[charmerci]

Too much money at stake. They were willing to bring back Cushing and young Carrie Fisher. I can almost guarantee they will do the same for Alec Guinness. I'm betting the next episode mirrors Empire Strikes Back with Luke taking Yoda role and someone pulling the equivalent of 'I am your father'.

Sure - but it's getting hard to come up with new storylines. Maybe you can submit some screenplays? 

[Rob Babcock]

I have no idea about all the non-film stuff that's considered "canon" now.  IIRC the Emperor was cloned and restored to the throne in some future time, for example.  But I don't care at all about 'canon' and with Disney owning the IP now they can do whatever they want.  Presumably they mostly just want to make a lot of money which is understandable given the long green they laid out to get it (around $4B IIRC).  Probably the safe bet is to piggyback onto established characters and storylines.  I would like to see them do stuff more ambitiously but I'm just one movie fan. 

To me a great model for them to follow would be Star Trek.  I got a kick out of Kirk banging green chicks and fighting guys in rubber suits but I was blown away by Star Trek: TNG!  Roddenberry lifted the core elements of the mythology (eg the Prime Directive, human exploration) and deposited them a couple hundred years into the future. The resulting show was (IMO) vastly better than the original.   While the spinoffs weren't universally great overall they worked for the same reason- they were able to ignore canon for the most part and blaze new paths.  Voyager did rely a bit too much on the Borg but they created new races and new stories in the Delta Quadrant. DS9 also looked ahead, not behind, and added new races and new conflicts.  It's just as telling that when they looked back to the original series with a prequel to TOS (Enterprise) it was an unmitigated disaster.  The new films do look backward but they sidestep canon which I think has been a wise move.

I get that films are made, or at least greenlit, for business reasons.  So obviously I can't begrudge Disney's right to make money any way they want.  But you can probably serve God and mammon at the same time, at least occasionally. I have to believe that Richard Linklater makes the films he does because he loves them, not because he can't do what Michael Bay does.

[charmerci]

As opposed to ST, the problem with a continuing Star Wars storyline is that you have to have the Rebel Alliance with the Force and Jedis against the Evil Empire. It kind of restricts storylines.

[Rob Babcock]

My favorite story in the extended SWU is from thousands of years before the Empire existed.  The game Knights of the Old Republic was centered on the struggle between the Dark and the Light, the Sith and the Jedi.   The game was very popular; popular enough to support a film version?  I dunno, if you create a  SW film with a budge of $200M you'll probably do very well if you do it competently.

[Folsom]

Enterprise is the only StarTrek TV series I thought was worth shit on a stick. Sometimes I let other ones play mostly as background stuff from Netflix but they're just not really that great.

Star Wars has pretty endless stories to draw upon... which ever ones they wish to make canon. They was ZERO NEED WHAT SO EVER TO REDEFINE CANON IN ORDER TO HAVE STORIES... but, they're assholes so whatever no surprise.

I think movies about characters like Kyle Katarn would be great.

[HT cOz]

You guys are funny,,, here is the only review that matters. 

My son who is nine and not that big of a Star Wars fan was on the edge of his seat, I saw him cheer clapping at times.  He left the theater happy, excited, and bigger Star Wars fan.  I remember being the same way for Return of the Jedi and I had no idea that Jedi was not as good as Strikes Backt etc... 

Sometimes we overthink things...

[JLM]

You guys are funny,,, here is the only review that matters. 

My son who is nine and not that big of a Star Wars fan was on the edge of his seat, I saw him cheer clapping at times.  He left the theater happy, excited, and bigger Star Wars fan.  I remember being the same way for Return of the Jedi and I had no idea that Jedi was not as good as Strikes Backt etc... 

Sometimes we overthink things...

That's my impression of movie reviewers.  And you're right, Star Wars is made for 9 year olds.  Kinda pathetic that adults seriously critique a kids movie. 

[Bob2]

Wife and I went to see it last Thursday. We both liked it. Story line was good, effects pretty good. Peter Cushing's cgi was not perfect nor Leia's but I don't think it takes away from the story.
The movie was difficult to watch and hear due to poor presentation. Will look and sound better through my gear when it's released on Blu-ray.

"Star Wars is made for 9 year olds" Well that's your opinion Jeff and that's cool. I do enjoy a good story no matter the subject or presumed target audience.
I have always liked the franchise. Not all were great. Liked it enough to make everyone in the family lightsabers..



My grandson and I are taking ours to comic-con.. So maybe I'm a bit of a fan.

[wushuliu]

lol, got some real grumps around here...

[OzarkTom]

That's my impression of movie reviewers.  And you're right, Star Wars is made for 9 year olds.  Kinda pathetic that adults seriously critique a kids movie.

Guess I am still a 9 year old at heart.

I have never seen a movie with 100% positive agreement, has anyone else here seen one? If so, please tell, I would love to see it.

[Folsom]

Bob how about some more pics of the saberS?!

[ajzepp]

I was glad they made this film, and I'm looking forward to the other anthology films, but Rogue One left me feeling a bit disappointed. I felt the acting was solid, but all the re-shoots took a toll IMO. This is the first Star Wars film that I just have no real desire to watch again, save for the last ten min of the film. And that's coming from someone who has re-watched every film many, many times (except for epII...I've only re-watched that about 4-5x). I tweeted to one of the writers about their decision to include a Vader "pun", and he passed the buck to one of the other writers...so I found that interesting. I thought Jyn was an interesting character, but a little odd how she goes from a stranger to a leader at the drop of a hat, and for a character w/out the Force, she seemed to have pretty incredible strength when she was escaping from the server room or whatever it was.

Also, though Alan Tudyk did a great job, that character was like having a comedian cracking jokes at a funeral. Just out of place. A buddy took me to task on that and said that C3P0 was very similar, but the difference is that 3P0 was scared sh*tless 24/7. He was funny without taking away from the gravity of the situation. This imperial droid in Rogue just seemed like a sore thumb, and while some of the lines were very good, it just never felt appropriate, so to speak. Lastly, the end - which most will agree was the best part by far - felt very rushed.

Ironically, I was just so happy to see Peter Cushing's Tarkin that the CGI didn't bother me at all. And of course the cameo at the end was fantastic and memorable, especially considering recent events 

So anyway, it was well-acted...looked amazing...and I'm glad it was successful. I just didn't connect with it, even being a Star Wars fan who sat in the theater in 1977 and would gladly let George Lucas rape my childhood all over again.

[wushuliu]

I was glad they made this film, and I'm looking forward to the other anthology films, but Rogue One left me feeling a bit disappointed. I felt the acting was solid, but all the re-shoots took a toll IMO. This is the first Star Wars film that I just have no real desire to watch again, save for the last ten min of the film. And that's coming from someone who has re-watched every film many, many times (except for epII...I've only re-watched that about 4-5x). I tweeted to one of the writers about their decision to include a Vader "pun", and he passed the buck to one of the other writers...so I found that interesting. I thought Jyn was an interesting character, but a little odd how she goes from a stranger to a leader at the drop of a hat, and for a character w/out the Force, she seemed to have pretty incredible strength when she was escaping from the server room or whatever it was.

Also, though Alan Tudyk did a great job, that character was like having a comedian cracking jokes at a funeral. Just out of place. A buddy took me to task on that and said that C3P0 was very similar, but the difference is that 3P0 was scared sh*tless 24/7. He was funny without taking away from the gravity of the situation. This imperial droid in Rogue just seemed like a sore thumb, and while some of the lines were very good, it just never felt appropriate, so to speak. Lastly, the end - which most will agree was the best part by far - felt very rushed.

Ironically, I was just so happy to see Peter Cushing's Tarkin that the CGI didn't bother me at all. And of course the cameo at the end was fantastic and memorable, especially considering recent events 

So anyway, it was well-acted...looked amazing...and I'm glad it was successful. I just didn't connect with it, even being a Star Wars fan who sat in the theater in 1977 and would gladly let George Lucas rape my childhood all over again.

Agreed on all points. And unfortunately I fear the template has been set for the remaining movies, they'll be good but never great.

[Tyson]

I'll take good over great.  Really, only 2 of the movie were great - Episode IV and V.  All the rest were average to downright bad.  "Consistently good" is a step up for this franchise, and I hope it continues.

[ajzepp]

Agreed on all points. And unfortunately I fear the template has been set for the remaining movies, they'll be good but never great.

Im definitely tempering expectations...as much as Id love to believe successive films can recapture that chemistry and mystique of the OT, Im resigned to the fact that likely wont ever be the case. Im cool with that, and ill always watch any Star Wars films that are released, but when I get that need for a fix, I could see myself hitting play on Empire for the 100time instead of a newer filmfor a repeat viewing. I can still remember vividly seeing each OT film the first time...that nostalgia will be fueling me for years to come still.