Thanks to
Entertainment Weekly, we know we have a lot to look forward to in
Rogue One
(as if we didn't already): Deathtroopers take time out of their busy
lives to play with Stormtrooper dolls, Darth Vader will be making his
triumphant return to the silver screen, and Saw Gerrera has stayed the
rebellious course and is now a grizzled veteran member of the daring
team that steals the Death Star plans, just to name a few...so, yeah,
its shaping up to be an amazing Star Wars experience...but how's it
going to begin? Will we get the classic Star Wars opening crawl, or will
it start with a cold open like most other films? Or will it be
something else altogether? I have a few ideas that I think would work
well, so read on and see what you think...
The Classic Crawl
"Oh
boo, you tricked us, boo!" Yeah, I know, it's kind of a cop-out (okay, a
huge cop-out), but sticking with the classic crawl is a legitimate
idea. It's an easy way to immediately identify the movie as a Star Wars
movie; it will put viewers into the Star Wars mindset, and let them know
they're about to be transported to a galaxy far, far away...but maybe
that's not a good thing...bear with me: for hardcore Star Wars fans
like us, the difference between the episodic Star Wars movies and
Rogue One is
obvious, but for the casual fan or common movie-goer, they may see the
crawl and expect to see Rey, Finn, Poe (as has already happened) Jedi,
Sith, lightsabers, the Force, and other things that are common with the
episodic Star Wars films that begin with a crawl. For some people, a
crawl may be like false advertising; that said, though, I still think an
opening crawl would be an acceptable way to begin
Rogue One, I
just don't think it's necessarily the best option. Now, I'm not trying
to say that Star Wars films should be created to please everyone, but I
also don't think that they should be catered completely toward only the
hardcore fans. Star Wars should be for everyone. I have a couple other
ideas that I'd personally prefer instead of a crawl...
The Simple Solution
Picture
this: You see the traditional "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far
away..." in blue over black, then a title card appears with the
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
logo, and bam! we just jump right into the movie. You'd get a taste of
that nostalgic Star Wars opening without copying it completely. It would
plant the viewer firmly into the Star Wars universe without giving them
any sort of false expectations of a movie that's directly linked to the
episodic Star Wars films (which is somewhat ironic since
Rogue One is rumored to literally link right up to
A New Hope,
but you know what I mean...I hope). Plus, with something simple like
this, you could do it with all the anthology films and it would make
sense. I've heard people mention opening
Rogue One with a
Clone Wars-style
voice-over, which would be awesome for this movie, but would be an odd
choice for the Han Solo movie, for example. And I suppose they don't
have to do the same opening for all the anthology films, but I'd prefer
if they let the crawl be the episodic Star Wars opening and then
whatever they do for
Rogue One becomes the standard for all
anthology movies; if they did that, then, eventually, the anthology
opening would be as iconic as the crawl itself.
Journal of the Whills
Alright,
I saved the best idea (well, my favorite anyway) for last: the movie
opens on an ancient book with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far
away..." inscribed on the cover. The book opens and pages flip until we
get to a title page that says "Rogue One, A Star Wars Story." The page
turns and there's a penciled sketch of maybe Jyn Erso or Saw Gerrera
with a bit of text that serves the same purpose as the first paragraph
of the crawl. It carries on like this, basically mimicking the crawl,
but in a mixed art/text book/journal style, until the last page is a
full sketched image that then morphs into the opening shot of the actual
movie and we're off, transported into "a Star Wars story" straight out
of the original Star Wars storybook, the Journal of the Whills...oh
yeah, goosebumps, right? I hope so. I think it's a great idea. I'm
pretty sure Lucasfilm will be calling me as soon as they read this (yes,
I know nobody from Lucasfilm will probably ever read this...you don't
have to rub it in). Anyway, wouldn't that be great though? And you could
easily do that for any anthology film. It's simple, yet complex, and
something that really digs deep into Star Wars lore for the hardcore
fans while staying accessible for everyone else. I'm so stoked about the
idea that I'll be disappointed when it doesn't happen...
So, what
do you think? They should totally use my idea, right? I thought so, you
guys have great taste...okay, seriously, what do you think? Are you
classic crawl or bust? Should they just do a cold open and forget about
it? Should each anthology film start differently, or should they be the
same or at least similar? I'm curious to see if people like any of my
ideas or if they've come up with other, different ideas of their own. I
mean, I'm open to competition for my Journal of the Whills idea, but I'm
not going to hold my breath expecting someone to come up with something
better...okay, I'm kidding, I can't even phone in that kind of
egotistical confidence...anyway, leave a comment and let me know how
you'd open up
Rogue One and/or the other anthology films and
we'll keep the topic going; otherwise, and I bet you saw this coming, may the Force be with you...
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