If any of you readers were bummed that we're not celebrating The Force Awakens for next week's Hit Me With Your Best Shot, feast your eyes on the first look at this year's trip to a galaxy far, far away! Coming on the heels of the franchise's massively successful beginning to a new trilogy, we have our first look at the series's first spin off: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Set between the events of the prequel trilogy and our original favorites, Rogue One (let's just drop the strange post-title, shall we) features the uprising of the rebels to steal plans of the Death Star. The cast is an unexpected and enticing ensemble of global talents and the Oscar annoited: Felicity Jones, Forest Whitaker, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, Mads Mikkelsen, Donnie Yen, and Riz Ahmed. If that cast doesn't already have you on board for any film containing them all, the future blockbuster is also director Gareth Edwards follow-up to the visually sumptuous Godzilla.
And this first teaser is just as much a visual powerhouse:
Let's break down the Yes No Maybe So of it all after the jump...
YES
- The action here is quite exciting. True to Edwards's aesthetic, there's an emphasis on scale - here with humans on the ground and the AT-AT's towering above. Edwards understands the power of this to create a visceral experience for the audience in ways so few of his big budget peers do.
- This is outright war. No trade federations or treaties to be had here. It may be set after the dreaded prequel trilogy, but there seems to be no influence from that era of the series.
- Ben Mendelsohn in a cape?! YAS QWEEN!
- This spin-off is still keeping canon elements. Mon Mothma never changed outfits over the decades!
- The ringing alarm is a strange and welcome alternative to the BWAHM Hans Zimmer sirens we get in our action trailers.
- Diverse casting!! Keep it up Disney.
- It's not just the combined excitement generated by each member of this ensemble, but that they're not drowning in silly genre costuming and makeup. Even character design is staying rooted in realism.
NO
- Space Katniss? Felicity Jones's toughness is unexpected and refreshing, but will her Jyn Erso be derivative of our contemporary female action heroes?
- Another Death Star? (yes, it's the same one from A New Hope but The Force Awakens already received this criticism)
- Does this mean Star Wars will monopolize the available screens for every holiday season? Last December wasn't friendly to smaller films
- There needs to be some levity. This is awfully brooding, and audiences are all but tired of the dark genre experience
MAYBE SO
- But this is how you do a Death Star. Doesn't it feel like the first time since the original that it feels like an actual threat?
- Finally Diego Luna gets the opportunity to be a blockbuster sexpot - if the movie takes it there...
- Rogue One is shot by Greig Fraser of Zero Dark Thirty and Bright Star. It's fascinating to think of what his eye can bring to this series.
For now, I am a solid YES on Gareth Edwards's vision! Are you a YES, NO, or a MAYBE SO?
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story opens on December 16!