Saturday, December 17, 2016

Rogue One review

The Dark Herald sees it so you don't have to, unless you really feel you must:
I have heard the complaint that all of the bad guys in this movie were white.  Which is completely true. They were.  There was not one Imperial that was a POC. The Empire is now completely and deliberately White Washed.  Although the POCs aren't exactly good guys either.  Just goodish for the most part. These days it's hard to do a politics free review especially as every SJW blogger in the universe is going to be making comparisons between Rogue One and the recent election.  Casting themselves as the Rebels naturally. In fact the writers of the film began those comparisons themselves the night of the election, right before Mickey the Great and Terrible told them to shut the fuck up and start deleting their tweets.  Yes, this film has feminism's fingerprints all over it.

In conclusion we have decent if completely predictable, Western-made film designed for the Chinese Market.  They took some smallish chances and went gritty with it.  It doesn't feel like Star Wars in the least even though it takes place in the Star Wars universe.  It does have the best battle scene in the entire series to include the assault on Hoth.
Since I haven't seen anything Star Wars-related since The Phantom Menace, I don't think I'll bother with any of the Disney Wars additions either.

33 comments:

Elocutioner said...

"These days it's hard to do a politics free review"

It's because everything today IS political. By design. Many movies are greenlit solely to push an agenda. Sometimes I really miss my blue pill ignorance days when I could just brainlessly enjoy stuff without noticing all of the anti-white bullshit it pushed. Now I notice the names. And noses. And skin color. And I remember. And I know a bit about diversity. And so I rarely fork over any money to Hollywood.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

The first two films were the best. I haven't watched any of the Star Wars films with serious interest since then. 'The Force Awakens' (TFA) was embarrassingly bad; my gf (at the time) insisted we see it in the theater, but was so put off by it that she wanted to walk out halfway through. Greg Johnson over at Counter-Currents, one of the premier Alt-Right sites, gives the film a surprisingly positive review. Still, I'll probably wait to see it later. We have more important issues to deal with.

Laramie Hirsch said...

Screw Star Wars. People idolize it, but the source material for every sequel and spinoff is whored away to fools who hate you.

Harsh said...

I saw it last night and I largely agree with Cataline. It's a mess of a movie with a pretty exciting third act but tonally and thematically it's completely wrong for Star Wars.

Visually it's probably the best of the series. The cinematography, sfx, set design, and costume design are all top notch. I especially liked some of the new character design like the Dark Troopers. Too bad all of it is in service of an incoherent plot trying to be Dirty Dozen in space.

As far as the diversity issue is concerned, if anyone brags about there being no white male heroes in this movie, you should say, "great!" The heroine is a bland character whose main characteristic is being sullen and who does almost nothing of consequence in the movie. Her cohorts are completely forgettable. I couldn't even remember their names. I took to thinking of them during the movie as swarthy guy #1, swarthy guy #2, et al. Oh, and there was Donnie Yen, whose character name, I think, was Donnie Yen. He played a blind Asian guy who was really good at kung-fu. (Way to go right for the stereotypes, Disney!)

The other really odd thing was the choice to use CGI for some characters from the original movie. The most jarring was Tarkin. For a moment I could swear they had re-animated the corpse of Peter Cushing for the role. It was totally bizarre. They also inserted some of the "red squad" x-wing pilots into the final battle and young Leia made a brief cameo. Those weren't quite as jarring but it was an odd decision to include them, especially because this movie is so tonally different from the first. Were it me, I would have cast new actors in the roles with similar looks and avoided the direct comparison to the first film. Their decision to do otherwise was not well thought-out.

As for the "evil" Empire, they are of course the most interesting thing about the movie. Mads Mikkelsen makes his brief time as the conflicted creator of the Death Star compelling, and the new bad guy, Krennic, is a type of imperial officer we haven't seen before, one filled with ambition and schemes and not just a cog in the Imperial wheel. I found myself leaning forward in my seat whenever he appeared on screen. And Darth Vader gets some redemption from his horrible appearance in Sith. He has a brief moment of complete bad-assery in the final moments of the film that will be talked about for some time.

The most mind-boggling thing is why they thought this story needed to be told. It adds nothing to the Star Wars mythos. We already knew that the Rebels stole the Death Star plans and how that led to the events of the first movie. This changes nothing nor adds nothing to that story. You know exactly as much having watched the original film. This story is simply not necessary to understand the greater events of the Star Wars universe. After the failure of the prequel trilogy you would think that Disney would know better.

My overall impression is it was a long-winded, mostly uninteresting movie that doesn't really fit in the Star Wars universe. It feels a bit like fan fiction. Competent to be sure but fan fiction nonetheless. Yes, the fingerprints of the Left are all over it but mostly it's just not much fun as a movie.

Bob said...

I love how one of the staff was proclaiming the empire is a White Supremacist organisation.

When it had a fucking jew as the main evil guy in the last movie, and the Stormtroopers were apparently all clones of a Maori dude lol.

They deliberately go against their own lore, just to have a dig at white people.

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

Krennic, is a type of imperial officer we haven't seen before, one filled with ambition and schemes and not just a cog in the Imperial wheel. I found myself leaning forward in my seat whenever he appeared on screen.

(((Krennic))) - for some people, their unique evil can be seductive.

Dark Herald said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dark Herald said...

And Darth Vader gets some redemption from his horrible appearance in Sith. He has a brief moment of complete bad-assery in the final moments of the film that will be talked about for some time.

I strongly suspect that that was supposed to be his only scene. They did a lot reshoots a few months ago and there are two Vaders listed on the credits not including Jones. Likely the stuntman they hired for the fight scene had other work.

I think the reshoots were the Temple of Vader scenes on Volcano World. They just don't fit with the rest of the movie.

Dark Herald said...

Also I hope you guys like the critique.

As I mentioned to Nate at my place, "I called this a critique rather than a review for a reason.

I felt I could not fairly make a recommendation about a film that was produced by an ideology that is diametrically opposed to my own."

Bullitt315 said...

I wasnt planning on seeing it but had some friends talk me into it and it was actually decent. At least there werent any mary sue characters or super smart black doctors. Definitely better than the last 4. i didnt actually see episode 7

One Fat Oz Guy said...

You know it's bad when the lesbian journalist in the Herald Sun wrote about boycotting it for the right reasons: it's badly acted, big plot holes.
Also, what purpose is stormtroopers armour if they die from being hit once with a blunt stick?

Tatooine Sharpshooters' Club said...

Did any Bothans die getting the information? Or was that way back with the first time they recycled the Death Star(which turns out to be shite every time anyhow)?

Since EMPIRE, all they've regurgitated is possibly the most successful series of long-form ads for overpriced merchandise in history.

Laramie Hirsch said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Harsh said...

I think the reshoots were the Temple of Vader scenes on Volcano World. They just don't fit with the rest of the movie.

Vader looked really odd in that scene, almost like he was CGI. His proportions seemed off and his movements kind of odd. Might have been that I saw the film in Imax 3D, I don't know, but it was very uncanny valley-ish.

Agree though that the scene seemed tacked on and superfluous.

Anonymous said...

My dad got offered tickets to some special showing, from the insurance company he works for. I laughed and said "oh have fun watching a movie about a brave female leading people of color against white supremacists! at least according to the director!" He despises those sorts of movies.

Ibelin said...

I might be alone in this but I didn't really see over kill feminism or anti white message in the movie. If I have any complaints about the movie it's the fact that a couple of characters didn't make sense but that's really out. TFA was definitely an sjw movie. This was not. I went into it with very low expectations and I kept waiting for a big anti conservative message and it never came. Just my 2 cents

Mr.MantraMan said...

I'm pretty sure the "white soooooooooooopremacy" comments by the Disney clowns were just troll bait. We get trolled as well, and as I wrote a couple of days ago the phrase "white supremacist" is click bait

Tatooine Sharpshooters' Club said...

@Mr.MantraMan - Possibly, but other tweets by the hack Weitz about "the Nazis in muh menshuns" indicate that it wasn't just trolling but actual belief on his part.

Of course, the ones on their side get trolled and clickbaited a whole lot more by "white supremacy" (or just "white men" in general). They see it everywhere, in all things, and can barely control their terror.

John Rockwell said...

Apparently they toned down the you go girl moments that would have ruined the movie as they did with "force awakens". So while some unbelievable moments with the main character is still there the movie is more solid than I thought,

Quicksilver75 said...

The main reason for skipping this movie, which, tbh is just chewing gum for the brain & not of lasting value, is the same reason you might do some of the following:
-Not subscribe to Rolling Stone or any of the legacy LibMedia
-Boycott brands & products from Kellogg's, Pepsi, Apple, & McDonald's
-Avoid using Google, Facebook
-Cut your Cable TV subscription
Bottom line: Stop feeding the beast. The $$ from Disney Wars ticket sales is simply enabling CultMarx endeavors, and reinforcing Hive narrative/propaganda.

R Beisert said...

As a Star Wars fan from way back, who read way too many of the books (most of them pretty damn good) and played pretty much any of the games I could get my hands on, I wrote a review, myself.

I agree on the whole with the reviews Vox Day's posted - it's not a good film. The monetary investment shows, but it adds nothing to the mythos, has no characters but a lot of people on screen, and makes dozens of very odd decisions.

Review: http://evermoreinstructional.com/2016/12/16/movie-review-star-wars-rogue-one/

Laguna Beach Fogey said...

I'm hearing from more and more people that the film is actually pretty fun and not as political as the prigs would have us believe.

Mr. Naron said...

The first half is boring--that's the "gritty" part. I guess that's what you do when you know your dialogue is boring and your plot set up is lame--make it gritty. Yeah, that'll mask the stink.

The second half was much better. Just suspend all logic and belief and you'll be fine.

Harsh said...

I'm hearing from more and more people that the film is actually pretty fun and not as political as the prigs would have us believe.

It certainly wasn't very political (at least overtly). I'd call it 1/3 fun, 2/3 slow, talky, and confusing. Worth checking out if you're a die-hard fan but completely miss-able if you're not.

Stg58/Animal Mother said...

Guys,

Rogue One was fucking awesome. If Edwards and Co. tried to make this a Diversity/SJW explosion, they failed. Seriously, go see it. There is even an argument in the movie about lawful vs unlawful orders and if an unlawful order should be followed. The central theme of fathers and their offspring is still followed, and the plot is based on every line in ANH that you thought was a throwaway line.

Remember, the Empire has always been portrayed as a British Empire/Nazi amalgam. They can't make the Empire diverse, then suddenly racially purged for ANH, which starts one hour after RO ends.

Darth Vader finally really shows why everyone in Star Wars shits their pants when he shows up.

Please go see it. It is fucking awesome.

Wolfman said...

6/10 I didn't detect any sort of anti-white agenda. Probably because I was cheering for the Empire. Watch once and move on with your life.

SQT said...

I liked it. I tried to find the anti-white bias and really couldn't find it. I'll definitely buy it when it comes out on blu-ray.

Anonymous said...

@Mr.MantraMan
@John rockwell
@Stg58/Animal Mother
@Wolfman at Large
@SQT

So... you all seriously didn't see any anti-white male bias? Rebels all women 'n minorities, bad guys all or mostly white males? That didn't bother any of you?

Here's a clue-by-four for y'all: They don't have to actually SAY "white male", "racist", "sexist", "patriarchy", "oppression", or any of the other CultMarx buzzwords to make a political statement.

C'mon, wake up.

Stg58/Animal Mother said...

As I said earlier, if the anti white bias is there, it has been there since 1977.

S1AL said...

Apparently some people have completely forgotten that posh British men with snappy uniforms and Stormtroopers have always defined the Empire. I'll probably see it, given that all the reviews I've seen from reliable sources say it's enjoyable and largely apolitical.

SemiSpook37 said...

Stg58/Animal Mother has a point:

Anyone bearing an accent from the Commonwealth was almost assuredly associated with the Empire. The underlings usually ended up being Stateside, but anyone in a position of authority was at least English, if not Scottish, Welsh, or even Irish (Northern or Republican).

As for the running complaint about the lead being a run of the mill Mary Sue for the past two films, you all seem to be forgetting the original copy: Princess Leia. You could tell she wasn't a run of the mill character at the beginning of the original film, especially after taking out a Stormtrooper and telling Vader off in the FIRST FIVE MINUTES of the film.

And as someone else put it over on the VP thread, Star Wars is more of a take on myth than it is just straight sci-fi. Mythos in and of itself is rather transcendent of politics, no matter how its handlers try to force it. Good and evil don't exactly change; people's ability to discern between the two is always in flux.

Stg58/Animal Mother said...

In my opinion, Erso was not a Mary Sue. She saved a little girl from getting caught in a crossfire. She made a speech. She climbed several ladders. She jumped across something. 180 degrees from Rey whatever.

Did we want RO to not be faithful to episode IV? The Rebel Alliance was led by white people, the General Ralston Purina was cut from the same cloth as the Imperials were. Did you want Han Solo leading Rogue One?

Ben Cohen said...

Kyle katarn stole the plans, not this lot.

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