2016 addition to the Star Wars franchise, the first standalone 'Star Wars Story'.
Release (December 2016)[]
Format[]
Ota Aeon cinema the first time and with David a second time, and a cinema in Umeda
Journal[]
First watched it at the first English showing, 10am on a Friday, and then again the next day with my OES coworker David.
I loved the droid. I loved the Vader scene at the end. The first time I watched it I was a bit unsure what I thought of the movie as a whole; it felt a bit uncanny valley almost-Star Wars. The seemed to keep echoing Star Wars themes but then dissolving into background music, the characters overall didn't seem that compelling, the big baddy Krennic was weird and ineffectual and seemed to be struggling with saliva everytime he spoke, and Tarkin and Leia obviously were kinda weird and off-putting - although I had no idea they were going to be there and was still impressed with the quality (if somebody had told me they were going to do multiple scenes with an all-CGI Tarkin amongst live actors I'd have expected a lot worse than this).
In the following days though I absorbed a lot of the reactions, positive and negative, and spoke a lot about it with my brother Matthew, and listened to the soundtrack a bit more, and I think actually I quite like it. I agree with a lot of the criticisms, but I don't think the characters were too undeveloped - I guess they could have been better but that didn't bother me when I watched it.
Watched it a third time in Osaka in late January, at a new cinema I found in Umeda. Probably one of the evenings of my first week at OYIS, I was pretty chilled and just bored wandering around Umeda and thought I'd check out this cinema. It's nicer than Toho but still expensive. I ended up watching Rogue One that night, and Silence (starring Adam Driver of The Force Awakens) the following night. I really enjoyed it again, and the soundtrack has grown on me a lot to the point that, at that time, I preferred Rogue One to The Force Awakens.
Rating[]
1
Fourth watch (August 2017)[]
Format[]
Watched the first half at Mum's with Matthew and Shaun, I think, while I was in the UK over Summer in 2017, then watched the whole thing when it was shown at Castell Montgri, our holiday resort in Spain, with Kelly/Chris/Sarah/Matthew/Mum/Oscar/Lewis.
Journal[]
Rating[]
2