dun dun dun DUN DUN dun dun dun DUN DUN
1. I saw Rogue One earlier! Spoilers, obviously. The end battle made me feel like a kid in the best way. It felt like old Star Wars done in the best version of current technology, and I loved it. I ran out of the theater and texted my mom because Star Wars was one of the things we did together when I was young, and I kept thinking about her.
I'm still mulling some things. I liked how many men of color there were, for instance, but I don't know how I feel about the standalone suicide mission movie being the one with a lot of racial diversity. (I suspected this was going to be the case going in, considering A New Hope canon, but I don't know how guessing it affected my reactions.) I got so excited to see women pilots in the end battle - including at least one woman of color, I believe? - but again, so much diversity tied to so much death.
Still, there was a lot I liked. The movie did a great job at plot stakes and letting me care about the characters without spending a lot of time developing them. (Lack of character development is usually not my thing, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me here*.) I loved seeing Mads Mikkelsen, and guessing that Alan Tudyk was the snarky droid about a half hour in. (I saw him on the press stuff and didn't see him in the movie, so it took that long for it to click.) I liked staring at Diego Luna and Riz Ahmed and shipping them, and despite that, I liked Jyn and Cassian's romantic death on the beach. (The visuals on that. Oof.) I liked Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang's life partner vibe (and that comes across as vague, but I read it as "classic subtexual actual m/m relationship". Married without being able to say it). I loved Jimmy Smits's presence.
(*There was a review in The Hollywood Reporter, I believe? That said none of the men were at Jyn's level, which sounds like racist bunk to me. Everyone was a brief sketch. She got more time lingering on her family/past, but it was less for character and more for plot.)
And...okay, I'm just going to reproduce my tweets about Darth Vader because I can't top them:
my favorite part of the movie was how silly darth vader was. they're not drawing back on that characterization lol
"i'm gonna make dad jokes while i nearly kill you on the planet i suffered major physical/emotional trauma**! lol!"
"and btw i want my trauma house to look like mordor so i can pretend i'm sauron while i mope"
(**It looked like he was on Mustafar, the planet of the big Anakin vs. Obi-Wan battle from Revenge of the Sith. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Whether or not it is, he's still on a planet like Mustafar.)
Of course, having said all of that, the moment where Darth Vader chases the rebels at the end was something. Throwing the guy on the ceiling! Stabbing the other guy through the door! Anakin's definitely Kylo Ren's grandpa, but it's still a thrill to see him in combat.
Finally, Bro-in-Law loved the movie, which is nice because he was so excited and has a better knowledge of canon than I do. (He's seen a lot of the Clone Wars animated series and likes old Battlefront and KOTOR and stuff. Apparently, Forest Whitaker's character was from the animated canon!) I was really excited for it, but nowhere near where he was. And this isn't spoilery, but it's so nice that he's a Star Trek/Star Wars fan. My family's that way as well, and it's a lot of area to connect over.
A non-spoilery thing: there were people in the theater cosplaying as TFA Luke and Rey when we got out of the movie, and I took a picture of Sister with them. They totally posed and everything. I love nerdy blockbusters.
2. We saw the movie in 3D IMAX - where it looked beautiful, for the record! - and we also got the long Dunkirk preview. No Harry Styles in that one (which, of course, is where a lot of my interest is), but it still looked really good. I've liked Christopher Nolan movies in the past (not really Interstellar, but most of the other ones), and even though it's a war movie, I expect I'll enjoy it with or without Harry Styles. I just wish the sound mixing was better; I've had that problem with his movies in the past, and I had a problem with the preview, too. I'm usually fine with accents, but I struggled to follow some of the dialogue.
Also, I was a bit ??? about why they'd show Dunkirk before Rogue One (besides the fact that Rogue One is the big movie for the holidays), but it's not like they're thematically dissimilar, considering, you know. War. Nazi figures. Etc.
3. I feel so spoiled about movies right now. In the last monthish, I've seen Arrival (twice), Moana (twice), Moonlight, Allegiance, and Rogue One. It's reminded me how much I actually do love movies - I haven't seen as many as I'd like in the recent past, but people out there are making good movies that aren't just about white guys, and it's kind of striking how much I'll get out to see them when that's the case.
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I'm still mulling some things. I liked how many men of color there were, for instance, but I don't know how I feel about the standalone suicide mission movie being the one with a lot of racial diversity. (I suspected this was going to be the case going in, considering A New Hope canon, but I don't know how guessing it affected my reactions.) I got so excited to see women pilots in the end battle - including at least one woman of color, I believe? - but again, so much diversity tied to so much death.
Still, there was a lot I liked. The movie did a great job at plot stakes and letting me care about the characters without spending a lot of time developing them. (Lack of character development is usually not my thing, but it wasn't a dealbreaker for me here*.) I loved seeing Mads Mikkelsen, and guessing that Alan Tudyk was the snarky droid about a half hour in. (I saw him on the press stuff and didn't see him in the movie, so it took that long for it to click.) I liked staring at Diego Luna and Riz Ahmed and shipping them, and despite that, I liked Jyn and Cassian's romantic death on the beach. (The visuals on that. Oof.) I liked Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang's life partner vibe (and that comes across as vague, but I read it as "classic subtexual actual m/m relationship". Married without being able to say it). I loved Jimmy Smits's presence.
(*There was a review in The Hollywood Reporter, I believe? That said none of the men were at Jyn's level, which sounds like racist bunk to me. Everyone was a brief sketch. She got more time lingering on her family/past, but it was less for character and more for plot.)
And...okay, I'm just going to reproduce my tweets about Darth Vader because I can't top them:
my favorite part of the movie was how silly darth vader was. they're not drawing back on that characterization lol
"i'm gonna make dad jokes while i nearly kill you on the planet i suffered major physical/emotional trauma**! lol!"
"and btw i want my trauma house to look like mordor so i can pretend i'm sauron while i mope"
(**It looked like he was on Mustafar, the planet of the big Anakin vs. Obi-Wan battle from Revenge of the Sith. I'm not the only one who thinks so. Whether or not it is, he's still on a planet like Mustafar.)
Of course, having said all of that, the moment where Darth Vader chases the rebels at the end was something. Throwing the guy on the ceiling! Stabbing the other guy through the door! Anakin's definitely Kylo Ren's grandpa, but it's still a thrill to see him in combat.
Finally, Bro-in-Law loved the movie, which is nice because he was so excited and has a better knowledge of canon than I do. (He's seen a lot of the Clone Wars animated series and likes old Battlefront and KOTOR and stuff. Apparently, Forest Whitaker's character was from the animated canon!) I was really excited for it, but nowhere near where he was. And this isn't spoilery, but it's so nice that he's a Star Trek/Star Wars fan. My family's that way as well, and it's a lot of area to connect over.
A non-spoilery thing: there were people in the theater cosplaying as TFA Luke and Rey when we got out of the movie, and I took a picture of Sister with them. They totally posed and everything. I love nerdy blockbusters.
2. We saw the movie in 3D IMAX - where it looked beautiful, for the record! - and we also got the long Dunkirk preview. No Harry Styles in that one (which, of course, is where a lot of my interest is), but it still looked really good. I've liked Christopher Nolan movies in the past (not really Interstellar, but most of the other ones), and even though it's a war movie, I expect I'll enjoy it with or without Harry Styles. I just wish the sound mixing was better; I've had that problem with his movies in the past, and I had a problem with the preview, too. I'm usually fine with accents, but I struggled to follow some of the dialogue.
Also, I was a bit ??? about why they'd show Dunkirk before Rogue One (besides the fact that Rogue One is the big movie for the holidays), but it's not like they're thematically dissimilar, considering, you know. War. Nazi figures. Etc.
3. I feel so spoiled about movies right now. In the last monthish, I've seen Arrival (twice), Moana (twice), Moonlight, Allegiance, and Rogue One. It's reminded me how much I actually do love movies - I haven't seen as many as I'd like in the recent past, but people out there are making good movies that aren't just about white guys, and it's kind of striking how much I'll get out to see them when that's the case.
Also posted on Dreamwidth (
comment[s]). Comment using a DW account or LJ OpenID.