Rogue One - Predictions/Thoughts (just for fun)

To preface this - I'm sure and actually hope I'll be proven wrong on most of these fronts. I like being surprised when watching a film, any film, any Star Wars film included. Now going into 'The Force Awakens' I was definitely surprised by how closely they stuck to the 'A New Hope' format, and yet was also pleasantly intrigued/delighted by little subversions they did with characters like Kylo Ren and Finn. So without further ado, here go a couple of things I'm basing purely on the limited promotional material I've seen thus far, I feel may come across out scenes come another December of Star War fervour...

Firstly, the trailers for reference throughout the article -

1. This will be a different beast to Godzilla (no pun intended)

Director Gareth Edwards' last film was the blockbuster reboot of the Godzilla franchise, and it's a tricky one to decipher in terms of the overall response to it, critically - in fact, I myself don't quite know how I feel about it overall. It was visually stunning in terms of the buildup to the monster's threats with amazing cinematography, and maintained a good enough pace and tension throughout, but I never quite got the grandeur and sense of power that the likes of the original Godzilla had. Plus, there wasn't nearly enough of the titular beast, its third act didn't exactly deliver on the promises of the trailers, and though it was probably impossible to get Bryan Cranston to play a bigger role because of what I presume were clashes with the filming of Breaking Bad and his high price tag (remember, the cast was pretty stacked overall), I was majorly pissed when his character's death came halfway through as I really thought the film was onto something with the grief-striken Joe Brody at its helm. Now why do I think Rogue One will be a different case? Well firstly, this time round the film's script is being penned by the assured hands of veteran Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy. Since it's a Star Wars Anthology film where it acts as essentially a direct prequel to A New Hope, there's both a certain restraint on Edward's vision that might allow it to flourish even more, insofar as there's a specific area for Edwards to work within as opposed to the Godzilla film where he had to create a new universe all by himself. I expect the human element to be much stronger this time round since he has a great many talented actors to work with - they better not kill off Forest Whitaker 20 minutes in with an anti-climactic death. Moreover, whereas with Godzilla Edwards seemed to prefer focusing on the buildup to the monsters than the monsters themselves, from what we've seen of the trailers so far he seems much more comfortable in exploring the Star Wars universe. I think Edwards is a very talented director, I've thought so ever since I saw Monsters, so I'm very hopeful to say the least.

2. It will be a strong contender for Best Cinematography Oscar

Even if it ends up being a disappointment, from what I've gathered from images and trailers thus far it all looks rather...perfect. That latest trailer showcased so many wonderful establishing shots, from that Imperial ship enveloping itself out of the darkness to the shot of Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) firing a headshot at an AT-AT. There'll certainly be strong competition - out of the films I've seen already this year, The Neon Demon, Green Room, and Captain America: Civil War have some particularly great camerawork - but I'm fairly certain it'll all be a feast for mine eyes.

3. Felicity Jones will prove the naysayers wrong

I really don't think the Star Wars universe or Disney are trying to make 'feminist statements' in their casting of female leads, nor is it something completely out of the ordinary, think about all the Alien films, Having said that, I've seen a lot of hate towards the casting choice of Oscar-winner Felicity Jones being directed not so much at her being a woman, but that she doesn't seem 'right' for the role of an impetuous rebel with the key to finding the Death Star plans. Now seeing as we know very little about Jyn Erso at this point, that's a stupid statement to make. Moreover, people criticizing her physicality, voice (Jones does have a very distinct clipped RP accent), and ability to carry a film on her shoulders don't even know what sort of rebel she'll be. She could easily be the sort who resorts to wits and smarts and not brawn to battle the Empire; I'm actually even more intrigued by a character who uses those qualities than your standard 'strong female character' done to the death. Plus, anyone who doesn't think Jones is a good actress should check out The Theory of Everything where the more I think about it, she's even more essential to the film's power than Eddie Redmayne, or Like Crazy where she infuses so much emotional power into what is essentially a very standard romance of fickle people.

4. Bodhi Rook and Galen Erso will have bigger roles than one might expect

The latest trailer had one quick shot of Riz Ahmed's Bodhi Rook, a former Imperial pilot who's done a heel-face turn and is working for rebellion, and what we've seen of Mad Mikkelsen's Galen Erso thus far have been one or two publicity images. Now this could end up becoming a case of Max Von Sydow or Gwendoline Christie - fairly well-known actors playing throwaway roles (thus far). I doubt it, though. Ahmed and Mikkelsen have gradually gained more prominence in the Hollywood scene in recent years, particularly Ahmed coming off his solid performance in Nightcrawler and big-budget products like Jason Bourne. I'm certain their characters will have slightly bigger roles than we've been led to believe thus far, since the concept of an ex-Imperial pilot does have a lot of potential to work with, and if rumours are anything to go by the relationship between Galen and Jyn Erso will form some part of the film's emotional core.

5. I was dubious about Donnie Yen, but after these trailers...

...I'm pretty stoked, to be honest. I was kind of questioning the very nature of having a blind Asian martial artist in the Star Wars universe; it struck me as being a bit too, trope-y, a bit too stereotypical. Well after seeing Yen's Chirrut Îmwe kick some serious Imperial ass in the trailers, consider me sold thus far. The fact that Chirrut is a man who's not Force-sensitive in the usual way, but still at one with the force, is extremely interesting. I like how the franchise is stepping away from the whole midi-chlorian mumbo jumbo and treating it more like a way of life and religion that some are attuned to, some are not, but all can believe in it against the odds.

6. The Rebels will have a very 'Guardians of the Galaxy meets Edge of Tomorrow' sort of feel

All the way back to Seven Samurai and The Dirty Dozen, till Sucide Squad most recently, we audiences love our ragtag group of heroes. It helps us identify with their flawed natures, but also makes the payoff when watching them do good deeds, awesome deeds, all the better. The archetypes of character's I've discussed thus far seem to indicate that Rogue One is also going in this direction; Ahmed described the film's tone as being rather 'rough and ready' and the team being a 'pack of misfits'. This would seem to stand in stark contrast to The Force Awakens where bar the new entries of stormtrooper on the run Finn and the mysterious Rey, the Resistance was mostly composed of rather assuredly good and graceful, and not at all motley, sorts like Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron. I'm intrigued to see how Rogue One will make a certain contrast.

I feel like a character like Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) could be a more cynical, jaded version of Poe's sort of character. Luna's an actor I haven't seen anything of besides small roles in Milk, The Terminal and Elysium. How will he acquit himself as essentially the secondary lead of the story (unless they pull a Bryan Cranston/Steven Segal in Executive Decision on him)? It remains to be seen, but again based on what I've seen so far he seems to be taking a deadpan approach with steadfast conviction, which bodes well.

K-2SO (played with mo-cap by the egregiously underrated Alan Tudyk), is very clearly a subversion of C-3PO down to his declaration of the odds for the Rebel's mission, and also as a sort of subversion of Tudyk's career playing robots thus far. The last android he played was Sunny in I, Robot where he gave a rather compelling depiction of a sensitive, curious and kind-hearted android wrongly accused of murder. This K-2SO seems perfectly capable of murder ('the captain says you are a friend - I will not kill you') and I can't wait to see which side he'll turn up on.

Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen) has already gained quite a bit of publicity for of course, those awesome shots of him in the recent trailer, his wonderful head of hair, the unique casting of a Chinese actor who's known for his dramatic work more than action work, his dynamic with Donnie Yen's Chirrut, and of course the fact that his character is a freelance assasin. That sort of character, in both the prequels and the original trilogy, was more commonly a minor antagonist character in the form of Zam Wessell and Bobba Fett who for some reason most people love, I really don't see why. Anyway, back to the point. As for all the other characters, I can't wait to learn more about Baze Malbus. I love the presentation of him thus far, and it'll be fascinating to see how his earthly bravado contrasted with Chirrut's spiritual contentment with 'all is as the force wills it', may cause friction and resolution. I've only seen Jiang Wen in Let the Bullets Fly where he was a very entertaining straight man - let's see what the film will make of him this time round.

Ah, and Forest Whitaker. I'll admit when I first heard about the casting news I got bad whiplash back to the magnificent science-fiction extravaganza that was Battlefield Earth, which is what one might call the spiritual successor to the likes of Jupiter Ascending. Then I remembered that by all accounts Whitaker regrets doing that film, he clearly didn't invest any effort in that performance (with good reason), he was the least of that film's problems (those camera angles though), and unlike co-star John Travolta to an extent he's managed to salvage his career into a pretty excellent one, winning an Oscar for Best Actor 2006 for his fantastic portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland and getting steady work in substantial roles through a wide range of large-scale and indie film projects and television work over the years. I really like Whitaker a great deal as an actor, and especially like him when he seems particularly motivated in a role.

I still can't pinpoint exactly what sort of role Saw Gerrera will have as a Clone Wars veteran even though he's already an established character from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars series. The way he's delivering his lines reminds me a bit of his Jody in The Crying Game when he's doing his 'Scorpion and the Frog' scene, minus dodgy accent in a performance I'm a big defender of his performance of. My guess is that he'll be sort of a wild card, a veteran suffering from PTSD from years of conflict and who needs to be cajoled back into action by Jyn Erso, with whom he presumably shares some previous connection.

7. Ben Mendelsohn's Orson Krennic will be MVP 

How very daring, one might say, to presume this. And I'd certainly have to agree since I've had nothing to base this one apart from some brief character descriptions released and a few shots of Krennic glaring in the trailers, donned in some fantastic Imperial garbs. Also, the last time Mendelsohn featured in a huge Hollywood blockbuster of this sort of standard, it was The Dark Knight Rises where he played corrupt executive #1 in a decidedly uninspired fashion. Well, I haven't written that much about Mendelsohn in general beforehand (though if I'd re-watched Mississippi Grind earlier I would have for my Lead Actor lineup last year), but Mendelsohn's one of my favourite character actors working nowadays. I'm going through some of his work in his younger years in Australia, and I must say that even from his early 20's he was quite the dynamic onscreen presence. In terms of more recent work, he was a chilling, unrepentant gangster in the 2010 crime thriller Animal Kingdom, a wonderfully comforting motorbike mechanic in The Place Beyond the Pines, a compelling portrait of a British criminal in Starred Up, nicely sleazy sorts in Killing Me Softly and Exodus: Gods and Kings.

His lead performance in Mississippi Grind was probably one of the most underrated performances of last year as the down-on-his luck gambler Gerry, equal parts heartbreaking and charismatic. I look forward to seeing him do a complete 180 degree turn as the obsessive Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Military who stakes his reputation with the Death Star. I'd originally thought they'd probably be going with the Grand Moff Tarkin route for Krennic, but then I remembered Domhnall Gleeson did essentially that with his entertaining Admiral Hux in The Force Awakens. It worked, but I doubt they'll do the same thing twice, which makes me very interested to see how the screenwriters and Edwards have taken on this Imperial authority figure with a different sort of approach.

8. The soundtrack by Alexandre Desplat will be worthy of John Williams' standard

John Williams is one of my favourite film composers of all-time, his themes to Jurassic Park and Jaws are essentially the standard by which all blockbusters should strive towards nowadays. I'm not too fussed he's not working on Rogue One though, I'm sure he's a very busy man (he couldn't even find time to work with Speilberg on a very typical Speilberg-Williams sort of film Bridge of Spies last year!!), he'll need time to work on Episode VIII, and his replacement is a very talented chappie. The last time Desplat worked on a film with Felicity Jones in a leading role, it was The Theory of Everything. This could not be a more different film, and I'm all ears. He won the Oscar for The Grand Budapest Hotel a few years back, has done sterling work previous to that, and I love what he's done with the Imperial March based on the trailers thus far. I think it's brilliant to use such an imposing and iconic score and give it a sort of inspirational, emotional quality.

9. The plot will kick off with a slow burn as opposed to a big BANG

Let me elaborate on what I mean here. This could be the first ever Star Wars film not to have an opening crawl. I'm not sure whether that's been confirmed anywhere, but I'm pretty certain of this. In addition to that, I think it'll make for a marked contrast with The Force Awakens in particular, to open proceedings in a particularly understated fashion. Of course, I could be completely wrong and they could open with a magnificent action set-piece, one of the many we've seen in the trailers (I'd bet on the glimpses of the setting in the second trailer where we see Blaze Malbus crying 'they destroyed our home'). I personally think however, they'll open on a quieter note. Whether it'll be Galen Erso being brought in to be briefed on her mission, watching Krennic overseeing the construction of the Death Star, Forest Whitaker and Felicity Jones, or something else entirely, my guess is that in classic Gareth Edwards style we'll begin with a mysterious note that gradually crescends into the epic grandeur we all expect from Star Wars.

10. Darth Vader will only appear in the third act

Again, I could be completely wrong and wouldn't mind being so. After all, who doesn't want a bit more Vader in their lives? Based on the relatively low-key nature of the news of James Earl Jones recording his lines, and the mystery they've surrounded his inclusion into Rogue One, plus the fact that Vader is so powerful a figure that he provides a problem for screenwriters to write their way around him sometimes, makes me feel like he won't have that much screentime, and will only play a direct role in the third act as a 'final boss' of sorts. I wouldn't worry too much even in the unlikely event I'm right. People tend to forget Vader only has 12 minutes of screentime in A New Hope, and with that the film made him one of the most iconic villains of all-time.

11. Who'll be knocked off, who won't?

Again, I reiterate, this is purely for fun. I won't be jinxing my watching of the film because I know these preidctions are grounded in nothing but presumption, but just to see how much of this tally I get right come December time -

Knocked Off - Cassian Andor, Orson Krennic, Chirrut Îmwe, Bodhi Rook, Galen Erso

Live -  K-2SO, Baze Malbus, Saw Gerrera

Jyn Erso - I really, really don't know. My heart says yes, she'll live, my head thinks no.

Don't hedge any bets on these, though, please. I'm sure they'll be completely wrong, and Weasel from Deadpool would definitely not put the odds in my favour.

12. No romance

Nothing wrong with a bit of lovey dovey here and there in the Star Wars universe, we all love a bit of Han and Leia (*sob*). Of course there's always that tragic love triangle between Anakin and Padmé and sand (*sob), Anyway, the gritty and cynical vibes I'm getting from Rogue One mean that I'm thinking there won't be any of that sort of stuff going round on either side. I think Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso

13. Jar Jar Binks won't be back, unfortunately

I don't hate the character as much as many seem to, but I certainly don't like him at all, and one good things the prequels did was bringing down his screentime with every film. Having said that, I doubt anyone is willing to bring him back just for a payoff demise, since I'm sure Jar Jar has fans, and it'd all be a bit pointless. Although I could be a complete killjoy, and in actual fact they're bringing him into the third act with some sort of new backstory or secret that'll make him a crucial component to the Rebel's plans, and result in redemption for himself and his role in the prequel trilogy for a heroic sacrifice. I don't know if that's a great idea or an awful idea.

14. The film's ending ties into A New Hope...and whether it's dark or light, remains to be seen

There's one of two ways (though again, there may be more) they could intertwine this film with A New Hope. Obvious choice is to end on a 'cliffhanger' of sorts with Vader chasing the Tantive IV, or I've heard rumours about the remaining rebel members going to Alderaan to celebrate only to be blown up soon afterwards by Grand Moff Tarkin. Now that'd be a dark ending...

Hopefully I'm wrong on both these counts.