a weekend would usually be, look you see, a veritable hive of activity here. normally the coming of a saturday, followed in a most steadfast way by a sunday, would be a time that i bombard this blog with whatever comes to mind. i have, alas, been feeling somewhat dizzy and disorientated, and haven't really thought of much that would be of the mildest interest to put here.
for the sake of throwing something out into the universe this weekend via the channel or if you like conduit of this blog, then, let me do the predictable and join the swathes of people having a gander at the trailer for this new Star Wars movie.
the most distressing and upsetting thing about this, to get all them negative waves out of the way, is that Rogue One is now called A Star Wars Story. when they first announced it, right, they called it a Star Wars Anthology Story. that sounded way better. the word anthology is awesome, and should be used far more often than it currently is.
so, yeah, on to a look at nine or so (actually nine) images what i lifted off of the trailer. which is something that a lot of people have done over the last couple of days.
off we go then, with the at this stage presumed protagonist of the piece, someone called Jyn Esro, played by someone called Felicity Jones.
Felicity Jones joins that rare breed of person in a Star Wars film which is that of a girl sort of lady like person who actually has a presence and a speaking part in the universe. i think, and i stand to be corrected, that the original films - the ones fanboys based in Momma's basement in Wisconsin or similar - hold so dear only featured four female speaking parts. arguably five if you expand the definition to be more feminine that overtly female, for Luke did say quite a lot.
in the above this character of Jyn Esro is getting told off by Mon Mothma, the presumed leader of the rebellion in Return Of The Jedi and indeed 20 - 25% of the female speaking parts in the original trilogy. apparently fans are both "surprised" and "excited" that Mon Mothma is back, which makes it a bit of a pity that i didn't grab a picture of her here.
i did, however, get an image of what would seem to be them putting the last bit of the Death Star in place before they go off and twat some planets with it.
what's the plot or if you like anthology story of Rogue One? quite a smart idea for a film, really. it's all before the first Star Wars film, and tells the tale of the people who went off and stole the plans for the Death Star in order to work out how to blow it up. to this end, then, all and sundry would know how this movie ends, which is to say that the plans are stolen, handed to an adopted princess with a sense of entitlement that would put Sarah Ferguson to shame, and then the plans are shoved into a sort of mobile, partially automated bin that makes some funny noises. the fun and the surprise element, you would suspect or hope, comes in the story of how they do it.
i particularly like the above image. not because it shows brave rebels and that lass whose name i mentioned above going off to do some fancy flying and stealing, but because of them dudes to the right or left, whichever way around it should be said. them in non-orange, stood having a bit of a chat and a laugh. are they extras caught by accident, unaware that filming was on the go?
you would have thought the baddies, or if you like antagonists, of Rogue One would be pretty straightforward and familiar, but apparently not. here is some dude, whose character name has yet to be revealed, standing around in an Imperial uniform, or if you like the threads of the Empire.
despite having a veritable wealth of baddie like characters to choose from it seems they have elected to create a few more, or maybe to pluck some from all this "expanded universe" stuff which i am led to believe exists outside of the Star Wars film. now that i think on it, that Timothy Zahn, a writer of particularly bad and confusing books, has a claim to fame in writing the "most successful" of them "expanded universe" films.
more on the obvious choices of baddies in a little while, but whilst hovering on that subject, look, behold, a very welcome return to the traditional style of stormtrooper off of the original films.
this style of stormtrooper helmet and uniform has, of course, not been seen in an official Star Wars film since 1983. the reason for that is purely artistic - anyone making a Star Wars film with this style of stormtrooper in it would have to pay royalties to the bloke who designed it, so in an artistic way a decision was made to rather just use different styles. not artistic, sorry - accounting.
anyway, it's good to see them back, even if for some reason they are confusingly battling against a samurai.
hello, what's all this then? why would some sort of Japanese samurai warrior be wandering around, twatting people a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away? i suppose you could go all Australian on this one and say "well, why wouldn't there be". my best guess would be that this character exists as an offering to celebrating Star Wars as being a thing which embraced diversity, so long as it doesn't mean too many women, and has a character for all nations to identify with.
Japan, up to now, has probably had an absolute zero interest level in Star Wars. as a result of some sort of samurai being in this one, you would think that the people of that fine country will now embrace it. welcome to our world Japan, it is wonderful to finally accept you.
now, then, the subject of one of the more obvious forms of "big baddie" in Rogue One, and possibly the scene off of the trailer that has caused the most excitement. who is this, then?
instants speculation was that this is the predicted, and very welcome, return of Darth Vader. i am not so sure - that doesn't look like the awesome helmet one would associate with the character, and why would he wear a hood over it? the presence of imperial guards at either side suggests it could be the Emperor, which would be smart. it will probably be a red herring, and maybe this is just Jyn or whoever, or some other character.
maybe it's Mads Mikklesen? one of the most interesting things about this trailer is that there's, as far as we are aware, a complete absence of Mads. and yet he is ostensibly billed as the star of the film. i think an early promo image showed him as one of the gang of rebellion thieves, but i can't remember.
a look at the At-At things, or if you like Imperial Walkers, grooving around and twatting people with some fancy laser cannons? but of course.
also, no Boba Fett in this trailer. in terms of a timeline and a plot, Rogue One provides an excellent platform in which them at Disney could be using this character. they clearly intend to use him at some point, just as would be the case with Darth Vader, and that green frog that teaches people how to be violent in the name of a religion. we know this because Disney are marketing the heck out of these characters; the amount of times Disney have solicited £10 out of me for some Boba Fett related items would suggest they are "reminding" people that he is a thing in advance of a return to the films.
my theory on Boba Fett in Rogue One? maybe he gets hired off of Darth Vader to hunt down some of the rebels, and instead of capturing them he blows them up. that would explain how Vader knew Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back, and give some clarification to his "no disintegrations" clarification instruction in that film.
oh, look. part of the plot to steal the plans for the Death Star will feature dressing up as imperial spaceship flyers and sneaking around.
any backlash or negative comments about the trailer? but of course. around the internet i have seen the great displeasure some have - presumably mostly from the Momma's basement dwelling pond life that are "fan boys" - in the fact that the hero is a lady of a woman variety. i'm going to go right ahead and assume that the film studio would know what works better as a story and just let them get on with it. anyway, she looks smart, on the basis of what's in this less than two minutes trailer.
i think the most impressive part of Rogue One so far is how they've managed to keep virtually all of the production under wraps. no spy images from sets, no script leaks, no plot details beyond the obvious premise out there for people to see. well done on achieving that, in particular as some of them sets look like they were on the massive side of large.
hopefully this film turns out to be quite smart then. if nothing else, it would seem to be the film which finally opens up the Japanese market to the world of Star Wars.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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