Tons of Subtleties in this, Specifically that the move Maul uses to try to end the duel is the same one he used to kill Qui-gon, years earlier.

Obi-wan also uses the same form he became famous for, but in the end decides he needs to change forms (From the one we see in the prequels, to what he uses later, while fighting vader. And adapting the same pose Qui-gon had decades earlier).

Neat stuff, Really enjoying this show.

(Also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-0gmL2ecyg for anybody who'd like to see the leadup to the fight.)

Looks better than I was expecting. They seem to be going into the Major's past much more than the original. I just finished watching the 4 short prequel episodes and they were pretty good, not sure if any of that will carry over though.

Not sure I like Batou's casting, they need to make him funnier than they showed so far.

I'll bite too. I liked Rogue One.

The three checkboxes thing (characters / story / emotion) seems a bit oversimplified. I think it is possible to have a *great* movie if any ONE of those things is great, and it is possible to have a very good movie without any of them being fantastic.

Beyond that, it seemed like his biggest complaint was that Rogue One requires you to have some basic level of familiarity with the Star Wars universe in order to enjoy it; that it doesn't stand up particularly well on its own. ...Well, duh. Any time a setting / universe is used for more than one film, you're going to have to spend much more time on the exposition and getting people familiar with how things work in the first film (A New Hope) than in later films. Actually, I thought that Rogue One would have been very watchable and enjoyable even for people that are familiar with Star Wars even in only the broadest strokes.

I'm with @SDGundamX. The original trilogy stand as my favorite 3, but I liked Rogue One more than The Force Awakens (and TFA was *way* better than any/all of the prequels).

I enjoyed past reviews from Red Letter Media a lot. They were insightful and detailed. They made me watch some movies in a new light and gave me a better understanding of them. However....

Go fuck yourselves, you whiny bitches!

You know what these people deserve? Everytime they turn on any screen of any kind to watch something even slightly related to sci-fi, it only plays Episode 1. They can't pause it, they can't stop it. And the Pod race as well as the 3-way lightsaber fight are edited out in their entirety. Just to make sure the relentless shittiness contains no form of relief.
We're finally getting decent Star Wars movies and all we get it 'But it ain't the original trilogy!!111!!'.
You people need more dialogue about the uncomfortableness of sand between your ass-cheeks. Or battle scenes characters only survive by entering slapstick-routines.
Sure, TFA and R1 certainly aren't perfect, maybe not even good, but they are surely much better than the awful shit Lucas shat down our throats the last 3 decades on the big screen.
The characters aren't likable enough? Have you met fucking teenage Anakin? I wanna slap the midichlorians out of that whiny bitch-face everytime he's on screen. He's so unlikable, the first time I didn't want to choke him until the Force left his body was when he murdered a classroom full of schoolchildren. That's what it took to make me go from 'I'm supposed to sympathise with this whiny-faced asshole?!' to 'Ok, he's the villian now. I'm supposed to feel this way about him'
There's not enough context? Go fuck yourself. Should we go and add extra flashbacks to Batman vs Superman on how Bruce Wayne's parents got shot? Just in case you don't get why he's Batman yet?
If you don't know what the Force is or who's Darth Vader, get the fuck out of my movie theater, mom! You're clearly here because somebody else dragged into this 'space war movie'.
I get it, the new movies aren't the perfect jewels of film-making your 5-year old self remembers the original trilogy to be ('Let's scrap the Wookies and invent the more Teddybear-like Ewoks, for the toy-sales!') but this is your response?
You're an teenage Anakin. A whiny, insufferable, bitch-faced asshole.
I welcome a healthy, critical discussion about movies any time. What I won't accept is this ridiculous display of ungratefulness after we suffered the prequel trilogy.
Star Wars is finally getting decent again. And you people shit all over it like the last 3 movies were even worth watching.
I'd rather watch Twilight than endure the creepy, awkward romance sub-plot of Episode 2 again. At least Twilight made laugh. And don't get me started on those tax disputes that started all that crap in the first place.
If you can't appreciate a Salami Pizza because there's no Pepperoni on it, you aren't worth any Pizza at all.

It came out TWELVE YEARS after Jurassic Park. Which, even to this day, did CGI exactly the way it should be used. The prequels were glorified cartoons.

Not really. ROTS came out in 2005. At that stage, we had plenty of decent CGI in movies (Gollum and the MASSIVE system in LOTR for example).

Even for TPM, it was eclipsed by the first Matrix movie in the same year.

The problem wasn't the technology, it was Lucas' use of it.

Where he hid it cleverly in the original Star Wars movies, he didn't realise that it just wasn't quite ready in the prequels.

After watching The Force Awakens and the Rogue One trailers, I had forgotten just how awful the prequel CGI is.

I too was pleasantly surprised and excited to see Donny in the trailer until he spoke... I think Donny's unusually bad accent/line delivery here sticks out like a sore thumb... but I'm Chinese so I might be overly sensitive? Still, seeing him wielding that staff is awesome. Trailer is otherwise great. Not bringing my hopes up much though. SW7:TFA was so middle of the road for me (i.e. Better than the prequels but not as good as the OT) I wish Rogue One is much much better.

Jim Jefferies on Vaccinating his child (autism Prequel) has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

Jim Jefferies on Vaccinating his child (autism Prequel) has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

Jim Jefferies on Vaccinating his child (autism Prequel) has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

Jim Jefferies on Vaccinating his child (autism Prequel) has been added as a related post - related requested by eric3579 on that post.

There are a LOT of similarities. It definitely blurs the line between "reboot" and "homage", but I'd argue that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I think it will take a few years for me to digest and figure out where I think it ranks in my personal assessment of the Star Wars movies.

That being said, I'm excited about the future of Star Wars again -- the prequels came very close to destroying any optimism that I had in that regard.

For the moment, consider Episode VII but ignore the plot and parallels / homage / blatant copying between it and A New Hope. In all three prequels combined, there wasn't a single character that was interesting; that we could identify with. Anakin was annoying -- in kid form and adult form. Ewan McGregor did OK with the material and directing he was given, but the script and writing in general did NOTHING to connect prequels Obi-Wan with the original trilogy. Padme, Jar-Jar (ha!), Palpatine, Dooku, etc. -- not a single memorable, interesting character that made me want to learn more about them. Sam Jackson's Mace Windu was probably the closest, but didn't get enough screen time or depth to really establish interest.

Already I feel confident in saying that in terms of characters, Episode VII is massively, overwhelmingly better than the prequels. Rey, Finn, and Poe are each individually far more interesting than every character from the prequels combined. AND, I want to see how those new faces interact with the old stars also. Luke, Leia, even Chewbacca (my personal favorite of the OT) all seem like they will continue to be very important to the story moving forward -- and continue to develop their own story arcs in addition to the new cast.

The Force Awakens wasn't *perfect* -- I tend to think it leaned a bit too much on revamping A New Hope also -- but it was very good and very entertaining. And I am definitely excited about the future of Star Wars again.

From the title I somehow hoped this was a sequel/prequel to Event Horizon. Disappointed.

Rocky Balboa the prequel.