Avid fans talk about 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'

Avid fans talk about 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story'. December. 30, 2016 07:02. by Sun-Hee Jang sun10@donga.com. “May the Force be with you.”

When Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) really headed for a remote star on Wednesday, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” was released in Korea. At midnight of the release date, this reporter met to avid Star Wars fans who woke up until 2 a.m. in the premiere of the movie exclusive for members of “Extreme Movies,” a movie club. They were Jeong Jae-min, 41-year-old office worker who claimed he has been a Star Wars fan for 30 years, and Lee Chang-gyu, 25-year-old part timer who have been in love with the series for a decade. They were joined by this “SF films-not-good” reporter. The new Star Wars spin-off is about war between the Empire and a band of rebels over the new powerful weapon Death Star made by the Empire. It started it off well with some 145,000 ticket sold on the first day of the release.

Reporter: The battle scene in the last 10 minutes between the allied rebel group and the Empire on earth and in space is said to be one of the best in its kind.

Jeong Jae-min (Jeong): As a 30-year fan, I was thrilled while watching the movie. By maintaining “classical” factors in the spaceship, weapons and attire in the previous series, cutting-edge technologies have been added. The Star Wars prequel trilogy rather disappointed many fans because they had too much computer graphics.

Lee Chang-gyu (Lee): The battle scene was in the space, on earth and the beach and showed Star Wars actions. Stormtroopers were not great in all of the previous series, but they looked imposing in this movie. The new “death troopers” are attractive. The power of the Empire was tangible in the scene where AT-AT walkers kept walking despite the bazookas.

Reporter: Donnie Yen, an actor from Hong Kong, played Chirrut Îmwe who has an excellent martial skill, and Diego Luna from Mexico played Cassian Andor, an intelligence agent, drew a lot of attention. Diversity is a meaningful attempt.

Lee: In fact, that makes this movie less perfect. It seems to have considered "racial discrimination,' which has been a controversial issue in the Star Wars series. I liked the real action, not using the "sword," the symbol of the Star Wars films, but the characters are simple.

Jeong: So far, it had only one female character in the Star Wars movies, Princess Leia, and one black character was Lando Calrissian. But this new movie seemed to have gone further. However, it was odd why Donnie Yen and his mercenary friend Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) and veteran soldier kept talking about the Force, though there was a slight hint that only avid fans would know… I liked Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) given his powerful character.

Reporter: Some say bad guys were somewhat weak

Jeong: No other bad guy is needed because it had "Darth Vader." I want to give it four stars for this scene.

Lee: I agree. Both Star Wars fans and those who watched Star Wars for the first time would feel thrilled upon the emergence of Darth Vader. It is worth watching even for a person who has never seen the Star Wars series.