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Dec. 3rd, 2022 01:44 pmSo I rewatched Rogue One to prepare for Andor and I just wanted to jot down a few thoughts here. I had only seen it once before and all of my previous impressions held true:
+ It is without a doubt the best Star Wars film outside the original trilogy. (It's technically a better movie that RotJ, too, but it doesn't have the fun-and-nostalgia factor going for it. It doesn't have the pulp-y joyfulness of the original trilogy. Which is fine! It's not trying to! But that's why I don't find it as lovable.)
+ It's well-written, well-acted, and beautiful to look at
+ I love the tight focus and think that more sci-fi offerings would benefit from the narrowed scope
+ It's the only movie in the world that has a major action scene built around the use of an archival vertical storage retrieval system and for that alone it deserve accolades
However! I don't feel fannish about it! And that comes down to one thing and one thing only:
I want it to be a found family movie and it doesn't have the time to be that. (For me.) These people don't know each other long enough to build up the bonds I want them to have. They literally don't have the time! They know each other for like three days! I can believe that this makes them feel close in the adrenaline right before the big climax, but I don't believe that they actually are.
In order for me to buy into found family dynamics, there's got to be downtime. There's got to be the squabbling and the inside jokes and the "are we really having this discussion again?" kinds of scenes. And this is an action movie that simply does not have the space for that.
Basically, if this had been a limited series with time for all that stuff, it would have been my catnip. But that's not what it was doing and it's not what it was trying to do. It's very effective at what it's doing, and it's a good movie. It's just not my movie.
+ It is without a doubt the best Star Wars film outside the original trilogy. (It's technically a better movie that RotJ, too, but it doesn't have the fun-and-nostalgia factor going for it. It doesn't have the pulp-y joyfulness of the original trilogy. Which is fine! It's not trying to! But that's why I don't find it as lovable.)
+ It's well-written, well-acted, and beautiful to look at
+ I love the tight focus and think that more sci-fi offerings would benefit from the narrowed scope
+ It's the only movie in the world that has a major action scene built around the use of an archival vertical storage retrieval system and for that alone it deserve accolades
However! I don't feel fannish about it! And that comes down to one thing and one thing only:
I want it to be a found family movie and it doesn't have the time to be that. (For me.) These people don't know each other long enough to build up the bonds I want them to have. They literally don't have the time! They know each other for like three days! I can believe that this makes them feel close in the adrenaline right before the big climax, but I don't believe that they actually are.
In order for me to buy into found family dynamics, there's got to be downtime. There's got to be the squabbling and the inside jokes and the "are we really having this discussion again?" kinds of scenes. And this is an action movie that simply does not have the space for that.
Basically, if this had been a limited series with time for all that stuff, it would have been my catnip. But that's not what it was doing and it's not what it was trying to do. It's very effective at what it's doing, and it's a good movie. It's just not my movie.
