The first teaser trailer for the newest Star Wars movie: Rogue One, just dropped today. However, does it stack up against The Force Awakens’ amazing trailers, and what does it promise us for the movie itself this December? Here’s my Rogue One trailer review.
We’ve got just over 8 months to go until the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but this first trailer has already ramped up the hype levels in early April. With the release of this trailer, it looks like Rogue One will be following a similar marketing path to The Force Awakens (which was absolutely fantastic, so no complaints), so there will be more to come soon, however let’s get stuck into this Rogue One teaser trailer review.
Jyn Erso
Her name may look as misspelt as Terminator Genisys, but Felicity Jones will be playing Jyn Erso, the main protagonist of Rogue One.
The trailer doesn’t give us too much insight about who Erso is now, but we get some background about her character. According to Mon Mothma, she’s reckless and aggressive, and has been on her own since 15, and according to a man who’s arresting Jyn, she’s a criminal many times over.
Fortunately, we’ve still got so much more to learn about the newest hero in the galaxy far, far away, but with a shady background and a clearly rebellious personality (take that line: ‘This is a rebellion, isn’t it? I rebel.’), she looks to be one of the most fascinating Star Wars characters (almost like a female Han Solo) of all.
The Bad Guys
If you didn’t know already, Rogue One is set just before the events of A New Hope, so there’s no First Order or Kylo Ren here, it’s back to the good old evil old Galactic Empire.
In this teaser, we didn’t get a look at the likes of Darth Vader or the Emperor, both of whom are rumoured to appear, but there are a few shots that allude to the almighty power of the Empire at its height.
For one, the image above of a shady figure arriving before some sort of chamber and kneeling is most likely to be Darth Vader (wearing a hood) bowing to the Emperor (considering the Imperial Guards stand either side of the chamber).
Then there’s this quick shot of who I’m pretty sure is Grand Moff Tarkin. Of course, the actor Peter Cushing, who played him in the original, has since passed away, so Ben Mendelsohn’s taking on the role.
However, his appearance means that we’re sure to get a look into how the Empire worked at the time as well as following the efforts of the Rebellion.
And of course, there are lots of Stormtroopers. Getting blown up, missing targets five feet away, you know the score, but there’s a very good reason to be really excited about the prospect of Stormtroopers.
Firstly, they’re wearing the classic Stormtrooper uniform from the Original Trilogy, but also, there’s a huge variety of different imperial foot soldiers in Rogue One. We’ve got the standard trooper as seen above, but there are also some brief shots of Sand Troopers, and one menacing Death Trooper, who works in Darth Vader’s SS-like special squadron.
And seeing as none of our Rebel heroes are Jedis or have the Force, the Stormtroopers will be a lot stronger and more dangerous in Rogue One than we’re used to seeing.
The Trailer Itself
There’s all sorts of stuff going on in this trailer, including Forest Whittaker’s unnerving monologue towards the end, but we’ll undoubtedly learn more about that later on in the year.
However, as far as the trailer itself goes, it’s a pretty good one. I prefer it to the April teaser of The Force Awakens, as we get a little bit more of a narrative instead of random shots, but there’s still a huge amount of mystery and lack of knowledge about this film, which means that this trailer has done its job.
Finally, what I found most interesting about the trailer is that, whilst it teases the return to the galaxy far, far away, it looks a whole lot more like a war film than a Star Wars film.
There are a few glitzy shots of the Rebel base, Star Destroyers and the Death Star, but the most fascinating aspect about this teaser is the way that it portrays the Rebels’ battles.
This concept art (which turns out to be pretty accurate), as well as the shot of the AT-AT above, show that this film has a much stronger war vibe than the saga editions. There are a few shots early on in the trailer in and around Mos Eisley that make this look an awful lot like a Middle Eastern, Hurt Locker/Zero Dark Thirty-ish war thriller, whereas that shot above gives it a vibe that meshes Saving Private Ryan and the Vietnam War.
We know this isn’t going to be a normal Star Wars film, and that’s great to see, as we’re getting a much wider, more varied look at the galaxy. There’s still a lot more to come, however, from Rogue One, and the hype train hasn’t even begun yet!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is set to be released in the US and UK on December 16, 2016.
