VIDEO: Fan Gives ‘Rogue One’ the Opening Crawl It Deserves
Rogue One was the first anthology film in the Star Wars franchise, and was famously the first Star Wars movie to begin without an opening crawl. Now, a superfan has made his own version of the opening crawl, and we kind of wish it had actually been in the movie.
From Janey Tracey at Outerplaces.com
The video, which first made the rounds on Reddit, was made by writer and reporter Andrew Shackley, who wrote the text of the crawl himself and made the video using this awesome online tool. The text of the crawl reads:
The Jedi are all but extinct, the Republic has fallen and in their wake, the Galactic Empire has engulfed the far reaches of the galaxy in fear. Persecuted members of the Old Republic have been thrust into hiding. Only members of the REBEL ALLIANCE dare take a stand against the ruthless Imperial forces. Deep in the Outer Rim territories, the dastardly Director Krennic has discovered the location of a long lost friend; one capable of completing the Empire’s most powerful weapon yet….
Although it’s understandable that Lucasfilm wanted to differentiate between the anthology films and numbered films, and it’s commendable that they wanted to give the anthology films a chance to be creatively different, we still think there should have been a crawl. Not only does it get Star Wars fans nostalgic and make the film feel more like a Star Wars movie, it would have helped contextualize the movie. While fans who had been following every detail that came out about Rogue One, and likely knew where the movie fell in the timeline, it would have helped fans who haven’t read the novels place the movie in terms of what was going on with the Rebellion, the Empire, the Senate, etc.
“If any film in the new Star Wars canon needed a crawl just to let people know where we are in time in this universe, it was Rogue One,” Shackley told THR. “At the very least, I feel these words give added weight to the opening prologue of the film.”
Rogue One is now out in theaters. Read our review here.
This article originally appeared on Outerplaces.com
While the effort is certainly appreciated and the video is well done, I disagree about R1 needing a crawl. The prologue did all the heavy lifting that the crawl would have. We met Galen, Jyn and Krennic. We established that Krennic was working for the Empire. We established the Galen was unenthusiastic about the job he being asked to do. We made Krennic ruthless. We gave Jyn some strong motivation. Then we jumped ahead 15 years. None of the Saga films have had a time jump like that, and I don’t think a crawl is appropriate for that structure.
The Anthology stories are supposed to be a bit smaller scale. I like reserving the crawl for “Keeping Up With The Skywalkers”
Let me ask you this. If the crawl was there would you be upset? The prologue left me confused more than anything, it had no place and didn’t impact the movie at all, it didn’t lead us into the movie knowing why Jyn was being held prisoner or why. There are plenty of people complaining that it isn’t there. If any movie needed a crawl it was Rogue One.
We hear Jyn’s record read on Yavin 4. We don’t need (or want) to know everything as it happens. Finding out later, or using some imagination to splice together cause & effects post hoc, is far more interesting storytelling. I don’t want my hand held to get through a story. I do, however, think the Rogue One title screen between the prologue and the present action was unnecessary and broke the mood during the transition.
Since when did a crawl tell you what happens? It’s a preface so that when you are about to see what happens you aren’t left going what did I just see. It’s a lead in not a novel of the movie before the movie.
You stated that the prologue did not lead us into the movie knowing why Jyn was being held prisoner. My point was that we didn’t need to know why at that time, whether via the prologue or a crawl.
Upset? No. A crawl would not have ruined the movie for me.
Disappointed? Yes. What I like about the Anthology movies is the potential for directors to bring their own stamp and style to Star Wars without having to feel obligated to follow all the rhythms and conventions that Lucas established.
I don’t need Jyn’s crimes spelled out to me. She was clearly the same girl we saw hide in that rock, and it took about two seconds to see that she was a prisoner of the Empire, likely for some low level crime. I liked the ambiguity of the people who freed her.
Was the first act flawless? No. It jumped around too much to new faces and places. I’m not sure how to correct that.
TANGENT!!! RE: Act 1. Saw is pretty useless, that whole subplot could have been excised for one, particularly as we get almost the exact setup, execution, and payoff as the one with her surrogate father as we do with her actual father in act 2. Maybe they hook up with Bhodi in Jedha as planned, and collect Baze and Chirut, who we’ve already met, in the escape from the DS test. You lose an action set piece in the ambush though, and the film needs one there pace-wise. The only other thing you lose is Bhodi losing his mind, which doesn’t really have any payoff, or even get mentioned again anyways. Maybe he’s just a bit flakey, which is why the alliance isn’t willing to trust his intel, and they need to get to Eadu to talk to Galen. I dunno, act one is a bit messy though.
How would a crawl even work in this movie? It’d either have to be placed before the prologue scene or where the title cart pops in after it. If you remove the prologue scene in place of the crawl, then we don’t see Galen or Krennic until later in the movie and have less character development time for them. Even if it was boss at explaining the world, it wouldn’t fit in the movie
I didn’t miss the crawl,but damn ,that was cool. I wouldn’t be annoyed if that was inserted on to the Blu-Ray release,with a little more kick arse Vader at the end.
Nice job. I figured some talented fans would fix this poor decision by the filmmakers. Loved the movie otherwise.
I can’t believe you people are still hung up on this crawl nonsense. Are you that close-minded, that you can’t except variation in these spinoff films? My God. And you wonder why they don’t try to give us much of anything new.
Right? I constantly hear fan complaints about how the Force Awakens is too much like old movies. They remove what, 4 minutes of crawl text, and suddenly it’s not Star Wars anymore. I think people need to be open to new ideas or we’re just going to get repeated movies until the end of time.
You and me might be fanboys that can tell you what fictional company in the Star Wars universe made every piece of Darth Vader’s armor. We don’t need any additional info to know what the story is about. But I went to see the movie with two people who are NOT Star Wars fans. It would have been nice to have a crawl at the beginning to set up the story, if for nothing else than to avoid having to explain the origin of the story setup to the non-believers.
Most movies achieve the goal of telling the audience what’s going on through the script. They don’t need three paragraphs of on screen text at the beginning to inform the viewer.
You are completely missing the point. People think the crawl is needed not because “it’s a Star Wars movie and it needs a crawl”. Read Jerry Conaway’s comment.
It’s not needed. You can explain what’s going on through that thing called the script. How many other movies require 3 paragraphs of on screen text to explain what’s going on?
You are really underestimating the potential confusion this movie creates. Most people in the audience aren’t like us, the fans. You might not believe it, but there are a lot of people confused, asking why is Darth Vader back, where’s Rey, why there’s a third Death Star, all that.
It’s obvious to us, cause we’ve been following everything Star Wars for years. But for the average person? They have no clue when this movie is taking place in this fictional timeline. A crawl would’ve made things clear to everyone.
Well, that and better marketing lol
I think an opening crawl will not avoid that confusion. if this movie had a crawl, the episode number is still missing, so how people will know were the movie is placed. It will be exactly the same.
If someone is confused, they always can watch the saga films to get the complete experience, a think this is part of the point of the spinoff movies.
I like it, it binds the saga together, and it helps in knowing what the good guys have been doing for 20 years, that they just found out about the DS (Poor Bothan intelligence, I reckon)
After seeing this I’m convinced that a crawl would have confused people about the relation of the standalones to the saga films. Probably best they left it off.
This movie starts when Jyn is eight. Did the Rebel Alliance even exist then? This crawl seems to better describe the time around ANH, so, although well written, isn’t entirely applicable.
It wasn’t applicable at all.
I really don’t mind that RO didn’t had an oppening crawl to differenciate from regular episodes. But honestly, i was expecting something cooler, remarkable, something different. In my opinion the begining was a little bit cold. Just me.
Did you really feel this movie wasn’t part of the Saga? Because taking the crawl out didn’t make me feel that way. It looked more like the guy who does the crawl got drunk the night before and that’s what we got.
Nop. I feel is part of the saga, without any doubt (it’s pure Star Wars). Just gave my opinion about the begining. I have not even read this crawl. I suppouse I expected the logo in the first shots not 5 minutes later, and a different music intro, not something like the two tv shows. I am not that kind of I hate this, i hate that, the worst ever and blah blah. Just found the begining cold (and it doesn’t mean it’s the wrong) and after 2 minutes i really enjoyed the movie. I’m pretty sure after my second viewing i will see with different eyes. No big deal.
This is ok, but the word “dastardly” brings to mind Boris and Natasha. Krennic could better be described as “the ambitious Director Krennic, overseer of Death Star construction…”. This would have clarified his role, as in the beginning of the movie it is kind of muddled as to who he is and what he does
Dastardly is a throwback to the corny prequel crawls. IMO. Serial.
“Ambitious” would even have been more appropriate. Krennic isn’t really all that ‘dastardly’, but he is HELLA ambitious. Regardless, the film didn’t need a crawl, so the point is moot.
Yet the film worked perfectly fine without it. It doesn’t need it.
Your opinion, many people feel is didn’t work and that it does need to be fixed. It isn’t that it wasn’t a great film. The prologue didn’t preface the movie at all, we got to know her family was killed/taken away, not abandoned. That’s it. Perhaps all those people saying Luke wouldn’t abandon Rey if he was the father can see why someone can be abandoned without intent. But that is all I gleamed from it.
That’s their opinion and judging from the praise heaped on the movie, it seems to be just fine without it. Most movies don’t use opening crawls and we are somehow able to follow them.
This is nothing more than a slavish devotion to tradition.
I agree with you 100%. People are only upset because “it’s supposed to be in there because Star Wars”. Sticking so vehemently to tradition is what holds art back. We were told everything we needed to be told without having to read a bunch of big, yellow text.
I’m glad they’re ditching the crawls in the anthology films, they’re just not necessary.
Apparently people who didn’t like that it was missing is wrong and has no opinion. Big, yellow text? That’s what your going to call it? How the fuck are you even on Star Wars fan website saying shit like that?
First of all:
*you’re
Second of all:
I didn’t say that anyone “has no opinion”, where in the fuck did you see that in my post? What, you think that because I disagree with you, I’m suddenly Satan? You can’t just make up my side of the story like that. What I DID say is that “people are only upset because it breaks with tradition”. You can disagree with that all you want, but not once did I say (or even imply) that you lost your right to an opinion because of what you think. That’s a strawman argument.
Third of all:
Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that I needed to consider the opening crawl a monumental, top-level importance in order to be a Star Wars fan. It’s big, yellow text, not the Ten Commandments. Get over it.
Exactly. This is just a kneejerk reaction.
I’ve haven’t heard a peep about how amazing the prologue is. You’re the first. I’ve heard and said myself the movie is a great movie. But this is where the movie went bad for me. This is an ARTICLE ABOUT PEOPLE UPSET ABOUT THE CRAWL. I’m not the only one.
I didn’t say the prologue was amazing. I said the movie works just fine without an opening crawl.
A lot of people think silly things. Doesn’t make them right.
The lack of a crawl set a tone and gave Rogue One a different texture than the other movies. I get that it’s jarring, it was for me too, but I didn’t think it made it bad. It made it different.
I had to watch it twice to really enjoy it, but on the second viewing I knew it was a great flick.
“need to be fixed”? – what a peculiar notion, what a peculiar way of watching film, what a peculiar pretension and what an odd sense of entitlement. Do you look at paintings or sculpture that way too? “Oh, the artist should have shown him FIRING his sling, not draped it over his shoulder! Let….me…just….fix that……mistake”
Yeah, that’s the sign of a perfectionist.
I don’t think it speaks to perfectionism, I think I speaks to a bizarre, and unhealthy sense of entitlement in relation to this franchise.
Well, that’s even worse.
He’s a writer? Needs to review the rules for comma usage. Yes, I’m one of them.
Han Solo definitely shouldn’t have one. Speaking of which, I doubt it will be as dark or realistic as Rogue One but I don’t think it’s going to be silly like Episode I either. Han is not the most serious character and judging by the directors they hired, I think humor is going to be a big part of it but more character driven like the OT probably than the slapstick of the PT or meta style of the ST.
Confuses more than educates regarding Republic vs. Old Republic vs. Rebel Alliance especially as RO begins just 7 years after ROTS. Not needed at all…
You do realize this was fan made, not what it would have actually been said right? If you are trying to get information about what was written in the crawl above you don’t understand this topic.
Understood it was fan made. My comment was the content does not match the state of the Galaxy as it exists at the beginning of RO.
The fact that a fan made it is even worse, because a fan should be able to better explain how the galaxy was at the time.
the content is fine, but the run on/sentence fragments make my head hurt.
The crawl it deserves – really? – I thought RO was pretty good.
I was fine without a crawl, but if it needed one it should have explained catalyst pretty much. This was okay, but they could have cut down the jedi are extinct to literaly just that line and then use the rest of the space to talk about galen, krennic, and the deathstar
I think if there was going to be a crawl it would replace the flashback. All the stuff he talks about at the start hasn’t happened yet at the time of the flashback.
I said so down below, but then we’d miss out on seeing all those characters until later in the movie (her mom wouldn’t be seen at all) and then we wouldn’t get the characters as much as we did seeing them act on stage. Though I agree if the crawl had to be there, that would have been the best place
Were her mom and the pendant even important to the movie?
Certainly explains her disdain for Krennic.
Maybe. But I honestly forgot about both of those elements during most of my viewing. I linked her disdain for Krennic with the fact that the man basically took her father from her. But yeah, killing her mom sure adds to that.
The pendant is necessary. That’s her parents life’s work around her kneck. The killing of her mom and capture of her dad shows the power and manipulation of the Empire.
Pendant was a Kyber crystal which powers a jedi crystal and the death star. Her parents research was to synthesize the Kyber crystal as a renewable energy.
They constantly reference the Kyber crystals throughout the movie. So yeah, it’s important to the story and characters.
Well, I don’t think it’s important at all to the narrative. It never comes up. Except for that moment when Chirrut calls for her in the street.
It might give some depth to the character, but I don’t think it’s worth all that time spent in the prologue.
“I linked her disdain for Krennic with the fact that the man basically took her father from her.”
Which you saw in the prologue.
… Sure. But a crawl could’ve filled us in on that (I understand that might have been less powerful, though).
But I apologize, I was actually going on another direction by just wondering how important Jyn’s mother and the pendant were to the movie, not the prologue itself.
The crawl just didn’t mean that much to me. If anything I enjoyed the almost defiant nature of R1 not having one.
That opening crawl was pretty terrible. The first two paragraphs only told us what we already knew. There definitely should have been a crawl, but it should have been a brief once-over of Catalyst in order to inform of the relationship between Krennic and Galen Erso as well as the struggle for control of the Death Star between Krennic and Tarkin. Galen Erso’s death in the film was emotional if you read Catalyst, and a lot of people have mentioned that it wasn’t emotional for them because you didn’t really know him. Having him mentioned in the crawl and explaining that there is a long complicated relationship with he and Krennic would have made his death much more emotional for the casual viewer.
Read Catalyst and agree 100%
I don’t agree. My wife never read Catalyst and picked up on the history between Erso and Krennic right away.
This suggested crawl is very poorly written. It is also utterly superfluous.
Rogue one is one of the best star wars films, and to be that it didn’t need a Williams score, star wars style transitions, jedis, and opening crawls.
Hi Clone11038, I agree with you, the film don’t need all Star wars stuff to be a great film, It is a really good SW movie indeed, I dond think the SWS films need an opening crawl.
I just have a though about your comment “Rogue one is one of the best star wars films” do you think we can make a fair comparison with other SW film yet?
To really compare this film to any other SW film, it needed to handle jedi, sith, dark side, and all themes regarding the force. This film is not about that, this film is about just about a part of star wars, that’s why it have “A star wars story” in the title.
Don’t you think?
Star wars isn’t just Jedi, Force, Sith. it’s supposed to be also a war film, with plenty of battles and action. We have a force user in Rogue one too: Chirrut, plus we have Darth Vader appearing the way he did in all the other star wars episodes; also jedha is mentioned several times to have a Jedi temple, and similar small things.
What I’m considering mainly is the plot of this film compared to other films; if we take TFA, that film mostly took back tropes from the previous six films, and has a plot heavily close to episode IV, and I’m saying that even though I really appreciated.
While it’s true that we haven’t got such a deep Force analysis in Rogue One it’s also true that Rogue One has everything a proper star wars movie should have: an inventive, new plot, space and ground battles, several different settings, and also blended together the movies with the new canon: there where tons of references to Rebels and Clone Wars.
Ultimately, I personally think that a Star Wars film doesn’t need to be a saga episode to be “one of the best”.
I’m not saying SW is just about Jedi, Force, Sith, I’m saying those elements are not handled in RO, SW is about that and War of course, that`s exactly the point. RO make mentions to that other elements but not handle them direclty, thats my point when I say, there is not another SW movie yet to compare it to.
Chirrut is not exactly a force user, he is a force believer mostly, that is a very different thing, a force user manipulates the force in different ways, a believer trust it and put his fate in it.
I agree, RO is is inventive, and autentic too, and new in a lot of aspects, I believe its a really grreat movie, and as a movie in general I think is one of the best movies if you put the eight star wars films together, but to say is one of the best “star wars” films, I don’t believe it is because it doesn’t have the all elements to make a fair comparison.
It beautifully tells you an amazing story but it doesn’t realy adds much to the Star Wars mythos in the level the SW saga movies do, because thats not the point of the movie, or the “star wars story” movies. This movie lives in another category, not superior or inferior just different.
I strongly disagree. How can you say that movies set in the same universe cannot be compared to each other, just because not all of them are saga episodes?
About chirrut… it’s blatant to me that he feels through the Force Jyn’s kyber crystal, or Cassian’s decision of killing Galen Erso.
Also… I undeerstand you differentiate much between saga episodes and spin-offs. But ultimately even spin-oofs are star aars movies, so why on earth can’t I judge all star wars film together? They are even set in the same universe, and are connected to each other (Rogue is almost an expansion of episode IV) and aren’t some sort of reboot like the Spiderman films.
Juts saying that a comparison is not really fair, because are not about the same things, thats clear, and is not my opinion, saga and spinoffs have different goal, thats no secret. I see your point, but I believe tou don’t see mine.
A comparison with chirrut, in terms of usig the force is Han solo, He definitely uses the force to fly the Millenium falcon the way he does it, but not manipulating it intentionaly, something similar with chirrut, he believes in it and some how has the ability to observe it not tu use it, he is more like an observer, I’m not inventing it, his description says he is a force believer. The main difference between both is that Solo is not a believer and Chirrut is.
Han Solo using the Force? What?
I’m pretty sur eyou don’t see my point. Your point is that R1 can’t be judged the same way as Saga episodes because it’s a spin-off. What I say is pretty much the opposite: R1 is also a star wars film, that’s just dang clear. Hence I believe, as both are STAR WARS FILMS, they can be judged together and don’t feel guilty at all when Isay that R1 is one of the best star wars films, and that’s not me saying so On Imdb it basically holds rank 4 together with TFA.
R1 had a far more inventive plot than TFA, and was far more enjoyable than episodes I and II, maybe even more than VI. It’s no ESB, but certainly is quite one of the best star wars films. I said before, it almost feels an expansion of episode IV.
I seems that you still have much to learn about the force 🙂 padawan…
About the other topic:
1. Take TESB
2. cut all Vader/Yoda/Luke/Obiwan and emperor scenes.
3. Send that scenes to the trash
4. Now you can compare it with RO.
Dear lord don’t call me padawan!
what about this:
1. Take ANH;
2. Take out all the obi-wan/force scenes;
3. You’ll find out that you still have about 90% of the film. So should we not consider it part of the saga because there’s almost no force aspect?
besides, taken that away from ESB, you still have Hoth.
Rogue One is a star wars film, and so are star wars media the numerous clone wars and rebels episodes, despite many of them don’t even have a deep Force analysis.
I’d like to point out once more that Rogue One is deeply connected with all the other saga episodes, specially ANH, but also Episode III, TCW, and Rebels. There really is no reason to differentiate between Rogue one and the rest of the star wars films.
RO is connectec, no question in that, but is not in the same area, it doesn’t go with the same rules Saga movies do, thats why it works by the label fo “star wars story”, like a SW book, or a SW videogame, o like The clone wars or rebels, it is connected, and even noticing that it is 20 minutes close to ANH, still is not in the same room, as I said before is not better or worst, simply different because that’s how it was planned and made.
And sorry about that padawan thing, but really, haven’t you read anything about Han using the force unintenctionaly? when flying the millenium falcon, that’s an example of how the force works.
jeez, even tcw, the books and rebels are labeled star wars…
Exactly! And you don’t normaly say, “this book is the best from the movies, or “this movie is the best from the tv series” because both have different goals and elements, in the case of SW. Somthing similar with Saga Movies and Star War Story movies. All this media is labeled star wars.
RO Is telling the story of a group of rebels in war living in the star wars universe, Saga movies are telling you the story of the jedi/skywalkers in conflict with evi force/sith, living in war and incidentally happen to be connected direcltly os indirectly to the rebels . Two similar but totally different aproaches in both cases.
That’s exactly my point.
Yeah, well, rogue one is not a book or a videogame. It’s a MOVIE. Just like the other six. I found it hella entertaining, more entertaining than some saga episodes. Not only that, it’s a STAR WARS MOVIE. Hence, there’s absolutely nothing wrong at all with me saying that it might be one of the best star wars movies ever. That’s it.
That’s why I say “something similar”. But that’s ok, if you say it, it is, btw, do you liked the jedi fights in RO? oh wait!, rogue one doesn’t have Jedi, how it can be fairly compared with SAGA movies?, you can’t. you can with some parts of the saga movies. RO lives in it’s own arena. no discusion in that.
Holy Yoda! Star Wars is something far greater than “jedi fights”! and for the milionth time, i said “one of the best star wars films,”, not “one of the best saga film, and lastly, THIS IS A DAMN STAR WARS MOVIE! It’s not like I’m trying to compare it to some Nolan movie saying it’s one of the best Nolan movies. BTW, Ratings prove that this film was far better than many of the star wars saga episodes. It was much more entertaining than any of the prequels and much more inventive than episode VII. Plus it’s not like I’m he only guy saying all this… it’s kind of a shared opinion that Rogue One was one of the best star wars films. Finally, this particular movie is deeply connected to the OT and to Ep.III. I bet everyone from now on will include it in their marathon. If I were speaking about some kind of a spin off with NO CONNECTIONS AT ALL set in a completely new context of the galaxy far, far away, only in that case I might slightly accept this point, and only if the movie’s objective cinematographic quality is not that good, that it can’t be compared to saga films, or to any other star wars films. Rogue one as I just said not only connected OT, PT, tv shows and novels, but had all the energy of episode IV, which didn’t strictly solely rely on the presence of Obi Wan Kenobi and some mentions of the Force. It was the action, the speed that really made that film great. When they escape the death star on the Falcon, and you don’t get enough time to chill and they have to fight off the TIEs, and in less than 4 minutes you’re watching X-wings dogfighting TIEs in a battle. This all is Star Wars. So I’d close this discussion her.
Exactly, jedi fights is not the only thing, star wars is greater that just that, thats part of my point.
I think you have the impression of me thinking that RO is inferior, I like it a lot actually, I think I liked it more than TFA, and there is no doubt I will add it to my SW marathons.
To close the discusion, imagine that Star Wars Saga movies from 1 to 7 are banana splits, and RO is a Sundae, both share a lot of ingredients, and even I may like the sundae more, but, I can only compare fairly the bana split with another banana split, and the sundae with another sundae, to say this is one of the best sundae, or BS. this is my point, in this case jedi/sith are be the banana of course 🙂 and the icecream is the SW energy you mention, and the other ingrediens are all the other amazing stuff Star Wars has.
Gareth Edwards said something like he wanted to extend that “trench run” experience in the movie, wich in the movies was just a few minutes.
I loved RO btw, Gared is now in my “heros” list, JJ is in my “almost heros” list.
It’s nice to talk to you Clone11038!
One thing they could have done to be “new” is have the same opening 5 minutes sequence, THEN do the crawl to catch-up to present day, status of the death star weapon, the defecting pilot, whatever else, and open the rest of the movie at full speed (like TFA).
Meh, the scene at the Ring of Kathere did a nice job of this, too.
random mood-lightening post warning: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b75fcd07e824405158255c1165a9952e09f6a7435d0b5ddfbe98a6622440e22d.jpg
carry on…
Nah, this is horribly clunky. The film was fine on its own.
I cannot thank the creator of this enough. I was one of the very few unfortunate people who did not care for Rogue One whatsoever and a large part of that was in how jarring it began, I could never adjust to it. After watching this crawl I am 100% sure that I would have at least been able to stay with the movie from the beginning. I’m normally not into “fan produced stuff” on the internet but this made my day. #MFBWY
However do you watch non-Star Wars movies?
As much as I can understand his frustration about the lack of a crawl in R1, he really needs to let it go.
Leave the crawl for the saga films ‘only’ (crawls in the Marvel comic books are an exception to this, though); the anthology films need to stand out on their own with their own stories to tell, not to cling obsessively to tradition. We can’t limit ourselves to just one petty issue keeping us from enjoying Star Wars, as a whole; nothing is perfect after all, but still we enjoy the franchise for what it is, regarldess of it’s strengths and weaknesses.
Crawl or no crawl, as I said before: Star Wars should overall be really be about the ‘stories’ themselves.
What about the Star Wars video games?
Having read Catalyst just before seeing the movie, I came into the experience oriented and invested in the principal characters. I can understand how someone without that information would be somewhat lost for the first half of the movie. An opening crawl that explains the relationship between Krennick, Galen Erso, and Lyra Erso as well as their relationship to the Death Star project would have helped immensely. (The crawl above is useless for that though)
I don’t know. My wife went into the film knowing nothing about it and picked up right away that Erso and Krennic had history; even friendship. There are plenty of vocal and visual clues to that regard. I read Catalyst. I really enjoyed it. But it’s not essential reading.
Yeah, there’s even that flashback which shows Krennic all pal-sies with the Erso family in their condo on Coruscant. I think most average moviegoers get it: they were on good terms, had a falling out due to Galen’s conscience over what they were building.
I didn’t read it, and haven’t heard much about it. It was pretty clear what was going on to me.
I think the score is what made the beginning so jarring. The “He’s here for us” felt out of place and set a tone of a huge battle about to happen, rather than foreboding.
The crawl sets the stage of what the state of the galaxy is at and which characters we’ll see in the opening act. For me it wasn’t necessary to open with it. The only piece of traditional imagery that needed to be there was “A long time ago, in a galaxy far away…” which set the stage of a Star Wars film for me.
If you missed the opening crawl then that’s okay, but it’s not needed.
Said it before and I’ll say it again, this was not the first film to not use a crawl. Honestly I fail to see what the big deal is. The different opening worked well, leave the crawl for the saga film; makes it that more special.
you dont need a crawl for any of the films , its good that they are there because its part of the whole 30s serial thing but you can work everything out fairly quickly without them.
There was actually a good crawl example on celebration – https://youtu.be/w9BuyiFvLJA
But Rogue One has an excellent crawl – the one called “Catalyst”.
nop, I won’t read it
Why not?
that proves that rogue one really doesn’t need an opening crawl. Only redundant infromation and confusing for normal people: “outer rim? wtf … boooring”
SO good!!
somebody needs to combine it with the upcoming blue ray release!
The opening crawl. It is undeniable it is one of the most iconic parts of Star Wars and was an ingenious way convey important exposition. What I love about it is that this was taken directly from serials, like Flash Gordon. Given how Lucas wanted to make Flash Gordon originally, I can understand why this was in.
As for my view of the anthology film’s lack of crawl, I’m fine with it. In my view, the opening crawl will loose its appeal if we continuously save it. As such, reserve it for the Saga films where it originated as it fits and honors what George established.
In regards to Rogue One, while I definitely enjoyed the movie, I felt like the introduction with the lack of crawl was weird. It’s not bad, but I do think some kind of exposition was needed. Maybe, a LOTRS style prologue or voice-over might have helped. Something.
I say this because I read Catalyst so I had the proper context. And while repeat viewings this isn’t a big deal as people who are usually watching the movie again will know the events, I still feel bad for those who are seeing it for the first time.
Overall, Rogue One was an experiment and a very successful one. I look forward to see how LucasFilm continues with these anthology films. Maybe, each will have a unique way of conveying exposition.
Yes. I think it needs a opening crawl. It was weird to see a Star Wars film without it. I like the crawl and it helps the movie get started. The music felt kinda off sometimes too.