MovieChat Forums > Rogue One (2016) Discussion > Imperial Stormtroopers...

Imperial Stormtroopers...

posted 6 years ago by AndyK (69)
5 replies | jump to latest

Okay, I know this has probably been knocked around endlessly. I'm not a Star Wars person myself, but I had Rogue One on, liked it (even thought the resurrection of Peter Cushing was kind of cool), but one of the issues that kept me out Star Wars when first it came out was how inept the stormtroopers were. Anyone with a good heart need only pick up a blaster & become instantly immune to their shooting while almost never missing one of them in turn.

Even marauding Indians in old westerns weren't portrayed so badly.

Rogue One does them several worse by first letting the girl use her night stick to tap on their armor, knocking them out or incapacitating them, then the blind martial arts guy uses his light weight pole to wreak havoc, or even kick which are surely soft shoes & down goes the white trooper. If they're not wearing film history's most useless armor I don't know who is.

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

I know, it's ridiculous, but there are a lot of ridiculous things in Star Wars if you think about them logically.
'
Personally, I think it started as Lucas's tribute to the cheesy movies he grew up loving, the kind of movies where the hero's fist is deadlier than a hundred machine guns in the hands of a villain, because the hero can always land a punch to the jaw and the villain can never hit the hero. It's a bit of make-believe, the way we wish things really were, instead of the way they work in the real world.

[–] Frogarama (12942) 6 years ago

https://youtu.be/9SW7-8C8kL4?t=36s

[–] AndyK (69) 6 years ago

Oh yes, no doubt. I was 18 when Star Wars appeared in theaters. I did think the juxtaposition of Ben Kanobe's comment about the blast hits being "too accurate" for Sand People, then later watching the intrepid heroes shoot down storm troopers without themselves taking a single hit odd, but not insurmountable.

Now, forty years later, I kind of wish it had a evolved a little. Not to utter naturalism—e.g. outer space battles in complete silence. But really, why do they wear that armor?

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

Yeah, I think people have been laughing at the line about accuracy ever since the first second viewing!

And the stormtroopers wear the armor because it looks cool. And it's such an iconic look that they can't change it, not with all those stormtrooper dog toys to sell.

But yeah, the Star Wars movies have always been unrealistic and filled with movie clichés, Lucas deliberately used all the silly clichés of kids' adventure films, and made them exciting and endearing. Funny how the fanboys accepted them all at face value, until they saw them used with a girl protagonist. Then all of a sudden they're objecting to the illogic.