Rogue One

[GoktimusPrime]

New Rogue One trailer with behind the scenes goodies.

I think that the director makes a really good point when he says that the tricky thing with working with an existing franchise is that you want to respect it enough not to mess it up and keep it faithful, but you don't want to respect it too much so that you're just copying what's come before and not bringing anything new to the table. If you make it too different then fans cry, "Ruined Forever!", but if you make it too similar then fans cry, "New product, same packaging - losers." But it's good to hear that at least he has this in mind and sounds like he's trying to make a good movie, so matter how it turns out at least there seems to be earnest intention in the making of this film.

I'm personally far more forgiving of movies that could've been better but were made with honest intent (e.g. Star Wars Prequels) over movies that turn out rubbish because the director just doesn't seem to care enough (you all know what I'm talking about ). JMHO.

[philby]

i am excited for this and enjoyed the new stuff. i have to say though i am slightly nervous or apprehensive about it at the same time. i thought the initial description of the movie as being a slightly more gritty, darker, no jedi, scrappy war heist about the rebellion was very interesting and different. then recently disney ordered re-shoots because they didn't think it was 'star wars' enough or perhaps too dark. this has me thinking 'well the whole point from the beginning was to do something different, now at the end you are trying to change it'. is this going to make it worse? i feel like it could end up now being in some kind of limbo, in between something different but with light hearted moments shoe-horned in? i dunno.

also being a long time fan of various games, comics and books I won't accept anyone stealing the death star plans who isn't Kyle Katarn from what they've shown so far though I think though that Jyn Erso might possibly take some inspiration from Kyle so it's a little better hehe.

[Megatran]

I would like to see other intergalactic species taking the lead role or be the centre of the story piece ... rather than just being props on the set. Looks like yet another hu-man story in space somewhere.

[GoktimusPrime]

i thought the initial description of the movie as being a slightly more gritty, darker, no jedi, scrappy war heist about the rebellion was very interesting and different.

I like the idea idea of a Star Wars film that has no Force users in it. It would make it different from the mainstream Star Wars movies, but also because Force users are meant to be a very rare minority of people in the galaxy. Even at the height of the Jedi they were still a rarity, with Jedi numbering in thousands (I think) among the gazillion number of life forms throughout the galaxy. Many people would have never seen a Force user in their life, thus they've always been something of a myth. Even Qui-Gon Jinn explicitly said, "We're keepers of the peace, not soldiers." The Clone Army was created to bolster Jedi numbers, and of course Jedi were so rare that they only acted as commanding generals in the army, not infantry. Sith are even rarer due to their Rule of Two (to the point that the Jedi had come to believe that the Sith were just "boogeymen" and even the Jedi Council initially refused to believe that the Sith could be real). So I think that it would be really cool to see more Star Wars stories told from the POV of the more common folk in the SW universe rather than the elite few who have a high Midichlorian count^are Force sensitive.

then recently disney ordered re-shoots because they didn't think it was 'star wars' enough or perhaps too dark. this has me thinking 'well the whole point from the beginning was to do something different, now at the end you are trying to change it'. is this going to make it worse? i feel like it could end up now being in some kind of limbo, in between something different but with light hearted moments shoe-horned in? i dunno.

I think that a movie can be both dark, gritty and serious and light hearted at the same time. It all depends on how well it's done. The Empire Strikes Back struck this balance really well by having humorous moments punctuating the intensely dark and emotionally fuelled drama of the story, such as the 'running gag' of Han and Leia's constant arguing (which really was a product of their love for each other), Yoda's goofy silliness (a ruse to test Luke's patience) etc.

"Afraid I was gonna leave without giving you a goodbye kiss?"
"I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee."
"I can arrange that. You could use a good kiss!"

"No time to discuss this as a committee."
"I am not a committee!"

"How you get so big eating food of this kind?"

also being a long time fan of various games, comics and books I won't accept anyone stealing the death star plans who isn't Kyle Katarn from what they've shown so far though I think though that Jyn Erso might possibly take some inspiration from Kyle so it's a little better hehe.

Eh... Disney have officially stated that their films are ignoring Expanded Universe canon, so I guess Kyle Katarn is about as relevant to this period in the Star Wars film universe as Admiral Thrawn is to the sequels.

FWIW I agree with your sentiment. When news of the sequels was first announced I was really looking forward to seeing a lot of stuff from the books being adapted to screen - Thrawn, the Solo kids, Vornskyrs, Mara Jade Skywalker etc. -- and I was especially looking forward to seeing Vong Wars. Alas it's not gonna happen as they've decided to throw that all out in favour of this Knights of Ren thing, Super Leader Snooky-Pooks and other stuff yet to be revealed.

[GoktimusPrime]

Eh... Disney have officially stated that their films are ignoring Expanded Universe canon, so I guess Kyle Katarn is about as relevant to this period in the Star Wars film universe as Admiral Thrawn is to the sequels.

Looks like I spoke too soon about Thrawn.

[philby]

Looks like I spoke too soon about Thrawn.

yeah i was just about to say that haha. rebels S3 looking pretty damn epic!

[SharkyMcShark]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frdj1zb9sMY

[GoktimusPrime]

Squeeeeee!

Interesting to see that Genevieve O'Reilly is reprising her role as Mon Mothma (who she previously played in Revenge of the Sith), although she looks and sounds a lot more like the original here.

Donnie Yen's character's line of, "All is as the Force wills it," is interesting. Does this mean that he's a Force user? Former Jedi? Or something else? Because we know that many in the Star Wars universe believe in the Force even if they are not Force users (which makes sense since the Force binds all living things, but only a select few possess the ability to manipulate it). If he is a Jedi then this would be an interesting gesture, because Obi-Wan Kenobi was originally intended to be of Asian appearance. George Lucas initially envisioned Mifune Toshiro playing the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi (even the Jedi's name phonologically sounds Japanese), but Mifune declined believing that Star Wars would be a flop (as most people did before it came out), thus the role went to Sir Alec Guiness. So the possibility of seeing an Asian Jedi may be a slight nod to the initially intended ethnic appearance for ol' Obi-Wan. Or maybe I'm just clutching at straws here (yeah, probably).

I also liked seeing the Death Star "upside down," as there really is no concept of up or down in space anyway (or at best it's subjective).

[Raider]

Where is Ezra Bridger!?

[Lord_Zed]

I'll just be happy to see a Star Wars movie that's not about a Skywalker or Solo.