I got an early Christmas present last night with the new trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , which is the first spin off movie of the franchise and scheduled for release this December. Now the first trailer was good (view it here) but this one gave me chills and multiple nerdgasms.
Let’s hyperdrive into it in three slices:
Wonderful rebel scum
Rogue One is set between Episodes III and IV and tells the story of the rebels that stole the plans for the original Death Star. The new trailer opens with the stirring somber notes of the Imperial March theme and then the words of Clone Wars veteran Saw Gerrera, played by a bedraggled Forest Whitaker, speaking of the spread of the Empire across the galaxy. He is speaking with rebellious rebel Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) who seems to be trying to convince him to join the Rebel cause.
This trailer gives us more of our motley crew and got me even more excited to see them on screen. We get some moments of Erso speaking passionately about the rebellion, some light moments between her and former Imperial pilot Bodhi Rook and also assassin Baze Malbus blasting the crap out of some storm troopers.
But the highlights are definitely reprogrammed Imperial enforcer droid K-2SO (voiced by Firefly’s Alan Tudyk) telling Erso “the captain says you are a friend, I will not kill you”, which is all I need to hear to know and love the character, and blind warrior Chirrut Imwe (martial artists Donnie Yen) kicking all kind of Imperial backside. We have not seen anyone like Imwe in Star Wars before and he tops my list of coolest looking new characters.
This means war
This trailer also turns up the action with more of the battle sequences. I love the boots on the ground, gritty, dirty war feeling I get from these scenes. We see the rebels fighting Stormtroopers in some type of village and storming a beach like it’s D-Day. Lots of stuff blows up and lots of people get dead. And when that AT-AT got hit in the “face” by a rocket I felt like jumping out of my seat.
I am thoroughly enjoying this more practical, realistic approach to creating these battles as it makes it easier for the viewer to get immersed in the action. And it is a very welcome change from the video game looking CGI fests of the prequel trilogy.
Shadows of the Original Trilogy
The trailer harkens back a lot to the beloved original trilogy. We have the aforementioned Imperial march playing at the start and at the end, a shot of rebellion leader Mon Mothma, that blaring Imperial alarm and then Darth freaking Vader! Sure it’s just the back of his head and the sound of his mechanical breathing but that is more than enough to get the fan juices stirring.
But while I expect references to the older films I predict that Rogue One will be less homage than The Force Awakens was. The new film definitely has a dark tone and strong war feel compared to the more fantasy aspects of the other movies. If Lucasfilm is going to be giving us spin off films every two years (next up is a Han Solo prequel film) it is wise that they go the Marvel route and make each film unique and a genre within a genre. And if Rogue One is Dirty Dozen/Saving Private Ryan in space then sign me up.
So what was your favorite part of the trailer? Feel free to comment below. And if enjoyed this post feel free to like or share it.
For my post on the planned ABC Star Wars TV series you can click here and for my post on the Top 5 things I want to see in Episode VIII you can click here. And for more movie posts where the Force is strong you can check out new posts on redmangoreviews Monday to Friday or follow me on Twitter @suprememango012 for updates. Julien is outie like a navel. l8rs
NB -All photos courtesy of Lucasfilm.
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