A Star Wars story: Rogue One. - No spoilers impressions

So this will be as per usual the more spoiler free version, no major plot point or stuff revealed… (beyond what is revealed in the ep 4 crawl). More my own opinions and feelings about the movie in general and it´s place in the greater universe.

It was fucking awesome… .. .

In my opinion at least.

It was for all intents and purposes getting the whole “wink n nod” thing right. Unlike The Force Awakens that more or less pelted you over the head with “oh look at this callback to the old movies.” Rogue one does it a lot smoother and gentler. The plot, as far as you need it can be read in the opening crawl of ep 4. But it was a very good story and it wraps up nicely. This is important seeing as this movie is a sort of stand-alone movie. You do not like to have sequel or cross-over bait in a stand-alone movie. Sure it has a fairly large cast and more than a few of them end up nothing more than a face on the screen. But the core cast is solid and it is a diverse set of characters. Very nice to see and a welcome nuance from the Force Awakens.

The movie also gets both the visual and the audio bits really right. Beyond some really impressive special effects it also have a good overall visual style. The different planets are distinct and we get some “new” ones. Like the beach settings as well as some old classics. The audio is as solid as always, things sounds and feels the way it should.

It is also nice to see Disney are using the lessons learned from the Marvel movies and incorporate parts from the broader universe. This also explains why they first wiped the slate clean with the old expanded universe. Being able to pick out the best crumbs of 30+ years of brainstorming must be awesome.

Anyway. I will do a more spoiler type review next week. But my general thoughts are tat you should go see this if you like Star Wars or space fantasy in general.

Just don´t let your expectations choke you.

Cheers.

Trailers... Trailers everywhere.

So... 

This weekend-ish i caught two new trailers, both live action remakes of animated movies and both really good. First was the Ghost in the shell trailer. As someone who have not really read the manga, just watched the animated movie and the series. That trailer is looking really good and it seems to be doing a good job in capturing the feel and look of the source material. There have been accusations of white washing and i am sure they are not uncalled for. But there have been some fairly angry voices raised against the casting of Scarlett Johansson as major Motoko. 

Pisswash... That is what i say about that. Sure the character have a Japanese name but her design have always been "race" agnostic in that way that many anime and manga characters are. In fact i´d say the casting is eerily close to the source material. 

There seem to be a tad bit less nudity than in the original anime, but to be fair that was a smart choice as it did not really fill any real purpose beyond "boobies"... Well the in-universe logic was solid, but while you might need to be naked for the optic camo to work.. there is no need to create a universe where you need to be naked for optic camo to work. Especially when the same universe have  full body prosthetic. 

Now in way this is Ghost in the shell coming full circle, at least in Swden as there at one point was plans for the animated Ghost in the shell to go up on the silver screen. That never came to be, and here we are. 

Anyway.. go look up the trailer and if you have the time give the original animated movie a look.  

Next up is the answer to the question, what will Disney do when they run out of formats to re-release their movies on. Live action remakes seems to be the next thing. With Maleficent, Cinderella and the Jungle Book doing a more or less good job of masking this idea... Beauty and the Beast looks to be a more or less scene by scene recreation with some minor alterations to (i would assume) get away from some of the worst legacy sins of the original one. After all once one peeled back even the thinnest of layers in that movie, shit got dark.. quick. All in all things look good from the trailer and while i think the animated Beast look about... 10 times better, he ofc did not have to contend with reality in any shape. For what it is a like it. Will be interesting to see what they do (if anything) to adress the shortcomings of the old movie. After all you only need some very small tona shifts to have huge impact in that movie, Toss in some extra lines of dialogue and you might create a entirely new story.  Will also be interesting to see Emma Watson break away from her previous character of a witty and strong book-smart girl that sets her own path.... Yeah... Never mind. 

Still again watch the trailer for the nostalgia kick if nothing else. Just avoid the commentary field... It is... sad. 

Until next time, be safe and play fair. 

/T