Apparently violence is the hip thing to put in your movies these days. Even superhero movies have evolved from the chill, indie "Iron Man" to the violent, R-rated "Deadpool." Even Batman broke his one rule about not killing people and incinerated a bunch of poor blokes with a flame thrower. According to an NBC article the PG-13 movies of today are more violent than the R-rated films of the '80s. This is what the new face of cinema is about: unashamedly pushing boundaries to keep viewers entertained.
But keeping people entertained is a lofty goal right now, since Hollywood’s bread and butter is franchises. It seems that almost every movie to come out in the last year or so is a sequel. It feels like Marvel has already produced 7,009 movies and DC is scrambling to catch up and join in on the superhero phenomena. Heck, even "Toy Story 4" is coming out. (Come on, Pixar. You made me cry enough already.) The problem with rehashing old characters and universes is that people will eventually want to move on. This may not happen in our generation or the next, but eventually everything that’s cool now will be regarded as white noise. Pushing the envelope may be the best way to lengthen the life of a film series.
With "Rogue One" on the horizon, I wonder if "Star Wars" will soon adapt to the times and welcome us to a grittier, more graphic galaxy not so far away. "Rogue One" and the "Star Wars Story" series certainly provide the right material for this to happen. Many of the "Star Wars Story" films set to debut take place during Darth Vader’s heyday when he was out and about killing people. The Darth Vader we’ll meet in these films isn’t the stiff in plastic armor we met in "A New Hope." He’ll be more like the violent, strong, ruthless fighter that Anakin was in "Revenge of the Sith." (Except this time, we don’t have to deal with whiny Hayden Christensen and he probably won’t be stupid enough to jump into a river of lava.)
But don’t take my word for it. The word on the digital street is that the Star Wars team has already envisioned the modern Vader as a brutal and dark villain. Making Stars Wars recently described some supposed scene concepts for Rogue One. “The action sequences filmed are unknown, but there was work pitching the different ways Darth Vader could kill rebels on a battlefield with the Force and his lightsaber. The storyboard 'pitches' showed decapitated rebels, people being dismembered by Vader throwing his sword, levitating bodies to make human shields, and so on. The art was more violent than what we’ve seen Darth Vader do on screen before.” Pretty brutal for Star War, right?
Does it mean that soon we will see an rated R Star Wars film? Personally, I think the idea is getting less ridiculous with every edgy, gory film that Hollywood produces. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
