I prefer Jones by a royal mile, however.... They're two different types of acting. Jones plays jaded, whereas Ridley has to play wide eyed innocence, a la Hamill in ANH.

A little of Ridley goes a long way...

I think Felicity Jones is prettier too, although I realise that's a fairly superficial and shallow point to make...

Err... Yes, it is.... But...As master Yoda would say... "Made it, you have"

As a fagatron, that goes right over my head, I think they're BOTH beautiful women.

And just to bring some 'balance to the force' -

Gimmee a ANH Harrison & now we're talkin'....Va va vooom!

hope Carrie's ok

That's the character I wanted her to play and the character that was advertised before reshoots but unfortunately we got a vulnerable lost little lamb. I thought Jyn was going to be more like her bloke friend who killed the dead weight in the beginning - selfish, tough as nails, sarcastic, no nonsense. But we got a lost little girl searching for her father. Meh.
Rey was a far more charismatic and interesting character. She was innocent but earnest and heroic throughout.

Jyn wasn't much of a character , she seemed to lack energy

I thought it was interesting given what we know about the film's development and the extensive reshoots. People will inevitably wonder what Edwards' original cut was like and whether (like Superman II) it would have been better or worse than the theatrically released version.

While speculative and based on subjective opinion, the writer seems to think Gilroy probably improved on Edwards' initial efforts.

you could do to pass some of that self-deprecating humour onto a few others around here my friend.

I was surprised how well they did Peter Cushing, however the voice was not
sounding like him, which was jarring.

Neither were convincing. CGI Tarkin looked OK, but, as you rightly say, the voice wasn't. He was in too many scenes too. CGI Leia was completely off but thankfully appeared for only a couple of seconds. Uncanny valley to me. Darth Vader appreared too many times too, the last scene with him was the best scene in the movie.

I thought there was something a bit off about JEJ's voice too. I need to see it again to be sure on that last one though.

He's 85, his voice inevitably doesn't have the strength it had as a younger man.

He actually sounded better in Rebels, earlier this year.

Kylo Ren reviews Rogue One (Spoilers, duh):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUX5q0EUtsM

I'm not sure that makes any difference what so ever. It was a dramatic thing to do and guaranteed they won't attempt to milk this with endless sequels. They said it's a one off and they told the truth.

Saw it yesterday.

An improvement on TFA, but still somewhat frustrating. Two whole acts trudge along, all Rebel politics and moody lighting. It's hardly entertaining, and you struggle to invest. The cast are game enough though, even if the CGI Tarkin has an unsettling, weird mannequin thing going on. As for the lead, it's quite a while before Felicity Jones convinces. Her voice is a bit too BBC period drama, and she lacks the breezy warmth of Daisy Ridley. Still, she suits the role in the end.

Good thing too. After what felt like an eternity the film shifts into its third act, and suddenly it's terrific. Everything is on the trot, cross-cutting at exactly the right moment, and it's here where Gareth Edwards knocks JJ Abrams into a cocked hat (for all his gee-whizz enthusiasm, Abrams is a decidedly ho-hum visualist). There's many a giddy thrill to be had from Edwards' eye for detail and composition - X-wings in blazing sunlight take out an AT-ATs knee cap and over she goes. Hurrah! This is it. This is Star Wars. It's just a shame it took so long to arrive.

The men-on-a-mission war movie was a good sub-genre for SW to plunder, but maybe this should've been more Where Eagles Dare than Dirty Dozen. 7/10

TFA was a well made, fun film that was ultimately let down by ridiculous plot points and a general lack of originality.

Rogue One does a much better job on the plot but still struggles to give us anything new or interesting; whilst at the same time having duller characters and less humour.

TFA was intentionally filled with familiar beats / story because it had the burden of trying to re-establish the entire brand of the franchise. It needed to feel like the OT, so it therefore uses the OT template. Which is fine, because Star Wars has always been a remix of the familiar. And mission most definitely and triumphantly accomplished. Still, if one year on, you're still banging on about lack of originality as if the writers didn't know what they were doing and it makes you feel clever, on you go.

Made the mistake of seeing it with my blind drunk mate. We nearly missed the beginning as he had 'just popped into the bar next door', then he proceeded to sleep through over half the film, only waking up when the explosions of the battle scene woke him up. His conclusion? 'adequate at best'.
Personally, I loved it

Didn't need to be the OT though....we didn't need another New Hope....as we had already had that with the awful ROTJ, and TFA was no better.

It is what it is, and it was a success, if you don't like it, tough, get over it already. ROTJ is a much appreciated instalment of the OT, if you didn't like it or TFA, who cares.

Fandom used to be defined by what you love, now it's defined by what you hate e.g. "I love Rogue One therefore I must hate The Force Awakens!!!"

They both have their strong and weak points but I think Force Awakens is an overall better movie and an amazing achievement considering that it was saddled with the burden of having to apologise for the prequels (hence its safeness). However, the characters were likeable and inreresting. TFA prioritised characters over story because these are the new faces we will have to follow for the next few episodes.

Rogue One uses its characters to serve its story. However, because we already know how this particular story ends it was important to have likeable characters so we could at least appreciate the journey. It has a very good third act but it's unearned - up until that ending the film was unequal and the characters were underwritten and stereotypical. I enjoyed it and would like to see it again but The Force Awakens is a better movie.

I'm baffled by so-called Star Wars fans (of which I am not, TFA and Rogue One are the only ones I like) praising Rogue One specifically for its "dark and gritty tone" when Star Wars has never been "dark and gritty" .

Thing is Star Wars has been darker and grittier, in the TV series. Causal fans wouldn't really be expected to know that, or care, which is perfectly fine. But the more dedicated fans really should know better. And purely in terms of darkness, despite its flaws, Revenge of the Sith remains the darkest Star Wars film by far.

Really? The first film and Empire both have a number of dark and gritty scenes in them... at least they did until Lucas disappeared a number of them. Empire is rightly praised as the best film precisely because it's a lot darker than any of the others.

I imagine The Force Awakens would be brilliant for someone the right age who wasn't familiar with the Star Wars universe. They'd come out of the film feeling as buoyed up and joyous as I (we?) did in 1977/78 at the age of 17.

Except they couldn't possibly be as enthused as we were in 1977, because, back in 1977, nothing like it had ever been seen before. Don't get me wrong, The Force Awakens would still seem be a fun movie, but it sits amongst many films with amazing visuals and imaginative stories. It's not an original, breakthrough movie in the way that Star Wars was.

Any good movie, even a Star Wars movie, should never be a "rinse and repeat" exercise in the way that Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens are. I mean, c'mon, an even bigger Deathstar? Really? Weren't you even the slightest bit disappointed by that? I was. Rogue One at least has some originality going for it, and plenty of fan service.

All that being said, The Force Awakens still has much to be admired and has gone up in my estimation on re-watching it recently after purging my impossibly high expectations. It's still a fun space opera romp and an entertaining movie, as is Return of the Jedi.

For many people, particularly those of us who saw the film as kids in 77/78, coming out of TFA there was a sense of relief, a real sense of homecoming, and most of all, hope. Of course we're not stupid, of course it's a copy and paste, but that's fine because, as well as being a fun film in its own right, it's a message that the franchise wanted to get back on track. And let's not forget the film created its own set of mysteries that had fans speculating moths after, creating a real sense of anticipation for the future. And so it's now the job of Episode 8 to take the reinvigorated franchise into new directions while still keeping the general flavor of TFA and the OT. But because TFA did its job in bringing the OT vibes back to the public Episode 8 it won't be burdened with that albatross. Obiously not everyone felt the same, but so be it.


I wasn't, because to me heart of the film, and the trilogy, was always the inner conflicts. I was always fascinated by Vader, and Luke's own inner turmoil. The space battles were great eye candy but nothing ever more than that to me. Whatever method they arrived to get to the final space battle, the external galactic conflict, wasn't important to me as it didn't interest me anywhere near as much as the internal conflicts and the relationships between the characters.