, I'm making shit up: for a universe that has had artificial intelligence for thousands of years, beats physics with a stick of 27 dimensions, and sensibly would have standardized construction elements of something the size of the Death Star. And can put its plans on a 3.5 floppy.

Unique components in entirety? I wouldn't think so.

Barracks: standard; detention blocks: standard; hangar bays: standard, lather, rinse, repeat. Obi-wan didn't go hundreds of kilometers to cut power to the local tractor beams, he went maybe a dozen, to a local super-relay... thing. Standard.

Agreed. The big hard disk might have just been a standard archival unit engineered for maximum reliability, and the physical size difference between it and the Alderaanian floppy disk is moot.

I need to see it again to take it all in, but WOW!

First off, CG Peter Cushing (and young Carrie Fisher)! I kinda-sorta predicted this would eventually happen in another thread, but it's altogether different to actually see it. Moreover, what I was expecting to be a fleeting cameo got much more screentime than I expected. The CG wasn't perfect, but maybe this movie will get the special edition treatment in a few years to improve it.

I immediately reconciled the "several transmissions were beamed to your ship by rebel spies" as meaning the Tantive IV's mothership. As for Leia's denials, I don't think it mattered that Vader saw the Tantive IV there. She did the typical "deny everything" and played the senator card, for all the good it did. Hell, it may have actually worked against any other Imperial.

Loved, loved, loved Mon Mothma's and Vader's references to the Imperial Senate. It felt like a vindication for all my years of being a pain in the ass on that subject.

Speaking of Vader, I loved seeing his home for the first time and what he does when he's not traveling. I imagine floating in a bacta tank is the closest thing he ever gets to a relaxing vacation. They even got his costume right for the time, what with the red eyes and the chestplate under his inner robe. Now I want to know all about his creepy butler.

I dragged my 13 year old niece to this even though she hates Star Wars and she ended up loving it.

Oh yeah, and let's hear it for the people who predicted that all the heroes would die.

I saw the movie in standard (non-3D) format, and Tarkin looked only a little plastic at points. Leia and MonMotha, as well as Red & Gold Leaders looked fine. Although, did they recycle all of Red & Gold Leader's ANH scripts?

Yes, I knew they would all die, but DAMN if they didn't go down with a hell of a fuckin' fight. Every character got their final moment to save the day, from K-S to the Imp Pilot. Don't know why MonMotha called them Bothans, but they died well. And even tho Jyn and Cassian could see it coming, they died quick. Maybe, if things had been different, we might have seen them on Hoth, working as a husband/wife team... or being part of Han's squad on Endor's Moon.

And while some were bitching about the Hammerhead corvette, I saw their suicide run as just another Moment of BadAss. It was clear they were not going to be able to pull free of the ionized ISD with how the ship wedged itself in. The Planetary Shield Generator/Gateway was not going down to torpedoes, they needed something big to break it. So, throw an ISD at it.

Vader. My only bitch was how they had his cloak hanging. It annoyed me, as a seamstress and as a fan of the original suit. Otherwise... when he's on the Mon Cal ship, and first you hear him breathing, and then the saber lights... *shivers* He didn't even bother to reflect the blaster bolts back, he just swatted them aside and stalked forward. His dismissal of Kennix was beautiful, showing just how little the Director mattered.

What truly impressed me was even on a low-power, single generator shot, the Death Star's beam was hitting like visualizations of the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact. Not quite a BDZ, but enough to fuck those planets over for the next hundred years minimum.

BTW: I never saw the Ghost, but I haven't watched Rebels so it wouldn't stand out as much to me. The other shoutouts were fantastic. I wonder if Jehdu was one of the '12 Systems' he had the death sentence in?

LadyTevar wrote:Don't know why MonMotha called them Bothans, but they died well.

Wrong Death Star.

Speaking of ROTJ, I wonder if there was a similar shield gate at Endor.

I've had time to digest it some more, so here are some nitpicks:

The recast General Dodonna stuck out like a sore thumb to me. IMO, they should have either CG'd the original actor's face in like they did with Tarkin or simply cut him out of the movie altogether. Same with Mon Mothma. Jimmy Smits could have been given all of their lines and made Bail Organa the one to secure Jyn's cooperation. No CG or recasting necessary plus it would have solidified Bail's place in galactic history as one of the most important rebel leaders of the war.

Another thing that bothered me was the continuity headache it created with ANH. Okay, so Vader assumed that the rebel spies transmitted the plans to the Tantive IV. I guess I can buy that. However, why was Leia his "only link" to finding their base? Given what we saw in this movie, it seems to me that any rebel grunt could have told Vader what he wanted to know. Moreover, didn't the Imperials capture their flagship? Unless they somehow fought to the death without getting stunned, wouldn't Admiral Raddus and his crew have sufficed?

More to come, I'm sure.

Enjoyed this film much more than TFA.

Will see it again tomorrow.

This was the best Star Wars film so far.

I like the Teraton planetbusting. There seemed to be fewer subtle political lessons this time, I was afraid they would make some political statement re the election but they avoided almost all nonsense.

What "subtle political lessons" where their in The Force Awakens? Besides maybe a vague, undeveloped and quite possibly unintended anti-pacifism bent with the NR getting sucker-punched by the First Order?

Or is this code for "How dare they have a woman and a black man in leading roles!"

Galvatron wrote: Another thing that bothered me was the continuity headache it created with ANH. Okay, so Vader assumed that the rebel spies transmitted the plans to the Tantive IV. I guess I can buy that. However, why was Leia his "only link" to finding their base? Given what we saw in this movie, it seems to me that any rebel grunt could have told Vader what he wanted to know. Moreover, didn't the Imperials capture their flagship? Unless they somehow fought to the death without getting stunned, wouldn't Admiral Raddus and his crew have sufficed?

I would say this element is by far the biggest problem, combined with the fact that the Rebel base wasn't actually very large, serving as only a small fraction of the total combat power seen over Scarif. Though in fairness, the Rebel fighters absolutely dominated the battle, both on the ground and in space. The Rebel capital ships really didn't accomplish all that much, apart from serving as a relay for the Death Star plans.

One possibility is that few on that ship knew where it was, and those that did were all dead. Though it would have been nice to have seen that overtly, showing something like the bridge directly taking a hit. Though we can assume they are all dead in any case.

Just saw it. Great film, captured a very stark tone. Liked it much more than TFA.

Had a few nerdisms from the fanservice. Like randomly sticking Dutch Vander and Garven Dries in there for no bloody reason in the battle. That was a lot less jarring than 'my friend doesn't like you' guy.

Very glad they ended it the way they did. For everyone. It wrapped it up in a bow, but also provided a wonderful capstone to the entire atmosphere of sacrifice, down to those rebel troopers getting cut to pieces by Vader.

Imperial Office Politics were wonderful, and Director Kennuig was a wonderful antagonist.

Also for some reason, this sand-cursed thing showed up:

The Romulan Republic wrote:What "subtle political lessons" where their in The Force Awakens? Besides maybe a vague, undeveloped and quite possibly unintended anti-pacifism bent with the NR getting sucker-punched by the First Order?

Or is this code for "How dare they have a woman and a black man in leading roles!"

Lets see, there are a few.

First its supposed to be a political allegory for the wars in the middle east. Small band of terrorists using radicalized child soldiers with dreams of recreating a long dead Empire attacking a group of peaceful people who were too weak (presumably because of social welfare programs giving shavers to wookiees and combs to Mon Calamari) to defend themselves. The First Order is of course ISIS. Finn is supposed to be an allegory for a hardworking refugee who escaped the Caliphate Order and does not follow their brand of crazy. I'm sure there is probably some allegory for refugee Finn wanting to bang a white girl.

Another allegory is the First Order is actually America and the Republic is Iraq or Afghanistan. The First Order didn't try to occupy the NR, they destroyed it completely then fucked off like how the Coalition recked Iraqistan and A-stan then fucked off.

Rey is supposed to be a Ray of Light bringing hope to the a world (galaxy) of darkness. Finn is like the fin of a ship, a rudder who steers the moral choices. Poe is a guy who flies a bird while being called Black Leader. Kylo is the anti-christ with light and dark sides and a lightsaber that is supposed to represent the holy trinity.

TFA is supposed to be an allegory for ANH with the First Order being the Empire, the Resistance being the Rebellion, the Starkiller base being the Death Star, the X-Wings supposed to be X-Wings, the TIE Fighters supposed to be TIE Fighters, and Rey supposed to be Luke.

Oh and lets not forget the political undertones of White Genocide on how the pure white woman gets with the black guy (which she didn't and I'm pretty positive Finn and Poe are actually going to be a thing, they had alot more chemistry together then Finn and Rey), how all the villains are white people and all the heroes are minorities or women (with Max Von Sydow somehow being considered a villain, I guess Ming was just that damn villainous that even character Sydow plays are villains or something) and the First Order was actually the good guys fighting against the evil multicultural Republic.

And I'm sure there are more that are dumber or even more disgusting. I'm sure there is probably someone now saying how Ep7 was supposed to have some political commentary about a possible Trump presidency.

One thing about Star Wars is people see allegories all throughout it. I still remember the talk about Episode 2 supposed to be George Lucas being topical and commenting about the Iraq War (checks the dates), Mexican immigration (because the clones were brown people taking jobs from hard working white people or doing the jobs white people weren't doing), human cloning, and the presidency of George Dubya.

People are goddamn idiots sometimes.

How much of that is really there though and how much is just people seeing things they want to see.

Either way I've now seen Rogue One as it's was decent not a master peice of modern cinema nor utter shit, just decent that said it was 15€ I think was well spent.Krennic was the right kind of greedy slimebag the film needed for the main bad guy. I must say I enjoyed the part where Krennic started having breathing issues after trying imtimidate Darth Vader.

Also while all of primary characters (not mention a crap ton of side characters) died in the end it didn't feel like it was due pointless attempt at being grimdark, it made perfect sense in the context of the story and one thing they didn't kill was hope. The rebel (and some imperial) troopers were also suitbly dirty instead of being in constant parade polish.

I like how Vader's movements in deflecting all the shots and killing everyone were still in-keeping with his ANH and ESB movements and pretty much shows how he maximized and optimized his supposed limitations of being limbless.

I also like to imagine that despite what some people say, that the DS "one reactor only" blast seemed like something a BDZ could do..., I beg to differ as it seemed like the DS blast was really hyper-penetrative and the detonation occurred deep within the planet. So the explosions happening to the surface, as we saw from orbit, were literally chunks of the crust being displaced and blasted apart due to the blast forces coming from deep within the planet. I think when the deep-internal blast forces run their course, worlds like Jeddah and Scarif would look like apples that got chunks bitten off them.

I think it's different from what BDZs would do, since BDZ-style orbital bombardment, even assuming the gigatons and teratons are still valid, IMO might result in more... "surface level" or not-as-deep sort of slagging, like the surface being glassed... that would look different from the kind of sheer penetration and seismic fucking the Death Star's one-reactor-shot did...

For the Rebels fans here is the Ghost in Rogue one.

Nephtys wrote:Had a few nerdisms from the fanservice. Like randomly sticking Dutch Vander and Garven Dries in there for no bloody reason in the battle.

No reason?? They were Yavin IV's Red and Gold Squadron leaders at the time of ANH. Why wouldn't they have been at the Battle of Scarif?

Anacronian wrote:

What is the ship on the lower right?

QUESTION: TIMELINE.

From the time Jyn is rescued, to the battle of Yavin IV = TWO WEEKS?!

Lord Revan wrote:How much of that is really there though and how much is just people seeing things they want to see.

Little if any of it is actually there most likely. Well except for TFA being an allegory for ANH, thats spot on.

Most of those allegories or political messages are based on premises built on outright falsehoods. The Finn getting with Rey is false (and its repugnant that people would be worried about that in the first place, they're racist......against stormtroopers), Max Von Sydow being a villain is false, and Episode 2 and the start of the Clone Wars with it was released about a year before the Iraq War and only about months after the Afghanistan War. Ep2 began production in 2000, well before any of that shit happened.

Maybe Rey being a "Ray of Light" could be true, I could almost see JJ Abrams being so on the nose (though in his defense I personally have a very low opinion of his skills). But even that might be bullshit.

People see what they want to see, they will fit the films into their world views. I mean I think thats what cinema is supposed to do though, make people think and trying to see the meaning in shit.

LadyTevar wrote:QUESTION: TIMELINE.

From the time Jyn is rescued, to the battle of Yavin IV = TWO WEEKS?!

I actually don't mind that. In fact, I prefer that over Vader capturing Leia immediately after the battle. Maybe her blockade runner ran into trouble and Leia had to hand off the plans to another rebel cell only to have them transmitted back to her after she obtained transport on a ship that wasn't at the battle (e.g. the actual Tantive IV).

It certainly wouldn't be the first spy thriller to have the MacGuffin change hands several times before reaching its final destination.

It may also explain why none of the other rebels on her ship knew where the base was.

Galvatron wrote:

Nephtys wrote:Had a few nerdisms from the fanservice. Like randomly sticking Dutch Vander and Garven Dries in there for no bloody reason in the battle.

No reason?? They were Yavin IV's Red and Gold Squadron leaders at the time of ANH. Why wouldn't they have been at the Battle of Scarif?

Well, yeah. They make perfect sense for those people to be the leaders of the crack rebel fighter group going with the fleet. But to have their images brought in from ANH footage, cleaned up and then computer-magic'd to be doing different lines? That's fanservice. Even if you can tell suddenly the added grain for those brief moments.

Nephtys wrote:Well, yeah. They make perfect sense for those people to be the leaders of the crack rebel fighter group going with the fleet. But to have their images brought in from ANH footage, cleaned up and then computer-magic'd to be doing different lines? That's fanservice. Even if you can tell suddenly the added grain for those brief moments.

Okay, that I get. The difference in the film grain was very noticeable to me, but may have unavoidable. Still, I thought it was a bold move and I hope it means that we'll see more of this type of thing in the years ahead.

I can't help but wonder if they considered using a CG Harrison Ford and a CG Billy Dee Williams for the Han Solo movie. Perhaps Rian Johnson can give them some tips about using makeup to alter Alden Ehrenreich's face to better resemble Ford's (like he did in Looper with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a young Bruce Willis).

There were quite a few little easter-eggs and cameos and references I spotted, but I'm sure I missed plenty. I'm looking forward to this blu-ray and all the frame-by-frame analyses that will accompany it.

I was almost certain I saw an A-Wing at one point, but I admit it may just have been another ship at a weird angle.

Saw it this evening, and I loved it. I was fairly skeptical about the spin-off film idea, but this definitely proves the concept I think.

Is it perfect? No. Does it have plot holes and a few gratuitous appearances of OT characters? Yeah, but I really don't mind them. It was fun, and dramatic, and definitely worth seeing again.

One thing I think worked to it's advantage compared to TFA was that it didn't ned to spend time o world-building; no need to explain the First Order/Republic/Resistance crap, just "this is the EMpire's big new toy, lets find out how to break it."

Though speaking of plotholes...how did the Cantina guys get off Jedha before it got kaboomed?

Eternal_Freedom wrote: One thing I think worked to it's advantage compared to TFA was that it didn't ned to spend time o world-building; no need to explain the First Order/Republic/Resistance crap, just "this is the EMpire's big new toy, lets find out how to break it."

TFA had worldbuilding? LOL.

Rogue One had far more worldbuilding than TFA. This could work as a standalone movie and we have a pretty decent idea about the GFFA. We know about the structure of the empire, with a senate that annoys military figures and the emperor. We know that which worlds were responsible for funding the Rebels and organizing them. We know that the Rebels were made up of different factions.