Saturday 18 April 2015

Trailer Talk: The Force Awakens #2


Trailer Talk is a regular feature where I delve into some of the hottest previews to have the hit the Interwebs and see what all the fuss is about. This week, we're talking just one trailer in particular - the second teaser for JJ Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens.



A long time ago (yesterday) in a place not so far away (Anaheim, California), Disney and JJ Abrams unveiled our first extended look at The Force Awakens, the first Star Wars film in over a decade and the first to be set after the events of the Original Trilogy.

Why I'm telling you this, I don't really know - after all, if you or anyone you know was within a 60 metre radius of Twitter yesterday then you most likely already know about the 2-minute long snippet and the delightful Star Wars goodies that it offered.

The good news is the outlook for Star Wars is looking bright. The nerd meltdown that swept across social media like a herd of bantha means that Star Wars hasn’t lost its significance after three dismal prequels and a decade lost in dark space. Fans are as hungry for a new instalment as they’ve ever been, and it’s easy to see why when the marketing for The Force Awakens is this good.

Where the previous teaser trailer for JJ's return to a galaxy far, far away only showed us the fresh cast (John Boyega, Daisy Ridley, Oscar Isaac), this new teaser takes us to more familiar territory. We get our first glimpses of the interior of the Millennium Falcon, we see snapshots of what may (or may not be) Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and then, to top it all off, Han Solo and Chewbacca (Harrison Ford and Peter Mayhew) pop up like they’ve never been away.

It's a beautifully simple line. All it took was for Han to growl, "Chewie, we're home" and a million voices cried out in joy and couldn’t be silenced. It’s a moment that would plant a seed of excitement in even the most skeptic of Star Wars fans. Seriously, try watching this trailer and tell me that you're not even a little bit excited to see Harrison Ford as Han Solo once more.

What are your thoughts? Is the Force strong with this one or has the memory of The Phantom Menace clouded your judgement? Let me know in the comments section below!

6 comments:

  1. My family are huge Star Wars fans. Me? Not so much. My mom took me to the prequels growing up, which I wasn't crazy about. I've tried again and again to watch the original three and just could never grow to like them. The last 45 minutes of Revenge of the Sith is my favorite part of the series, for lord knows what reason. That's how terrible a non-fan of Star Wars I am. The new trailer is really exciting though! It only took for the music to cue before I could feel myself lining up for the midnight showing in December. haha

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    1. That's the thing though, those last 45 minutes of Revenge of the Sith have some great stuff in the them but Lucas presses it all in too tightly. You could make two whole films from ROTS and cut Phantom Menace out entirely! :) Thanks for commenting Katy.

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  2. I've been out of touch with Star Wars for years. I was a huge nerd in Grade 6, become immersed in it to some insane levels, then went clean and saw 2001: A Space Odyssey which opened my eyes to how space ACTUALLY works. I was debating with myself for a while when I first heard the news of these new movies whether I would bother to see them. I think my solution was simply to see what the reviews were like when they came out. After seeing these trailers, though, I am somewhat curious about where J.J. Abrams plans to go with these new Star Wars films. They look like they could be interesting, and seeing the original cast come back helps a bit. Right now, I guess it could go either way, but I do find myself interested in knowing more so I guess that's a good sign.

    The one thing I can definitively give the trailer credit for is it looks like they're finally going to address the gender issues that have plagued George Lucas's films. I mean six big-budget films with large casts and only TWO significant female characters (who are only one screen together for a few minutes at the most). Nearly every other female character is either a small supporting role or a background character whose identity is only known because of supplemental material or the expanded universe. That's not even getting into how George Lucas cast female pilots in the climax of Return of the Jedi then went out of his way to cover up the fact that even considered it (http://hitchcocksworld.blogspot.ca/2014/08/star-wars-needs-more-women.html). It looks like The Force Awakens will have several strong female characters. Aside from Leia, we also have Daisy Ridley apparently playing one of the central characters. That's also just from the trailer. We still don't know how Gwendoline Christie and Lupita Nyong'o fit into all this. Seeing as the villain seems to be masked and has a fairly androgynous body, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to suspect that it's Brienne of Tarth under all that armor.

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    1. Good call on the new casting, I think it's awesome that Ridley, Christie and N'yongo are cropping up (although, I think the latter is mocapping her part). And yeah, you're right in saying that it's Christie under the armour because, well, it is :) Thanks for the awesome comment John!

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  3. I'm in. Sold. Excited. ASS IN SEAT!

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