Rogue One

Discuss the upcoming instalment in the franchise!

Set between episode III and IV, it's interesting to see a film that takes a slightly different approach than the main series does!

It sounds like an interesting take on the "Star Wars" universe. 

C.

It was announced recently that Jimmy Smits would be reprising his role as Bail Organa for this one; as well as that, the woman who's going to play Mon Mothma was first cast in the role for a short, but ultimately deleted, cameo in Revenge of the Sith.

I quite like that, to be honest. Although much maligned, there is some merit in the prequels, and I think that going forward the new movies would do well to embrace the best parts of them - I think The Force Awakens was, I think, quite severely limited by how little political exposition it gave, presumably due to a fear of seeming like the prequels.

Quite looking forward to this movie, in any case. (Han Solo, on the other hand, is something I have a few reservations about....)

The Professor wrote:It was announced recently that Jimmy Smits would be reprising his role as Bail Organa for this one; as well as that, the woman who's going to play Mon Mothma was first cast in the role for a short, but ultimately deleted, cameo in Revenge of the Sith.

I quite like that, to be honest. Although much maligned, there is some merit in the prequels, and I think that going forward the new movies would do well to embrace the best parts of them - I think The Force Awakens was, I think, quite severely limited by how little political exposition it gave, presumably due to a fear of seeming like the prequels.

Quite looking forward to this movie, in any case. (Han Solo, on the other hand, is something I have a few reservations about....)

Will be exciting to see Mon Mothma and Bail Organa again! I'm really excited to see the universe fleshed out even more than it already has been.

As for political exposition, I think The Force Awakens did well not to include much. Serious, serious drawback of the prequels. No one wants to see trade negotiations in a Star Wars movie. I loved how in TFA they obliterated the entire Republic in one swift stroke, effectively ridding the universe of politics anyway. Now all that exists is the Resistance and the Empire. Just how I like it.

That being said, I don't think the political side of Star Wars is a bad thing. By all means, I love it. But I'm really only interested in the politics of the original trilogy era. And even then, it should only come in small and well-balanced quantities in the films. No one wants to come and see trade negotiations being disputed over in the senate. That was not the Star Wars that won over the world in 1977, I don't know why Lucas thought it would be in 1999 and 2002 (an even considerably politically apathetic era than the '70s). So I'm glad that Abrams identified that weakness and, quite literally, blew it out the sky in the TFA.


But anyway, yes, I'm so looking forward to this film. Star Wars is my favourite thing ever. They're the best films ever made in my eyes. And I can't wait to see more of the original trilogy era world. Stormtroopers, Rebels, the Empire vs our new heroes... But what I'm looking forward to most is Darth Vader. Ahhhh man, so excited. I hope we really get to see him kick some backside. And since the film is going to be a little more grittier than the main films, I'm hoping we get a dark scene or two with Vader. I really could just watch two hours of him straight to be honest.

Highly looking forward to it and being blown away by it like I was with Force Awakens and the originals!  Especially looking forward to Vader!  

~Valeyard

I really can't wait for this film. The hype train for me will kick in properly around the Force Friday toy event for me I reckon, can't wait to get some of the 6" figures. My main hopes for this film is to see Vader kick some butt, possibly killing a few major characters of the film ? And I'd love to see a cameo of the GHOST ship from Star Wars Rebels. It'd be a nice nod to the cartoon. This idea came for me from the Millennium Falcon appearing very briefly in Revenge of the Sith.

RE Politics...

The worry, though, is that we don't actually know a lot about the status quo of the galaxy at the start of The Force Awakens; we're hearing all this about the Resistance and the First Order, but it honestly just feels like we're watching A New Hope, except they scribbled in some new names onto the script. (Which is another part of the whole prequel fear, really.) I mean, in all seriousness, what can you tell me about how the galaxy is operating, quoting only from movie itself? Very little, is the answer.

Incidentally, the problem with the prequels isn't the politics; it's the script. The actual storyline, one of subterfuge and manipulation and corruption, is actually fantastic - they're just quite heavily let down by the fact that George Lucas isn't a very good writer. Brilliant at ideas, less so with words, as it were. He made the right choice in making the prequels noticeably different from the originals, and I just worry that the sequels, thus far, haven't. (I understand why, and don't expect them to remain that way, but it was still a little disappointing.)

Back to Rogue One - should it have the classic title crawl? At the minute, the indication is that it won't.