If Darth Vader is fucking people up, I hope it's with force chokes, punches, and by shooting them with his special Tie Fighter. Keep the light sabers for the Jedi movies.
I still want a western featuring Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi slicing Tuskan Raiders in the Tattooine outback.
I'm sure they will diverge from the original movies soon. But (unless I'm forgetting something) Rogue One is the first major motion picture that isn't a Skywalker Numbered Family Star Wars Film. Disney has banked some goodwill with Episode VII, but it's a smart play to flesh out some well-worn territory - at least until they wrap up Episode IX - before creating some new material that may not be immediately recognizable to casual fans.
Marvel didn't open the MCU with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man. But they established their brand so well with the big-name characters up to that point that people who had never heard of GotG were lining up on day one to see it.
Let them work on putting their stamp on what's already out there first. We will get the obscure stuff eventually.
Here's my list of things that make a Star Wars thing a Star Wars thing that is pleasing to me (in no particular order):
- Light Sabers - Blasters - Droids - The Force - Jedi vs Sith stuff
Here's what Disney seems to think makes a Star Wars thing a Star Wars thing that will please me:
- Death Stars
Come on! Death Stars got old in Return of the Jedi. Then the plans for the first Death Star turned up in Attack of the Clones, and was already being built at the end of Revenge of the Sith. Then we had a Star Destroyer base in The Force Awakens. Can't we move on?
Star Destroyers TIE Fighters X-Wings Y-Wings B-Wings CR90 Corvettes Super Star Destroyers Lambda Shuttles Lightsabers Darth Vader The Sith The Jedi The Emperor's Red Imperial Guard Blasters
I'm just fucking crazy stoked for Rogue One considering the crew behind it, which are all like, Black Hawk Down peeps and stuff. I never gave a shit about no jedis or lightsabers; I'm here for the military sci-fi action. Gimme space tanks and blaster rifles built out of military surplus and giant walkers and elaborate hanger sets and snazzy uniforms. Gimme them shots looking out of the cockpit where you can see all the dials and buttons on an X-Wing's dashboard.
Star Destroyers TIE Fighters X-Wings Y-Wings B-Wings CR90 Corvettes Super Star Destroyers Lambda Shuttles Lightsabers Darth Vader The Sith The Jedi The Emperor's Red Imperial Guard Blasters
Here's what George Lucas thought made a Star Wars thing a Star Wars thing that I would like:
- Darth Vader
Look how that turned out.
Specific space ship designs are appealing to me, but the technology behind them and the defining rules of the world are what makes them work on screen and within the story.
In the Force Awakens, suddenly a ship could go through force field shields but only in hyperdrive and then they come out and slow down in time and but only the Millennium Falcon when piloted by Han Solo. So why not, in Return of the Jedi, do that trick on Bespin?
The stories you can tell with space ships are only as good as the rules they follow. JJ Abrams doesn't know how to follow rules. For example, why did they use the snow speeders on Hoth when we now know X-Wings can maneuver just as well within planetary atmospheres?
In the Force Awakens, suddenly a ship could go through force field shields but only in hyperdrive and then they come out and slow down in time and but only the Millennium Falcon when piloted by Han Solo. So why not, in Return of the Jedi, do that trick on Bespin?
Different frequency shield. And/or they've never done it before because it's INCREDIBLY risky, so they don't know it will work and don't want to take the chance in RotJ. There are tons of plausible explanations. Just because you do something crazy and dangerous as a last-ditch effort and it works doesn't mean you should have been doing that thing all along.
The stories you can tell with space ships are only as good as the rules they follow. JJ Abrams doesn't know how to follow rules. For example, why did they use the snow speeders on Hoth when we now know X-Wings can maneuver just as well within planetary atmospheres?
Super Star Destroyers Star Destroyers Lambda Shuttles Pretty much anything actually evil and badass like Palpatine, and not pussy evil like baby Solo. X-Wings TIE Fighters Aliens that are not friendly
Technically the X-Wings in Force Awakens are a brand new model. T-70 rather than T-65. So maybe that gives them enough leeway to explain away the atmospheric performance?
Nah, it makes sense to me. You've got two forces - one evacuating with large ships that would benefit from a fighter escort, one ground force trying to buy the evac force time that would benefit from air support. You have two sets of craft - In-atmosphere snowspeeders that can't do much damage to AT-ATs but will fuck up ground troops and emplacements, and X-wings that are capable of spaceflight, and have their own hyperdrives. You're going to lose the Snowspeeders anyway, when the empire take the base. Why not use them, rather than waste(And potentially lose) X-wings that could be providing fighter support to larger craft on doing the same job that you can handle with the Snowspeeders?
Yes, I know these things can be explained away in better or worse ways.
My point is that in the Lucas Star Wars movies, it felt like the different space ships had strengths and weaknesses. The Millennium Falcon could go really fast in space, but could hardly hold itself together and didn't spend Much time in atmospheres. X-wings were long range fighter bombers. For in-atmosphere action other vehicles took he lead.
I would much rather have seen more varieties of space ships in The Force Awakens, not just having those two classic designs fulfill all the roles.
There wasn't a lot of variation in A New Hope, it wasn't till Empire and Jedi that you started getting the crazy amounts of ships with specialized roles.
Nope. Blockade runner looked different and had a different function to the Star Destroyers, the Tie Fighters, the Millenium Falcon, the X-wings and Vader's special tie fighter.
As different people had to do different things in the following movies, new ship designs came along to fill those gaps.
There were only more and more ship designs as the story needed people to do new things.
The Force Awakens? Slightly different shuttle designs. There isn't a new iconic ship design that comes to mind.
I liked the new trailer, but there was a certain... mass-produced feel to it at least in the music cues. You have the "single piano key opening" leading up to the "BWWAANN" towards the end. Granted in the middle you have some Star Wars music.
So far it does look like they're angling for the Young Woman action hero crowd a la Hunger Games and Divergent.
Be interesting if the fan theory of "Rogue One is Rey's mother" is true.
Be interesting if the fan theory of "Rogue One is Rey's mother" is true.
I'm buying it.
It makes a lot more sense than the other theories out there. I thought it was obvious she was Luke's daughter immediately after watching The Force Awakens, but I've come to think that is just too obvious.
My personal theory on Rey's lineage is that she is the child of two Jedi-in-training at Luke's academy.
It's totally possible that Luke could have set out to find people for his first crop of Jedi, and come back with everything from Ben Solo to random force sensitive 20-somethings. Two of them fall in love, and Rey is born and raised at the Jedi academy, a "Jedi brat" if you will, hanging around while the older people train up. When Ben Solo loses his shit and becomes Kylo, whatever drama and conflict goes down at the academy, Rey is mysteriously not present, and this sticks in Kylo's mind. Rey was whisked away, hidden on a planet. Kylo knows she's out there, another potential Jedi that might one day grow strong and take him down.
My personal theory on Rey's lineage is that she is the child of two Jedi-in-training at Luke's academy.
It's totally possible that Luke could have set out to find people for his first crop of Jedi, and come back with everything from Ben Solo to random force sensitive 20-somethings. Two of them fall in love, and Rey is born and raised at the Jedi academy, a "Jedi brat" if you will, hanging around while the older people train up. When Ben Solo loses his shit and becomes Kylo, whatever drama and conflict goes down at the academy, Rey is mysteriously not present, and this sticks in Kylo's mind. Rey was whisked away, hidden on a planet. Kylo knows she's out there, another potential Jedi that might one day grow strong and take him down.
Mmmm, nah.
You know what I'm looking for in the Disney Star Wars that nobody seems to have even mentioned.
WHERE'S LANDO?
[Insert Photoshop of Billy D with a Colt 45 and a Waldo hat]
Be interesting if the fan theory of "Rogue One is Rey's mother" is true.
I'm buying it.
Not only would it be better from a story-perspective than an obvious tie-in to extant characters (i.e. Luke's daughter or something), but it also makes things like Rogue One a vital part of the "main" movie series.
So now we'll get side movies tying directly to the main plot, and Disney will create a culture that demands we consume all of it to stay current.
Think about how every Marvel movie lately has had a "stinger" at the end. That's now a cultural thing. People who are up on it will stay and watch because we know that's how it's done.
And now we'll go and watch those side movies because Disney will create a precedent that we need to.
Comments
I still want a western featuring Ewan McGregor as Ben Kenobi slicing Tuskan Raiders in the Tattooine outback.
Marvel didn't open the MCU with Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant Man. But they established their brand so well with the big-name characters up to that point that people who had never heard of GotG were lining up on day one to see it.
Let them work on putting their stamp on what's already out there first. We will get the obscure stuff eventually.
- Light Sabers
- Blasters
- Droids
- The Force
- Jedi vs Sith stuff
Here's what Disney seems to think makes a Star Wars thing a Star Wars thing that will please me:
- Death Stars
Come on! Death Stars got old in Return of the Jedi. Then the plans for the first Death Star turned up in Attack of the Clones, and was already being built at the end of Revenge of the Sith. Then we had a Star Destroyer base in The Force Awakens. Can't we move on?
Star Destroyers
TIE Fighters
X-Wings
Y-Wings
B-Wings
CR90 Corvettes
Super Star Destroyers
Lambda Shuttles
Lightsabers
Darth Vader
The Sith
The Jedi
The Emperor's Red Imperial Guard
Blasters
- Darth Vader
Look how that turned out.
Specific space ship designs are appealing to me, but the technology behind them and the defining rules of the world are what makes them work on screen and within the story.
In the Force Awakens, suddenly a ship could go through force field shields but only in hyperdrive and then they come out and slow down in time and but only the Millennium Falcon when piloted by Han Solo. So why not, in Return of the Jedi, do that trick on Bespin?
The stories you can tell with space ships are only as good as the rules they follow. JJ Abrams doesn't know how to follow rules. For example, why did they use the snow speeders on Hoth when we now know X-Wings can maneuver just as well within planetary atmospheres?
What's next?
Star Destroyers
Lambda Shuttles
Pretty much anything actually evil and badass like Palpatine, and not pussy evil like baby Solo.
X-Wings
TIE Fighters
Aliens that are not friendly
My point is that in the Lucas Star Wars movies, it felt like the different space ships had strengths and weaknesses. The Millennium Falcon could go really fast in space, but could hardly hold itself together and didn't spend Much time in atmospheres. X-wings were long range fighter bombers. For in-atmosphere action other vehicles took he lead.
I would much rather have seen more varieties of space ships in The Force Awakens, not just having those two classic designs fulfill all the roles.
As different people had to do different things in the following movies, new ship designs came along to fill those gaps.
There were only more and more ship designs as the story needed people to do new things.
The Force Awakens? Slightly different shuttle designs. There isn't a new iconic ship design that comes to mind.
So far it does look like they're angling for the Young Woman action hero crowd a la Hunger Games and Divergent.
Be interesting if the fan theory of "Rogue One is Rey's mother" is true.
It's totally possible that Luke could have set out to find people for his first crop of Jedi, and come back with everything from Ben Solo to random force sensitive 20-somethings. Two of them fall in love, and Rey is born and raised at the Jedi academy, a "Jedi brat" if you will, hanging around while the older people train up. When Ben Solo loses his shit and becomes Kylo, whatever drama and conflict goes down at the academy, Rey is mysteriously not present, and this sticks in Kylo's mind. Rey was whisked away, hidden on a planet. Kylo knows she's out there, another potential Jedi that might one day grow strong and take him down.
You know what I'm looking for in the Disney Star Wars that nobody seems to have even mentioned.
WHERE'S LANDO?
[Insert Photoshop of Billy D with a Colt 45 and a Waldo hat]
So now we'll get side movies tying directly to the main plot, and Disney will create a culture that demands we consume all of it to stay current.
Think about how every Marvel movie lately has had a "stinger" at the end. That's now a cultural thing. People who are up on it will stay and watch because we know that's how it's done.
And now we'll go and watch those side movies because Disney will create a precedent that we need to.
Personally, I find it brilliant.