Through a myriad of life experience, I have learned if you keep your expectations at a low level, you’ll never be disappointed. As my colleague J.J. Goodman pointed out in the first half of this article, The Rise of Skywalker trailer leaves quite a bit out. (You can find a link to Part 1 below.) I wasn’t disappointed, but I did have a higher expectation than what we got in those two minutes. Then our other colleague Ben Wolf states in his trailer breakdown, “subtlety wins the day.” He may have a point, but the trailer was still missing some things.
Where is The First Order Leadership?
Where is anyone from The First Order in this trailer? General Hux and Allegiant General Pryde, along with pretty much any other First Order hierarchy is notably absent. We see a few Storm Troopers gunned down in the hallway scene, but other than that and Kylo, nothing. Richard E. Grant took to Twitter to express his excitement about being in the project, so we at least know he’s still in there.
An early rumor floated that Hux might have a change of heart and becomes part of the Resistance. He and Kylo are not BFF’s, so it could happen. Especially if General Pryde is on the scene making things difficult for him. If that is true, I can understand why they would leave anything like that out. That would be an on-screen surprise I’d rather discover in a theater than during a trailer.
Where are the Sith Troopers?
Also as our own J.J. pointed out, where are the Sith Troopers? Those red-clad bad asses aren’t event in the background of a shot (though we do see their TIE Fighters). They have been hyped up since D23, and their Jet Trooper counterpart was seen in a recent photo release. Apparently that’s all we get; the hype. Because we sure didn’t see hide nor hair of them in this footage.
The Zorii Bliss role in this trailer seems diminished
So technically we do see her in the new trailer, just standing there briefly when C-3PO is saying his teary goodbye. But that’s it. No action. She is featured prominently on the new poster released along with the trailer at the same time. We last saw her in the Entertainment exclusive photo above handing over a disk to Poe. Her Lego action figure does come with the new Resistance Y-Wing Lego set, so she may be piloting that awesome shot we did get of a much more agile Y-Wing Fighter. Others speculate it could be Kylo Ren piloting the ship because of the flying style he exhibited in his own TIE Silencer. I’m doubtful on that. We also see her masked with the rest of the Resistance team. Has she not revealed herself by then? Speaking of that disk…
Related Article: What the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker trailer DOESN’T show us, Part I
It’s not hard to determine how they plan to decipher that disk, and it obviously has a detrimental effect on Professor Goldenrod.
Take one mysterious disk from Zorii, attach it to the back of a protocol droid’s head that’s familiar with over 6 million forms of communication, mix in a master droidsmith and you’ve just made a red-eyed C-3PO. The Triple Force Friday reveal of C-3PO’s action figure shows a removable headpiece and comes with a little Babu Frik. That should tell you this event—and Zorii’s role in the film—is a pivotal moment of the story. She just didn’t play any role in this trailer.
The Rise of Skywalker: Where is the villain?
I happen to think Kylo Ren is one of the better characters of the new trilogy. I know this statement may trigger the man-babies out there, but the new trilogy is not ruining my childhood, and neither is Emo,…er, Kylo Ren. He has potential to be a great villain. This trailer depicts him somewhat sad and conciliatory towards Rey. That’s not what a Supreme Leader does. I know there are many rooting for the Ben Solo redemption theory. I applaud you, but no. He would make a much more interesting character if he goes full Dark Side. This trailer does not look like it’s heading that way. The one part it did show us that gave me hope for villainy is the robo-Palpatine scene:
Several breakdowns I’ve read say the Emperor is on that awesome looking Iron Throne, but if you look closely, whatever he’s on is electronic and moving. My first thought was something like the loader from Aliens that Ripley takes on the Queen in. Palpatine has an affinity for robotics (his Sentinel Droids come to mind), so it’s not out of the realm he’s made a robotic body. If he’s been laid up in the destroyed Death Star wreckage, it’s not like he didn’t have parts and Kyber Crystals laying around to build with. If Palps is the main villain—and everything until now says he is—they should have given us more of him to fear.
The Rise of Skywalker trailer: The “Also-Missing” list
No Maz Kanata? Fans want to know how the most famous light saber in the galaxy ended up in a box in her basement. How about those brooding and mysterious Knights of Ren? Let’s hope they don’t go the way of Holdo and Phasma, becoming simple throw-away characters. And finally, no Luke Skywalker? Hard to have a trailer about The Rise of Skywalker without some snippet of him. He’s been almost completely absent from any marketing material.
The most important thing missing from this Star Wars trailer is…
Dread.
No, not Judge Dredd. Dread.
I was underwhelmed. Nothing in this trailer gave me a feeling of urgency or dread facing our Resistance heroes other than the potential demise of C-3PO and a lot of Imperial ships. That doesn’t make me nervous about the film… yet. The cinematic effect of this Rise of Skywalker trailer was awesome. That CR-90 Corvette rising out of the jungle, the Star Destroyer bursting up through the ice, the wall of rebel ships about to face off against what I presume is the Sith fleet… beautifully done. But you know what that made me care about? The ships, not the people.
Opening night of any Star Wars film is an experience. I bought tickets from my local theater and I will still be excited to go. I am going to require something, however, near the beginning of the film that gives me a reason to worry about the state of the greatest conflict in the galaxy. The Last Jedi squandered an opportunity to make me care about the new characters and failed miserably. This final Rise of Skywalker trailer did not give me that feeling either. Here’s hoping the film delivers. If it doesn’t, I will forever call him Jar Jar Abrams.
Partially sourced from ScreenRant
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