The Force Awakens · 4:10pm Nov 28th, 2014
So the new Star Wars trailer is out.
Looks pretty exciting, but definitely suffers from that "We know you're so excited to see a Movie X sequel that we're not even going to bother to define the movie. Here are bunch of shots of Movie X-y stuff!" thing that seems common nowadays. I'm sure later trailers will define it more, but I'm always kind of bothered when editors/producers don't let me know in a vague sense what their movies is about. It's a little condescending, I feel.
That aside, the shots are looking pretty nice. Not quite as glossy as Lucas's prequels, and that's a great thing. For all the money he spent trying to make the CGI seamless, the CGI was not seamless. It was jarring a lot of the time. And Jar Jar Binks-y a lot of the time, which was much worse.
People are having a minor conniption fit about the cross pieces on that lightsabers, but whatever. Yeah, it seems dangerous, but jedi/sith are supposed to be unholy level experts with their weapons and it's a space opera. The character isn't going to cut his own hand off.
All in all, this trailer does what it expects to, I suppose. I feel excited about this movie, though annoyed that it's so ambiguous. That curiosity to know more about it can't be such a bad thing in the eyes of the production team. I'd have like it more if they'd given me some more detail, but that will come. We have a year's worth of time.
I'd rather have a vague trailer than one that spoils the entire movie.
Still, those crosspieces manage to be even sillier than Darth Maul's lightjavelin.
For some reason I'm not getting any sound, but that might be because of the tablet I'm watching it on. It wasn't some edgy, completely silent trailer, right?
For some reason, I feel nothing. Guess I am done with Star Wars.
2621186 Nope. There's sound. There's a narrator saying something like "There's been an awakening. Can your feel it? The dark side... and the light!" Plus stirring music and sound effects, of course.
2621171 The thing is that back in the day, this trailer wouldn't have cut it because they generally only made a single trailer. I'm still used to that style of advertisement. Now big films have three or more trailers, so they can play with the format some. I find it irksome, but it's basically just impatience and personal bias.
It is really irritating when I see a trailer that seems to really spoil all the important elements of a film, though. That's when I really feel like the people who are making it don't have much confidence in their product. They feel the need to stuff in as much of what they consider to be good and vital in a desperate attempt to get people to buy tickets. I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a trailer like that. It's tugging at the back of my mind, but I do remember being very annoyed.
OH! It was the trailer for Ender's Game that literally showed the climax of the film. Very annoying.
2621190 I'll have to go find it on some other device.
2621188 I have to admit that I'm much less interested than teenaged/early twenties xjuggernaughtx would have been, and that makes me sad. The prequels have killed almost all the love for that franchise that I once had.
Too much focus on CGI toys. Looks shit.
2621198
I'm in the same situation where I should be more excited but I'm not. I'm looking forward to Avengers 2 more than I am Episode VII.
Unlike most others, the Prequels didn't kill the franchise for me. I just thought they were average. Time, aging, and getting involved in other franchises has given me plenty of other things for me to look forward to.
I'm cautiously optimistic for a new series of Star Wars, though.
Your analysis is spot on. Eager to learn more of the actual plot. Episodes I - III were so bad on so many levels, I'm sure they've learned, right...?
2621208 Good Morning Sunshine!
why is this already garnering so much hate from fans for not being 'like the original trilogy'? it looks awesome. yes, it has that J.J. Abrams Star Trek feel, but we knew what we were getting when we heard Abrams was assigned to it. to be honest, i'm surprised there's no lens flares in this trailer.
...
Okay, I read a book in the Star Wars Expanded universe where a guy has lightsaber blades coming out of his wrists, elbows, and knees. Somehow, that lightsaber in the trailer looks more unsafe.
Otherwise, my reaction is a simple "Ooh, that looks vaguely interesting." It doesn't have enough context to get me hyped, but it's not dull enough for me to feel meh about it. I dunno, I guess I'll have more of a reaction when more trailers come out.
Well it at least tells us more than the original star trek reboot trailer did. All I remember about that one was a bunch of guys standing around welding stuff.
Lightsaber design aside this trailer does tell us a few other things.
One: Sand and deserts. How much do you want to bet this movie opens on Tattoine?
Two: Stormtroopers and X wings, its at least later than the prequels if not later than the original trilogy.
Three: Everyone was saying that JJ Abrams shot the star trek movies as though he was filming a star wars movie, well now he IS in charge of a star wars movie and these shots of the x wing and millennium falcon look soooo awesome.
2621492 Er, yeah, it's later than the original trilogy... It's a sequel.
2621502
Well, that didn't apply to the prequels, and NuclearPony may not have known that some of the original cast is returning (which, absent carbonite -- or some extremely unwelcome time-travel -- forces the timeline into shape more than anything else).
2621194
This is what I think is called a "teaser", and aptly named. It does tell us some important things, though -- the very first shot is, I'm pretty sure, the first time we've seen a stormtrooper's actual face (unless he's pulling the same move that Luke and Han did in Episode IV), which combined with the brief shot inside some sort of troop carrier suggests we're going to be focusing a lot more on the low-level Imperial forces in one way or another. It's true, though, that this still depends on prior knowledge.
There's something very smart to be said about how pop culture franchises can and/or should use existing fan knowledge, and how that affects their focus, and of course how that applies to fanfiction, and if I was Bad Horse I would say it.
2621367 Lens flares aren't really an Abrams thing so much as a Star Trek thing: he wanted to bathe the good guys in light: harsh, blinding light, which is a great visual metaphor for the story he was trying to tell.
I'd expect a lot of light/dark composition in this movie (and between this and the other teaser floating around, that seems to be the case). Being Abrams, I also expect the plot to suffer for the sake of getting the characters to their emotional climaxes. It's how he rolls.
2621208 I don't know if a determination can really be made off of that. I mean, yeah, it does look like a lot of focus on CGI toys, but that's because of the complete absence of any real substance. I'd hope the movie is better than that, but I'd have a hard time arguing from this trailer that it doesn't look like mindless twaddle. It basically just comes down to faith. I'm hoping a new and better trailer will show up in half a year or so that will reveal some character and plot.
2621217 I'm looking forward to Avengers 2 way more than these new Star Wars movies, and from someone with a big Star Wars tattoo on his arm, that pains me. I'd love to be able to say that I was neutral to the prequels, but I loathe nearly every minute of them. There are some bright spots here and there, but there's just so many more things wrong with them. Ugh. I hate them so much.
2621240 Well, Lucas doesn't have his tyrannical control over it anymore, so that's one big hurdle cleared. I just hope they take their time with the script. It seems like seventy-five percent of Hollywood is run by people who have very little interest in actual movies. It's all statistics and focus groups. It's not really that difficult to write a competent script, but then they get torn apart by producers that want things that are supposed to hook audiences. They force in hot stars who are terrible for the parts, or shoehorn in comedy where none is called for. Listen to directors candidly speak about what they go through to try and get a movie made is absurd.
2621367 Hmmm. I haven't seen any hate for it yet, but it doesn't really surprise me. It seems that no one on the internet wants to be hopeful. It's much better for the ego to be on record that you knew all along that something was going to fail so that people can't make fun of you for being excited for something that turned out to be terrible. I know several people like that, in any event.
As for me, I'm really rooting for it. The three original Star Wars films are some of my favorites of all time. It would be nice to have something to watch that would wash away the prequels. I just hope that they don't go overboard with the whole thing. Star Wars has always been about characters, with the politics as a background. It's one of the reasons that the prequels were so terrible. It was about the politics, with some organic exposition playback devices walking through the scenes. I want the series to be about character again, and if they do that, I have high hopes.
2621425 Yup, that's exactly how I feel. It looks pretty, but I can't get excited for random scenes with no context.
2621492 The girl on the swoop looking thing is wearing tusken raider gear and has one of those long tusken rifles, so I think Tattooine is a safe bet.
I agree that the ships look very bad ass in the trailer. I love the new X-Wing S foil designs. The way that they look like they interlock is cool.
2621768 Yeah, it's the thing with blockbusters now. When I was young, you had one trailer. Now they release several, each trailer with a different feel and purpose. It's something I've never gotten used to.
I'd love it if the film spent a lot of time on the Imperial side. I'd love to see that, though the Empire would seem to be broken after the death of the Emperor. If that isn't the case, I'm eager to know why.
2622472
I've definitely gotten much less stoked on trailers as time goes on. When I was a kid, a preview (remember when we only called them that? Or was it just me?) could make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up; I liked this one enough to watch it a few times today, but only because it's freaking Star Wars. When I see trailers in the theater they just seem trite. In my case it's definitely me that's changed, though: as I grow older my desire to feel a sense of wonder or even awe at the infinite potential of the fantastic has grown increasingly divorced from what are basically commercials, and I don't think a change to an older style of commercial would fix that for me.
I am totally stoked on hanging out in the Stormtrooper barracks, though. Star Wars is very "good vs. evil"; I don't expect or even really want them to give that up, but looking at good people who are on the wrong side (presumably until they realize that Republic roolz, Empire droolz at the end of Act I, anyway) is a good way to add some nuance and dramatic potential to the dynamic without giving it up or overcomplicating it. Plus their armor looks badass, and this way future generations won't assume that the stormtroopers are robots and idiotically wonder how Luke and Han could steal their armor like I -- that is, my friend did as a kid.
As for what's up with the Empire -- well, if you killed $HeadOfState tomorrow, even if it completely destabilized the government there'd still be the same organized military forces next Thursday. Multiply that by a galaxy and Imperial units marching around doesn't seem too farfetched, but exactly who's ordering them and what's up on politically on a galactic scale is hard to predict.
PTERRORGRINE PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS:
WALL OF TEXT IX: THE TEXTENING
SUMMER 2015
2622441 I'm allergic to faith.