The Art of Rogue One: Incredible art work for Jedha

I just found this artwork from Jedha. It is study that you can find in the book The Art of Rogue One.

I did not yet write any article about Rogue One but this picture of Jedha is really brilliant and this would have be gorgeous to see in the movie. You can really feel the oppression of the Empire on this picture: The Star Destroyer "sucking" life and energy of the city through these tubes, iconic Tie Fighters flying around, the fire and smoke showing devastation, this AT-ST controlling this long line of prisoners, refugees or pilgrims... This page alone shows what can do the Empire to any workld of the galaxy. It helps understand the motivations of the rebellion.
It is always hard to show this in the Films and Rogue One could have done much more on this aspect.

I think this book is worth a look !

related Amazon page : here

Book details :

This book is a visual chronicle of the Lucasfilm art department’s creation of new worlds, unforgettable characters, and newly imagined droids, vehicles, and weapons for the first movie in the Star Wars Story series—Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. In the same format and style as Abrams’ The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the book gives readers unprecedented access to hundreds of concept paintings, sketches, storyboards, matte paintings, and character, costume, and vehicle designs. The Art of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will stand as the definitive guide to the artwork and imagination behind the newest chapter in the Star Wars franchise and will delight Star Wars fans and cineastes for decades to come.

Star Wars Rebels Mid-season 3 Trailer: 4 Huge connections to Rogue One !

Just enjoy this trailer : 

THis is really amazing the quantity of content we see in this trailer. First I will shortly talk about the connections to Rogue One :

1. The search for the Imperial new weapon, the death Star: 
the opening episode featuring Saw Gerrera will be based on Geonosis. Saw on our rebels are trying to understand what the Empire has to done on the planet. They will probably get some first clues of the creation of a super weapon. (see an other related article here)

2. The death troopers: Grand Admiral Thrawn seems to have like Krennic his own guard of these elite troopers.

Star Wars CATALYST A Rogue One Novel - A must read to get emotionally involved in the movie!

This is my review of the "Catalyst a Rogue One Novel": a must read to get emotionally involved in the movie.

This is my review of the Novel that was released a month before Rogue One hits the theaters. I really enjoyed this book and here bellow I'll tell you why ! 

Compared to several Star Wars novel I have read, this is, for my point of view, a novel of a new type: The script is purely centered on the characters personality and feelings and not on the on going actions. 

What I mean is that events are just shortly described and action scenes are very few and short. As a result James Luceno is concentrated on showing us the interactions between the characters and how there feelings and thinkings will evolve during the events.

For me it denotes a real maturity of the Star Wars universe because space battles and blaster fights are not necessary  anymore to get high interest of the fans! 

Like during the Clone Wars animated serie, the main question during the whole novel is : till what point can we go in the name of defending ourself during a wars. Where is the limit between good and bad ? 

The story rotates around 

• the Erso family : Galen the genius scientist, Lyra is wife (a galaxy explorer) and Jyn (nearly only mentioned because she is very young at the time of the events).
• Director Krennic and Moff Tarkin who are both climbing the ranks in the Empire hierarchy. 
• Saw Gerrera: the rebel fighter has a long story crossing the Galen family. 

The goal of the Novel is to prepare to the movie in a way that you deeply understand the dilemma of the position of Galen Erso who is the key scientist needed to complete the Death Star weapon system based on Kyber Cristals. You will discover in the novel how Gallen get involved and slowly get inside the project convinced that it is made for the good of the galaxy. But At one point he steps back. Why that? you will have to discover it by yourself. After that you go nearly directly in the opening scene of the movie. 

Having red the book, makes much easier to understand some less narrated aspects of the movie: especially Galen message and the deep feelings for his daughter. Indeed, I have noticed on the net few critics of the film about the fact that the huge amount of actions scenes let nearly no room for knowing the characters and get in touch with them. The novel is here for that to. Know the back story of Gallen and Jyn I was much more emotionally involved in the fate of both. 

It is very interesting to learn the back story of Krennic. Tarkin is also a key player and James Luceno masters this characters who he dedicated the "Tarkin" Novel. 

Concerning time line of the book, it is spread over the several years: it starts during the clone wars before the Imperial era and finishes few years before the Rogue One events. 

it is a bit complex to understand if it is before or after the Tarkin book events. In the DEL REY TIMELINE reported at the beginning of the Novel, Tarkin comes first but I am pretty convinced events are actually at the same period. 

A very interesting fact that is really new is that the giant mobile battle station (later named Death Star) has been commissioned and started by the republic based on the plans recovered from the capture of the Geonosian leader Poggle the Lesser. the motivations was that most probably Dooku was doing the same thing somewhere else in order to crush the Republic. We know of course the truth...

Overall the Catalyst Novel is very nice and entertaining. I invite you to read it and watch (again) Rogue One. You will most probably watch the film with a new perspective.

Rogue one Final trailer : Awesome !

Rogue One, A Star Wars Story has reached the final step before theatre release. The final trailer and the Final Poster

This Poster is beautiful. Look at Vader on the top right and the texture (plans?) on Jyn face. Very nice. 

Now concerning the Trailer: I did not expect so much new images and story background content about Jyn's father and the rest of this "dirty dozen" team. So as it is the contrary, I was really impressed.

We see also incredible images of planetary and space dog fight with rebel fleet in the background.

New images of Saw Gerrera: we discover that he had quite a hard life since we met him on Onderon during the Clone Wars.... He has lost both legs and he wears mechanical implants. He looks more machine than man now and he definitely has paid a very heavy tribute to his rebel actions. So much that he seems to have lost hope. The mission of Jyn seem to give him something to grab to...

As announced Bail Organa is involved (you see him on the right side of the round table). 

The Rebel X-wing pilot with the red coloured helmet (very similar to Jek Porkins..) is unknown to me. Did you recognize him?

The Death Star will fire! (on Jedha?) Probably not at full power tough.

Last but not least Darth Vader is there . We see him very briefly and I am glad because I did not want the trailer to spoil his actions!

I cannot wait for December. The movie will be great. We will feel 100% the Star Wars universe: A team (=a family), the drama father and daughter, the fight rebels - Empire, the internal conflict on what is the non return point of violence! Awesome.

Previous Rogue One related Post :

• Trailer
• Trailer 2
• Saw Gerrera
• First trailer Analysis

Darth Vader. Rogue one

Vader.... nothing else....

More Rogue one artworks here :

http://epicstream.com/features/Rogue-One-A-Star-Wars-Story-Artwork-Shows-A-Better-Look-at-Darth-Vader

Rogue one Latest trailer : My analysis

Hello everybody.
I am pretty pleased by the official Rogue One trailer. Click here to see it. There is frankly not much new to talk about respect to the previous trailer and the clip shared at SWCE16 but the sequences shown are anyway amazing.

Some insights :

1. JEDHA world 

We learned from The movie Director Gareth Edwards that the Jedha Planet is a spiritual location for the force. A sacred place for Force users. 

In the Trailer we can now see a fortified city with a main tower (looking like a temple) on top of a rock made of steep cliffs.

Jedha Fortified Hill City

Jedha Fortified Hill City

It indicates that the cities had a long history of conflicts (... Like the Mecca ...) and it probably a mix of monks, spiritual peoples and warriors.
This looks perfect to me for a Holy place. It recall me some existing fortress :

Mehrangarh Fort, India

Palmira, Syria

We got informations that the planet features Kyber Cristals that are used to make Light Sabers but also super weapons like the Death Star laser or the latests cannon we saw on First Order Star-destroyer.

Jedha is a desert planet so the battle scene with the Jungle and lagoon landscape is probably on an other location ==> planet Scarif.

In the trailer we see the death star directly over Jedha with a nice Eclipse effect. 

2. Characters. 

We have the same informations than previously

Some infos on Jynn Erso
Baze Malbus and Chirrut Imwe are Jedha fighter. More specifically Chirrut Imwe is blind monk and sees through the force.
K-2SO might be an assassination droid (ex-Imperial)
Cassian Andor will help Jynn but he was not asked to follow by Mon Mothma but it is on his own will. (he seems also quite interested by Jynn...)
Bodhi Rook not more details, he is a former Imperial pilot.
Saw Gerrera is interesting because the hair cut is not the same as the previous trailer. Different time ? Before and after the mission ?

Bail Organa is confirmed but we cannot see him yet.

3. Ships 

We see a lot of these 4 wings Imperial shuttles (same than the one destroyed on the beach)
We see clearly the announced U-wing as a troop transport.
Several X-wings are also involved.
Walkers AT-ACT are again presented.

4. Imperials. 

We still not see death troopers in action. Only normal storm troopers and the tanks.
Orson Krennic is inside the death star but we get just a shot of him and nothing more. I am still wandering about this white uniform and cap that is pretty unusual for Imperials (even of also Admiral Thrawn is dressed white). It recalls me the Royal Guard of Game of Throne !

Is he a special officer directly responding to the Emperor for supervising the Death Star completion ? It sounds strange to me as I thought it was the task of Grand Moff Tarkin.

5. Others

Really a lot of action : street fight, war on the shore, night strike with air support and inside the death star ?

The scene of Jynn facing a Tie Fighter on a platform on planet Scarif looks awesome ! Let see what happens.

6. Darth Vader 

Ok, we can see him only 1 second for just 1 breath. Personally I do not expect that we will see him acting a lot in the movie. The main reason for that is rather simple : He cannot be ALSO responsible for the stolen plans of the death star. He will be taken for responsible for the battle station DESTRUCTION. (Read the Darth Vader comic book to understand the consequence of that and how the Emperor nearly reject him after this event. see here). 

So if Vader is directly involved it means that he is again letting escaping rebels... if you add to that the events of Hoth, Bespin and even the Rebels season 2 final,  this is making him the most inefficient Villain of Star wars.... Personally, as a fan I do not want to see Vader fail again and again.

Overall I cannot wait to see it in december !

Previous Rogue One related Post :

• Trailer
• Saw Gerrera
• First trailer Analysis

Rogue one Latest trailer

Here is the trailer revealed on swce16 finally visible to everybody.

This is amazing. This will be a fantastic movie!!!

My analysis later today. ==> DONE . see here 

Rogue One : New character revealed : SAW GERRERA from the "Clone Wars" of Onderon

Several characters of the Rogue One movie have been revealed ! And there are nice surprises !

1. SAW GERRERA (played by Forest Whitaker) 

That is really cool to me that the new Movie integrate a great character that we have seen in the Clone Wars animated serie ! Finaly some links to the past before episode IV. (I mean Rogue One takes place actually between Episode III and IV so it make sense...).

Saw Gerrera is a very tough rebel of the planet Onderon. We can see the story in a 4 episodes arc of Season 5. Separatists are taking over the planet by occupying the main city and arresting the leader.
Saw (and his sister) are lightning up the resistance and start with guerrilla over the droid army. However the methods of Saw are quote extreme and whose aggressively is not fully approved by the Jedi Order (that is secretly supporting the rebellion). Saw and his warriors have been trained by Anakin Skylwaker, Ashoka Tano and commander Rex !

But the freedom of Onderon was recovered at a very high personal cost for Saw (I will not make spoiler on that).
We also know from Canonic information that afterward Saw is the leader of the "partisans" that are a group of rebels fighting now agains the Empire.... again with no full approval of the fighting ways from the MonMothma rebellion.

These tuff methods are indirectly described in the other animated series: Rebels in Season 2 "The honorable Ones": Imperial Agent Kallus explains that Saw used also mercenaries with no mercy...

 "I'm not a terrorist. I'm a patriot. And resistance is not terrorism."

―Saw Gerrera^[src]

So it is a tuff warrior that suffered and paid very high cost from continues war. He is also a great motivator and really concentrate on his goal.

As a consequence, when we hear him saying in the trailer : "if you continue to fight, what will you become?" he is probably talking to Jyn but referring to what happened to himself ! That is pretty interesting.


I find the involvement of this character from Clone War animated series really a good choice to make bridges between all the stories ! GREAT MOVE !


(It recalls me the appearance of the young Tarkin in Clone Wars! That was also fantastic idea)

Rogue one Trailer !!! My analysis ...

Trailer Link 

Let us analyse the ROGUE ONE Trailer.

The 1st trailer is finally out and it is impressive... 

Most impressive !!!

It looks like a true war film of the Galactic War! As you probably know it should show the evolutions of a group of rebels that will have the mission to steal the plans of the death star. 

This is not the story that is known from extended universe that is not anymore canonical since Disney took over.

Some points from my side:

Jyn

First of all, the main character is a girl named Jyn Erso. Is there a trend now in Star Wars? Does it follows the current action films trend of having female war heroes : Katniss, Tris, superwoman, wonderwoman ... 

In Star Wars there have been of course always strong women characters like Padme, Leia or Hera being quite brave in fighting but the First true fighter is Ashoka Tano that we have followed from her very joung days in Clone Wars to a full developed extremely powerful jedi in Rebels s02. Now Rey and Jyn are following this road ?

So Jyn will be the group leader (Or Rogue One in reference to dog fight squadrons). She is coming from the street with a turbulent passed with the Empire. Actually at the end we see her in an empire pilot suit. Is it her past ? Her future? Or just again the trick to have a stormtroopers suite to fool the Empire ?

Ezra

Here there is strong parallel to Ezra, the Lothal orphan trouble maker. But is Jyn force sensitive? Seems not, but let see.

The rest of the group is made of several different guys. Each one probably with a speciality. This is usually so and it remembers "Ocean 11" or "Dirty Dozen" for example and in Star Wars the Clone Bad Batch. I even guess that it is Jyn herself that recruits the team : smugglers, bounty hunters... Clone Wars tv show really enlarged the bounty hunter world and personally I loved it and I want to see more.

Interesting details is that the team seems made of only humans (probably from different colonies) and no aliens. It is a pity to my mind. 

Secondly, concerning locations: it is so nice to see again the known rebels uniform, helmets, droids... The first part of the trailer takes place in the Yavin 4 rebel base and in the same control room than EP IV where we can find MonMothma and general Dodonna (left side at back) among others. 

Then we have a gorgeous view on the just finished Death Star. It appears enormous! !! It gives a feeling of being much much bigger than in EP IV. Star destroyers are looking like tie fighters in front of this!!

Rest of the trailer shows actions on unknown planets that we will have to discover!

Next point is more general: it looks like a heavy action movie showing something fans wanted to see since years: the true WAR! We see rebel prisoners in bad conditions. A beach full of dead bodies and a lot of fighting. The atmosphere is really showing the oppression of the Empire: Storm troopers everywhere (a lot of different types), Heavy vehicles and strong fire power. This movie will provably show finally the oppression and of the Empire on the populations and the heavy fight needed to get freedom.

Bad guys: well the grand admiral with white uniform is really impressive. This guy will be really really bad... who it is ?

Then there is a scene with a figure in black in front of cylinder (could be a tube to cure someone as explained by several fans but I do not think so). We see 2 guards of the emperor so the figure is probably a dark jedi or perhaps an inquisitor. I guess that the emperor sends a dark side force sensitive character against the rebels group. Let us hope for a good final duel then...

Destiny: During the second part of the trailer, we can here the voice of an heavy armored character (that is actually not part of the team if we consider the picture above) who is asking again the central question of the whole Star Wars saga : "What will you do ? What will you become ?". So this movie will be (as every chapter of the sage) the story of how the main character will accept/change here destiny and where will it bring her? Light side / dark side of the conflict....?

All together this looks really great and it expends the universe! This is really the direction I wanted to see for EP VII. So the target group is more this time on older fan base with strong references to the original trilogy and probably more of an adult movie.

As a conclusion I expect a "Dirty Dozen" like film in the Star Wars world.

Cannot wait to see it !!!!!!!!!