Warning: Nerd Rant · 11:39am Dec 17th, 2016
Getting seriously excited for seeing Rogue One. I think it's going to be perfect.
You know why? Because even the negative reviews are making me eager to see it. Some of these older reviewers need to seriously consider retirement, good lord.
"Star Wars has always been about good vs evil." Um, maybe the original trilogy. But I've long argued that the very best villains believe they're doing the right thing. And in my opinion, some of the best modern Star Wars characters, especially those in the Old Republic era, are a great argument as to why an Imperial society could work.
"Too much gritty war." This right here is the #1 reason why I'm looking forward to this film. This is PRECISELY what Star Wars needs MORE of. Not so much the Jedi vs Sith, but the reality of war for the countless foot soldiers on both sides. Of what horrors the Empire's fearsome war machines inflict.
And last but not least, "The rebels look nearly uninspired, like hmm maybe the Empire wouldn't be so bad." Then guess what Sherlock, that means they NAILED their parts perfectly. If they look like they believe they're fighting a losing war, that's exactly what they needed to do, as that was what much of the Galactic Civil War (Episodes 4-6) actually was.
That I can totally believe.
Rogue One was dark, gritty, and felt a lot like The Empire Strikes Back. It was a better film than The Force Awakens by a long shot. In fact, Rogue One is such a good film that it really highlights the shortcomings that The Force Awakens had.
The edits were tight, the pacing was good, and the action sequences were some of the best produced in decades, in my own opinion. Some of the war sequences made me think of Saving Private Ryan, and that's a good thing. Rogue One doesn't paint a pretty, glamourous picture of war; no, it shows that war sucks. The film is absolutely suffocating; bleak, dreary, without hope, it is all about fighting a losing battle that can't be won. The Empire is terrifying and omnipotent. They have erased the Jedi and that is a central plot point to this film, getting rid of even the memory of the Jedi. The Empire burns away all vestiges of hope. At this point in the story, there is none left and everything has gone dark.
K2SO the murderbot is probably the most human character in the story, and this is further reinforced by many of the rebels admitting that after all of the horrible things they have done, they're not human anymore. The Empire took their humanity away.
Now I know I have to see it.
Just went and saw it last night, what a great film! There were very few things I found I didn't like, and those were mostly nitpicks.