Now that Rogue One has been out for over a week I think it would be a good time for a spoiler heavy discussion. Not that spoilers matter too too much for this film since we know exactly what happens right after it, but still, you've been warned.
Overall I basically liked the movie but felt like it didn't really matter. Usually the things that make me watch a movie more than once are scenes that give you goosebumps and charge up your heroic emotions even after multiple viewings. (This is why I can watch Lord of the Rings every year and not get sick of it.) Maybe it is a piece of dialogue, a heroic charge, or a bit of cleverness making the villain look like a fool, to me, these are the best parts of a sci-fi/fantasy story. I felt like Rogue One had a few of these moments, but when it came time to really wrap it up and bring the big punch home I was mostly kind of bored cause I already knew how it would end. We got to see AT-AT walkers do some stuff and some X-Wings and other fighters do some stuff, and Jyn climbs into space tube "fall down forever" thing, and basically the whole end sequence could have been cut together from existing Star Wars footage and it wouldn't have to change much. The main exception I can think of here is the ramming ship. That was awesome. We've seen the Super Star Destroyer crash into the Death Star in Return of the Jedi, but we haven't seen a cool little space battering ram ship be the cause of that. In fact, spaceship battering rams are pretty rare in sci fi which is odd because it is a historical naval strategy and seems like it would work pretty well in space too.
Anyway, before I get into what I would change about the ending I want to point out that I really liked the slow build up and the way the rebellion looked weak and struggling here. That's obviously a key part of the timeline, and all the more reason to have a solid victory at the end to properly unite them in time for the big strike against the Death Star. I feel like it would be better if the end sequence went something like this:
-Jyn and crew go off on their own as Rogue One and start the assault that no one thought would work.
-The rebels get word that it might be working and show up with their whole fleet.
-At this point I would have loved to see the Rebels absolutely smash this Imperial base, destroy most of their fleet and get enough ships and ground troops through the shield to have a few platoons on the ground. (Side note: what do the big rebel ships even do? Have we ever seen them be useful?)
-At this point Vader and his fleet show up and the Rebels have to go into defensive mode in the space battle, waiting for Jyn to fly out with the plans. They realize they can't get back out because of the shield or something and have to go with plan B, send the plans to the fleet with the big dish on the tower. (Side note: I really like Vader's little battle scene. He probably doesn't get out much and this was a good chance for him to just rampage and it probably felt really good.)
-Then we get a better ground battle that rivals or even tops Hoth as the rebels defend the tower from the AT-ATs and other garrison forces. Instead we got discount Hoth and that's not cool.
-The plans get sent just as the Death Star arrives and blasts the planet, the remaining rebel fleet escapes with the plans and it's considered a big win. The Rebels now know they can actually achieve things, and while it's not as good as the victory to come when a new Jedi kid blows up the Death Star, it's enough to get that ball rolling. (Side note: It would have been nice to get some shots of Leia doing something during the battle. As it is, it looks like they brought the Princess into battle just so she could sit in her special ship-within-a-ship, but got lucky when it turned out there was something useful she could do.)
Other side notes:
-Rogue One, as in the actual ship, was boring and ugly. I know it's just a shuttle but even Shuttle Tydirium looked cool and iconic. Rogue One is a black rectangle with four wings. They missed a huge opportunity here to design something legendary that could be placed next to the likes of the Falcon and Slave 1. Considering it is the namesake for the top Rebel Squadron, Rogue One deserved better. Even just from a marketing and toy sales perspective I am really surprised they just gave us a rectangle with wings.
-K-2SO is one of those characters that is so likable that I kind of don't really like him. (Luna Lovegood is another example of this.) It's like he is just so obviously likable that I didn't really have a choice in the matter and just have to accept him as "that character that's just so cool!" Groot probably should be in this category too, but he did some pretty unexpected things on screen, and Guardians of the Galaxy had other humorous cool characters to focus on too. So Groot is still rad in my book. K-2SO just didn't seem that interesting to me and I didn't care when he died. Chirrut and Baze were great though, no complaints there. Actually one complaint: Chirrut's lightbow was able to shoot down a TIE fighter, but then he uses it to shoot individual Stormtroopers. I was expecting to see it lance through a few of them with one shot which would have been righteous, but no. :(
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