I clicky'd TFA because it's overall more cohesive, but the more I view them the more I admire and enjoy Rogue One. The prequels are write-off's, so really we're only comparing them to ANH - which really isn't a very good film when all's said and done, so neither JJ or Abram's are up against much.
PsychedelicDiamond said:
Rogue One ends with everyone dying and it left me completely cold which means somewhere along the line you failed.
It managed to squeeze tears out of me, so despite all of its structural and character narrative--- er, 'minimalism' it certainly made me care by the time they all started dying.
I think TFA's the better film in almost every possible way (which isn't me saying one's good and the other's bad, btw), but I did love Rogue One's grit and gloom; from Cassian murdering fellow rebels, Jyn's father living a lie within the belly of the beast, and then the incredibly ignominious deaths of the squad themselves.
I never thought I'd see something like that in 'proper' SW, where it truly counts. Despite the film's aforementioned lack of character narrative screentime, there's a great depth of humanity throughout the film. The dissidents feel desperate, Galen's speech to Jyn is incredibly moving (at least to me) and certainly paints a more profound and engagingly complex picture of parents and progeny than anything else in the series (the Skywalker stuff's all just full on mythic), and Cassian's own speech before the battle/s feels earnt. These aren't heroes marked by destiny deciding the fate of a galaxy, these are small players driven to extremes who get a glimmer of a kind of personal redemption through inglorious sacrifices.
Just as the rebels are seen in a new, unflattering light, so is the Empire demythologised; after a couple of watches Krennic's become one of my favourite
characters performances in the entire series (I'm generally only counting the original trilogy plus TFA). Arguably the whole film should've been closer to just being a drama between he and Galen, but I can kinda understand why they didn't go that route... Still, whilst TFA shows off the Empire in all its most bland, vapidly iconoclastic and gesturing fascistic pomp (Ren's a superb antagonist, but the depiction of the First Order is a joke), Rogue One shows the true enabling face of repressive tyrannies; the "banal evil" of middle and upper management.
He is self-serving, bitter, prideful, but also oddly sympathetic at times. He is incredibly, tangibly human, which makes the actions of the 'instruments of the Empire' (the legions of faceless troopers) all the nastier. Arguably all of that works because Mendelsohn's a fucking awesome actor, but the dialogue seems perfect for him and his character (bar one or two clumsy lines), and so kudos goes to the writers as well. The true evils of the Empire has never been better represented in the films before.
I love the originals, but they are just epic myth mongering. Rogue One felt incredibly real, giving uncomfortable complexity to this often boringly depicted battle between 'good' guys and 'bad' guys. War, rebellion, and tyranny are not fertile grounds for clear moral divisions, and Rogue One - if not truly exploring it - at least depicted it with real grit and texture. Sadly it decided to mostly have a blank slate as a 'lead'. Jyn is the least engaging/charismatic character on the entire team. Her story could've been great, and Jones is a fine actor, but Cassian would've arguably been a much better fit for lead. Or, extend the film's runtime and try to make a true ensemble piece.
So yeah... I find myself enjoying and admiring it more each time I see it, despite the final result of the risk being obscured in fairly substantial structuring and narrative issues.
On top of all that it's without a doubt one of the most beautifully and artfully shot SW films. Set/production design can't fill in for AWOL character narrative scenes, sure, but damn, some of Rogue One's interior set design is just staggeringly detailed and vividly realised. And whilst Krennic landing so far away doesn't seem to make any kind of logical sense... that opening scene looks phenomenal. SW, oddly enough, has had very little real directorial verve. I think, visually, Edwards is a better director than Lucas, JJ, and Kershner, who are all, for the most part, just incredibly functional.
Rogue One is, ultimately, a fascinating mess. A creative risk that wasn't taken as far as it truly needed. But for me it still stands as one of the most intriguing and vivid SW films of them all, and I'm glad we at least got a taste of a grittier, more complex SW 'verse.
The last third was an action sequence that never seems to end and maybe I'm getting old but at some point I find that sort of thing exhausting.
If you weren't engaged with the characters, then I can understand why you might feel that way. For me, given I was caring and engaged, it was an excellently paced finale. Better than TFA's, I feel - and an absolute world away from, for example, Michael Bay's hyperactive chaos.
/edit - oh, worth mentioning that I kinda hate its very end. Not only is Leia's CG distractingly poor, but the entire tone is jarring. That creepy smile and then the music tonally contradicts the loss of life of Rogue One followed by the horror of Vader's corridor scene. It exists only to try to lift the mood in A Star Wars Film. It also makes Leia out to be a bit of an uncaring arse, frankly.
undeadsuitor said:
TFA. Because at least I cared about Finn, rey, and kylo.
Meanwhile I can't name a single character from rogue one except maybe the gay bounty hunter/Jedi couple.
And in what was designed to be a character driven heist movie that's a problem.
Since when were ?mwe and Baze a gay couple? I know of the speculation, but nothing in the film really states that.
Other than beating up Stormtroopers with a stick (seriously, what the fuck's up with the Empire's regulation trooper armour - it evidently completely sucks... they'd clearly be much better off with no armour and improve visibility and movement), I really enjoyed those two characters. Great casting, but as with most of the film's characters they needed more development.