First off, let’s peep the amazing Rogue One trailer that dropped during the Olympics last night:
So yeah, that was amazing. Just visually stunning and quite possibly (as my great friend Fish and I just discussed via text) the best CGI ever laid to film (does that make sense?). Now for some quick rants and raves – well, pretty much all raves:
- The opening shot was just amazing. Jedha truly looks like a holy place, and I have to admit, the shot reminded of of the opening shot of Naboo in TPM. Yeah, sue me. RAVE
- Forest Whitaker looks great as Saw Gerrera. While I loved the Onderon arc in The Clone Wars, he wasn’t my favorite character. And that was probably by design, but it was his sister Steela’s storyline, along with more growth for Ahsoka. Having said that, Whitaker looks GREAT in this role and I can’t wait to see what direction he will take it. RAVE
- The Cassian / Jyn dynamic seems great, can’t wait to see this develop further. Also, Mon Mothma FTW! RAVE
- The U-Wing Fighter looks great, but hopefully they can explain why we never see one again. UNDECIDED
- The whole Baze Malbus ‘you destroyed our home’ line…. More on my this at the bottom, below the spoiler alert warning……
- Donnie Yen FTW — ‘I fear nothing, all is as the Force wills it’. SUPERRAVE
- K-2SO looks like a scene stealer, as both of his lines in the trailer are great. Can’t wait to see more of him. Oh, and the CGI? Best we’ve ever seen in a full CG/mocap character in a Star Wars film. SUPERRAVE
- The shot of the Death Star over Jedha and the eclipse. Wow, just wow. The powers that be at Lucasfilm just seem to get it. And… more on this after the spoiler break below. RAVE
- Krennic looks amazing, but we already knew this. I can’t comment a lot here simply because we haven’t seen much. UNDECIDED
- Not sure if it’s just that we’ve never seen a locale like Scarif, but damn, it looks amazing. Such a Normandy feel to these scenes. And again, stunningly beautiful. RAVE
- Alright, let’s talk about the music. I LOVE it. I really hope this is either part of the actual soundtrack or the direction they are going with it. Love, love, love it. UBERRAVE
- X-Wings in the rain? Rocket launchers?? New, bigger Imperial Walkers??? Oh, hell yes. RAVE
- The TIE Fighter raising up on Jyn is a great shot, and seems reminiscent of older war movies maybe? I don’t know, don’t watch a lot of war movies. Either way, it’s a rad shot. RAVE
- Vader. Let’s all hope we get to see Vader doing very Vader things – as in things you hear about but we haven’t seen on the movie screen yet. More in the vein of Rebels and the Vader comic series, where he pretty much wrecks anything and anyone he wants. Either way — UBERRAVE
- No Mads Mikkelson / Galen Erso???? Ugh, I hope they’re hiding him for good reason…. RANT
Let’s face it, this trailer is bonkers good. Like, what more could we as Star Wars fans have hoped for?? It looks like a gritty war movie, but a Star Wars war movie. I don’t know how in the hell I’m gonna make it four more months, but Rebels coming back and the Ahsoka and Catalyst novels will ease my pain. Now for one or two POTENTIAL spoilers:
Look, I am no insider, but I have seen and absorbed enough Star Wars in all mediums to get a feel for certain shots. And I think that Alderaan was NOT the first planet to be destroyed by the Death Star. Based on quick glimpses and Baze’s comments, I think Jedha gets blasted into oblivion. This makes sense in a Star Wars kind of way, also, especially in regards to future storytelling. I mean, you introduce this Force holy land but we never hear anything else about it? Well, let’s blast it. Thematically it’s perfect as in it lets us get a glimpse of another planet being blown up and it helps the audience continue to align with the Jedi and the light side of the Force. Lastly, it spurns our heroes Baze and Chirrut on to want to crush the Empire and help the Rebellion. Makes sense, no?
