Star Wars Rogue One MASSIVE SPOILERS BY BERKUT

[celedhring]

Is a 2nd viewing worth it? I'm thinking yes and might go after Christmas but if disappointing I'll save it for later.

Weirdly, this second time around I enjoyed the first part more and the second part less. Since I knew that all the characters were going to die, it helped me sympathize with them and gave a tragic tinge to the proceedings. OTOH, all the big spectacle moments in Scarif were now less of a surprise and did have less of an impact on me. Still very enjoyable, mind.

The Saw Gerera subplot was still pointless and cringeworthy, though 

[DontSayBanana]

In Rogue One the base is already in Yavin. And the fleet honchos are seen at Yavin during the "rebellions are built on hope!" scene. We, however, don't know where the rebel fleet itself is exactly stationed at, that is true.

The rebel ground forces are seen departing from Yavin, but those are conveniently exterminated by Tarkin using the Death Star. 

There's some healthy paranoia going on in the ranks of the Alliance, so it's not out of the realm of possibility that some or all of the following are happening:

• Navigation information is compartmentalized to senior officers
  
• Navigation and command officers are expected to commit suicide upon capture
  
• The base was only recently moved to Yavin IV and isn't yet generally known
  
  We do know from Leia's "Dantooine" gambit that the base has been moved, and it's implied that it does so frequently.

[garbon]

I just had an offer to see this again. Like a sensible person, I said no thanks.

[viper37]

The good guys here are pretty damn grey, and suddenly stormtroopers figured out how to shoot, at least some of the time.

I agree with the assessment.  For the Stormtroopers, an explanation seems that the grey/black ones are some sort of elite commandos.
It's also possible that the ones we saw previously, garding the two death stars weren't crack troops.  You usually don't put your best units on guard duty in a place you least expect an attack, such as a reputedly well protected space fortress.

[viper37]

Also, this bugged me in my second viewing of Rogue One. How come none of the possibly hundreds of prisoners they take when they capture the rebel fleet gives up the location of the Yavin base? Since Tarkin is still looking for it in ANH. 

the fleet didn't depart from Yavin.  The people on Yavin were pretty much unaware the was going to be a fight until much later.
The Mon Cal admiral decided to fight with his fleet despite the Council not wanting to.

[Syt]

Also, it's common Rebel practice that the ships do several jumps from base to target. IIRC among several ships each only has part of the navigational path, "leading" the others. I guess they also auto-erase last jump's data so they can't reconstruct the path?

[PDH]

Just saw it and enjoyed it.

[Josquius]

I wasn't at all bothered about seeing this tbh.
Went and...  Slow to begin.  Didn't grab me at all.  We know what happens after all.  But the battle was cool.

[Kleves]

I enjoyed it, but came away somewhat disappointed (which could have been due to overly high expectations).

I liked:

- The visuals. It is a pretty stunning movie.
- That everyone died at the end. I'm glad there wasn't a dumb escape on an eagle or some shit. The suicide mission really was suicidal, and it made the Empire seem somewhat more menacing.
- The continuity. There were some goofy bits (deathmark-on-twelve-systems guy), and I'm not sure how seamlessly it goes into A New Hope, but I thought overall they did a good job of connecting things.
- Imperial office politics. I actually kind of dug this. 

I disliked:

- Basically all of the rebel characters (excluding the droid). Jyn was a complete blank for me, and she had more personality then the rest combined.
- I also felt there really wasn't any reason presented why the Empire was bad and the Rebels good in this movie. Of course there's more in the other movies, but I never got a sense of why the Empire had to be resisted, and of what the Rebels were actually fighting for. Some might saw that they were trying to make it more morally ambiguous, but 1) why should I care about a bunch of morally dubious aliens fighting each other? and 2) there is a literally a Dark Side and a Light Side in this Universe; Star Wars can't really do moral ambiguity.
- I also really hate in movies where the bad guys have the drop on the good guys, but instead of shooting them ask them to surrender, and are then killed by the good guys. I guess the reason the bad guys failed is because of their common decency and basic humanity? Is that what I'm supposed to take from this?
- The music. The Force Awakens was merely forgettable. Whenever I noticed the music in this movie it was actively bad.

[Habbaku]

- I also felt there really wasn't any reason presented why the Empire was bad

I can only assume you fell asleep during the parts where the Empire's command structure engaged in war crimes?

[PDH]

Sometimes the destruction of an ancient temple is needed for progress.  So sad.

[Berkut]

I disliked:

- Basically all of the rebel characters (excluding the droid). Jyn was a complete blank for me, and she had more personality then the rest combined.
- I also felt there really wasn't any reason presented why the Empire was bad and the Rebels good in this movie. Of course there's more in the other movies, but I never got a sense of why the Empire had to be resisted, and of what the Rebels were actually fighting for. Some might saw that they were trying to make it more morally ambiguous, but 1) why should I care about a bunch of morally dubious aliens fighting each other? and 2) there is a literally a Dark Side and a Light Side in this Universe; Star Wars can't really do moral ambiguity.

This was the 8th Star Wars movie.

If you have not figured out yet who the good guys and bad guys are, too bad.

Personally, I am fine with them not re-hashing the same basic plot foundations of every single movie every single time.

[celedhring]

The very first scene of the film features an imperial agent kidnapping the protagonist's father and killing her mother. I think that clearly sets up who the bad guys are, even if you never watched a Star Wars film before. Even when rebel characters do something morally wrong, the film makes sure that you never mistake the Empire for the good guys either. I. e. when the Rebellion kills Jyn's father, you have already seen Krennic summarily executing the other scientists five minutes before.

[Syt]

It's also interesting to see Star Wars movies internalizing more modern experiences. Space fights are still inspired by WW2 aircraft carrier combat, but look at one of the first action scenes in this one: an armored patrol in a Middle Eastern looking town, getting attacked by radicalized insurgents. And the place is even called Jeddah, sorry, I meant: Jedha.

[MadImmortalMan]

I do agree with Kleves that the music was particularly weak. I heard the guy doing it was only given like four weeks or something dumb like that.