Welcome back to The Weekly Nerd! The past couple of weeks have been absolutely fantastic for nerdy movie trailers. Now seems like a good time to go over some of these recent trailers and talk about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Logan and Rogue One. Let’s Dive in!
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
This “sneak peak” is pretty fun in the way only Guardians of the Galaxy can be. I really like the fact that the trailer starts off with an oddly dire version of Hooked on a Feeling. As the trailer continues, we get some bland sounding narration… that is until it cuts to a fantastic scene with Drax and Peter having an awkward and hilarious conversation. While Guardians fits well into the Marvel Movie machine, the film itself made strides to subvert certain hero moments in hilarious ways. This teaser is a great subversion of a standard superhero movie trailer. The fact that it starts off in such a serious tone, but ends with a gag is indicative of the ebb and flow of humour from the first film.
A few things to note. Nebula is back, which is not a surprise. From what we know, she will likely join the Guardians. She looks like she is on the ropes. I am very curious to know what happened to her after she escaped in the first film. I also liked the scene where Rocket and Yondu are walking down a catwalk while Ravagers fall around them in stylish slow-motion. Yondu is also going to be joining the team, so I am definitely excited to see him interact with the whole team. And of course, the very end where we see Rocket with Baby Groot on his shoulder was just adorable. It was also a nice reversal of Rocket often riding on Groot’s shoulder in the first Guardians of the Galaxy.
Logan
Well, this is fascinating. I mean, no one is surprised by the fact that they are doing what looks like an Old Man Logan storyline. No one is surprised with the fact that a little girl who looks like X-23 is in the film. What is surprising is the fact that Stephen Merchant (Hello Ladies, The Office) is in this movie playing Caliban! He is kind of a creepy dude, so I think Merchant can actually do an interesting job with this character. One of Caliban’s main powers is to sense and track mutants. The fact that Logan stated that mutants are fairly scarce these days, it could be the case that Caliban is tasked with hunting other mutants down.
I do dig the dour tone of the trailer. There is a real sense of gravitas to Logan’s words as he really has been through various levels of hell all his life. I like the idea of an incredibly world-weary Logan on the run with X-23 and Xavier. Fans have aptly compared the feel of the trailer to that of the game The Last of Us. Another interesting thing is this movie is going for an R rating. After the success of Deadpool, it seems Fox is going to double down on the overt violence. My hope is that they try to make a good movie with an interesting story. The Wolverine films have had a shaky history. The first one is quite infamous for how much fans hated it. The second one left fans a bit more divided, so here is hoping the third time is the charm.
Rogue One
This trailer is quite exciting! We finally get to see Mads Mikkelsen (Hannibal, Casino Royal) who is playing Galen Erso, Jyn’s father. He is involved with the development of the Death Star’s weapon systems against his will, so it will be interesting to know how much he will be in the main plot. We also get to clearly see Darth Vader. I am hoping that he will be a little more than a glamorized cameo, but also I hope he does not overpower the movie. I realize that this sounds a little contradictory, but the main thing is finding a balance for his use in the film.
I really love the tone of this trailer. There is a real sense of grittiness in this trailer as these rebels really look like a loose outfit with limited resources. In the main Star Wars movies, the main battles tend to focus on the heroes with power, both in the literal and figurative sense. Rogue One seems to focus on a lot of ground level battles with seemingly regular people fighting in horrific battles. Honestly, seeing these soldiers up close while AT-ST’s are firing at them give this trailer a classic war movie feel. There is also a lot of talk about the force in this trailer. Donnie Yen’s (Ip Man, Kung Fu Killer) character Chirrut Îmwe seems to be Force-sensitive, so there will still be the mystical elements that fans would expect from Star Wars. Again, I do hope there is a good balance of its use. This movie is about the earlier days of the Rebellion, so I think it would be interesting for the movie to really focus on the direness of their situation and how limited their power really is.
So there you have it! I have to say I am cautiously optimistic about all of these upcoming films. As far as Rogue One goes, I feel like I am just ready to just see the film instead of learning more about the plot. while as far as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Logan goes, I am interested to see more trailers and get a sense of what the movies will actually be like. All I can say is that it is a great time to be a nerd when it comes to movies these days!
Nedu would watch movies all day every day and never stop if it would not eventually lead to his slow death. He is also a content writer at AYBOnline. His views are his own.
