Duncan Jones' Animated 'Rogue Trooper' Premieres At
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- Duncan Jones directed Rogue Trooper, his fifth film and first full-blown animation, adapted from the gritty UK cult comic 2000AD, with Jones co-writing alongside original creators Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons.
- Aneurin Barnard voices platoon leader Rogue, a genetic infantryman clone on toxic planet Nu-Earth fighting between the Norts and Southers, who inherits a talking helmet (Daryl McCormack), wisecracking backpack (Reece Shearsmith), and sentient gun (Jack Lowden) after a mission gone wrong.
- The voice ensemble includes Hayley Atwell as Venus Bluegenes, plus Sean Bean, Matt Berry, Asa Butterfield, Jemaine Clement, Alice Lowe, and Diane Morgan across a 2-hour-5-minute runtime that the review likens to 'Starship Troopers as made by René Laloux.'
- Bear McCreary's tongue-in-cheek 'Rogue Trooper March' scores opening credits that frame black-and-white comic-book panels with a 'BTHOOM!' speech bubble, an aesthetic the review calls the year's best alongside Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.
- The film plays as a satirical, anti-war, anti-authoritarian war movie, with world-building described as 'jaw-dropping' on a big screen, though the review flags 'uncanny valleys' in close-up fight sequences and a long opening crawl that may test audiences.
- Readers in the comments frame the film as a long-awaited milestone for 2000AD, with one fan already floating future adaptations of ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog, Nemesis the Warlock, Halo Jones, Slaine, and Sam Slade Robo Hunter if it lands commercially.
Why it matters: A prestige animated adaptation of 2000AD reaching the screen after decades of false starts gives the British cult comic its highest-profile film showcase yet, and the review's praise for bold British satire over Marvel/DC quip-style humor positions Jones as a counterweight to franchise animation — though unresolved VFX issues in close-up action show the medium's limits haven't fully caught up to Jones' ambition.
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