I thought Rogue One kind of started slow and unfocused, but the ending 45 minutes or whatever are killer.

I was pleasantly surprised by how well Rogue One held together. I thought it was a well-made film, rather better than TFA.

I get why Jessica was weirded out by the CGI. That was freaky. Who needs actors, now?

The action was really well-done: well edited & choreographed so you could follow what was going on. The writing was pretty good, without a lot of clunkers, and the acting was fine. The characterizations were thin, but no more so than in any other Star Wars movie, I think.

I could have wished for more women doing things -- there's no reason the entire strike team would have been male! And maybe fewer battles, with more skulking and espionage. The battles got a bit wearying.

And of course I was super impressed by the ending. That took balls, to kill off ALL THE HEROES. Although I went to a matinee, and I'm pretty sure some of those kids are having nightmares tonight.

I saw Rogue One last night. If I discuss it online enough, I may finally break myself of referring to rule breakers who go off on their own to get it done as a substance for making cheeks pink, so I'm grateful for that.

Otherwise, I liked how they handled most of the main characters, although I agree there could have been more women. We did have a few women as fighter pilots, so that was good (although they were pretty much "blink and you miss it"). It was nice to see a wide variety of races, though. My favorite character was probably the pilot, Bohdi Rook. He was so scared all the time, but he kept trying so hard. I just wanted to wrap him up in a fuzzy blanket and feed him cookies. Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus are my favorite tragic couple. And I liked Jyn Erso a lot. I didn't know why I found K-2SO such a familiar feeling delight until I saw the cast list at the end.

While I thought it helped make the movie strong, killing off everyone did make me sad that we wouldn't see these characters again. The fix-it fic for this is gonna be epic. Which is one of the values of fic, so yay--everyone wins!

I don't think I'll see this movie three times in the theater, but I'm glad I saw it the once.

ETA: it just occurred to me what a nicely structured arc Jyn has. She starts off with her family being taken from her, isolated in her hiding space and then with no support or visible connections as a prisoner. Then she slowly acquires allies and people to care about, until finally she has a squad and a space fleet to help her, and a galaxy of people to help liberate. She blooms outward like a morning glory .

I had a sniffly Rogue One thought:

When we see Bail and Mon Mothma talking about sending a message to his Jedi friend, Bail is heading back to Alderaan. To die. Because it's gonna get blown up soon.

a sniffly Rogue One thought

I know, right? But the look of pride on his face when he says he'll make sure the plans go to someone he trusts, and you know he means Leia, that was nice.

I missed the Williams soundtrack more than I expected.

I saw Fantastic Beasts yesterday. Nice spectacle, but Jacob was the only character I really connected with (and I don't get others' love of Queenie at all; Tina came closer to making me like her, but she still felt like only half a character).

a sniffly Rogue One thought

I actually yelled at him not to go. I didn't get kicked out of the theater, so thankfully it must have been a quieter yell than I thought.

I loved it, except for a few bits that felt like they were trying TOO hard to integrate with Episode IV. And I say this as a fangirl whose favourite of the series is IV.

I must complete another two chapters of class prep before I'm allowed to go see it again...

-Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus are my favorite tragic couple.

Andi and I went to see Rogue One today, and I remarked to her that there is probably already fanfic about them. She replied something to the effect of, "It wouldn't be my fandom if there weren't."

Re Rogue One: I sort of wish that Bail's line had been more towards the end and they hadn't done the CGI bit but that's a minor quibble. I liked the general ending although I was hoping this film would be explicitly linked to TFA via Jyn/Cassian (even if offscreen). I would have preferred that to trying to match it so much to SW.

I can't decide where this falls in my SW ranking. I think below TFA and above Jedi but I'm not sure. I loved that the plot was way more focused than a typical SW movie, and I hate Adam Driver, but something seemed lacking. Characterization maybe? I could have stayed off the Death Star altogether and played up the caper aspects more (getting the squad together, the puzzle of getting the plans, etc).

I could definitely have used more caper and more characterization.