Tag: Gareth Edwards

Just How Ripping is Star Wars: Rogue One?

rogueone_onesheetaBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

* Spoiler Alert

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is a film worth seeing not once, but at least twice, joke notwithstanding. There’s a lot to take in, and the beginning is a touch rushed to introduce everyone that’s important and relevant to the plot at hand. Technical criticisms simply boil down to the fact director Gareth Edwards and cinematographer Greig Fraser were not depending on too much heavy technical special effects wizardry to make their tale come alive.

This movie has a lot of expectations, especially when nearly everyone is aware it will lead into the movie that started a massive franchise.

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Star Wars Rogue One and Creating Casting Rumours

By the Jedi Holocron

star_wars_logo_640_large_verge_medium_landscape

The official Star Wars news is that there’s going to be a movie where the plot involves the Death Star. This prequel, simply titled Rogue One, will bring together a band of other resistance fighters to fight against the Empire, and to keep in line with the events that happened a long time ago, not in a galaxy far, far away but in what’s considered canon, the plan is to snag the blueprints of this behemoth. However, as most fans already know, many a spy will have given up their lives to thwart the evil Empire’s plans to conquer the galaxy, and they will get to see how that story unfolds.

This information arrived on the final day of the Star Wars Celebration. The teaser does not reveal much other than the possibility that part of the story will take place on a heavily forested planet. Other than the voice over by Sir Alec Guinness saying, “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic. Before the dark times, before the Empire…,” not much is known about their final fate by the galaxy at large.

There may be one more story involving the last of the Jedi making one last attempt before the Empire makes its fist to affirm that they are the ‘new law.’ But sadly, they are extinct in what director Gareth Edwards revealed to the Guardian.

In the world of Rogue One, Edwards said the “absence of Jedi is omnipresent.”

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Godzilla vs Old Foes or New?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Godzilla2014

Anyone monitoring the news coming from the San Deigo Comic Con 2014 will know by now that a second Godzilla film will be coming after director Gareth Edwards takes a much needed break (that is, to go work on a Star Wars project). But this time around, just who Big G might be facing will include the beasts from Toho Studio’s roster. Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah are confirmed to appear and Toho Studios could not be any more happier. All their famous beasts are getting Americanized.

Good or bad, this sarcasm is intentional. The 2014 film created a different kind of beast for fans to love instead. In Gareth Edwards’ interpretation of what Godzilla represents, he’s no longer a metaphor for the devestation wrought by the birth of the atomic bomb. He’s simply a force of nature who functions as more of an equalizer to the world to restore balance in anything mankind can unleash. That is, no matter what mankind can do to ravage the earth, Godzilla will appear to fix it.

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The Generations May Not Understand Godzilla 2014

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Godzilla2014

* Spoiler Alert

After ten long years, Godzilla is back! This reworking of the megalithic behemoth from the deep marks this creature’s triumphant return to the big screen and although this version is not a Japanese take, British director Gareth Edwards shows that a touch of good character drama and reinvention is all that’s needed to reinvigorate this franchise for an American audience.

Faith is restored to loving a radioactive monster that is now symbolic of Nature’s unleashed fury moreso than its origins by being birthed by the atomic bomb. The all too quick opening sequence explains that for viewers to subliminally process. In the classic film made by Toho Studios, this beast is not only a metaphor for the nuclear devastation that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan but also a symbol of terror. This looming essence represents a raw unrestrained power. The monsters it (not he, since the gender is unknown) fought often sought to subjugate humanity because of some alien race’s desire to conquer Japan, if not the planet Earth. In later films, it became an anti-hero.
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Cool Merchandise Woes for this Godzilla Fan?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Godzilla2014If IMAX’s FanFix program does not offer a poster for this coming Godzilla film, I just may have to be highly disappointed. It’s not like a release is to be expected since last year and this has been very selective. Not every high profile film is getting this special poster program treatment. I had hoped for a continuation of The Hobbit 12:01 posters but that did not happen. Even a cool embossed Captain America shield on paper for Winter Soldier would have been awesome, but not every idea will happen. But for Godzilla, just what can be done? Can any studio working with IMAX outdo Star Trek’s glow-in-the-dark print?

For a certain radioactive monster, to repeat that formula would certainly  elevate the cool factor by several levels. The blue flames of the behemoth rising from the waters of Tokyo Bay is enough to get me salivating. In this film’s case, could that be San Francisco Bay? I’ve purposely stayed away from learning any story points, so I’m merely guessing at where the action will take place here.

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