So the Official Rogue One trailer just dropped and I think it is fair to say the internet is losing its shit. It’s clear that the producers and editors are doing another fantastic job at teasing the hell out of us while hardly giving anything away. As viewers we walk away from this trailer really with the same plot knowledge we got from previous Rogue One trailers however with much more of an insight into the world we are entering in December. Exactly one year ago we had the same feelings with the release of a full trailer for The Force Awakens. Seeing how the two films play at opposite ends of the Original Trilogy why not take a look at how these two worlds (and trailers) were similar and unique in their own way.

The Official Force Awakens trailer opened with multiple shots of Rey doing her thing on Jakku and immediately presented us with the identity confliction she has. It is accompanied by a very simple tune which we haven’t heard in Star Wars before. As she states “I am no one” in the trailer we immediately have a whole look into her character and can guess that throughout the film we will follow her journey in the search of her identity. This couldn’t be more different from the opening shot of the new Rogue One trailer. It opens to a visually pleasing wide shot of a new setting, culture and planet. It immediately opens with the imperial march theme which has been slightly remastered for the film it seems. We are also very quickly introduced to Jynn Erso  however really nothing about her character is revealed to us. As the trailer continues we hear a bit more about the plotline and are made aware that her and Captain seem to go on a recruiting mission together and so form a team. This really is the set up for the movie in my view and all else still is a mystery. We see some more upcoming characters like chirrut imwe and some of their skills in combat are seen on screen, however we learn nothing else about them.

In The Force Awakens trailer, after seeing Rey on Jakku we see Finn and immediately learn he is a stormtrooper  who also (just like Rey) seems to be going thro a bit of an identity crisis. While we see a shot of (him in) a Tie Fighter crashing towards Jakku we still have no sense of what this planet looks like and what kind of people it holds. This is a big difference as from just the first shot in Rogue One we already get a whole feel of the planet. This is something that on reflection I really missed throughout the entirety of The Force Awakens. Moving on with the Force Awakens trailer we are introduced to Poe, Kylo Ren (who is seen talking to Darth Vader’s mask therefore immediately revealing a LOT about his character), Han Solo and we are even treated to a shot of Leia. It seems most of the trailer is made up of introducing us to the main antagonists of the film and how all their storylines mix together. In the upcoming shots we see how the characters interact. We see a confrontation between Finn and Kylo, a conversation between Finn, Rey and Han, a ‘deep brotherly moment’ between Poe and Finn and so forth. All of this mixed with lots of in flight battle shots and the main Force theme makes for a pretty epic trailer.

Looking forward to the Rogue One trailer it hardly shows real interaction between characters and treats us to more wide shots showing all kinds of landscapes, weather phenomena and action scenes. This was also mentioned in another look at the trailer on our website but I think it is worth mentioning again how awesome it is to see all these different climates in Rogue one. While a lot of the shots show us multiple characters which seem to show up more than once in the film, we really learn nothing about them apart from the fact that most seem to be part of the team that Jynn and Captain have formed. The trailer continues with the Imperial theme which has been remixed and I have to say it is AWESOME! I loved the more military sounds we heard in the teaser trailers but this really did it and set the tone of the film for me.

Looking at both trailers I think they both were very effective in what they did. The Force Awakens awakened the love for Star Wars again in die hard fans through the use of shots from the Millenium Falcon, original trilogy characters and the use of the original Force Theme. The Rogue One trailer gives us a real insight into what kind of film we can prepare ourselves for which in my opinion will be a visually pleasing action film which has a lot of Prequel Trilogy feels to it but also lots of new inventive ideas. In summary WE ARE SUPER EXCITED! And that is exactly what a trailer should do 🙂

What did you think? Let us know in the Comments below!