STAR WARS ROGUE ONE - December 16th

[AndyDursin]

Here's something different -- a trailer comprised entirely of footage that didn't end up in the movie!

[mkaroly]

Lol...still doesn't look very entertaining.

[Paul MacLean]

He's like the "Keeper of the Faith" for orchestral scoring, and that buys him an enormous amount of good will, but the bottom line is the best music he ever wrote was mimicking John Williams on a handful of video games back in the late 90s..

Giacchino is seen as "fighting the good fight" against the onslaught of Hans Zimmer and his barbarian hordes and their power chords (and it is a battle worth fighting). But Giacchino (and others who are praised for their "old school" scores these days -- like Desplat) are not -- for me -- offering anything preferable. True, unlike Zimmer, their scores demonstrate an understanding of how to effectively use an orchestra, but they have nothing else going for them. Beautiful orchestrations are like Christmas tree ornaments -- helpful in bringing the Christmas tree to life, but worthless without the tree itself. And that's my problem with Rogue One -- there's no tree!

I love big orchestral scores too -- but only when they are built on memorable, captivating themes and use engaging harmonic language. Did Star Trek: Into Darkness or Rise of the Planet of the Apes or Jurassic World have a theme? Hey, I'm not expecting anyone to equal (much less outclass) John Williams (or Goldsmith, Horner, Barry, etc.), but heavens, back in the 80s, even scores by obscure composers (like Time Bandits, The NeverEnding Story or even Sheena!) had a beautiful, impressive, melodically-rich scores.

What I'd give to hear a score as good as Sheena these days...

[AndyDursin]

To follow up on your point Paul, I just finished listening to a videogame-oriented podcast that often goes off on tangents involving movies and TV shows. The guys doing this show are my age, late 30s/early 40s, and none of them are into film music, yet even they could tell John Williams didn't score the movie. In fact, they went on at length about how the music "wasn't as good" and that "the composer" kept pulling the rug out by playing "a couple of notes" of Williams' themes, then changing it up, just to say "ooo look, you thought you knew the music, but you were wrong!" They went onto say the music was a weak point in the movie and prevented them from enjoying it on the same level as FORCE AWAKENS. If a casual viewer came away with that feeling, you know others would have as well.

Thinking back on this movie a week later, it's clear to me ROGUE ONE had abundant problems. When you reflect on it, the holes become even more egregious. Very little happened and the film took way too long to go, ultimately, not very far from a narrative standpoint. And 5 minutes after it ended I couldn't tell you the name of the characters outside Felicity Jones' lead...I had to use wikipedia even in writing my review because they made so little impression. But that's also how utterly disposable the entire movie is. It's not awful, it's OK, but the whole enterprise didn't seem to be worth anyone's time -- except Disney's and their stockholders. What was the actual value in telling this story, just from a filmmaking standpoint?

I also think they should have just cast another actor as Tarkin. If the character was going to have that much screen time -- just find a lookalike, decent young British actor and put him in there. The all CG thing is still so obvious when they go into close-up and it's clear you are not looking at a living human being. The eyes, the detail -- it just doesn't work.

Forest Whitaker, on the other hand, should've been removed from the film altogether, by any means necessary.

[jkholm]

Saw it today. The first 2/3 were pretty disposable. Agreed that the characterizations were slight and Forest Whittaker's character was awful. And once again, a major action scene was set at night in the rain. I hate that. I suppose it's possible to have a scene like this that's good as long as it is well-lit and well-directed enough for the audience to tell what's going on, but that wasn't the case here.

The last act was much better and even enjoyable. (Beach planet! Lots of sun!)

SPOILER (in case any of you still haven't seen it yet)



I thought the plot got a little too mechanical in the way each character died immediately after they had accomplished a crucial task. Pull important switch? Now you're dead. Relay important info? You're dead. More suspense could have been created if someone had failed their task, which would have then forced the other characters to improvise.

Regarding the score, I didn't dislike it but didn't love it either. I disagree with the notion that Giacchino's music sounds like Williams, only not as good. To me, it doesn't even sound like Williams. It's just another Giacchino action score.

[AndyDursin]

Good point on the fight in the rain. In fact, I thought the film generally was so dark that there was something wrong with the projector. I started to develop a migraine I was straining so hard to see what was going on, especially in the first hour. However, I've read Facebook friends say they ran into the same thing, so my guess it wasn't my theater but Edwards' style (and a combination of theaters that should have more juice in their projectors).

Speaking of that, it's amazing more people haven't talked about that element. The dim cinematography (of the first hour anyway) and the plodding characterizations had to have been Edwards' doing. I felt like I was watching GODZILLA again, stuck with a group of unappealing, humorless characters I cared nothing about.

Then the last 30 minutes -- the pacing changed, it was like a different film, and that had to have been Gilroy's work. It bore no resemblance to anything Edwards has ever produced, and it was fun enough, though dramatically, the way they killed off the various characters -- I agree with you. I ended up shrugging it off, but still never caring about what exactly they were doing. (Silver lining is I never have to see them again lol)

I still contend the film was pointless. Why was Darth Vader even in the film, other than throwing a bone to fans? He served no dramatic purpose. And his little "showcase" at the end of the film -- well, if he was THAT powerful already, why did he need a cavalcade of stormtroopers with him when he boarded Leia's ship at the start of STAR WARS itself? I felt like I was watching a cool moment from a video game, it didn't feel organic to the original trilogy.