Enjoyed the article, Marc. Thank you.
Was Twitter that reminded me it was the 9th April though (Lee’s surrender); is the holidays still, so have my hands full.
Star Wars Lives!
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I dont mind the unkempt cargo shuttle pilot, but what really was striking was the apparent worthlessness of Imperial stormtrooper armour. Jeez, even a stick (wielded by a Force sensitive or not, if he was one) would penetrate and kill with every stroke. Or was it supposed to find the armour gap in every blow? Also blaster fire killed a trooper with every shot, while Rebels seemed to absorb much more. But well, not only KDY apparently had improvements to make.
Edit: AAAnd there is some love for the droid. I found his drier type of humor quiet nice, even if I know why he is there and how much they try to make SW humorous by all the droid stuff. This reprogrammed over C3PO any day :)
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@alexgreat:
I dont mind the unkempt cargo shuttle pilot, but what really was striking was the apparent worthlessness of Imperial stormtrooper armour. Jeez, even a stick (wielded by a Force sensitive or not, if he was one) would penetrate and kill with every stroke. Or was it supposed to find the armour gap in every blow? Also blaster fire killed a trooper with every shot, while Rebels seemed to absorb much more. But well, not only KDY apparently had improvements to make.
This is actually a very old problem dating all the way back to the first movie. The stormtrooper armour looks fantastic (to the point where it’s become a pop culture icon), but its military practicality has been questioned on the grounds that: a) it makes the wearer highly visible, b) it restricts the wearer’s vision, and c) it appears to offer little or no protection against enemy weapons (ranging all the way from sophisticated blasters to primitive Ewok stone axes). As for the offensive effectiveness of Imperial stormtroopers, Ben Kenobi made a comment to Luke in the first movie about the precision and accuracy of their marksmanship – but in fact, a typical Star Wars battle scene (even a largely one-sided battle like the one in the Luke-and-Leia-swinging-over-the-bottomless-shaft scene in Episode IV) shows the stormtroopers as having a rather bad hit-to-miss ratio with their blasters. There’s even a name for this phenomenon: the Stormtrooper Effect (also known an the Inverse Ninja Law), which basically states that the firepower accuracy of stormtroopers in a given scene is inversely proportional to their numbers.
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I don’t know if this has been commented on previously, but here’s something about Rogue One that didn’t consciously register with me when I saw it a week ago: the scene at the beginning in which we get our first glimpse of Director Krennic, who’s dressed in white and is surrounded by stormtroopers in black armour, is the reverse of the scene in Episode IV in which we get our first glimpse of Darth Vader, who’s dressed in black and is surrounded by stormtroopers in white armour. Does anyone know, by the way, if the stormtroopers in black have a special name or represent members of some kind of special unit?
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Stop going to Star Wars movies, you will never enjoy any of them, you will always find something wrong to complain about.
Or go and see a decent movie! :-P
Oooh err! Have I just incurred the wrath of millions of Star Wars lovers? Â :|
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@CWO:
I don’t know if this has been commented on previously, but here’s something about Rogue One that didn’t consciously register with me when I saw it a week ago: the scene at the beginning in which we get our first glimpse of Director Krennic, who’s dressed in white and is surrounded by stormtroopers in black armour, is the reverse of the scene in Episode IV in which we get our first glimpse of Darth Vader, who’s dressed in black and is surrounded by stormtroopers in white armour. Does anyone know, by the way, if the stormtroopers in black have a special name or represent members of some kind of special unit?
They are elite Stormtroopers called Death Troopers, acting also sometimes as guards for high ranked officers.
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@aequitas:
They are elite Stormtroopers called Death Troopers, acting also sometimes as guards for high ranked officers.
Ah, okay – thanks. It’s good name for these fellows because they didn’t exactly look friendly. Definitely not guys from the Empire’s public relations department, if it has one.
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Oh no, I added “An” to “droid”… these aren’t the droids you’re looking for… Its this mindset… some people will sit and nitpick every little thing till there is nothing left to enjoy.
It was a brief statement to correct your inaccuracy. It isn’t my fault that you aren’t consistent in your terms.
I agree, we are getting to a point of critical oversaturation. Everyone has an opinion and when everyone also has a social media voice, they all become critics. Over-analysis is prevalent, but this was not a case of that. Both I and General Veers said we didn’t like him, not that he ruined the movie.
If you liked the droid, that’s great for you. I didn’t say you should share my opinion.
Stop going to Star Wars movies, you will never enjoy any of them, you will always find something wrong to complain about.
Some people just can’t relax and enjoy a good movie without trying to pick it to pieces.
When something goes right, you don’t remark about it. It is expected; the default. When something is wrong and out of place, it is noticed and gets criticized. That’s just the way humans work. By your rationale I shouldn’t go to any movies since me disliking stuff is not limited to Star Wars.
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@CWO:
As for the offensive effectiveness of Imperial stormtroopers, Ben Kenobi made a comment to Luke in the first movie about the precision and accuracy of their marksmanship – but in fact, a typical Star Wars battle scene (even a largely one-sided battle like the one in the Luke-and-Leia-swinging-over-the-bottomless-shaft scene in Episode IV) shows the stormtroopers as having a rather bad hit-to-miss ratio with their blasters. There’s even a name for this phenomenon: the Stormtrooper Effect (also known an the Inverse Ninja Law), which basically states that the firepower accuracy of stormtroopers in a given scene is inversely proportional to their numbers.
Ha, I never realized the irony of Obi-wan’s statement until you said that. That is amusing.
@CWO:
I don’t know if this has been commented on previously, but here’s something about Rogue One that didn’t consciously register with me when I saw it a week ago: the scene at the beginning in which we get our first glimpse of Director Krennic, who’s dressed in white and is surrounded by stormtroopers in black armour, is the reverse of the scene in Episode IV in which we get our first glimpse of Darth Vader, who’s dressed in black and is surrounded by stormtroopers in white armour.
Oh crap!… it’s the Ring Theory coming back! http://www.starwarsringtheory.com/
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@CWO:
As for the offensive effectiveness of Imperial stormtroopers, Ben Kenobi made a comment to Luke in the first movie about the precision and accuracy of their marksmanship – but in fact, a typical Star Wars battle scene (even a largely one-sided battle like the one in the Luke-and-Leia-swinging-over-the-bottomless-shaft scene in Episode IV) shows the stormtroopers as having a rather bad hit-to-miss ratio with their blasters. There’s even a name for this phenomenon: the Stormtrooper Effect (also known an the Inverse Ninja Law), which basically states that the firepower accuracy of stormtroopers in a given scene is inversely proportional to their numbers.
Ha, I never realized the irony of Obi-wan’s statement until you said that. That is amusing.
Another good example is the scene in Episode IV in which a squad of stormtroopers is led by an informer to the Mos Eisley docking bay (number 94, I think) where the Millenium Falcon is preparing for takeoff. Han Solo is standing all alone near the ship’s boarding ramp; all the other good guys are already aboard. The squad enters the docking bay, their military-grade heavy blasters at the ready, and the squad leader says (as I recall) “There they are – blast them!” You’d think that Han Solo – whose blaster pistol is small and lightweight compared to those of the Imperial troops, and which is still in its holster when the stormtroopers start shooting – would be a dead duck. What happens instead? Solo not only manages to retreat into the ship without a scratch, he even manages to gun down a couple of troopers in the process. It’s no wonder that one of the entries in the Evil Overlord list says “My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic rifle marksmanship. Any who cannot hit a man-sized target at ten meters will be used for target practice.” Or, to quote the scene from Tora, Tora, Tora in which Admiral Halsey expresses his opinion to another officer about the torpedo bomber practice runs he’s been observing: “Tell Lieutenant Dickerson for me that he couldn’t hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle.”
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The stormtrooper marksmanship stereotype has been around for a while, I just never connected it to what Obi-wan said in Ep IV. The irony is tremendous. Maybe he was thinking back on the clones, who seemed to have far better marksmanship. They were the good guys at the time.
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The stormtrooper marksmanship stereotype has been around for a while, I just never connected it to what Obi-wan said in Ep IV. The irony is tremendous. Maybe he was thinking back on the clones, who seemed to have far better marksmanship. They were the good guys at the time.
In fairness, Obi-wan in Episode IV gives what could be called a balanced review. On the one hand, he tells Luke about the accuracy and Stormtrooper-like precision of the blast points left on the Jawa sandcrawler. On the other hand, just a short while earlier, he had told Luke that lightsabers were not as clumsy and random as blasters. Perhaps the single explanation that fits all the seemingly-contradictory evidence has to do with who a blaster is pointed at, not who’s holding it: blasters are accurate and precise when they’re fired at a particular movie’s bad guys and secondary characters, but clumsy and random when they’re fired at the film’s heroes.
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couldn’t this talk of blaster inaccuracy be used in any movie ever where bad guys shoot (and miss) at good guys? it’s certainly not only a Star Wars thing…
I thought the new movie was pretty good, the final 30’ish minute battle was awesome and the movie did a good job capturing the fact that this was a war where the Empire had a huge advantage…the only choice the Rebels had was to launch this crazy assault to steal the plans…and that’s what happens in war, people often do heroic crazy stuff, and then they die
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Thank you :-)
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You welcome! :-)
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as I have said elsewhere, I have a feeling I have seen this before
After moon-sized super weapon destroyed, retaliate with monstrous attack machines on 4 legs
Meanwhile, new Jedi is trained, with some apparent reluctance by master
Falcon gets chased by Ties in a sort of cave (ok, Falcon chased is a staple)
Bad guy offers hand to good guy, asking to lord it together over the universe (ok, this one could be misleading on purpose in the trailer)na, I must be mistaken ;)
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ok about these jedi–do they have lightsabers?
a superweapon? Has the universe seen one of this magnitude and power before?
also, the walkers–do they seem super cool until you invent 70 kinds of them then they look like rube Goldberg inventions and ridiculous toys?
then somehow, these characters are related? Like brother sister, father son? wow! That’s novel.
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Looks like they might kill Carrie Fisher…
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you mean when Kylo hesitates to pull the trigger?
if yes, I dont think so, they wont destroy the Raddus in the same movie they introduce it. pride of the resistance, no? well, if yes, I guess the Home One will plough on until all eternity.
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