We’ve waited a long time for this… we’ve fallen for a number of hoaxes saying that they were ‘official trailers’ only to find upon clicking on them that they’re just fan made things using snippets of the older movies, but finally the first official Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailer has been released!!!
I don’t really know enough about Star Wars canon to tell you exactly what is going on here, but what it seems to suggest is that much of the movie will take place on the sandy desert planet of Tatooine, the home planet of both Luke and Anakin Skywalker.
We have stormtroopers preparing for battle and a rogue stormtrooper on the run. One thing we’ve had pointed out is that seeing as this movie will be based 30 years after the destruction of the Deathstar you’d likely expect the stormtroopers to have been disbanded, but apparently not.
A Sith Lord cloaked in Black walks through a snow covered forest before unleashing the coolest looking broadsword lightsaber hyrid looking thing we could ever have imagined. The identity of the cast has been quite closely guarded, but something about that Sith Lord made me think ‘Benedict Cumberbatch’. Also, I wonder whether the voice over is him too… hmmm… *edit: on the third watching of the trailer my girlfriend said, without any prompting: ‘is that Benedict Cumberbatch’ (other people are saying Andy Serkis).
We are told that both the light and dark sides of the force have awoken – we wonder whether that means more of the population have gained the force, those who already use the force have unlocked new ways of using it or that it has grown stronger with the next generation. Until we see some real force usage we can only speculate.
We are treated to a number of impressive CGI battles featuring some familiar ships (Millennium Falcon!), some of new design, oh and it appears that droids don’t walk or wheel around anymore either, they… well, what do you call that?
Like most J.J. Abrams trailers we are left with more questions than we have had answered, but we’re left feeling more confident than ever that this isn’t going to be another disapointment, well… not to the extent of Episode 1 anyway.
Enough from us though. What do you guys think? Has it got you excited? For those who are more in the know about Star Wars canon than I am: let us know what’s going on here!
Jennie Ivins
So I wasn’t the only one that thought ‘Cumberbatch’, good to know.
So… They can build a soccer ball droid that uses (I suppose) suspensor/speeder technology to keep the head with the soccer ball as it rolls along… But don’t just build an astromech droid with the suspensor tech just built into the body? This is like Jar-Jar level silly. And please don’t get me started on how bad the lightsabre hilt guard looked in the trailer.
Total teaser! and I suppose that means “yes, I’m excited”!
Love the ‘football’ droid; interesting sword-sabre; and OMG a new design Millennium Falcon – what more could I ask for?? 🙂
Not really bothered about the casting: don’t forget most of SW Episode IV were new in 1977! And it was a year later (here in the UK) that I dragged my 8, 7 & 3 year olds to see it in full screen – a totally magnificent experience!
Pretty.
I can see (hear?) why people think Cumberbatch, especially post-Khan; Serkis seems more likely to me.
This is only a teaser (I remember the original Phantom Menace trailers being pretty good?), but there are some hints from the new faces we see that Abrams might be able to re-inject the fun here.
The broadsword-style saber is pretty sweet too. As is any appearance of an X-Wing, anywhere.
Stormtroopers, x-wings, lightsabers, Millennium Falcon, John Williams score – what’s not to love about this!!
Not entirely sure if John Boyega is a stormtrooper, he could just as easily have stolen the uniform and be on the run from the Empire. And I’d go for the sith lord being Adam Driver, as he’s the main villain apparently. Saying that, I’d heard a rumour that Luke turns out to be the villain so who knows.
And does anyone know if that’s Domhnall Gleeson in the x-wing or someone else?
What follows is the opinion (partial rant) of a lifelong Star Wars fan who has many hundreds of thousands of hours of reading the books and comics and watching the movies to his credit, and who possesses tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise.
The new Star Wars movies are most likely going to be decent movies overall. The visuals, as expected, look FANTASTIC.
But, I fear, like the prequels, the new movies will totally lack depth, substance, and probably, acting talent.
What made the original trilogy so great was the emotion, the morality play that takes place in this alien, yet somehow familiar setting. It’s not about “how much flashy crap can we load on the screen at once.”
I fear, like with most video games nowadays, it’s all glitz and glam and no real meat to it all. It’s all sizzle and no steak, so to speak.
I hope I’m proven wrong, but,
“I have a very bad feeling about this…”